Hey, guys. Today we’re going to be taking a look at the Milwaukee M18 Mud Mixer. This
is a really cool tool. The model number on this is 2810-22. So let’s
go ahead and unbox this. I really like the new Milwaukee bags. They’re
sturdy, and they typically have pockets on the front and the back.
So you got your directions. This kit comes with two batteries. So you get two M18 XC
5.0 Ah batteries with this kit. And as usual, you can press the button here, and it’ll
show you how much charge you have left. Unfortunately, we only have one dot left on these, so I’m
going to grab a different battery. You get a charger. So this will charge both
M18 and M12 batteries. Finally, here’s the mixer.
So battery simply slides into the back of the mixer until you hear the click, and you’re
good to go. So your trigger right here, you just press
this. Your control switch is right here. You press it the whole way to the left, and that’s
forward. You shift it into the middle, and that locks out the tool. And then you shift
it the whole way to the right, and that’s your reverse.
You have a nice LED light right here, and that turns on whenever you press the trigger.
The speed dial is right below the battery. The lowest speed is 100 rpms. It goes from
100 to 200, 300, 400, and then the max speed is 550 rpms.
There’s a lock on the auxiliary handle; that’s right here. It does take some force
to unlock it, but you have to unlock it the whole way. And then when you do that, you
can adjust the auxiliary handle like so. So what’s nice about this auxiliary handle
is that it will rotate 180 degrees. So whether you’re a righty or a lefty, this comes in
handy. It makes it so very comfortable to use.
Once you have the auxiliary handle on the location that you want, you just press down
the lever and lock it in place. The chuck key storage is in the auxiliary
handle. It’s on the end here, so just pull it out. And this is great because that way
you won’t lose this little tool. The maximum chuck size is ½ inch. So whether you’re
mixing something like thinset mortar, like this Ardex X77, or concrete, or even grout,
whatever mixing paddle you’re going to be using, you’re covered using M18 Mud Mixer.
You simple slide the paddle into the chuck, and you just tighten it down like you would
on a standard mud mixer. And that’s pretty much it.
By the way, Milwaukee claims that you should be able to mix up to 15 buckets per charge.
Fifteen buckets of what, I’m not entirely sure, so we’ll have to do some testing here
to figure that out. Just one additional tip for you, this kit
does come with the 5.0 Ah battery. If you want to, you can swap that out and use the
9.0 Ah battery, high demand battery that is, if you want to get more power out of this
tool. So for example, if you’re going to be mixing
a lot of thinset mortar—this is Ardex X77—you may want to use the 9.0 Ah battery that. Or
if you’re going to be mixing up some concrete, you may want to use a 9.0 Ah battery. Now
if you’re just mixing up grout or some other mud—so let’s say you’re using drywall
mud—the 5.0 Ah battery is probably fine. And you could probably get away with the 5.0
Ah battery mixing up a bag or two of thinset mortar.
Our first test with the Milwaukee Mud Mixer was with the high demand 9.0 Ah battery, and
we tested using Kerabond-T by Mapei with Keralastic. So this test was for about half a bucket of
Kerabond-T. And as you can see here, this is at the beginning of the test for when we
poured the Kerabond-T into the Keralastic. No issues whatsoever with the power or the
torque. We got great mixture. Now we’re testing Ardex X77 with water.
This is about a third of a bucket at the beginning of the test. And no problems whatsoever getting
that thinset mortar into the water and getting a good, creamy consistency which is exactly
what you need per the Ardex directions for X77. So third of a bucket, no problem.
What about a full bucket with a 9.0 Ah battery? Well, no problems again with the torque or
the power with the Milwaukee M18 Mud Mixer. You know, full bucket, it really wasn’t
an issue. And we were surprised, frankly, that it did so well. So that’s at the beginning
of our test, and then this is at the end. Again you can see the nice, creamy consistency
of the X77. That’s what you want before you start setting tile. So this was with the
9.0 Ah battery. What about the 5.0 Ah battery? How did that
perform? Again, very very well with a full bucket of thinset. A little bit less power,
but not a problem whatsoever. Good results. What are our final thoughts on the M18 Mud
Mixer by Milwaukee? Well first and foremost, it’s got plenty of power. And you can always
upgrade to the 9.0 Ah battery if you’re mixing heavier materials like concrete. If
you’re going to be using this for grout or thinset mortar or joint compound, the 5.0
Ah batteries will serve you well. The kit itself is $349; that’s what I showed
you today. You don’t necessarily have to get the kit if you’re already using Milwaukee
tools and you get a 5.0 Ah battery. You can just use that battery in the Mud Mixer and
buy the mud Mixer itself for $199. So it’s up to you which way you want to go. But this
is a great tool. It’s portable. It has an adjustable handle on it. It’ll serve you
well in whatever project that you’re working on.
Now the other thing that we wanted to tell you is we’re also helping out with different
tile setting tools over on our website. So if you’re looking for angle grinder blades
or tile cutters by Montolit, we’ve got those all over on shop.bathroomrepairtutor.com.
So if you’re using this Mud Mixer but you’re also using other tools for cutting tile and
for setting tile on shower walls, we can help you out with that over on shop.bathroomrepairtutor.com.
So thanks for watching our video. Let us know what you think about this Mud Mixer as an
option for you down in the comments, and we’ll see you in the next video.