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 $79 that cuts M18 charge times by up to 30%. It pairs a 100W PD port with a 20W port, so one outlet covers the battery and a phone. You don't have to buy Milwaukee's brick, though. Any USB-C PD adapter that holds 100W continuously will charge at full speed. A small turtle icon on the TOP-OFF lights up when your adapter can't keep pace or starts throttling from heat. The 96W adapter that came with my 16-inch MacBook Pro sits just under that line, so it would work, only a bit slower.
Every M18 battery doubles as a USB-C power bank
Phones, headlamps, and laptops run off the same pack
Reverse the direction and the TOP-OFF turns a tool battery into a portable charger. By Milwaukee's math, one XC5.0 refills a phone five times over, and the 100W port has the muscle to run a laptop rather than merely trickle-charge one. Everything I carry, my iPhone 16 Pro Max included, already charges over USB-C, so one cable would handle all of it.
This is also why tool batteries belong in a power outage kit. Most people on a battery platform have a few charged packs sitting on a shelf and nothing to plug into them. Drop this adapter in the glove box beside them and the packs go from shelf clutter to a working power bank. Should the outage stretch past a day, a USB-C PD car charger or a folding solar panel will refill them, though not quickly.
Ryobi and DeWalt owners still have to settle for less
Ryobi's version is bulkier and slower on output
Ryobi's answer exists, but it's the 18V ONE+ 150W Power Source (RYi150), and you have to buy the whole box to get USB-C charging. About $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.
A $119 puck makes the red charger optional
USB-C should have reached cordless tools years ago. Phones, laptops, and headphones all standardized on it, while battery platforms kept their chargers proprietary as part of the broader push to lock you into one brand's packs. The TOP-OFF doesn't end that lock-in, since your M18 packs still only fit Milwaukee tools. It does take the charger out of the equation. If you already own M18 batteries and a decent USB-C brick, $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.