Milwaukee Tools M12 Cordless Ratchet Review

Does the time it takes to loosen or tighten nuts and bolts make you a little crazy? If you’ve ever seen the classic Charlie Chaplin film, Modern Times … where Charlie works on an assembly line, tightening bolts all day, and eventually wigs out, you get the gist. If Charlie had today’s technology, he might have kept his sanity.


We’ve been testing a Milwaukee Tools M12 Cordless Ratchet for the past six months. Bottom line? It’s a beauty. It cuts wrenching time like mad. Just pop the socket on the bolt and wham, it’s done. In the video review, you’ll see that we’ve used the cordless ratchet for numerous oil changes, replaced a pair of window regulators, and have tackled the Ram 2500’s transmission pan twice, as well.

The Milwaukee Tools M12 cordless ratchet works like a pneumatic ratchet, but without the air hose. It’s super simple to operate. Lefty Loosie, Righty Tighty, pull the trigger and go. A built-in LED lamp illuminates the socket, making it easy to find the bolt. You’ll use leverage loosen a tight bolt before using the trigger.

The cordless ratchet tightens to 35 foot-pounds of torque, with a variable-speed trigger that maxes out at 250 RPM. A multi-level red LED indicator bar shows the level of charge.

The M12 lithium-ion battery charges quickly. In under an hour on the charger, the battery will be filly charged and good to go.

The unit we tested is a 3/8ths ratchet. A 1/4 ratchet is offered, as well. You can get this as a kit, with a battery, battery charger and a 3/8ths to 1/4 adapter – or as a bare tool – if you already have M12 batteries and a charger.

Once you’ve got your M12 collection going, buying a bare tool can save a bunch of dough.

The M12 ratchet itself carries a five-year warranty, while the battery is warrantied for two years.

This is one cool tool. It earns an MPGomatic Thumbs Up.

Disclaimer: Milwaukee Tools provided the M12 Cordless Ratchet for review purposes.

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