10 Practical Camping Gadgets You Might Not Realize Makita Makes

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If Makita is known for anything, it’s the wide range of cordless power tools it offers and the exclusive technologies found on said Makita tools. However, there is more to the brand than its drills, saws, hammers, and other jobsite essentials. Makita also makes a selection of outdoor tools and gadgets under its Outdoor Adventure line for those who spend more time appreciating the woods and less time cutting them up for construction projects.

Once you’ve sorted out camping essentials like a GPS unit, you can start looking to Makita’s Outdoor Adventure line to kit yourself out with the rest, whether it’s basics like flashlights and radios or nice-to-haves such as coffee machines and heated blankets. Regardless of the product, however, they all share a few common traits. The most apparent is the handsome military-inspired drab green colorway that lives up to the outdoor branding — and which, for our money, looks great. Secondly, none of these tools come with the LXT batteries they require; newbies to the world of Makita tools will have to set aside extra cash for a battery or two.

Nights spent outdoors can get cold, doubly so if you happen to like camping during the colder months of the year. There are plenty of ways to stay warm when the temperature drops, including sleeping with a hot water bottle, but Makita has an alternative solution that some of you may prefer in the form of a heated blanket.

The Makita Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Heated Blanket is a 27½-by-55-inch heated blanket with three heat settings. These are labeled High, Medium, and Low, but the company doesn’t specify the temperatures to which each of these settings corresponds. Makita claims users should be able to get up to 35 hours on the Low setting with one of its BL1860B 6.0Ah batteries, dropping to 7.5 hours on the High setting. The blanket has LED indicators so you can tell at a glance what heat level it’s set to.

Makita’s heated blanket is machine-washable and made out of polyester. It also features snap buttons and a strap, letting you wear it around your shoulders or waist if the need arises. There’s also a zipper pocket for the battery, keeping it away from the weather and spills. This Makita Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Heated Blanket is available for $175.

Keeping cool in the outdoors can be just as essential as staying warm. Fans are a practical way to do so, and Makita duly obliges by offering a couple of 18V LXT fans in its Outdoor Adventure range. One is the Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Cordless/Corded 9-inch Fan. Aside from the obvious specs highlighted in the product name, this 9-inch fan boasts two fan speeds (High and Low) with a maximum airflow of 290 cfm and a three-stage timer that can be set to one, two, or four hours. Makita claims that this fan will run for up to five-and-a-half hours at Low speed on a 5.0Ah battery.

If you want a slightly more feature-rich fan, the $165 Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Cordless/Corded 9-¼-inch Fan may be the one for you. It has the same maximum airflow of 290 cfm and a three-stage timer, but also has three speed settings (High, Medium, and Low) and oscillates 45 degrees left and right. You get manual vertical tilt (90 degrees up and 45 degrees down) and a much longer maximum runtime of 16 hours on the same 5.0Ah battery, too. Both Makita fans use brushed motors and come with an AC adapter for corded operation.

Multifunction gadgets are always handy, doubly so when you’re camping and need to be as efficient as possible with what you pack. Makita’s Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Bluetooth Radio and LED Lantern is one such product. The name is pretty self-explanatory. This roughly $200 gadget combines an LED lantern and Bluetooth radio in one, letting you light up your tent while listening to music or staying abreast of news or weather updates via FM radio.

The lantern offers four modes: a 360-degree light, three-sided lighting, flashlight, and strobe. The LEDs have two brightness settings — 100 and 310 lumens — and offer daylight white, neutral white, and warm white color temperatures, although Makita sadly does not specify the Kelvin values for the three temperatures. The body comes with a metal hook with a rubberized grip, and has a lantern guard that also functions as an antenna for the FM radio. You get a single USB port for charging smaller electronics.

When equipped with a 5.0Ah battery, the lantern portion alone has a maximum runtime of 16 hours in its 360-degree mode. Radio-only use extends the battery life to an impressive 44 hours, while using both predictably results in the shortest runtime at 12 hours.

Hot water, even when camping, is something of a solved problem: You can, after all, just stick a kettle on the fire and enjoy a hot brew in no time. But there are more convenient ways to get your hot water fix outdoors, such as with Makita’s Outdoor Adventure 36V (18V X2) LXT Hot Water Kettle.

Makita’s $250 kettle can bring up to 27 ounces of 50-degree Fahrenheit water to the boil in nine minutes when powered by two 5.0Ah batteries. That’s admittedly quite a financial commitment, but Makita’s 18V batteries aren’t too heavy, at least, so you won’t be weighing yourself down too much with this kettle and the requisite batteries. This water will stay hot for longer, too, thanks to its dual-layer construction. This is handy if you’re having a slow morning and want to make multiple mugs of tea or coffee, and also means that reboiling water will be a quick affair.

It has a buzzer and two-color LED power switch that serve as status indicators, but will also turn itself off automatically when the water is boiled. Other handy features include boil-dry protection, which turns the kettle off if there isn’t enough water, plus a sensor in the base unit that ensures it starts boiling only when placed on a stable surface.

Makita makes several tools that will come in handy during summer vacation, including inflators, handheld vacuums, and the heated blanket we’ve also discussed here. One other great summer gadget that doubles as a perfect addition to your camping loadout is the Outdoor Adventure 18V X2 LXT, 12V/24V DC Auto, and AC Cooler/Warmer.

This 20-liter (21-quart)box can keep contents cool or warm, depending on your needs. It uses a compressor to lower interior temperatures, with four cooling modes of 15, 30, 40, and 50 degrees Fahrenheit — and two warming modes that keep the contents at 130 or 140 degrees Fahrenheit. One major perk of this cooler and warmer is that it supports multiple power sources, allowing it to fit into any setup.

It runs on Makita’s 18V LXT batteries, of course, with users able to install two batteries to extend its runtime. But it also supports 12V and 24V DC power from vehicles, as well as conventional AC power from the wall or a generator. It comes with an AC adapter and a 12/24V DC cord, so you’re good to go if that’s how you intend to power it. As with some other Outdoor Adventure tools, this cooler has a USB port to charge other devices. Makita’s Outdoor Adventure Cooler/Warmer is available on Amazon for around $700.

You can never have enough light sources, especially if you’re camping overnight. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of flashlights out there, including from Makita. While the brand isn’t necessarily one of the most popular flashlight brands on the market, products like the Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT LED Flashlight make a solid case for considering Makita the next time you need a camping flashlight.

It has four LEDs with a 160-lumen output housed in a pivoting head that you can set to one of 12 positions ranging from 60 to 110 degrees. It has a chunky rubber grip for holding, and a hook so you can hang it when necessary. Makita claims that its 10-¾-inch length makes it easy to pack, while the roughly 2-pound weight (with battery) also means that it won’t be too much of a strain to bring along.

Given the LXT designation, this flashlight will work with any of Makita’s 18V batteries. Battery life ranges significantly depending on battery capacity. You can expect a minimum of 17 hours with a 3.0Ah battery, and up to 54 hours with the big-boy 6.0Ah unit. Expect to pay around $50 at Amazon for one.

Keeping a tent or campsite clean can be a challenge, what with all the dirt, leaves, and other debris that’s inevitable when you’re out in nature. You can’t expect to keep things spotless, of course, but a gadget like the Makita Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Blower can be a great help in your attempts to maintain some semblance of cleanliness.

At 20-⅜ inches long and 4.1 pounds (with battery), this is a reasonably compact blower and has a removable nozzle to boot. That not only makes it easy to pack just in case, it also means it’s great for use in more constrained environments, such as blowing out dirt from inside a tent. The variable-speed motor generates 113 cfm and 219 mph of airflow at its maximum, which should be more than enough for most campsite cleaning duties.

Makita claims that its Outdoor Adventure blower has a 21-minute runtime at its lowest speed with a 5.0 Ah battery. That doesn’t strike us as particularly outstanding, especially when Ryobi claims that its 220-cfm handheld blower lasts up to 50 minutes on a single charge. That said, this isn’t a product to be used around the house, and 21 minutes (or less) should be enough for the quick bursts that you’re more likely to do when camping.

A Bluetooth-capable FM radio can be a great boon when you’re out in nature. Not only does Bluetooth let you connect your phone to your favorite music, but having access to FM radio can be important for keeping abreast of the weather. Makita, as you might have expected, offers exactly such a gadget in the form of the Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Cordless/Corded Bluetooth Radio.

This radio has two 3.5-inch speakers for stereo sound, the aforementioned Bluetooth connectivity, and can run on an 18V LXT battery — Makita claims up to 28 hours with a 5.0Ah unit — or draw AC power from a generator. It also, handily, uses AA batteries for the clock, so you’ll still get that functionality even if your 18V battery happens to run out of juice. It has a backlit LCD, alongside light-up buttons and a control dial for easier operation in the dark.

Makita claims that it’s water and dust-resistant, but neglects to mention a specific IPX rating. It also has an aux input, a USB port for charging other devices, chunky bumpers for protection, and a sturdy handle. The Makita Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Cordless/Corded Bluetooth Radio is available from Amazon for $219.

Are you the type of person who needs a cup (or cups) of coffee first thing in the morning, come rain or shine? In that case, Makita has the camping gadget for you. Say hello to the Makita Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Coffee Maker, a $165 offering that may end up becoming an essential part of your camping loadout.

This is, as the name suggests, as single-minded a gadget as they come. It makes coffee, and nothing else — but some of you probably wouldn’t have it any other way. It has an 8.12-ounce container and can brew up to three 5-ounce cups on a single charge of a 5.0 Ah Makita battery. The coffee maker itself is pretty compact at just 8-⁹⁄₁₆ inches tall; while that limits the size of cup you can use with it to 3-½ inches, that should be plenty fine given that most campers aren’t likely going to be lugging huge mugs with them anyway.

Makita’s outdoor-oriented coffee maker is also convenient to use, as it has a drip filter built-in — no paper filters needed. That’s one less thing to pack (and potentially forget), which is a boon in our book. Pair this with Makita’s hot water kettle, and you have a perfect morning setup for your camping group that covers coffee and tea.

Dual-purpose gadgets like the Makita Outdoor Adventure 18V LXT Brushless Cordless High Speed Blower/Inflator may never equal the performance of their single-function cousins, but they can be great ways to cover multiple situations with one tool. That’s always helpful, but is doubly more important if you’re camping and trying to minimize the amount of stuff you have to haul.

Makita’s combination blower and inflator will set you back around $220, which isn’t necessarily cheap, but it seems to have the specs to back up that price. The brushless motor has four digitally controlled speeds, with a max air volume of 39 cfm and an air speed of 447 mph. This patently isn’t a blower for clearing out a tent or room, then, but it should be adequate for smaller jobs, like blowing dirt away from your equipment.

It has an LED light for better visibility in the dark and a filtered air intake so you’re not blowing dust around. Makita ships the tool with five nozzles, including wide-angle and pinch-valve nozzles, and claims a maximum runtime of 55 minutes with its 6.0Ah battery.