One of the most exciting new tools from Milwaukee’s 2017 new tool media event was their Rover rechargeable RedLithium USB LED worklight.
We posted about the Milwaukee M12 and M18 Rover LED worklights before. This one is also a Rover, but it’s quite a bit different, as it works with a new RedLithium USB rechargeable battery pack.
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I keep wondering about what other tools Milwaukee might design around their RedLithium USB battery, or whether it will be a limited-scope platform, similar to their M4 screwdriver.
But unlike the M4 battery pack, you don’t need a special charger in order to use the new Rover LED floodlight, it charges via USB. There is a special Milwaukee RedLithium USB charger, however, but it’s an optional accessory.
The Rover LED personal worklight, which I’m going to simply write out as Rover LED for simplicity, has magnets on the bottom and back, and they’re pretty strong, too.
Marketing bullet points include:
- All Day runtime (dependent on mode selection and based on a 10 hour work day)
- 2 light output modes for max brightness or extended runtime
- Over 2,000 recharges
- 3X FASTER charge time (compared to…?)
- 3X faster charge time delivers 80% charge in under 1 hour
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The Rover LED doesn’t need a whole lot of contact with a steel fixture in order to be securely mounted. The magnet is located in the pocket clip.
Update: The pocket clip magnet on my production sample will not securely mount the Rover LED to coated steel surfaces, such as a sheet metal tool box. The rear/perpendicular magnet is as good as on the ones demoed at NPS17.
It’s quite stable when mounted perpendicularly, too.
It throws a wide and reasonably uniform beam that seems well suited for close-up work. It delivers up to 445 lumens of light, and so it’s quite bright too.
The controls are simple – there’s a push button for power and brightness control.
And a dual-purpose power-on indicator that flashes during the charging cycle. It changes colors when charging, from red to orange to green, to indicate the charge level.
On my production sample, the light itself flashed on and off to indicate that the battery had nearly no charge. Usually power tool battery packs ship with ~40% maintenance charge, these ship completely or nearly completely drained.
A rubbery flap lifts up to reveal the USB Charging port.
The RedLithium USB battery pack is removable, in case you want to charge it out of the tool and need to swap in a fresh battery.
The Milwaukee RedLithium USB battery is proprietary. It must be charged in a RedLithium USB flashlight, such as this Rover, or using the optional charger.
The optional charger ($40) comes with the charging dock, an AC adapter, Milwaukee-branded braided USB cable (also included with the Rover LED), and a spare battery.
Rover LED Specs and Features
- 445 lumens TrueView output (what’s TrueView?)
- 2 brightness settings – 445 lumens, 100 lumens
- Runtime of 2 hrs on high, 11 hrs on low
- IP54 water and dust resistant
- 2ft braided micro USB charging cable
- Built-in fuel gauge
- Charges to 80% in under 1 hour when using 2.1A wall plug
Price: $60
Buy Now(via Home Depot)
Buy Now(via Ohio Power Tool)
See Also(Charger via Home Depot)
First Thoughts
I was extremely excited about the Rover LED personal worklight, and am still excited, but its weaker-than-anticipated magnet has me a little disappointed.
The perpendicular magnet is reasonably strong, but barely. The pocket clip magnet is too weak to be practical. I tried attaching it to a powder-coated tool cabinet, and then a powder coated Ikea Raskog utility cart.
I don’t recall the last time I had an issue with magnetic LED worklights from mounting to tool boxes or rollaway cabinets. This one needs a stronger magnet.
But on the bright side, there are multiple mounting options, some working better than others, the worklight is very bright, it has a great form factor, and its user interface is simple and useful.
This seems to be a great personal worklight, with just 1 flaw exaggerated by my very high expectations and anticipation.
Perhaps my production sample has a defect? Maybe the wrong magnets are being embedded in the pocket clips? Maybe they were spec’ed to work with bare steel surfaces instead of smooth powder coated or pained steel surfaces.
A weak magnet is potentially fixable.
Ignoring that one flaw that has me feeling a little stung, I only have good things to say about the Rover LED worklight. I need to use and test it more before I can recommend it confidently, but I don’t think there will be any more surprises.
Thank you to Milwaukee for providing the test sample.
VladFineCraft
My favorite part about HD is that it’s not sold in stores, but….! Express delivery from store available for $79 ….. wtf ????
TJ
Any idea on release date?
Stuart
I have a production model, so it should be hitting stores soon. Maybe September?
mikedt
Oh goody, another battery form factor. I see no reason to buy this over any quality flashlight that uses standard sized batteries.
Garrick
Yeah, I have enough battery platforms already. Hundreds of flashlights available that won’t get one stuck with another proprietary battery.
Jim Felt
Cool. (Except for yet another battery protocol).
And the price point per lumen just keeps dropping.
As an friend of mine at an LED manufacturer told me, more then once, “we” ain’t seen nothin’ yet”…
A true Bachman Turner Overdrive kinda quote.
Stuart
At least it charges via USB.
Adam
Typically the complaint of a new battery form factor is needing another charger, which is not the case here, unless you want a dedicated charger. I guess my complaint would be that they should have added a USB port on the rapid charger.
Stuart, does it look like the battery look like it is a newer 20700 (?) or typical 18500? Just curious, I’ll get one either way
Paul
I see it as a $60 Milwaukee branded phone charger cable that comes with a free flashlight; count me in! 😀 #CutMeAndIBleedRed 😛
Pete
Glad you dont bleed yellow or blue or teal or green. You’d be an alien freak!
Paul
Actually it just means that all those DeWalt or Makita “fans” are all turncoats when it really matters haha
Wayne
I can easily see many ways I could put a light like this to use, using the magnet &/or a clip. But if the magnet’s too weak, I’m not going to bother.
If the magnet’s too weak, I could always use a clamp, but that’d be voiding this thing’s size & shape.
Good accessories would be a clip or two & one with a gooseneck, suitably rugged yet small. Maybe a sleeve with a manly magnet…
John S
What would have been amazing is if these batteries also charged other USB devices. I think it was a big miss to not include that as an extra functionality and selling point of a new battery platform in this way. Like those mini battery packs for phones.
Mason
I completely agree with you. They should have at least made the charger a power bank capable of charging other devices. If the magnets are that weak what’s the point of having them?
VladFineCraft
Who sad magnets are weak????
VladFineCraft
Shouldn’t we all first really try it before jumping to conclusion? Same story was with Milwaukee cordless nailguns and after all they working just great…
928'er
Hmmm….
I suppose it would be too much to ask that the batteries be interchangeable with the Ryobi Tek4 4 volters..?
RC WARD
The weak magnet is a killer for a light like this that would be a hard sell at 60 bucks anyway.
The yeti
Why not run it on AA batteries . Have it be a recharger so u could run rechargeable batteries if u so desired . Keep the usb port. Just ditch the proprietary battery
Stuart
AA batteries don’t do well under high current drain, at least not basic alkaline cells.
Brian A
Whats the voltage and amps of the new USB redlithium? I would guess its 3.6v and 1.5a. Ypu can use it as a power bank with the optional charger thing.
Wonder if the 3 new usb lights; rover, headlamp, flashlight, will be sold as bare tool. They should make a combo kit with all 3…
Thought the headlamp supposedly isnt designed for non hardhat. Though they have a bare head 3xAAA model plus a 2xAAA pen light coming out also.
I think Milwaukee has more lights then all the majors combined. Liking that the new M18 rover is only $99.
Michael Quinlan
I’m not seeing the advantage of this over a $10 CAT COB light that uses AAA batteries that are interchangeable with my other small flashlights and walkie talkies.
fred
I agree – I bought a batch of ones from EZ-Red (PCLED6) last year as stocking stuffers – cost me less than $8 each (spreading the shipping cost out). This Milwaukee looks nicer – but not at their price point.
Koko the Talking Ape
Agree with the others about a proprietary battery format.
That clip also looks nearly unusable as a clip. Why not eliminate it, so that there is space for a deeper magnet? Or just use a neodymium magnet, maybe mounted in a steel cup to intensify the magnetic field. I am sure a tiny one would be sufficient.
I also wonder if they couldn’t add a high-friction coating to the magnet surface, so the magnet would not need to be as strong. I am sure even weak magnets can support the weight; the problem is that here, the weight exerts a shear force, which has to be countered by the magnetic force multiplied by the coefficient of friction. Increase the friction, decrease the magnetic force required.
Stuart
It’s not just a friction issue – the flashlight cannot mount to the bottom of a steel surface horizontally, only vertically.
I considered everything, even that the front of the flashlight might provide a lever-like force that reduces the magnetic hold.
It really just comes down to magnet strength as the most significant factor.
Koko the Talking Ape
Not quite following you here:
“… the flashlight cannot mount to the bottom of a steel surface horizontally, only vertically.” You mean it can’t mount to a horizontal steel surface? Why not? Is it because the clip is off center, so the weight of the light peels itself off?
And there is no shear force if the flashlight is stuck to the underside of a horizontal steel surface. If it is stuck to a vertical surface, there is. If the light is jutting out horizontally from the vertical steel surface, there is shear AND rotational force, but there is still shear.
In any case, why wouldn’t it help if the clip itself were also slightly tacky? With weak refrigerator magnets, they don’t usually fall off the door, they just slide down the door. So friction would help, it seems. Lee Valley sells special high-friction pads to cover magnets when oriented vertically, so whatever they are sticking to doesn’t slide away as easily.
http://www.leevalley.com/us/Wood/page.aspx?p=32066&cat=1,42363,42348&ap=2
Stuart
Yes, that’s exactly what happens – one part of the flashlight is pulled down and then the gap grows until the flashlight falls. This all happens very quickly.
Adding anything over the magnet will weaken it further. If it’s not strong enough to secure the flashlight to powder coated steel, adding anything else will make the situation worse.
I’ve had strong-enough magnets slide down a surface. That’s not the case here, although the smooth plastic clip on a smooth coated steel surface certainly doesn’t help the situation.
Koko the Talking Ape
I see what you are saying. Thanks!
So the magnet is not strong enough to even support the weight of the thing even when stuck to a flat horizontal surface. That seems like a pretty big flaw.
Yeah, I thought about the thickness of the high-friction material, but the Lee Valley stuff seems pretty thin.
TJ
There’s another review group who did a video on the new USB lighting family and they didn’t mention any holding issues with theirs. Maybe evidence that you got a bad unit?
Also, they said September release.
Brian
I can understand why they made the cell proprietary, so you don’t use those cheap chinese cells from Amazon and then complain about performance. The cost of the charger and cell though…a wee bit overpriced. Also, they should have just made a pull out or removable belt clip.
This is the first I’ve heard of the magnets being in question. I don’t think I’d buy this, the Craftsman lights I have are good enough for me and I bought them on sale for $3 with $3 back in points. I’d have no problem cutting off the belt clip and gluing some magnets on the back.
Nathan
please whatever you do compare it to those cheapo Harbor frieight give a way lights.
Why – it’s one of the few things I’ll get from HF when I have those coupons. I started doing this when I notice other mechanics in the hangar using them. usually free with some other purchase (even for disposable gloves etc) and it’s a row of LED’s in a puck with a magnet. I don’t even know if the batteries are replaceable. but they work and when they die you can get another.
Otherwise for me it’s probably a pass. Aside from being milwaukee, and the battery platform thing – seems too costly.
fred
I buy chip brushes and nitrile gloves at HF. Use the 20% off coupon on them and get a free flashlight or pucklight with another coupon. I give the lights away as stocking stuffers. I think the recipients are starting to have a pile of them – so the novelty is over – but the other “free” items like screwdriver sets and tape measures would be even less appreciated.
joe
Does the battery have a USB type A output so you can charge your cell phone from the battery?
Stuart
No.
DanFromMass
Stuart,
I know this is an old post, but I havent seen any discussions about what type of battery is behind the “red lithium usb”.
Is Milwaukee using stardard 18650 cells for these, or are they quietly dipping their toes into the 21700 cells that you’ve written about in previous posts?
I only have one of these batteries for my headlamp, and I’m too chicken to break open the battery to see what cell is inside.
Stuart
I believe it’s a standard 18650 in a special package.