18 V Ryobi Tools

[gudmund]

a few years back when looking for a replacement battery drill motor system to replace my old dependable Makita 9.2 V system that had served me so well for years, but had just gotten so hard and costly to find batteries for, I stated checking out the Lithium 18 V systems. After looking and looking, the lower price and 3 year warranty of the Ryobi system caught my eye (along with their 'Lime' green color) and what sold me on it was all of the different tools (over 50) available along with it being the only one I had ever seen with a in-car vehicle charger. They have a lantern - radio - hand vacuum - flashlight - fan - impact wrench and so now, even a hand held air compressor for airing up tires now, and all of this I can take with me along with any of their other tools when on the road/camping that I can re-charge batteries whenever need be. I also have a fan that sits that can be set on top of a 5 gallon bucket of water and when turned on will blow water mist in hot weather. Found it all at Home Depoe, the misting fan is under the 'Arctic Cove' brand name that uses a Ryobi battery and when I looked closer it was also Ryobi fan being used, just in another color with the same company address on both of their packaging. Already had one of their regular fans so I am in the process now of planning/plotting out the mounting of it in my overhead Fantastic Fan vent in the teardrop, it looks to be a good fit, just have to come up with a mount along with the mounting of the battery holder inside my kitchen cabinet. The fan will run 10+ hours on a charge. Earlier today I e-mailed Ryobi with a suggestion for 2 more items needed by us teardrop campers for their battery system - a CD player and a food blender for the margarita's !!! Another neat thing about their system is that if you had ever bought any of their old 'Blue in color' Ni-Cad battery system tools years ago and still own them, these new Lithium batteries were made to fit the old tools also. Will chime back in with any info if I have any luck getting them to build the CD player or Food Blender.

[MtnDon]

IMO, the Ryobi tools are a good value for the money. There are some better made tools but I feel the Ryobi are great value. I have some of the older blue and some newer green. They have done a lot of work for me. Some of the Ryobi tools, like the small circular saw, kind of "cheap out" on things like the shoe saw. It can be bent easily if handled roughly for example.

[gudmund]

Yes, Ryobi is the price line range of tools made by the same company that makes Rigid Tools (they are too Rigid as what Black & Decker is to Dewalt, same company but a different level of price and quality) - Ryobi has the 3 year warranty and Rigid has their Lifetime warranty. It was the fact Ryobi has the "in-car charger" is why I went with them being I still have not seen anyone else that offers this item. Not Rigid - Dewalt - B&D - Makita - Borsch - Hitachi ,etc. - haven't seen anyone else offer it yet. Have about 17 of their tools so far, and they are all doing just fine. The impact wrench works great when rotating tires. Forgot how nice they were being I hadn't used one since I closed my dad's shop in 78 after he passed.

[lrrowe]

I did not know that Roybi and Ridgid were connected. I have the 18v Rigid drill and impact tool and am very much satisfied with them, especially the lifetime guarantee on the batteries. I had both Dewalt and Sears 14.4 v tools beofre and could not afford the batteries anymore. I am looking at the new Rigid blower and fan to use with my 18v batteries.

[gudmund]

the one very obvious connection between Ryobi and Rigid can be seen next time you are at Home Depoe - check out Ryobi's 'Jobplus' hand tool, it come with one exchangeable tool head, if you want other tool heads for it, you buy the Rigid brand tool head that fit onto the Ryobi tool you just bought. Rigid calls their tool 'Jobmax'. Both company's addresses are ONE WORLD TECHNOLOGIES located in South Carolina with everything being made in - like everything else we buy - China. I never made the connection between them either until one our 'incarcerated' clients at work pointed it out to me.

[gudmund]

now whether the two company's batteries are interchangeable?? you will have to check that out - I don't think they are???

[lrrowe]

Thanks gudmund, I will check these out the next time I am in HD. This is good info to share.

[booyah]

I LOVE my ryobi stuff.
I'd never gotten around to buying cordless, as I was waiting on the battery technology to catch up. Now I'm thrilled with the stuff I have. I especially like that they have the yard tools to go with the cordless tools on the same batteries. I actually use my string trimmer now, since I dont have to deal with 2cycle gas, or a cord.

I also love how handy the stuff is. The flash light with the rotating head is a heavy use item (replace the bulb with the 1w LED from amazon or superbrightleds.com) and its dang handy. The lantern goes ice fishing to light up the inside of the shanty, the 20w work light comes with me hunting to help light up the area when field dressing!

they built my camper even!

I have
1/2" standard drill
5.5" circular saw
flashlight (replace bulb with LED)
sawzall
impact driver
impact wrench
hammer drill (new one with 600 in/lbs)
20w led work light (MY FAVORITE)
big inflator
lantern

weed wacker
small shop blower/"hard surface sweeper"

and a not so small pile of batteries

I honestly havent used anything corded that wasnt a saw in a while since I owened these.

I keep buying more, as I find em so dang handy.
New chainsaw is on my list for the camper. cutting firewood when I can charge batteries from solar seems to fit the tear drop mentality to me.


also getting (at least)
job max multi tool
rotary cutter (dremel on steroids)
18ga nailer

[lrrowe]

I LOVE my ryobi stuff.

I keep buying more, as I find em so dang handy.
New chainsaw is on my list for the camper. cutting firewood when I can charge batteries from solar seems to fit the tear drop mentality to me.

18ga nailer

And I too am liking to add a battery powered chain saw for carrying with the trailer and a 18 ga battery nailer.

[MtnDon]

Be aware that the chain saw requires draining the bar oil between uses. If stored with oil in the tank it leaks out until the bar oil tank is empty. The chain saw is one of the less impressive tools in the Ryobi line. The chain moves slowly, and cuts even slower. Mind you my comparison is a gas Husky.

[lrrowe]

Understood.

[aggie79]

The Ryobi portable fan is great for camping! We take it with us regardless of the temperature along with the flashlight (bulb replaced with LED) and workshop light (the one that looks like a camping light).

[booyah]

Be aware that the chain saw requires draining the bar oil between uses. If stored with oil in the tank it leaks out until the bar oil tank is empty. The chain saw is one of the less impressive tools in the Ryobi line. The chain moves slowly, and cuts even slower. Mind you my comparison is a gas Husky.

They actually just released a new chainsaw, they claim 2x faster (no idea if its true) but the bar oil thing goes for every chainsaw I've ever owned (a few cheap gas ones) so yeah, totally agree :-)


I think the new chainsaw is p547