Late last year, Ryobi came out with an 18V cordless drain snake. Now, it’s Milwaukee’s turn. Milwaukee recently announced a new M12 cordless drain snake that they say is the industry’s most portable snake.
The new Milwaukee M12 cordless drain snake is designed for plumbers, maintenance techs, and property managers, for clearing fixtures and smaller diameter pipes.
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Milwaukee says that the new M12 snake provides the benefits of both handheld and floor-mounted drain cleaning machines, and that its “new-to-world design” will deliver game-changing productivity for users.
It’s meant to be used to clear sink drains, dubs, and other small drain lines, up to 25 feet long.
According to Milwaukee, the new M12 cordless drain snake offers the following benefits:
- Frees users from having to wrestle with power cords, extension cords, or hunting for outlets
- It’s the only handheld unit with a fixed drum shield to protect fixtures and users from the spinning drum
- Swappable drums and cable sizes
- Light weight, making it easier to use overhead, below the waist, or in confined spaces
- “Lightest 2-1/2″ drain line machine”
- Cables have a rust-free solid polymer core
More Specs for the M12 Drain Snake Kit (2571-21)
- Capacity: 25′ of 1/4″ or 5/16″ cable
- 0 – 500RPM Speed
- Removable inner drum
- LED worklight
- Weighs 10.6 lbs (with cable and battery)
The Milwaukee 2571-21 kit comes with the tool, a 5/16″ x 25′ inner core bulb head cable with inner drum, a 5 gallon drain snake storage bucket, M12 compact Li-ion battery pack, M12 battery charger
Cables Sizes:
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- 5/16″ x 25′ Bulb Head Cable (48-53-2571)
- 5/16″ x 25′ Drop Head Cable (48-53-2572)
- 1/4″ x 25′ Bulb Head Cable (48-53-2573)
- 1/4″ x 25′ Drop Head Cable (48-53-2574)
- 5/16″ x 25′ Bulb Head Cable w/Drum (48-53-2581)
- 5/16″ x 25′ Drop Head Cable w/Drum (48-53-2582)
- 1/4″ x 25′ Bulb Head Cable w/Drum (48-53-2583)
- 1/4″ x 25′ Drop Head Cable w/Drum (48-53-2584)
Price: $249
ETA: June 2016
Buy Now(Kit via Home Depot)
Update: Yes, there will be a bare tool version available 2751-20. The Milwaukee bucket will NOT be sold separately. Additional cables will cost $39 to $54, and cables with drums will cost $54 to $64.
First Thoughts
$249 for a drain snake might seem like a lot, until you talk to plumbers, property managers, and rental property maintenance crews, who deal with a lot of clogged drains. A LOT.
Sometimes there are simpler tools that can quickly clear a drain, but stubborn blockages often require a bit more work to clear.
It’s nice to have options. While the new Ryobi cordless drain auger will probably be a good choice for DIYers, Milwaukee’s seems to have been designed for frequent users.
I find it surprising that Milwaukee is shipping the M12 drain auger with a 5 gallon bucket, but it certainly make sense. Where else are you going to put the tool after use – back into a canvas carrying back? A hard shell case?
I don’t recall ever using a drain snake, but am familiar with how they work. To me, “game-changing” performance is always a good thing, as are “new to world” designs. On top of all that, Milwaukee says it’s the most portable snake, period.
What do you think – will this be a great new option for plumbers and property maintenance works?
mizzourob
Now how about a bare tool (with bucket)? Once they offer that Milwaukee can just take my money.
glenn
It is coming as tool only.
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/power-tools/cordless/2571-20
glenn
Well tool only with bucket haha.
Stuart
Yes, there will be a bare tool version with bucket. Thanks Glenn for the info and reminder for me to update the post!
Jason
That’s cool that you get the bucket with the bare tool. Usually with the bare tool you get nothing besides the tool. Milwaukee would save a bunch of money omitting the bucket as it takes up a bunch of shipping space.
Jon
That bucket is on-site advertising. There is very little advertising that is more effective or cheaper than tradesmen seeing what other tradesmen are using. And a Milwaukee-branded bucket would certainly catch my attention. “Why would Milwaukee have a branded bucket?? … Oh, that’s why. Cool.”
Rami
I wonder why they made the Milwaukee as a 12-volt tool, but the Ryobi one is an 18-volt tool. Does this mean that an M12 battery gives at least equal power to the tool as an 18-volt Ryobi battery? Why the Milwaukee is not an 18-volt tool just like Ryobi?
Larson
Maybe it has enough power, just that Ryobi doesn’t have a 12v line I don’t think so they had to go with the bulkier 18v?
M12 seems to have a lot of specialty tools anyway like the copper cutter, pvc snips, pex and press, etc. so maybe made more sense for plumbers.
Stuart
I would think so.
If Milwaukee can squeeze enough power from a 12V-class motor and M12 battery pack, the advantage is smaller size, lighter weight, and presumably lower cost.
And like Larson said, it fits in line with Milwaukee’s other M12 plumbing tools.
If we do see an M18 version, maybe it’ll be larger and more powerful, meant for heavier duty commercial drain clearing needs.
Jerry
Ryobi seems to want to make their 18V lineup as versatile as possible, for people who like to use one battery platform for everything. Milwaukee seems to put heavy use tools in the 18V line, and specialty tools in their 12V line (at least to some extent). Ryobi really doesnt have much in the way of other battery platform tools, at least not in terms of motorized tools.
Jon
Ryobi has a HUGE 18v lineup, with just a few tools in their relatively unpopular 12v line. Milwaukee has huge lineups with both systems, and with their dual battery chargers standard with 18v systems they are encouraging people to use both. And an 18v Milwaukee is WAY too powerful for this tool. If it hits a serious clog, like a root ball, it will have enough power to permanently damage the snake. That is far less likely with the 12v.
Chris Pyfer
Interesting. Hopefully the motor will have enough torque to spin the cable through a tough clog. Also interesting that they do not spec the xc pack with this model. Seems like it would warrant the increased runtime. Hard to tell, perhaps the handle design prohibits compatibility?
Jon
Too much torque with a tough clog and a snake of this size is not a good combination. If it’s too much torque for the 12v system motors then it is probably too much torque to use that size snake without damaging it. Ask me how I know. 😉
Nathan
Still would like to see one of these that mostly attached to the cordless drill I already own. some clamp/latch mechanism or something.
How much are the replacement cable reels? bet they are cheap too.
Stuart
I found out and added this info to the post. $39 to $54 for cables, $54 to $64 for cables with drums.
Jon
I assume you’re aware that such devices exist, and that what makes this Milwaukee unique is the shell, right?
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-ft-drain-cleaner-with-drill-attachment-66262.html
I agree, one without the motor would make more sense for most people. But for plumbers specifically (clearly the target market with that price point) the dedicated motor setup makes sense. If you’ve ever snaked a drain with raw sewage (anything downstream from a toilet, not just a sink or shower) you’ll appreciate that a plumber isn’t going to want to mess up his regular drill when he does this regularly. A dedicated one for that task (in a convenient bucket) is absolutely ideal.
Honestly my favorite part of this story is that I suddenly realize how I should be storing my drain snake (the one I linked to above). I knew I kept the drywall mud buckets around for a reason. 🙂
Tyler
For very frequent users, I think this is a good dedicated tool. As a homeowner and a single rental property owner, I’ll stick to a drill powered snake and run it with a corded or cordless drill. Use them once to clear a clog and they pay for themselves.
dichosa
As an apartment owner with a large number of units and snakes, I don’t see a use for it. A home owner with too much money? Perhaps then. It’s too small for toilets and wouldn’t substitute for a plunger/auger for the easy toilet/sewer jobs. Using a snake is an art–too many of my techs think that snakes require force, no matter how often they’re trained so the cost of cable replacements will far outweigh the costs of a plumber.
Most sink clogs are fixed by removing the p-trap and cleaning it out. Usually the result of putting the wrong item down a disposal. Next (for me) comes the painter/drywall person that put paint/joint compound down the drain and ran the water for a long while. This usually takes medium size snake with a proper head. Next is the grease clog, which snakes just pop holes through and then the clog closes back up. That requires a hot jetter or chemicals if you don’t have the jetter.
Certainly there are times this snake would work, but it doesn’t seem often enough to justify the price or carry space to me.
fred
“then there are grease clogs”
How about my guys telling me that they found what looked like a half small grapefruit clogging a toilet. To get it out the commode had to be pulled and blown out with e fire hose.
Jonathan
Wonder if you can get it bare bucket; the bucket without the battery or bare tool? Lol.
Even though Black & Yellow is the most dominate color in my 10-12 cordless hand tools, Ryobi, seems to be bringing a lot of bang for the buck. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the couple of their 40V yard tools. Sorry didn’t mean to hijack the thread. Ryobi seems to also very innovative, and they were the 1st to the market with this type of tool, but in some ways Rigid was the first “cordless option”.
DeWalt seems to be more reactive as opposed to innovative but not always, sometimes for good, i.e. OMT with their innovative cut guide. Other times, I scratch my head and think this was designed on a computer by a “Engineer” that has little real life hands on experience with shop tools. I digress.
I think that in someways a dedicated tools is a idea in some way, here’s why; I’ve got a Rigid drain auger that I can crank by hand or attach my cordless drill, In some ways I like that approach better, because I can separate the tool from motor and clean it up properly, drains can get pretty nasty even if they are just grey water and not sewage. Yet, the Rigid has issues of its own, it uses plastic on stress points instead of metal, they replaced one, because the plastic snapped when I was using my 12V MAX drill/driver. Perhaps that was the Achilles heel of the tool.
pete
I have been more and more impressed with ryobi that im actually in the process of changing over my 18v tools to ryobi because the line is so versatile. Especially as a homeowner, although i do make money with my tools at work i mostly use my m12 line.
And best of all RYOBI has a CORDLESS INFLATOR!(ahem milwaukee….)
Jon
Agreed. I love my Milwaukee tools, but even though I’ve been very frustrated with Ryobi’s warranty service (like denying a claim because they couldn’t read the serial number despite having registered the product when I bought it, and the serial was on an adhesive label on the broad side of the tool, guaranteeing that it will be damaged beyond legibility; the only resolution coming from the Home Depot manager who was intelligent enough to just swap out my tool for a new one and send mine back as defective), I’m still quite interested in Ryobi tools. I have a Milwaukee corded angle grinder but for my cordless I went Ryobi. I’m not going to do a ton of cordless grinding. If it’s a big task I’ll run a cord, not wear out my batteries. Same for other unique tools. But for my most frequently used-and-abused I go Milwaukee for sure. (And their warranty service was an absolute dream when my 12v impact suddenly stopped working. Less than a week, no questions asked beyond my contact info and serial.)
Paul
I agree with Jonathan, I want the bucket! To wrap the forthcoming tool organizer around, of course.
Darrn
I second (or third) wants by the bucket.
Nate 818
Would be interesting to see it versus an 18 volt model
RX9
Why did they make this in 12V? It seems like 18V would be more powerful and useful. A drain snake doesn’t need to be compact and the 1 or 2 pounds saved by going to 12V doesn’t make much sense. My guess is that the tool is 12V because most plumbers with Milwaukee cordless have already bought into the M12 system, hence it’s easier to sell them new applications on that platform.
Two of the Milwaukee tools aimed specifically at the plumbing trade, the PVC shears and copper tubing cutter, come only in 12V. In addition to this, many other tools popular with plumbers – such as the ProPEX expander, band saw, inspection camera, and compact reciprocating saw – are also available in 12V form.
Jon
Having destroyed a snake of this size with an 18v drill, I’d say it’s because 12v is plenty of power for this grade snake. You don’t want to mix high torque and tough, solid clog with a compact snake. The snake unwinds (the actual coiled snake structure, not the way the line is coiled within the cage) and then it’s ruined.
RX9
I didn’t know that, but now that I do, 12V makes more sense. Thanks for the info!
fred
It may appeal to plumbing contractors. We certainly had a stable of M12 tools – although we didn’t like the M12 copper pipe/tubing cutter much. But for snaking and jetting we used mostly tools from General Wire Spring.
As others have pointed out, snaking is often more finesse than brute force – and as the song in the Mikado joked “let the punishment fit the crime.” In a commercial kitchen we often suspected grease – so jetting was sometimes the way to start. In residential settings a combination of hair, soap, grease and food particles – might just be lodged in the trap – so snaking was an afterthought once the trap was pulled – not the primary solution.
I can see Milwaukee selling a bunch of these at Home Depot to homeowners who may buy them during a moment of crisis – or on speculation that they might have a future need.
Grady
Call a plumber yo clear the drains in your new house. Then ask him if you can do a ride along and be his plumbers helper.
JOCKING, but it would be great way to get your hands dirty and familiarize yourself with the product.
Grady
Sorry,couldn’t help myself.
Stuart
It’s just a matter of time before the need arises.
Maybe after the tool is released, I’ll build a PVC trap and bend system with simulated clog, to see how crazy of a mess of piping this snake can clear out.
fred
Maybe pack it full of some cold or frozen Crisco and see how it does
Stuart
Maybe a can of black beans, half mashed? It should be just as tough, and hopefully easier to clear from the tool and piping for reuse. Maybe some sweet potato for the fibers to help bind everything into a grosser and tougher mess to punch through.
Jon
This is starting to make me hungry. 🙂
fred
as Barry Gibb wrote “Grease is the Word”
I’ll add – for tough clogs that stick to the walls of the pipe
RX9
Go to a barber or dog groomer and get a bunch of hair to build a simulated clog. That’s one of the main clog culprits in bathroom fixtures.
Jason
Wow $249 is a lot for the limited applications this can be used on. A 1/4″ or 5/16″ x 25 feet can only do so much, especially on cast iron pipes or stubborn kitchen clogs. Ryobi (i own two) is a way better unit with more features than this unit for small drains. The non exposed spinning drum is not a great feature ( every drain machine ever made has an exposed spinning drum) so for us plumbers that is not some great new change that has ever been an issue. Plus there is no self feeder on this unit. The game changer would be a 18v or dual 18v unit that has a large enough drum and the torque capabilities to be able to use a 3/8″ (preferably 65 feet long) cable to clear real drains, with a self feeder.
david
Its nice they made a cordless auger, but the ryobi one goes forward on its own and its cheaper.