Can Makita Radios Charge Tool Batteries?

It's always nice to have a radio on deck to liven up an otherwise dull job site with some classic tunes. However, while it's not explicitly required for a radio to do anything besides play music loud enough for everyone to hear, it's also nice when your gadgets are multifunctional. This goes double for situations where you might not have immediate access to other tools and devices, like at a remote job site or campsite.

For example, what if, in addition to playing your favorite tunes, your radio could also charge up the battery packs used by your tools and devices? A portable, heavy-duty charger is great to have at work, during leisure, and especially in an emergency. As it happens, the Makita hardware brand, makers of fine handheld tools and accessories, manufactures a surprisingly wide array of rough and ready radios, many of which have a few extra bells and whistles like built-in lighting and Bluetooth connectivity. But what about the aforementioned example? Could you use a Makita radio to charge up your tool batteries while you're not using them? The answer to that is yes, but only with a single, specific device.

Makita currently manufactures around 15 different models of reinforced job site radios. All of these devices play music, either from the built-in tuner or a connected audio device, and are powered by battery packs from Makita's LXT, CXT, or XGT battery families. However, on the vast majority of these devices, that charge is strictly one-way; most Makita radios can only receive power from their respective battery pack, and can't charge the pack in return.

There is a single exception to this: the Makita XRM10 Job Site Charger/Radio. As the name implies, the XRM10 model is designed to be a hybrid between Makita's portable reinforced radios and its portable charging devices. The radio can receive power from either a 12V max CXT or 18V LXT lithium-ion battery pack, which allows the radio to operate for up to 18 hours. However, if you plug the radio into a standard outlet via its included AC adapter, you can instead charge the same kinds of battery packs on the receiver. Used in this manner, the radio can fully charge an LXT battery pack in about 80 minutes.

The XRM10 is the only Makita radio model with this charging functionality. Aside from the lantern models, most other Makita radio models do come with AC adapters, but plugging them in only powers the device itself rather than rerouting power to an attached battery pack. If you want to charge your battery packs and listen to music at the same time, you either get the XRM10 or buy both a separate charger and radio and put them next to each other.