Milwaukee Tool seemed to have cornered the battery powered caulk gun for the past decade with their Nicd 14.4v tool 6562-21, which is actually still being requested. This original Milwaukee gun put out 620 lbs force and was the industry standard for a long time. Over the past 2 years Milwaukee has launched several M18 Caulk Guns as well as M12 Caulk Guns which have replaced the predecessor. Makita however is certainly not planning to leave the Red team untested in this arena and will be launching several of their own 18V Caulk Guns including the LXGC011 ($330) which are claiming the highest dispensing force at 1,100 lbs.
Is the added dispensing force needed? Probably not for most applications as the Milwaukee M18 2641-21CT ($279), which does 950 lbs, launched several years back then followed up more recently with a lower cost M12 2441-21 ($149) at only 400 lbs force because there was a larger demand for a lower cost option even with lower force. For common caulks and adhesive the 950 lbs was just unnecessary however for some specific high viscosity applications higher force is required. The higher 1,100 lbs force of the Makita also means faster dispensing at all ranges.
When we looked specifically at the Milwaukee M12 next to the new Makita 18V many of the other features were very similar including pressure release once the trigger stops, variable speed dials, spinning caulk holder and even the way the plunger is put on. The main difference between the various brands/models we could see is size of the tube holders, dispensing force and of course the battery platform. All have the holder options of 10oz, 20oz & sausage tubes and if you buy 1 style you can easily purchase the different accessory to use any other.
The new Makita 18V caulk gun is also available as a bare tool LXGC01Z ($249) if you’ve already invested in the Makita 18V LXT platform this seems like a no-brainer. Vise-versa is also true about the Milwaukee tools as typically unless you have a very specific application a caulk gun is not the tool that will get you into a battery platform but a great addition. Contact the Pros at Ohio Power Tool 800-242-4424 with any of your Milwaukee Tool or Makita Tool questions.
