Let’s talk about the new Milwaukee Packout cabinet (48-22-8445), which features a quick-access door that makes it a first-of-its-kind.
Another unique aspect of the Packout cabinet is that it can be mounted to the wall (Packout wall plates are not included), and it can also be stacked with other Packout tool boxes. The cabinet is compatible with other Packout products and accessories, such as wheeled dollies, shelves, and base plates.
The Packout cabinet features a 50 pound weight capacity, latching storage door, and metal-reinforced locking point.
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You can connect the cabinet to full-width Packout accessories on the bottom, and connect Packout tool boxes, organizers, and other compatible stackable products on top.
One thing to note is that the cabinet has a 25 lb transit weight capacity.
The cabinet weighs 16 pounds. From the product images, it has molded side handles.
Price: $139
ETA: July 2022
Discussion
The beauty of the new Packout cabinet is that you can mount it to the wall, as part of Milwaukee’s new workshop storage system, or add it to your stack of Packout tool box.
As with drawered tool boxes, the quick-access door allows users to grab their tools and supplies without having to undock an entire stack of tool boxes. You just lift the flap, and there’s your gear.
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A lot of Packout users have been asking for more easy-access tool box solutions. Does this new cabinet suit your needs and wants, or are you still waiting for something a little different?
John
I have the 2 drawer and 3 drawer packouts, this face cabinet is overpriced for what it is. For mobile use the crates at under $50 each or a deep box seems better for weight and cost.
Stuart
With the crates and deep box, you cannot access the contents when something – anything is attached on top.
This is one of those things where the cost can be justified if you want unfettered access to bulk tools or materials badly enough.
It does seem priced a little high compared to the slightly more expensive 2- and 3-drawer units of greater construction complexity, but not too prohibitively so.
Is this is *exactly* what someone needs or wants, the crate or a deep tool box might not be perfect substitutes.
Julian Tracy
I’ve got the base 3-stack Packout as well as a few mini organizers ands an M12 vac that I’ve mounted it’s wall mount to the rolling Packout front panel. I bought a few of the drawer units and immediately sold them both off again as they were too big, bulky and $$$ for my needs.
I can see the utility of this unit though. Half the problem of all these various rolling jobsite tool box solutions is having to remove the top boxes a to access the lower ones. I almost wish they’d make this as a rolling base with collapsing handle version. I’ve absolutely no use for all those silly $$ Packout wall mount items they’ve recently introduced and only use my based Packout system as a tools to a job solution,
Ironically, I’ve always thought the cheaper tool box/chest stacks that had an open compartment on the bottom were halfway useless as that space just becomes a dark throw all compartment. But in this case, even the price doesn’t feel that bad for a large easily accessible anything compartment.
Farmerguy
Regarding wheeled version to avoid unstacking. I think I would like to see a single drawer as the wheeled base. A cabinet door where things can fall out sounds like back pain to me plus less worry when accidental opening. With a big drawer molded around the wheels, the space could be maximally utilized.
Jared
RE: “the cheaper tool box/chest stacks that had an open compartment on the bottom”
I don’t like those either. Impossible to organize. That’s what I thought of when I saw this Milwaukee box too – but I’ll concede it does make more sense in this application (especially if you’re only storing one or two large tools in that compartment).
Maybe a person with lots of smaller items could make a stack of these and just lay the whole unit down horizontal before working out of it. Kind of like a single row of a giant organizer. 😄
Frank D
I’m pretty solid into Packout and customizing it further via 3d printing. Saw the new items in store while on a trip in FL. Drawers and deep units failed to impress me. Questionable use, only one set of dividers. And the price? … come on Milwaukee. Simple plastic boxes and accessories …
Rog
Come on now. One hundred and thirty-nine doll hairs. For a (admittedly nice) plastic box.
Jeffery Goldstein
Well this seems to be made for them chosen people as this is quite expensive, but looks fantastic. That storage door is definitely a unique feature; almost reminds me of an oven. Wonder if this insulated to prevent heat from impacting the items inside?
Dean
We need a new heavy duty rolling box with 1 large drawer to put my 2 and 3 drawer boxes on top of. The metal dolly option isn’t portable enough for my needs. The current rolling box sucks when you need something out of it (need to remove all boxes on top). A large drawer bottom roller with retractable handle is much needed. Come on Milwaukee, I’ve been waiting patiently.
Farmerguy
Didn’t see your comment before response above. I would add that I am not opposed to the bottom big drawer to be metal. Not everything has to me plastic. A metal drawer could be as light and offer some opportunities while having the PackOut cleats for stack above it. The PackOut cart is metal, so it is possible.
Dean
I agree. Plastic or metal, doesn’t make a difference to me. Just has to be heavy duty to hold the weight of several boxes on top. I need a large rolling box to hold my larger, heavier tools with easy access when stacked. I can’t believe they haven’t made this yet. I will be in for three if they do.
Richard Johnson
Right on Dean. Having to unstack to access bottom box is definitely a design deficiency. Milwaukee got it right with this one. I have a 48-22 I am planning on cutting the front of the box and using the cut out as a door to a front accessible cabinet.
Mikedt
As much as I like this stuff I can’t get over the price they charge. The profit margin on these things must be huge.
Stuart
Not necessarily. These boxes are pricey to make, and bulky to ship. Look at the cost of rotomolded coolers.
Unless I have an urgent immediate need, I buy most of my Packout gear during sales or promos.
MM
I don’t think Rotomolded coolers are a good example here. I’ve purchased rotomolded water tanks of multiple hundred gallon capacity for less than the price of a Yeti cooler a fraction of its size. Those fancy rotomolded coolers are an expensive luxury product.
I think a better comparison would be the classic 5-gallon cooler dispenser. It’s probably about the same bulk as one of these packout cabinets, if not larger, and they’re about $35. $55 if we’re talking the heavy duty industrial model. If those can be shipped around without egregious prices then the same is true for the Packout cabinet.
I’m sure they had to pay a steep upfront cost to have the molds made to make these Packout cabinets, but at that point it’s just a couple bucks worth of plastic in each one and the molding press can crank out several a minute. I agree with Mikedt here, I think the margins must be huge. In the earlier topic it was disclosed they were asking $20 for a single hook to mount on the packout wall system!
Stuart
Packout pricing has been relatively consistent from the start. While a little higher than I would have guessed, $139 isn’t out of line for the system.
With Packout, tolerances have to be high. A couple of years ago, a sample came in and it wouldn’t connect to other Packout products. Everything looked right, but something was off by just enough to prevent this batch of tool boxes from latching together.
Where is it going to be sold? Mainly independent dealers that offer free shipping?
It’d cost me maybe $30-40 to ship one of these via common carrier ground. Retailers have shipping contracts and pay less, but this is likely also built into the margins.
This is also a “does this provide enough utility to justify the immediate hit to my wallet?” type of product. If it solves problems for you, and you need it, you deal with the price.
Yes, the hooks are surprisingly pricy, even compared to Rubbermaid Fast Track hooks. I’d bet – or at least hope – there will be some bundle deals.
MM
Oh, I wasn’t suggesting the price was inconsistent. Just that it is high.
As for “tolerances”, I don’t buy it. First, many things that we buy today, and have been buying for years, at low prices have extremely precise fabrication. The lego sets I played with as a kid require much more precision than stacking toolboxes. So do the intricate little moving doors and windshields on toy airplanes and cars. I’ve worked with injection molding companies before. I’d much rather deal with the task of making a part of a Packout line than I would the swing-up clear plastic windshield on a toy fighter jet. Second, it would be a very poor design choice indeed on Milwaukee’s part to design the packout latches to require a truly precise fit. There must be clearance built into the design otherwise the act of attaching one box to another would be impractically difficult because you’d have to hold the parts in truly perfect alignment to get them to lock together. The interlocking parts of Packout (and similar systems) are based on wedges because those allow for imprecision and don’t require perfect alignment as they guide themselves into place. Now I’m not saying that bum parts can’t happen from time to time, but I don’t think these organizers require a particularly strict degree of precision such that it affects the price.
Kevin
Your absolutely right. I used to do some work with BASF and, although there’s some intricacies involved, injection molding plastics of most consumer varieties is far from rocket science. Packout is easily my go-to toolbox, but the markup in fact pretty huge. The tolerances for the cleats are far from high precision. There’s movement built into the design to allow easy indexing. If you look closely at the clear system, they use the trick of tapering a lot of the edges; this serves a dual purpose. One being ease of engagement, two being the molds being less likely to need adjustment over time. Let’s be real here, Packout is the Louis Vuitton of toolboxes. The markup is going to be there. It would be foolish to think the profit margin is proportional to its competitors. They leverage the high demand they have.
Addison
Milwaukee seems to be moving to where it’s best use case seems to be, the work van, with wall mounts. This is a space that needs the variety of Packout, the dedication that Milwaukee has given to it and the initial design. I have watched similar systems by Dewalt, Ridgid, systainer, Stanley. These all can be mounted inside a locked and secure vehicle, and when you arrive on the job, you decide what comes into the job, everything else stays at the ready. Keep designing stuff that some people see a need for, it is a robust system, I applaud you!
Jeremiah Ducate
I agree with the cost being quite high. I can also see it being worthwhile for a company that bills out techs at $120+ per hour.
In my current state, I would make something else before buying this as is. I havent committed to packout yet as im not mobile in a truck or van with my tools though.
C Mango
Definitely useful, definitely expensive. I have a lot of Packout gear mounted in my van. I’m loving the drawer units so far, and this is a logical progression of that idea. My circular saw, planer, etc. would live in one of these, but $139? Yikes. I never buy Packouts off season, I only buy them on sale, which doesn’t happen that often throughout the year, and even then I know I’m over-paying. So I typically keep a running list going all year of what I want and then buy all at once during one of these sales, sometimes saving 20-30%.
928'er
I’ve got two sets of the Ridgid three piece roller tool box stacks that I got on sale at HD for, I think, $99 for all three boxes.
It sure would be nice to have access to the contents without unstacking the boxes, but that one Milwaukee front opening box is priced at more than I paid for all three Ridgid boxes!
Rob L.
If that door can be secured enough to to be raccoon and possum proof, it’d be a very pricey if awesome camping pantry. I have one set of Packout for tools, another set for camping – if I can find this on a good sale I might have to try it:)
Dario
when milwaukee bring out a PACKOUT hop up/beer crate solution, THEN i am SOLD😂
but seriously, who else has a plastic beer crate that they use everytime they do a DIY project, its a hop, up, carrying crate, table, and so much more.
in the UK they pretty hard to come by these day, so i am hanging on to mine. but if milwaukee/dewalt came up with a alternative, i’m pretty sure there would be a big market.
Cheers
Tom D
25 pounds seems kinda low to be honest.
I’ll probably pick one up on sale to check it out, and compared to actual cabinets it may be cheaper, but I do echo the agreement that it would be nice with wheels at the bottom of a stack.
Sam
Cant wait for this. Going to add wheels and put my track saw in it then add 2 sets of draws and them my mitre saw on the top