Well, finally my Milwaukee guy called me earlier tonight from his house. Between dealing with his daughter in the background and talking with me for at least a half an hour, he's probably drained like a battery [big grin]. First we discussed the heated jacket everyone keeps talking about. He and Milwaukee are in Wisconsin and he wears the jacket over a thermal type t-shirt and it keeps him plenty warm on the high setting. He was telling me how the temps are around 10 F and the windchill makes it feel even lower. When he wears it in a store, he turns it down to the low or medium setting. He said it lasts him around 4 hours on the high setting. There's no battery level indication on the jacket because that would have meant a higher cost, more bulk to the jacket and it would have prevented it from being washable. Supposedly the Milwaukee logo changes color as the heat setting is changed so you know what level it's at. It only comes in standard mens sizes, so women have to figure out there size off the mens, sorry. It has elastic drawstrings to keep it snug to your body, but you don't want it too tight fitting.
As for the Red Lithium batteries, they are a little more powerful and last a little bit longer than the regular M line due to chemistry differences and a lower impedance of each cell. He explained that the lower the cell's impedance, the greater the power and the longer it gives that power. All of their batteries are made by Samsung as some previous information stated, however, Samsung sent engineers to Milwaukee to design the battery packs to their specifications. They are the only power tool company to manufacture their own batteries from the cells to the case as Samsung actually has battery manufacturing within the Milwaukee manufacturing facility. That gives them total control over the design and quality of the product. They are the only power tool company that builds their own batteries from scratch because of this.
Oh and JMB, the day you had a problem getting on Milwaukee's website and I left him a message about that, he checked it out and found no problems. He feels it might have been an issue with your service provider.
