20December 2021
what's up ladies and gentlemen engineers for tools is here to share with you the information on what real owners say about cordless tools no gimmick just feedbacks from real people now let's begin no matter what type of cordless power tool you are using or what brand is your favorite you've probably wondered which batteries are best for your power tool genuine or generic and that question is valid and the answer might surprise you the majority of power tool users will advise you to buy genuine batteries even though a decent part of the generic batteries is pretty good those people base their opinion on the belief that well-known brands guarantee the quality by their reputation but we should remember that often good reviews of genuine batteries can be left by people affiliated with either brand or marketplace plus people usually write reviews describing their experience trying only one battery or a couple of them at most that doesn't show us an accurate picture of the market that's why you should never rely solely on positive reviews to find out the truth we turn to reviews left by real cordless tools owners they shared their experience of using both genuine and generic batteries and we did our best to sort out those reviews and only look at the critical ones we took into consideration only facts and constructive criticism ignoring emotions and assumptions let's get started we are going to review and compare two batteries 12 v milwaukee red lithium 2.0 battery pack and 12 v lithium ion replacement battery for milwaukee as you can see their amazon rating is not very different the oem battery has a 4.8 star rating and the generic battery has a 4.3 star rating that's not that big of a gap especially considering that the generic battery costs 2.5 times less than the original battery that being said we should note that the generic battery has more one-star reviews and less five-star reviews than the original battery but it's too early to make any conclusions first we need to look at what buyers have found out to be problematic about each battery and then we will tell you some hacks on how you can avoid those problems yourself remember that we've only looked and analyzed reviews left by real buyers and we tried to ignore the fake reviews and reviews without constructive criticism 12 v milwaukee red lithium 2.0 battery pack overall there are three types of problems people had with genuine battery the first type of issue is the battery has a lower capacity thought i was purchasing a 2.0 amp rechargeable battery instead received a 1.5 amp the second type of issue is the battery can't be charged after the initial charge it powered up my heated jacket for five minutes and then went off tried to charge it but both my milwaukee chargers were displaying both blinking lights and it would not take a charge and the third type of issue the battery stopped working sooner than buyers were hoping it would last five to six hours after two weeks of use with the radio i was hoping for a little more but that may have been my mistake these are some serious issues and a lot of buyers seem to have them so let's see what you can do to avoid those problems a few tips on how to avoid problems with milwaukee battery if your battery has a lower capacity than it should be test your batteries as soon as they arrive in the mail if you see that the battery's capacity is lower than advertised or if you have any other issue contact the seller brands offer a warranty on their products so if you have an issue you can return your battery and get your money back or a battery replacement but you have to act quickly otherwise you can miss the time when your battery can be replaced if your battery isn't charging if the charger has been plugged in for an extended period it can lead to malfunction so first make sure that your charger isn't the problem when the charger is plugged in you should see a solid red light on the left to indicate power when the battery is inserted the right light should also be solid red to indicate that it's charging if the light is not on or is flashing red this may indicate a problem with your charger then make sure that the battery's been fully inserted into the charger sometimes it requires a firm push if you've tried everything else it's time to reset the charger just unplug it for approximately 10 minutes then plug it back in and try reinserting the battery if your battery stopped working first make sure that you did everything right in terms of battery maintenance there are things you could be doing that will damage even the battery of the highest quality you can read everything about the right battery maintenance in our blog if you're sure that you've done everything right the problem might be the battery itself you could have got a defected battery these happen even when you're buying a so-called trusted well-known brand you have to remember that the brand name isn't a 100 quality guarantee to avoid that always test your battery as soon as you receive them and if you have any issues contact the seller you should also think of one thing even though the brands offer some kind of warranty often it's very difficult to contact the seller and get your money back because milwaukee is such a big brand they can afford a couple of dozens or even hundreds of negative reviews unlike a small brand replacement lithium-ion battery for milwaukee there are 14 one-star reviews of this battery on amazon the most common issues with generic batteries are the first type of issue is the battery doesn't hold a charge well bought double pack first week one battery would not take a charge contacted vayne and immediately sent me another both worked well for month and half same problem with battery will not take a charge i guess you get what you pay for pony up and get the better batteries customer service was on point the second type of issue is the battery quickly stopped working didn't last a month complete junk even fully charged they didn't last long at all then they just quit working the tool all together where six years old batteries still work the tool do yourself a favor and buy something else you will regret getting these the third and final type of issue is those that are valid problems only charged halfway work okay does not compare to a genuine milwaukee battery let's see how you can avoid or solve them completely a few tips on how to avoid problems with generic battery if your battery holds charge poorly just like we said earlier about the oem battery check out your charger and make sure you are charging your batteries the right way also take good care of your batteries you can read how about proper battery maintenance in our blog it will make your batteries last much longer now that you're sure that you're doing everything right contact the seller the problem is the battery itself the sellers will gladly help you small brands often are easier to deal with than larger brands they have fewer customers and pay close attention to their ratings and reviews small sellers will do everything in their power to avoid a negative review unlike big brands who have already earned a big reputation if the battery died shortly after the purchase once again proper maintenance is key to avoiding this problem make sure you're doing the correct maintenance you can read all about that in our articles but if you know for sure that you've done nothing wrong and your battery still died pretty soon contact the seller batteries have a warranty so use it and now let's jump to a conclusion first off remember that people are more likely to express their negative emotions and will write a review if they've had some issues with the product and if the product met your expectations you will probably just forget to write a review so that being said we take people who didn't leave any review on the batteries as buyers who have had a positive experience and the actual percentage of negative reviews is much lower let's take a look for oem batteries there are 28 720 buyers 58 of which had some problems with the battery and were dissatisfied with the product that is only about 0.2 percent of buyers with a negative experience which is not bad at all for replacement on branded batteries there are 3 320 buyers 3297 of which at a positive experience and just 23 of which are dissatisfied with the product that means that there are only 0.7 percent of buyers had problems with the generic batteries that's less than one percent thus negative experience for genuine batteries is 0.2 percent versus 0.7 percent for the unbranded ones we also wanted you to remember something else the problems that people had with the generic batteries are almost the same as the problems people had with the original battery but keep in mind two things first there are only 14 one star reviews on the generic batteries while the original has 31 one star reviews and second the generic battery costs more than half the price of the original battery so you could buy two generic batteries for the price of one original battery and you will be able to switch the batteries as you go without stopping the workflow and lastly remember that even the branded batteries still can arrive defected the brand name is just letters on the battery it is not a guarantee of its quality you still risk getting a bad battery but hopefully our life hacks and tips allow solving issues to those who already possess milwaukee tools for those who intend to purchase a cordless tool this video will be a guide for the right product your opinion can differentiate with what stated in the video please share your experience in comments also ask us in comments to have other products analyzed if you like the true review based on experience of a real buyer subscribe on our channel please support us by the likes it will encourage us to make more true videos that equip you with the knowledge to make a correct purchase decision thanks for watching