Milwaukee® sits down with Pro Tool Reviews to Unpack How to Maximize Power Management Capabilities!

The transition from gas to battery-powered solutions is transforming the outdoor trades. Product Manager Bradley talks to Pro Tool Reviews to break down what this shift means for outdoor crews, including key power management strategies and real-world impacts.

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I’m Clint deore with protour reviews I’m here with Bradley burkeman a product manager at Milwaukee tool and we’re going to talk about battery management and transitioning the battery and service support all that fun stuff but uh yeah we I just I’m excited to hit all these topics but you got to start somewhere do you want to talk U maybe about a thousand foot view of of your perspective on basically people looking at going from gas to battery yeah for sure first of all you know thanks for sitting down love having these conversations um but you know the way we really look at this we’re in the very early stages of transitioning from gas to battery equipment as an industry right and so um you know if you look at the greater Market the vast majority of blowers trimmers chainsaws have really been battery for the past five or seven years now but that’s really been driven by homeowners um and now we’re kind of just starting to get into that era of converting professional landscapers to battery yeah and that’s a an entirely different kind of user you know it it’s and it’s always been odd to me because really the professional user are the ones that I believe would benefit the most because they’re the ones that can do the math on converting gas you know a homeowner only uses their tools weekly perhaps a couple times a week but a landscaper in the professional industry who doing lawns all day long stands to really gain from transitioning uh to battery and so that’s that’s a a huge opportunity for them yeah for sure and you know being around a small gas engine for 8 hours a day is not the greatest thing in the world for you so some of the biggest beneficiaries of going over to battery equipment yeah anyone who’s switched from from gas to battery and is gone to you know all that time without having to smell those fumes it’s and and vibration is typically lower there’s like a ton of benefits noise reduction All That What’s um in a sense of uh getting into op for Milwaukee tul what kind of LED that that decision was it was it the market was it the research was it you know yeah that I’d love to hear how that started yeah so our journey has so many levels here but if we kind of pick a starting point you know it’s our 100th year anniversary so we could go all the way back to 1924 but we’ll just start in 2007 make this a little shorter um so you know we were some of the first players to introduced lithium ion to the power tool space um and that really required us to take a big jump from those existing larger nikad batteries um and so you know we’ve spent over 20 years now kind of working in the lithium ion space innovating um and you know we really started in the indoor trades mechanical electrical Plumbing um and that’s really where we were very well known for lithium ion tools was our drills our drivers our saws indoors um and you know as we continued making more and more solutions on the M18 platform some of those trades started coming to us in demanding we make battery powered chainsaws battery powered blowers for cleaning up jobs sites for taking down power lines um and so that’s when we kind of saw you know being that user-driven company there was this huge demand and opportunity for battery powered outdoor power equipment and then about uh 2017 time we put our chips on the table slid them forward and created an entirely new business unit for outdoor power equipment you know hired hundreds of Engineers product managers like myself to really say how do we enter this space in a big way love the visual on that you’re just yeah we’re all in take it this is the bet uh we call but uh yeah I uh we were around uh back in 2008 so dawn of red lithium uh getting into brushless tools that whole transition enabled um suddenly these power tools to become as powerful and even more powerful now than corded because corded runs you know it has a finite amount of power it can pull mhm and uh Russell’s you know with it with good you know with good battery power can uh can surpass that because it can keep pulling the power it needs to keep things spinning and and up to speed so that’s fun to watch the um what is a what is Milwaukee’s if you can quantify it somehow what is your investment in op right now yeah what was that all in you know um so you know like we said uh you know it’s really that focus on the end user and so the way we’ve kind of gone into this space in a big way is to do a couple of different things resource the engineering the regulatory teams and and making sure that we have you know the people to build the products in the road map we want but also getting out with users and getting hundreds thousands of touch points that are you know qualitative and quantitative to really Define these Solutions so you know when we go all in we say that to mean we go all in and understanding the user and then the solutions come out of that that makes sense are you seeing any Trends right now in the industry either ones you’re trying to address or or ones that are just kind of taking a front burner right now yeah a couple of things really come to mind um you know for starters I think when we kind of look at this space high level um and and start to see professionals go from gas to battery equipment there are almost two phases that they go through um the first being are the tools any good right and so you know we do our best to answer this by getting people Hands-On with the tools by creating content information around hey this saw has X horsepower this is more powerful than a 200cc gas engine um to really help people understand that there’s that power and performance in application of battery equipment but that’s really half the story that’s like the step one are are the tools any good um and then once they get over that that step two is all right how many batteries do I need to get through my day of work how many Chargers what what does my solution look like that has enough energy for that entire day of work yeah yeah and then and as as we know from watching these guys out in the field there’s uh different ways of handling that you know are they going to carry everything they need with them you know on on the on site for all day long are they going to charge Midway through are they going to charge overnight are they going to you know so there’s so many different ways and how have you addressed those various ways um with products to solve kind of some of those issues of of keeping them up and running yeah so all those scenarios you listed all the above right in terms of you know when we really took a step back and started studying these end users I kind of talked a little bit about that qualitative and quantitative approach so on the quantitative side what we did a couple of years ago was we went out with over a 100 Landscaping Crews and we put small data loggers on their gas equipment and said pretend like we’re not here we just want to understand how much you’re using your tools from job to job application to application but also how much energy you’re using in an entire day and can I put those on my kids I mean if this technology exists I think it’s being underutilized but but go on you probably can um and so not just understanding how much eny they’re using in an entire day but across that entire year um and basically you know what came out of that was that there’s just not a one-size fits-all solution there are wildly different energy needs based on the type of properties you’re serving where you have access to power where you’re working in the US and so you know we’re really big Believers that there’s not going to be that one solution um and we’ve got to innovate in a couple of really key areas to make sure that people have that flexibility to build the solutions that give them that all day runtime yeah so let’s let’s talk about um for example uh powering on you know on site you know if you’re going to try to run run these tools all day long hand tools in particular um what what would be your kind of recommendation or how do you how do you address that for someone who says that’s my main that’s how we do it that’s our main concern yeah so um right like high level if we kind of want to bucke tize these scenarios you can charge overnight where you just want to get the largest capabilities out of your circuit you want to maximize you know how much you’re using your infrastructure preventing those upgrades but then that other bucket that you brought up the on-site charging where you really want to drive performance uptime and productivity and so you know for so many of our users they kind of and I don’t have to tell you this but right like the lifeblood of Milwaukee tool batteries Motors and electronics right is kind of driving that technology further and further about that performance in application um and so you know our batteries have come such a long way M18 now has over 10 times the capability that it did back when it launched I remember when they were bragging about it being able to put out 20 amps of of power on a pack or yeah yeah that was it’s way over 100 now I believe so but even back then right like the conversation has always been power out more power out out out out what we missed from that is that now we’ve also had the opportunity to put a lot more power into the packs and so for that on-site charging um you know we’ve created several Innovations with new cells new electronics and new Chargers that let you turn around those packs really quickly and do it in some of the most extreme Environ so you know heat is the enemy of all batteries right you stick a battery on a chainsaw and you do you know a 20in bucking cut right that battery is going to warm up it’s inevitable um and so the ability to quickly cool down those batteries charge them quickly and then have them cool when they’re done charging so they’re ready for that next discharge is really critical for that on-site charging and that probably has a lot to do with the cells it has a lot to do with airf flow it has a lot to do with you know how those heat sinks are set up on those packs I me there’s a lot involved in that yeah I think you know we say batteries Motors Electronics the batteries and motors are are pretty straightforward in that like people understand them and electronics is a bit of a gray area but also an unsung hero um so like as I look towards the future you know we continue to see batteries getting more powerful more energy dense you know continuing to creep up that Spectrum we continue to see the same thing with motors of smaller more powerful Motors right but Electronics there is a huge Runway right now of in that Medium voltage range new smaller higher powerered Electronics where kind of our next tools that are coming out in the near future are going to be smaller and more compact than ever yeah it’s been fun to watch uh Motors get Shi I mean I remember the shift of brushless and they the the fact that these these motors just suddenly got a lot shorter and smaller and more Compact and it’s fun to watch that technology continue to evolve and of course batteries have gotten continually denser and denser and more power Rich so it’s yeah we’re I feel like it’s funny we’re so many years in to lithium ion and I uh I still feel like we’re just starting yeah for sure and you know the great thing is you know when I kind of look at battery I call it the power source of the future and it’s really not just the outdoor power equipment business not just the power tool business but if we look at like the global economy the amount of resources and force behind Battery Technology right now is really exciting and and I think there’s a really long run way of how much more powerful these Solutions are going to get yeah that makes sense so it when you’re trying to convince someone because sometimes they need convincing uh of making a switch from gas to battery and I have an answer for this in my head but I want to hear what you think what is what would be one tool in the outdoor power equipment landscape that you would have them use that would get them to kind of go wait a second this there’s something to this battery thing mhm for us chainsaws I mean the new 20-in dual battery chainsaw almost 6 horsepower people pick this thing up and they are shocked they’re like I had no idea a battery could do that yeah see you would not have been able to say that a couple years ago and it’s absolutely true you’re right I’ve used it and it’s it’s uh these saws are amazing and the but yeah it’s funny I I would have said hedg trimmer um that seems to be like the one that that kind of almost is a sideways move it’s about the same weight same power same runtime as a as a gas powered uh tool but you’re right those chainsaws are monsters now and they just never were that wasn’t the case before a couple years ago where they started really getting that additional capacity and power so great thing about head trimmers too is the energy needs are relatively low so you know of all the tools on a trailer there is no reason you should have a gas head trimer you get two batteries you run that thing all day right you no worries with a hedge trimmer yeah you can you can run a gas a a gas rig just put the Hedge you at least give that guy a break come on you know that’s funny um what is your uh current method this this is another big issue that comes up when we talk to landscapers uh what is your current method of providing service like how do you address service needs in the field and obviously we know battery powered and brushless tools are you know there’s no carburetor uh you’re not you’re not choking these things up there’s a lot less moving Parts um but there is a need in a sense maybe even in in just a sense of making sure you have somewhere to go but how do you address that so that people aren’t left you know without a tool for long and they can keep up and running yeah um a couple of different ways so you know first from the new product development standpoint right like we recognize with gas tools today generally a large landscaper has someone who’s onsite in charge of service in their shop right who’s can change a spark plug or a filter blindfolded um and so there is that desire to be able to service your own equipment and we really want to build that into our products so if there are components that need to be changed you know they aren’t soldered connectors they’re removable push pin connectors things that users can service themselves um for starters so that’s that’s kind of the the new product development side you know we’re striving right now to keep making our tools more and more serviceable for the end users who who like to do that um you know and then the flip side of that is really kind of leaning on our existing service network um and so we’ve got dozens of authorized service centers across the country we have programs where you can send in tools and we’ll service them get them sent back out to you as quickly as possible um so really trying to leverage a lot of the learning and expertise we’ve had you know over the last 20 years of having hundreds of millions of tools out there across across the world yeah is there a learning curve in taking like existing Milwaukee dealers and getting them up to speed on on how to handle outdoor power equipment that’s now hitting you the market uh yes yes and no um you know we we make a lot of content for that kind of channel for people to understand service videos how to things like that um but generally generally not too much I mean um what we’ve learned a lot with kind of the distribution side of things has been dealers who haven’t been as attuned to battery powerered Outdoor Equipment not being as prepared for the size of the equipment right and so being a little more mindful about how they’re storing and distributing that equipment yeah that makes sense yeah um so if we look to the Future um what do you think uh about the timeline I mean how do how do you see this playing out do you see a shift uh you when we hit that critical mass you know for example you know you got to try really hard to find a cordless a corded drill these days right I mean it’s it’s not going to be more powerful it’s hardly ever you know out in the field anymore it’s all cordless but what do you think uh timeline wise do you think it’ll be for at least the handheld tools out there that’s just a fun question it’s not a factual thing nobody’s going to get this right but it’s always fun to see what people imagine as the future of how long it’ll take yeah I mean I could right I could flip that in you and say when do you think you know every car on the road’s going to be electric right that’s it’s a hard question to answer hard question but you know the way I kind of really think about this is there are a handful of tools that their energy needs are relatively low enough like the handheld tools as to where this trans this transition to battery should happen relatively quickly um and I think we also have to kind of level set and recognize yes there’s California or Colorado where they’re going to ban these tools force people to change over everything tomorrow or yesterday I guess yeah yesterday right um but uh you know for other areas in the country I think this is going to be a transition that takes time um and you know as professionals cycle through their equipment buy new equipment slowly adopting these Solutions over time yeah yeah yeah what is it 2035 that was kind of the the Eevee takeover Market I I think they’re walking that back a little bit so it is it just goes to show you can’t predict the future um and the Market’s going to do what the market does and uh and some markets like to your point in California and uh possibly New York DC Southern Florida you’re going to see that some of those markets make make shift kind of force a Direction but um but it’ll definitely take some time so sure it’s fun to think um you know if you looked at uh another little crystal ball I mean do you have a sense of what kind of market share you want to see what if you were dreaming about it in the back rooms what kind of market share would Milwaukee like to have in this so there’s never enough until you’re at 100% world domination um yeah but no I think you know reasonably there’s just a huge opportunity for not just us but most of the battery players um in this space as as the entire Market really kind of starts to convert over um and you know we’re really big Believers um of course that our products are better for you know thousands of reasons and you go talk to anyone product manager or engineer at Milwaukee and and they’ll tell you about 500 different little aspects of each tool that makes it better than the entire field um but so so you know I think we’re going to see us continuing to take share because because of those there’s a reason you said he you kind of did the all-in push of the of the of the yeah I get that um so if you know this is a good opportunity for me to just ask did you know what have we not talked about what would you like uh maybe professional landscapers to know that they may not be aware of yeah um you know I think it’s reasonably daunting for some people to make this conver from gas to battery and and I think the big message is it can be done and it can be done easily um and you really just have to be mindful of a couple of different things and one is really how much you’re using your tools um to get a good understanding of how many batteries you might need to get through that full day of work um you know and this is something where I think our industry has a very long way to go because if you look at a lot of our competitors they will give you very aggressive runtime claims of a blower with a big battery that’s not kitted with the blower on the lowest power speed and really kind of upsetting and misleading people about the reputation of how long the products are going to run in application and so you know we do things like create content we call work done saying with a given tool in this power level in this application here’s the runtime you’re going to get and it’s of course field tested it’s very accurate and so you know I think that kind of first step of converting is understanding how much you’re really using your tools getting those accurate run times to understand how many battery discharges you need to get through that entire day of work that’s kind of step one for me is like level set how much energy you’re using understand that once you’re there that’s like 90% of the challenge the rest is then looking do you have access to power or how might you recharge all these packs and so that could come like we were talking in a variety of different scenarios um charging all your batteries overnight charging them on the go during the day um or charging them on site um and you know personally from my perspective I’m a very big believer that these scenarios aren’t going to go away in the long term um you know long long term yeah I do believe the majority of energy is going to stay on someone’s trailer um just because you don’t have to go through that extra step of taking it on and off your trailer every day um but that could come in a variety of different means are you just charging all your packs on your trailer overnight or do you have some type of portable power system on your trailer that makes sense and and to your point I think when you’re talking about things like runtime which leads up to a question of how many batteries I need and all that landscapers should really understand the difference between runtime in terms of hours of the day that they’re working and Trigger Time yeah that was a huge uh Revelation I think for us uh when we started testing various tools was just that you know you don’t you don’t pull the trigger on these tools at 8:00 in the morning and turn it off once for lunch and turn it back on until 5:00 6 o’clock at night and so for people to uh to understand Trigger Time means that you’re not running that tool quite as long as you think you are that really does help your math and keeps you from uh from not over anticipating the amount of of cost you have and the amount of batteries that you need so for sure and you know kind of back to that gas data loging that we did we saw a lot of that of you know of course you’re outside you’re working hard all day but the trigger is not always being pulled you’re manually moving things around you’re walking from area to area um so really sometimes you’ll hear very big differences between how long someone says they use a tool and how long the data says that they use a tool yeah that’s right and you know I think one of the other considerations with converting from gas to battery equipment is also kind of those needs of infrastructure that you have um in your shop and and how this transition might impact that and and from a couple of different perspectives um so you know we’ve worked like we were talking about in California where all uh small gas engines have been banned we’ve worked with a lot of Crews that have fully converted um and that process has really been like I said understand the discharges get that total number of B iies get them the right charging solution but that’s really only part of the story because you know with some of the first Crews we work with we got them the right number of batteries the right number of chargers and then we just dropped them off and left we came back couple weeks later they had Chargers plugged in across five different offices in their shop they were tripping Breakers left and right interrupting meetings going to get more batteries having people manually come back at night and manually move batteries over to new Chargers um and so kind of the last step to that equation is really understanding how to create that dedicated charging setup in the right location that doesn’t impact your workflow and sizing the infrastructure right for not just the charges you need today but the needs you might have going into the future um and so we do our best from the product development standpoint to help you get the most out of your infrastructure um and so if you look at things like our new six Bay daisy chain charger you get 60 batteries on a single 15 amp circuit versus our last generation backout charger that was 18 batteries on a 15 amp circuit so really overt tripling the number of batteries you can get from a single circuit and if you think about a big Landscaping Company converting from gas to battery that adds up quickly not having to call in an electrician install more circuits upgrade their infrastructure um is a really critical piece of the puzzle yeah that’s phenomenal and that’s something that a lot of people don’t think about we were told a story about a a company that’s very you know Forward Thinking and have all of their uh equipment you know set up for battery already uh including you know larger equipment as well and it is uh takes a phenomenal amount of power and uh and to the point where they they had to wait before they could start because they had to bring so much uh they had to literally have uh amps and amps and current you know run to their shops because they couldn’t they couldn’t handle charging everything they needed to charge so it does make sense to to have that infrastructure ready to think about it and the fact that you guys have done it essentially on a on a single 15 amp line enables so much and of course you can certainly in a in a shop space have more than that so that scalability is a big deal and it’s kind of fun to see that you guys have addressed that yeah and you know like we were talking about earlier it really plays into the way people are adopting these tools so I say modular and scalable um a like we talked about everyone has different energy needs so these things need to expand and contract right to meet those needs but B people’s Journeys are going to change over time so we want to let people be able to buy into a system that can grow with them over time without having a lot of those pain points yeah that makes a lot of sense it’s really practical yeah well this has been great so I I appreciate it you know Bradley this is a great conversation and I I think Super informative uh I’ve learned a lot and I really appreciate your time and it’s been fun to chat with you yeah appreciate it I can tell you this is really just the beginning for where we’re going from a power tool perspective from a portable power perspective we’ve got a huge Runway of products coming and um I think a very exciting electrified future for the landscaper I can’t wait to see it