Review: Makita BMR100 18V LXT Lithium-Ion Cordless FM/AM Job Site Radio

Makita Radio The BMR100 is a heavy duty job site radio that has more than a few nifty features. First off, it's solidly built. It weighs in at a little under 10 pounds, so if you accidentally bump it with your work boots it's not going to go sliding across the concrete and break. It's has the same rugged features and styling of the Makita line of tools; and the rails on the front prevent damaging the controls if you happen to knock it over. Speaking of knocking it over and general abuse, this unit is pretty well sealed against dust, and is water resistant to JIS-4, which means it can take a splash of water and still operate. So I wouldn't drop it in the pool, but if you spill a little water on it from the cooler, wipe it off and no harm no foul.

It has side firing speakers and the bass sounds pretty respectable. It will also run on regular AC or one of your Makita batteries, anywhere from 7 to 17 hours depending on the battery you plug into it. It will accept 9.6v to 24v slide and pod batteries- if you happen to have a spare battery lying around and want to know how long it will last with that model, just open up the manual link at the end of this article. You get 5 preset stations on each band, and if you put in the backup batteries it will save your stations. It also has a clock and two alarm timers, as well as a snooze and sleep function. The backlight feature is also a nice touch. Overall I'm pleased with it. I understand the BMR100W models also have an MP3 jack in the battery compartment, which would keep your iPod from harm's way, for $10 more. Like all Makita tools this one is solidly built and does the job well.