Hello folks. I would like to get some opinions on what battery powered grease guns you might prefer as my days with the manual pump is almost over. i’ve been doing a lot of research lately about battery powered grease guns and have come across the normal brands…… Dewalt, Milwaukee, Ryobi, and now Makita. I guess Makita finally decided to release one a few months ago. Long story short, all of my tools are Makita, but theirs is more expensive than the other brands. Should I just suck up and buy that one because it fits with the rest of my tools, or is another brand worth it. I’ve always read great things about Milwaukee tools, but when I bought my tool kit 6+ years ago, I decided to go with Makita at the time. I’m not hellbent I’m staying with Makita, I just want the best gun that will work for my backhoe. Any feedback would be appreciated.
My two cents.......If it was me I would get the Mikita. I have been switching all my cordless stuff over to Milwaukee. I had all different brands of battery tools. Always got whatever was the best deal. Got tired of 4 different systems and voltages. With mismatched stuff you need 2 batteries so one can be charging while you use the other one. Gets silly after a while. I chose Milwaukee because I have owned many of their corded tools, some are close to 40 years old and still work as new. Any of the name brands are good. Each has it's strengths and weaknesses.
Only thing better than a oil tread is a grease thread. I rock DeWalt & Milwaukee. Milwaukee is nicer. Both brands have held up to severe duty service. We just had a 87 page thread on this subject.
Would you mind sharing the link? I did a search and didn’t see much. thanks!
I have a 10+ year old Lincoln and a 4 year old 18V Milwaukee. Both good grease guns still although I like the longer hose on the Milwaukee most of the time. I also like that you can set the number of pumps per trigger pull if you desire. It's a nice feature when greasing a couple dozen or more fitting that only need a few pumps each.
This was a good one. HeavyEquipmentForums
I used to sell the electric Lincoln guns. The gun itself is decent. The batteries are proprietary and hit or miss on quality. The biggest customer complaint was batteries & chargers. I could probably put a couple good Lincoln kits together if I rebuilt some batteries.
I’ve got Dewalt and I’m very happy with it. I’ve standardized on all Dewalt, mainly for the common battery issue.
I have two old Lincolns but the batteries are shot. Was thinking of getting the Makita aas I have all Makita cordless tools as well. I did see replacement Lincoln batteries on Amazon but was wondering about their quality?
I have the Dewalt. When I bought mine Home Depot had a lower price than Tractor Supply but no stock. TS had it in stock and I had a 10% off coupon. TS matched the HD ad and gave me the 10% discount off the matched price. The supplied 4 ah battery rarely needs charging. Most of my cordless tools are C3 Craftsman. As I expand I have been buying and been satisfied with the Dewalt tools. I also bought an adapter to use the 20v Dewalt batteries on my C3 tools. I switched my C3 to lithium long ago. Those batteries have outlasted the nicad 10 fold.
You actually just gave me an idea..... if I decided to go with a Milwaukee tool I could buy a battery adaptor! Maybe that's something to look into...... hmmmmm
If you already have a preferred brand of batteries and a charger, a bare gun are usually available on eBay at a decent price. I bought a Dewalt 20 volt gun on eBay a lot cheaper than anywhere I looked on the internet. I already had a 20 volt Dewalt drill/driver.
the makita looks like a nice grease gun if that's your preferred battery system give it a try
It's the same battery as black and decker uses if that makes sense.
I have been buying Dewalt. They have been ok. Sometimes getting them to pressurize back up after changing into a new tube of grease is a challenge. Maybe they are all like that. The battery situation seems to dictate the grease gun, once your bought in into a brand which I guess is their idea.
I have a lincoln I quit using because of the oddball batteries. I have dewalt now, which corresponds to my cordless tools. The dewalt is nothing special, I get good battery life and don't have any issues after new cartridges like KSSS is talking about. But I keep all my grease in the shop and the boxes and tubes upright- he probably does a lot of field greasing, and then its easy to have the tubes lay on their side in the truck, and that can cause problems. That may not be his issue, but I have had that in my shop if the box gets laid over. I say the dewalt is nothing special, just because I don't think its better or worse than any other battery grease gun. BUT- any battery grease gun is miles and miles ahead of a hand gun, if you spend any amount of time greasing. I hate spending time greasing, and if you're pumping out 3 or 4 tubes, the battery guns are a massive improvement.
The Milwaukee lady at the Milwaukee store inside the Anchorage Home Depot is a hotty and smells nice. And She talks to me. So, theres that. Gave me a red Milwaukee t shirt this one time.
I have tried the Amazon batteries for my cordless Lincoln guns, I have two, I leave one in my shop and take one with me in the truck. I tend to think leaving the batteries on the charger always does the batteries no good, OEM or aftermarket. The Amazon batteries seem ok at best. After having some newer Milwaukee stuff I'm tempted to just buy one of their guns due to the way the batteries hold a charge and seem to last a long time. As far as the re-loading goes, I find that if I don't run the gun totally empty it primes much easier. I also find leaving the tube a few turns loose helps to bleed any air.
I still use hand lever guns. You guys are spoiled lol
Well......... it seems to me that if you live in Anchorage you may want to check out a Milwaukee at the Home Depot. Otherwise I would go with the Makita. In fact, I just went with the Makita because I have a slew of the Makita batteries. At $100 apiece for a battery after you pick a brand it seems like you get locked into it. So far I've been happy with all the Makita tools I own, and I as I think about it that's over 20 different tools. I paid 220 some for the grease gun only on Amazon. I also bought these new lock and lube grease gun tips ...... we will see how they work out. If you can wait 2 weeks I'll give you an honest review on what I think of the grease gun. We go through a box of 10 tubes a week. So I should have a good idea after next week. I hope it's not a power hog like the Makita reciprocating saws. If so the guys will have to carry 2 extra batteries with them.
I use hand grease guns too. The electrics can mess stuff up like the ceramic seals on Blackmer pumps. Or, electric motors. Over grease in a hurry.
Yes please do. I’m thinking of seeing if the price drops around Black Friday timeframe.
I store my grease tubes on their side on a shelf in the garage. Haven't had much trouble getting a new tube to load in my Dewalt. I ran it too long at the end of the first tube and it collapsed the tube. Made it a real bear to get out. Now as soon as it stops making a pumping sound I stop and change the tube.
Will do, In response to Coaldust I believe there will be some employee training involved. Very little of the greasing we do will harm the equipment if we over grease...I do the sealed bearing stuff my self to avoid problems. My concern is we will suddenly start using 2 cases a week instead of one. We use the Texas refinery stuff (see expensive). Hate to see big gobs of grease on the ground when they over grease. This is the main reason I have held off on the battery power greaser until now. . . and Makita did not make one
In all the videos Ive watched I found if you keep it in level 1 it’s a lot slower and more controlling. Level 2 will pour it out like a firehose until you get a bit of resistance.
What cosmaar1 said... My Milwaukee set on 1 is very controllable. It is easy to over grease on 2 if you do not pay attention. It could get expensive, but for me, the blobs of grease on the driveway can get me in hot water with the wife if tracked into the house .
I'm happy with the Milwaukee one I have.
We have 3 Milwaukee guns that have performed flawlessly, I would highly recommend. For tube storage we use these - https://www.northerntool.com/shop/t...edce44c814a019f75ee025ac266a13c0&gclsrc=3p.ds Store the tubes pop top down and let gravity keep the air out. Also water tight.
Been about a week now. I know you said wait 2 weeks but what’s your initial assessment?
I'd get the Makita too unless you really want multiple battery systems. I always have a manual gun along with my air gun in the service truck for motors and pumps, some stuff doesn't take kindly to the continuous air gun lol
I just received the grease gun last night and on initial assessment the build quality seems good. I had quite a bit of trouble getting the first tube of grease to seat completely in the cartridge tube. The plunger was so tight that it wouldn't let the bottom of the tube slide by. As to the use I was a little underwhelmed, I think any battery-powered grease gun is going to disappoint me. I'm used to the long lever handled, grease gun with the solid metal grease hose on the John Deere grease guns. These guns put out a lot of grease with one pump. On fittings that I typically just put one pump of grease in I had to hold down on the grease gun button for almost 3 seconds. Now it may not seem like a long time, but I think it took me about two minutes longer to grease the track skid steer with the battery-powered gun. And we all know what time is. On any machine that you can use the metal spout grease gun on the process is going to be faster with the manual gun. On my excavator using this battery-powered gun would be tedious. It would take forever to get enough grease into some of the big fittings. Fittings that we say put six pumps in with the manual gun. 3 to 4 inch inch pin diameter linkages. Where this gun will be handy is in those fittings that require a hose and one hand to hold the tip of the hose on the zerk. I honestly feel that those locking grease gun heads that I got will solve that problem also. I haven't had a chance to try them out yet. I'll let everyone know when I do. So in conclusion to this diatribe if you have to have a battery gun I think Mikita is as good as the rest but in the real world, wil not replace a good quality long lever manual gun. As for those handheld manual grease guns that you operate with one hand... The last one I had got purposely ran over.
Good update. I am currently using a pistol grip and after 1.5 tubes the other day my mind was made up of doing something different. I guess I could try the manual lever one, but figured battery would be best..... maybe not.
For high volume greasing like when we are digging in water with the big hoe I have really started to like the lock and lube foot greaser https://locknlube.com/products/g-gu...MIpPGC3_7P8wIV___jBx2c4gEhEAQYAiABEgK3cvD_BwE Otherwise you would have a hard time getting my dewalt gun or lock and lube coupler away from me We run about 400 pounds of grease in a summer and there is not a hand gun to be found
We own at least 10 different grease guns and only one of them is a pistol grip that I bought to replace the one that "accidentally" got left on the tracks. My son uses it to grease some of the zerks on the grader. I think the battery-powered grease gun would probably be almost as fast as a pistol grip. I.e. slow. But it would certainly be a lot easier on your hands. I just got done greasing the backhoe with that new locknlube tip with a manual heavy duty John Deere gun. That is definitely the way to go. I know some will say that the darn tip costs as much as a gun, And depending on the gun they may be right. But I just ordered two more of those tips. It made it so I didn't have to hold that tip on the zerk anymore. So I had both hands free to run the gun. No more holding the gun with one hand and operating the gun by pushing it against my hip. I spent way more time cleaning tips than I did greasing I will tell you that. Fast, easy, and not a lot of mess. I know the regular tips will sometimes hang on by themselves but it seems as I'm pumping the grease gun I wiggle the hose, and they fall off, and I lose some grease. Then have to grab the tip and reconnect it. Wash, rinse, repeat. Not today, clean the zerk, click it on, pump the gun, go on to the next one.
I actually bought one of those last week. I agree 100%, it’s a lot nicer than the regular tip.
I have 3 pistol grip guns and the Dewalt. One of the pistol grip guns is the small size and is packed with anti seize. One regular size has marine grade wheel bearing grease. The other has the 5% moly I use in the Dewalt for backhoe pins. I use the Dewalt on my finish mower wheels too. I grease those every other mowing to try and push the dirt out. The Dewalt is used for 90% of my greasing. I wouldn't take a purdy for it. It is variable speed that is regulated by how much pressure is applied to the trigger.
The Milwaukee is excellent and pumps extremely fast on the high speed lower pressure setting and on the high pressure low speed setting it’s very powerful and busts clogs pretty well. I hate a manual gun. Give me air or better yet battery any day. we have a big air operated keg fed greaser for high volume stuff like filling bucket pin cavities or track adjusters.
Been a few weeks. What's your final assessment? Is it worth buying?
I bought a Dewalt because I had other tools and several batteries. I use the smallest Dewalt battery and have plenty of juice to lube all the points on the TLB. Changing tubes is easy, never have to purge but I don't let my grease get cold. I have Milwaukees for my mechanics and they work great also.
I just recently learned (from a YouTube video) that they make adaptors to go from one battery type to another brand. Below is an example (not pushing the use of Amazon BTW, actually rather use another supplier, personally, but this came up in my search). They are not that costly, and allow you to now pick and choose, not just go brand specific. https://www.amazon.com/Mellif-Milwa...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584276309582749&psc=1
Yeah I bought a Dewalt to 19.2 Craftsman C3 adapter a couple years back. It will come in handy when I'm using my C3 drill to auger holes for tree planting. You can actually hear and feel the difference in the extra .8V. My C3 tools are probably 30 years old and showing no signs of quitting.
In case anyone needs a battery grease gun tractor supply is having a sale on the Makita one. $100 bucks off the kit which makes it cheaper than everyone! https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/makita-18v-lxt-grease-gun-kit-xpg01sr1
Still pretty pricey. I don't remember all the details but I think I made it out the door around $165 on my Dewalt. I had a 10% off coupon and they matched a lower price at Home Depot before they applied the coupon. Been looking at various Dewalt tools. One item I would like to have is a cordless oscillating tool. HD has the kit with a 2 AH battery and charger for $99 and they want $139 for the same exact cutter in tool only. Gotta shop around!
You might check real close to be sure it is the same tool. HD is selling a lot of the Atomic line of DeWalt tools. It is almost the same, but a little smaller than the standard 20v brushless tool. The Atomic oscillating tool only has two speeds vs the brushless one with 3 speeds. It gets kind of confusing.
Both listings were the Atomic and the description says DUAL-GRIP variable speed trigger provides superior control. Both the Atomic and the 3 speed are advertised as brushless also.
Be careful with big box stores selling tools. This mostly applies to Home Depot but they all do it. They force the manufacturers to hit a price point. They make a similar version but it is made cheaper. usually less feature, items in the box or plastic where the real one is metal. Just be careful.
Thanks for the tip. The local store had one so I will take a chance on it. I'm normally a Milwaukee guy, but never have M18 out on the job site anyway. It seems like a nice piece and can really pump out the grease.
I wouldn't be to concerned about it being an inferior product check the difference in the AH battery's cheaper price generally means 2ah battery's and the more expensive may come with 4 or 5ah.
Damned nice shoes. Every time I get around a grease gun I give my boots a nice NGLI-2 re waterproofing.
If you have Milwaukee batteries, this could help you out. I have a Milwaukee, and the battery last a long time in the grease gun. I would think Makita would be the same. https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Conv...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583451671855619&psc=1
My Milwaukee was a gift. I love it. It is a two gear tool. High pressure, low volume, or lower pressure higher volume. I can choose how many pulses. I've had air powered greasers, and a dozen hand powered greasers. I never used the air greaser because I had no way to know if the grease went where I wanted it to go. Milwaukee makes a clunking sound when grease goes where I want.
Battery adapter is a great way to expand the use of different tools. I bought one that adapts the Dewalt batteries to my 19.2 Craftsman tools.
I used to have a Alemite grease gun about 10 years ago. Cost more than the Milwaukee ,Dewalt, and Makida at the time but was far superior. Forgot it on the tracks of the excavator. Didn't have the heart to buy another one after I found it in the dirt squished. Used a manual Lincoln until a friend got me a Milwaukee battery one a few years back. Still miss the Alemite.
My pneumatic barrel top greaser in the shop is Stewart-Warner Alemite. Never have found one to match it in performance. Purchased used from a closing service station, (remember those?) in 1980 and powered it for many years from a converted propane tank air receiver on my truck. I think it's 7500psi and not much stops it. I'm going with a Milwaukee just after the first of the year as have a couple of 18V "Fuel" tools of theirs and can share the batteries among the tools.
My new grease gun. As some know, I have the Milwaukee 18 volt grease gun, and it works flawlessly, however, for several reasons, I have also recently acquired an air powered grease gun. Reasons, in no specific order: 1. changing the tubes of grease at every lube interval 2. cost of bulk grease (much less) 3. My machines are only used on my property, and air is available at all times when units greased 4. found a crazy deal on amazon So, the unit I purchased is Macnaught. It is made in Australia (yes imagine that, not China). It is a 50:1 pump that will put out 10, 000 psi. It is made for a 5 gallon pail so it is manageable. It comes with a 10 year warrantee too. Below is the unit I purchased from Amazon. Note the price...I paid $385 USD with free shipping. I was looking at used ones on facebook and craigslist, and most of the good looking units were $200, and were made for the larger120# barrel of grease. I feel like the 5 gallon size is more suitable for my use. I will let you know how it works out in the future. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T6P35FT?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
The kit comes with a 2ah battery regardless if it’s purchased from the TSC link or any other store. I couldn’t believe no one else had the price that’s why I posted here for all. Merry Christmas!