Summary
Every cordless tool brand charges an unspoken fee: a charger that only works with its own batteries. I’ve paid that fee for years on the Ryobi side, which is why Ryobi merging its 18V and 40V charging into one unit caught my attention. Milwaukee pushed the idea further with its M18 TOP-OFF Charger & Power Supply. It’s a half-pound adapter that snaps onto any M18 battery and adds a USB-C port that works in both directions. Feed it from the brick already charging your laptop, and the pack fills. Pull the brick, and the pack starts feeding your phone instead. Milwaukee’s red bench charger can stay in the garage.
One USB-C port replaces the M18 bench charger
The bigger port charges the pack or your laptop
The 2847-20 has two USB-C ports. The 100W port is the one that runs both ways. Hook a USB-C Power Delivery (PD) charger to it and the M18 pack fills; hook a laptop to it instead and the pack drains into the laptop. The 15W port beside it is output only, meant for headlamps and earbuds. Together they deliver 115W continuously, and both can work at once, so a pack can refill while your phone charges beside it.
The housing measures 3.71 by 3.04 by 1.9 inches, and Milwaukee says it’s up to 65% smaller than the chargers it bundles in tool kits. It fits every M18 battery. That matters because Milwaukee’s earlier TOP-OFF, the 175W model with a 120V outlet, can only drain a pack. It can’t put a single watt back in. The new model drops the outlet and adds a charging circuit in its place.
Your wall brick decides how fast the battery charges
The included 65W adapter is the slow lane
Inside the box sit a 65W wall adapter and a 3-foot cable good for 100W. That adapter needs 42 minutes on a 2.0Ah pack. An XC5.0 takes closer to 105, and a 12.0Ah crawls past 230. Bigger packs take proportionally longer, and Milwaukee’s newer high-output packs complicate the math further, since its battery labels no longer track power the way they used to.
Milwaukee sells a 120W two-port wall adapter for 80 bare gets you a 120V outlet, two USB-A ports, and an LED task light along with it. It’s a bulkier box, and Ryobi rates its fast-charging USB ports at up to 30W, well below what a laptop wants. Ryobi’s USB Lithium line puts the USB-C port on the battery itself, but those are 4V packs for rotary tools and screwdrivers, not saws. DeWalt offers its own USB-C PD charging kit for 20V MAX packs.
Milwaukee’s TOP-OFF has flaws too. Milwaukee skipped the belt clip, the rafter hook, and even a lanyard hole, so expect it to wander around the bottom of your bag. And if your work calls for a 120V outlet, the older 175W TOP-OFF still has a place in the truck.
M18 18V Lithium-Ion TOP-OFF Charger
- Voltage
- 18
- Power Source
- 100 W Charger A 99 buys a charger, a power bank, and one less cord in the truck. I’d love to see Ryobi answer with a ONE+ version this small.