Milwaukee M12 Heated Jacket - Review

Milwaukee M12 Heated Jacket

Two of the writers at ToolSkool tested the Milwaukee Heated Jacket.  Here's the He Said / She Said review:Brad StaggsNever have I thought of clothing as a tool – until now. Milwaukee’s engineers have been working overtime, apparently. And what they’ve come up with is something that could take off in a myriad of directions.

I hate to use the term, but Milwaukee’s heated jacket is pretty cool! It’s a heavy-duty, yet lightweight jacket that has a built-in heating coil on the chest and around to the back on the shoulder blades. The coil is powered by a 12v lithium ion battery pack that zips into a pouch on the rear left quarter. The switch to activate the heating coil is a small emblem over the Milwaukee logo on the left front. By holding the soft switch down, the jacket will cycle through pre-heat, hot, medium and low modes.

From a testing standpoint, let’s start with the fit. I generally wear an XL, being 6’3”ish and about 230 (ok, maybe 250, but it’s the holidays), but their XXL fits like a glove. It’s a comfortable fabric outside and the lining is soft and doesn’t itch (just in case you’re wearing short sleeves underneath). I hate itchy clothes, so that’s a biggie with me.

It has a cinching cable at the bottom to snug the jacket up and help prevent drafts from sneaking inside – nice touch. I wish they had done the same thing with the sleeves, as they are a bit loose at the wrists – even a Velcro strap would have been good to keep cold air off your forearms. Minor point, but worth noting.

I skipped right past pre-heat, medium and low and went straight for HOT. Given that one of the days I tested was about 25 degrees, I wasn’t about to fool around. The jacket warmed up nicely (once I actually read the directions and figured out how to turn it on), and was really truly toasty when it reached full-power.

Milwaukee says a fully-charged battery will last up to 6 hours. That’s most likely on the lower settings. I kept it on high and it stayed there for more than 4, which is quite acceptable.

During my testing, I found that the jacket kept me the warmest when it was in direct contact with my body (my shirt actually). In walking outside and moving around, if it lost contact, I wasn’t as warm. I was wearing a long-sleeve “t”, so a sweatshirt or sweater would likely have made better contact with the heating coil. Since there was an air gap between the jacket and shirt, I became insulated against the heat. I know, who wears a t-shirt in 25 degrees?

Overall, I give this jacket an A. Brilliant idea…Hot, even! If you work in an unheated shop or outside during the cold winter months, this would be a welcome addition to your wardrobe.

My only recommendations to Milwaukee would be to include a “QuickStart” guide for those of us who are “Instruction-Challenged”. As I mentioned, I fumbled around a bit trying to figure out how to turn the heater on at the start. The next logical step for these jackets is team branding – NFL, NHL, MLB – you name it. Those would sell like hotcakes (on a cold day!)

Pricing is $169 with battery included or $119 for the jacket alone. Compared to other quality winter coats, I think it’s right in line.You can find it on Amazon.com for $169.

Pam Melton

My favorite football team is having a rough patch, Peyton Manning and the Colts were recently in town and the game-time temp was 33 degrees for Thursday Night Football on the NFL Network.  Going into this game I was pretty sure of two things, it wasn’t gonna get any warmer as the night went on and the Titans were probably going to make me wonder why I was sitting out there freezing my butt off on a Thursday night.Enter Milwaukee Tool’s 12 Volt Cordless Heated Jacket.  Frankly, if I hadn’t known I was going to be checking this jacket out, I probably would have watched the game on the tube, drinking beer that doesn’t cost 7 bucks a pop.  Anywho, this is a good looking jacket and an absolutely fabulous idea.When I saw it, the first thing that rushed to mind was cold-game-gear Baby! I’m a bit of a skeptic, so I had already planned to layer.  If I have to watch my team stinkin’ up the field, I’m not taking any chances on being any colder than necessary.  That being said, I dressed exactly the same as the Redskins game the previous week, which wasn’t as cold as this one and I froze my patukus off.

Part of my layering included a turtle neck.  One of the first things that I liked about the jacket itself is the way the top tabs over and encloses the zipper, which really snugs up around the neck and helps hold in the heat generated by the jacket (as I discovered as the night went on). The battery is about the size of the core of a toilet paper roll, maybe a little smaller in diameter and length, and weighs a little less than a pound (think-a box of butter).  It fits into a little pocket that’s just a little behind the left hip, so you don’t really feel the added bulk when seated.  Speaking of pockets, there are two at the waist and one on the chest, which was surprisingly deep enough to hold my ticket, phone and smokes (the ability to avoid a purse is critical in gameday outerwear).

Now, let’s get down to the business end – it works!  Man, I was very toasty.  As a matter of fact, I kept it on the low and medium settings most of the night, only putting it on high to see how warm it actually got.  On high, it actually made me sweat a little (or I was havin’ a flash – hard to tell).  Now, my only question is that if I were wearing thinner clothing, would the heat panels have been uncomfortable?  I’m guessing not, simply because of the quality of the jacket lining.  Anytime I opened the jacket, I could definitely feel the heat escaping, hence the discovery of how well the collar held the heat in.  The one criticism I have is that the claim is that it works for up to 6 hours.  The battery tanked on me before the game was over, so I got about 3 hours out of it. Maybe periodically changing the setting affected the cycle time of the battery, I dunno.  It was long enough for my purposes, so I wasn’t too upset about it.

I can’t speak to how guys in the construction field would feel about this jacket, but from a tailgating point of view, this thing rocks. The only thing that would make it better is if I could get it with a Titans logo on it.  I’ve found retails from $229 to $169 for the kit, which includes the jacket, battery and charger.  Since the battery is the same one used on their 12 volt, M12 line of tools, if you already have one of the tools, you don’t need the kit, just the jacket.  Given what hubby paid for my leather Titans jacket a few Christmases ago, this price point doesn’t seem outlandish to me, especially if you or your target wearer does a lot of other stuff outside when it’s cold.

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