M18 FUEL 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Brushless 1 Gal. Cordless 3-in-1 Backpack Vacuum W/ HIGH OUTPUT XC 8.0 Ah Battery

As a facility manager for a 77,000 sq ft Church, we acquired one Milwaukee ($248) as a test to compare against a ProTeam GoFree Flex Pro Battery Powered Backpack ($1488). The only complaints I have received after 46 days of use (one 12.0 battery per shift) is: -- The carpet head does not like to roll freely over the commercial close knit style carpet. I speculate it is due to the rubber catch blade on the bottom of the head that is causing the hangup. (Suggestion, perhaps a braided Aramid fiber, close weave, with a nylon core for rigidity would act as an appropriate air dam/catch and be resistant enough for commercial use? If you chose this design idea, please reach out to compensate the Church) My staff reports the working solution to be an extreme angle of attack, basically, extend tube all the way out and vacuum as far ahead of you as you can reach, this takes the downward force off the back of the head allowing it to spread more evenly on its 4 small wheels. -- Suction becomes noticeably diminished when the internal particle vortex screen becomes plugged with dust bunnies or, as shown by pictures, cellulose insulation. Fortunately, the design of the unit is easy enough to clear out the blockage, you'll just get a little messy doing so. You'll know when the unit is plugged up when the pitch of the exhaust changes to a higher tone. My staff agrees that the 12.0 battery pack is perfect to handle one shift on the high setting- they all are amazed at how quiet the unit is, as am I, the ease in which to dump its contents and the fit and finish of the components. Overall, we are very pleased with this unit. I would recommend this for use on hard dry surfaces, close office style knit carpet, and use for spot cleaning. I plan to purchase 2 more for use in our facility.

Is vacuum is great for hard floor cleaning, But not great for big debris. Anything bigger than a drywall screw. I find myself clean the filter more often than empty. The dust canister. Have not had this for very long and I run it on the big batteries. I wish there was a way I Could return the item As I have not had it any more than 2 months.

I thought I'd like this, but it turned out that its heavy duty construction kind of makes it too heavy. When wearing it as a backpack, it felt too cantilevered out, making me a bit unsteady on my feet. The backpack harness does remove so you can carry it by its handle and it has a nice sturdy ladder hook so you can hang it from a ladder rung or the side of scaffolding. I got 23 minutes of quiet run time with a 9 A/hr battery. Not having to drag a cord or a wheeled vac around is really nice. This is NOT a wet/dry vacuum. It works well on most debris. Waste bin is super easy to dump. The tools are again, heavy duty. For example, when is the last time you saw a metal vacuum wand? Even the hose has a stress relief joint where it plugs into the vacuum. As a nice extra, it includes an adapter so you can connect dust collection ports from your tools. Since it's a HEPA vacuum, this will help with requirements to use a dust extractor. The bummer is that it's heavier than my 16 gallon wet/dry vac.

Very sturdy but relatively lightweight vacuum. So far I have been using this vacuum as a light duty shop vac. While the hose size cannot handle larger wood fragments and big leaves, its portability makes it a go-to tool over a standard tub-shape shop vac that has to be wheeled around. The suction is great and of course battery life/power from an M18 pack is exceptional. The greatest benefit has been with cleaning our minivan and truck while using the vacuum in backpack mode. You don't tip over carrying it on your back even with bending and you don't get a cord caught around the tires of the car as you go from door to door. Unlike many shop vacs, all accessories are stored on the vacuum, either in the belt or on the canister sides that you can actually reach while it is on your back. If desired the backpack straps can be quickly removed to hang the canister by an underlying, unfolding handle. It can also be carried around by a built handle on top. The extension handle is for once very easy to telescope in and out. The battery compartment is recessed so that if the vacuum falls the battery should be protected.

Milwaukee continues to Impress Me. This 3-in-1 Cordless Backpack Vacuum is a Powerhouse. Low and High Speed Modes deliver all the Power of a canister shop vacuum. The Removable Backpack is a Great Feature. It comes with a Flexible Hose, Expandable Wand, Crevice Tool and Floor Tool. Very East to change Dust Container. It picks up Drywall Dust and that sold me on this Vac. Noise 1level is a lot lower can my canister vacuum. Very High End Vacuum.

First let me say that this is NOT A WET/DRY VAC. I want to emphasize that because that was a question I had since I first found out about this, but never saw anyone mention it. I contacted Milwaukee directly, and they responded to my e-mail very quickly .Great service. Quick Review: Great Vac This is a DRY VAC ONLY, Very quiet and powerful. Great runtime with the 9 and 12.0 ah batteries I love the design(You try to battle my boys, that's not legal OWWWWW) Cons: The placement of the power switch makes it a hassle to power on and off especially if you are hanging it from a ladder. When attached to other tools the vac pulls its (due to suction) while you are pushing the tool. You may have to buy the 9ft hose to fix that More In Depth Review This BackPackVac is surprisingly quiet. , all of the noise that you will hear is basically from the attachment nozzles. If you take them off(the crevice tool and wand) It is virtually quiet. I think the pivot point for the hose is a great idea, adds lots of mobility to the tool. I barely had to put this on high. Having it on Low I will able to pick up everything that I need to, dust bunnies, dirt, saw dust. I put it on high on carpeted areas to get the stuff that the carpet was attached to and it worked. On Low I measured about 67db and high was around 74db for me This lost a star from me due to placement of the power switch. This is advertised as a 3 in 1, so you can wear it, carry it and hang it. To me it is a burden to operate it while it is hanging. I found that since the power switch is located on the bottom of the vac, trying to turn it on and off while hanging it from a ladder can be rather cumbersome. I had to keep going up and down the ladder to hit the switch. One suggestion for an updated model would be to have to two places to turn the vac on from, one of which could on top of the Vac. Looking at the new heated gear from Milwaukee, they can take a page from their book and have the emblem on the strap turn it off and on by pressing it. Making it a lot easy to switch modes and not have to worry about your shoulder. I used this with several tools and it did not perform that well. I attached it to my cordless router, myM18 circular saw and m18 Jigsaw and I still had lots of dust flying around. I think it was mainly due to the placement of the vacuum ports on these products, it is on the back of the tools. I feel they would have more effective on the front, at the point of the cut capturing the dust soon as it forms. The hose has a nice rubbery connector that fits snugly around the ports which is good. While attached to these tools, the hose contracts when in use, at times making it hard to maneuver the tool, the vac is pulling it while you are pushing it. I see why they have an optional 9ft hose, I will try it with that and that should make it more manageable. Some other suggestions I have are: Again taking after the M12 products , have an onboard fuel gauge making it easier to see how much juice you have left in your battery. There is a packout dolly, I think it would be good to have an attachment so you can hook this up to a dolly and roll the Vac around like a tradition shopvac so you do not have to carry it. Also add a light somewhere. It's 2018 it seems like everything has an LED light so when you get something without it , you really notice the missing feature. Having a led would be great, especially when I am on my sites for New Construction and cleaning up after all the sheathing is on and there is no natural light coming in . This way I can touch up without breaking out an additional light source.

A real mans vacuum! I would give it 10 stars if they would let me. Quality is off the charts as expected from Milwaukee. Great design, quiet and powerful. I compared it to a Dyson cordless one I have and the Milwaukee was more powerful. I like to play with my toys before reading directions so when I first used it I thought it was to quiet to do any good but it actually performed really well. Then, when I reached to turn it off, to my surprise, there was a second power level! So it went to really well to totally awesome! Two power levels, battery lasted about 30-35 minutes (some on low and some on high power) Feels very comfortable on the back and more convenient a lot more portable then the roll around vacuums. My wife was jealous of it and now she wants one. For future models I would like to see a wet/vac capable version and a hybrid that can be plugged in conventionally with a cord if needed. But overall I am extremely happy with this and recommend it.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser

Great Milwaukee tool. Very Unique and useful.