Milwaukee M18 LED Bucket Light

Milwaukee Tool recently introduced the new Milwaukee M18 LED Bucket Light for linemen and other utility industry workers. Powered by a RedLithium battery, the bucket light is designed to attach to utility buckets and features dual-rotating heads that provide 2,500 lumens of Milwaukee’s TrueView LED light technology.

A patented spring-loaded bucket clamp allows the Milwaukee M18 LED Utility Bucket Light to adjust to bucket lips up to 4 inches. The dual-rotating head design allows 180 degree light head rotation vertically or horizontally.

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Linemen can choose among three modes: spot mode focuses the beam, a flood mode provides a broad beam for area and task lighting, and a spot flood mode is designed to illuminate areas over 500 yards away. Other notable features include a high-impact polycarbonate lens, an IP56 rating, a limited lifetime LED warranty, and a 5-year warranty on the product.

“When performing utility line maintenance, finding appropriate temporary lighting is crucial. Up until now, Linemen have had to resort to positioning a large area light or search light on the ground and direct it towards the bucket, and then supplement that with a light on their helmet. This provides an inadequate and inconsistent amount of light, and often results in a great deal of shadows spotting from the ground due to the bucket being in the way of the light. By developing a light that is fully optimized for utility buckets, we’re helping Lineman vastly improve their visibility on the jobsite with high quality and consistent light that has the versatility to adapt to the work they do.”
-Jason Isaacs, Product Manager for Milwaukee Tool

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Our Take

The Milwaukee M18 LED Bucket Light is a pretty serious light built specifically for linemen. 2500 lumens of output with a 500 yard throw and dual lights seems fairly impressive on the surface, but it comes with some sticker shock if you don’t know what you’re looking at.

That price tag comes from more than just the LED chips Milwaukee put in the system. The design had to be capable of clamping to utility truck bucket but also be able to survive the conditions that linemen often work in. That includes less than ideal environmental conditions – hence the IP 56 rating – along with being able to survive in high-voltage situations. The kind of materials and design required to make that happen necessitate the premium price, but result in one of the toughest lights you’ll work with.