Ryobi Power Tools

[[70521]]

As I am now permanently moored in the great divide between Cornwall and England, the river Tamar, I'm thinking of moving to Ryobi power tools and would like the panels thoughts on battery size. There is a starter pack with a drill and a couple of 1.5 Ah batteries or do most people go for bare tools, no sniggering at the back, and larger batteries.

They have an interesting range of tools, from polishers to inflators, handy for dinghies in my dotage, which caught my eye.

 

[KompetentKrew]

I'm on Makita not Ryobi, but I'd think that 1.5 Ah batteries would be the smallest available size - probably fine for drilling a few holes in wood, but probably not enough to run an angle grinder for very long? Both my batteries are 18V 5Ah.

I believe drills are the industry loss-leaders, often discounted because they're usually the first tool that people buy and then you're locked into the battery system.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I have quite a lot of Ryobi battery tools several 18 Vdc battery drills angle grinders circular saws jig saws and orbit sanders, heat gun and tire inflator


I have a range of batteries from 1.2 Ah up to several Ah/

I tend to buy tools only and batteries of the largest Ah available as the last longer before recharging

Saws and angl grinders need the biggest battery to last any time

I tend to buy mine from my local Builders supply like B&Q when they have specials

 

[Sea Change]

Depends what you're doing.
For a drill doing light work, 1.5Ah is great because it keeps the weight down.
For an angle grinder or circular saw, it would be annoyingly small.

I've used Ryobi, our old work had them, and I can't say I was that impressed. I'm a Makita man myself, yes they cost a little more but every tool I've had has been brilliant.

One little thing I really appreciate is that my brushless LXT drill can be used at a very very slow speed, excellent for metal or anything that requires precision. Some other brands I've used had a very fast minimum speed which is great for snapping drill bits, and utterly useless for driving screws.

Makita do a useful little random orbital sander, which was what swung it for me.

One more thing- I inherited a Ryobi cordless compressor with the boat, and it came with an off brand battery. The thing nearly went on fire when the metal spring that clips it in place shorted out some of the cells. Turns out there's only a thin strip of foam rubber tape between the stainless spring and the cells.

I now use only genuine batteries.

 

[Poignard]

As I am now permanently moored in the great divide between Cornwall and England, the river Tamar, I'm thinking of moving to Ryobi power tools and would like the panels thoughts on battery size. There is a starter pack with a drill and a couple of 1.5 Ah batteries or do most people go for bare tools, no sniggering at the back, and larger batteries.

They have an interesting range of tools, from polishers to inflators, handy for dinghies in my dotage, which caught my eye.

Unfortunately, I'm permanently banned from posting in (or even seeing) the For Sale & Wanted forums but I have some Ryobi tools, a charger and a battery I would have eventually advertised there. I think they qualify as 'boaty' because they were bought for use on the boat I no longer own. I have no use for them at home.

PM me if you're interested and I'll send details.

 

[ash2020]

I found Ryobi a bit clunky. A bit too "budget". Makita are lovely but a bit pricey. Could I make a suggestion that you look at Worx tools. I have about 8 different ones, with 5 batteries, including a 4Ah, which is phenomenal. I have always been hugely impressed, especially with the brushless motor ones.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Battery price comparison site, based on Ah: PTB.guru

It doesn't list Ryobi but, based on other brands, it looks like a 1.5Ah battery might be expected to retail at around £25 - £30, whereas 5Ah is more like £50 or £60. I.e. 5Ah is 3.3x the capacity for 2x the price.

 

[Sea Change]

I like having a mixture of sizes. It's really nice to have a light little 1.5Ah on the drill for things like going up the mast or working overhead. And then a big 4Ah+ for the grinder.

One thing where Ryobi beats Makita is that they do a 12v charger for about £30. The Makita one is more like £80.

 

[ShaneO]

I bought into the Ryobi 18V world within the past few years for similar reasons and haven’t had any problems yet; my use is fairly light so I couldn’t justify paying more for all-day-every-day construction site stuff, and I like having a wide range of gizmos running off one set of batteries. Some were bought as bare tools, some as bundles with batteries, almost all when they’re reduced from normal price on the Ryobi website. I have two 1.5Ah and two 4Ah batteries which works well. The box-shaped wet-&-dry vacuum cleaner is a fantastic bit of kit to have on a boat.

 

[Ian_Edwards]

I started buy Ryobi tools some time ago, and have quite a selection now. I try and buy them when they are at sale price. I've only had one failure, a random ordit sander, and that was only a bearing, which was quick and easy to replace. I bought the bearing from simply bearing and received invaluable help from this forum in sourcing the bearing, it was also surprisingly cheap.
To be fair to the sander, I had been using the sander for 4 or 5 hours per day for 3 weeks continuous.
Most of the batteries I now have are after market. My experience is that they much cheaper and at least as good as the Ryobi ones. The only battery failure I had is a Ryobi 1.5. The 5 and 6 amp hr after market are all several years old now.
I'd buy bear tools and after market batteries and start with the brushless drill.
Ryobi tools probably aren't the best on the market, but I've found them good and reliable enough for DIY use at home and on the boat, where they occasionally get really heavy use.

 

[Jim@sea]

Although I had Ryobi tools for a few years I found that the batteries did not last.
I am now a fan of Makita for 2 reasons
1. If you buy a Makita Drill (or any tool) if you register it with them you get an additional years guarantee taking it to 3 years.
(I had a Makita Drill go faulty after 2 years and 9 months, I rang their Customer Service and at no charge they sent a Courier to pick it up for repair and 3 days later the Courier brought it back repaired.
2. I also bought a copy Makita Orbital Sander and it works with Makita Batteries.

 

[PCUK]

Sorry, Deleted.

 

[ctva]

Whichever the make you go for, you will not go back to corded except for high intensity work. I have gone for Bosch Pro (the blue ones) and find they are good for 95% of all jobs. Batteries, 1.5ah is tiny. Smallest I use is 4ah and the modern ones are small and light. For plunge saws, grinders and the likes I use 5.5ah -8ah batteries.

The main difference between the low end makes, Ryobi, Works, Parkside etc and the ‘pro’ ones apart from cost is the build quality, size and the longevity.

Having said that I have a Ryobi calk gun which is great but also bought an adapter to use the Bosch Pro batteries with it.

 

[oilybilge]

I've been using Ryobi since my Dad bought me a pair of drills fifteen years ago, and my tool cupboard is now a sea of yellow, consisting of:

3 drills
an impact wrench
an orbital sander
a palm sander
a jigsaw
a router
a multitool
an angle grinder
a pressure washer
a wet and dry vacuum
batteries of various sizes

In all that time I've had two batteries die on me, one of old age and one because I drowned it, and one drill failed when its chuck rusted up and I couldn't replace it. Otherwise it's all worked faultlessly, so it's a thumbs up for me.

FWIW the local boatbulders use Ryobi too

 

[ashtead]

Our ryobi inflator is handy plus the battery fits the strimmer and lawnmower. If looking for a stand alone inflator I see a well known forumite is showing one on utube bought from Lidl for £29 or so which is another option for less.

 

[William_H]

I wonder if Oilybilge can comment on usefulness of pressure washer. I have a problem with sea gulls mess on bopat on swing mooring. Would it be useful sucking from sea and cleaning deck?
As for Ryobi I seem to have slipped into their products. The after sales service has been brilliant from Bunnings. One drill simply replaced and spares provided for a lawn mower admittedly damaged by carelessness.
Bunnings have an even cheaper range Ozito which seem also OK but I have not got into them because battery is different.
I had my drill on the back seat of the ali dinghy. (which leaks) Drill slipped off into salt water. Ruined the battery. I bought 2x cheaper (half the price of Ryobi) batteries 5AH. Some difficulty getting them out of the tool but other wise OK except one has already effectively died from poor capacity.
The local dealer seems only to sell tools as skin only. (no battery or charger) (except for drill)
I love the 18v line trimmer, blower, angle grinder. The reciprocating saw is good for tree /shrub roots as it seems ok in sand. Hedge trimmer nop used so much. Drill is great. Always look for any drill with a mechanical gear shift for low speed.
Lastly I bought a Ryobi lawn mower. Quite expensive 36v but does have self drive to wheels which is great for us oldies.

 

[Blueboatman]

To the OP
Here’s one alternative option to the Ryobi starter pack deal..
DeWalt DCD709D2T-GB 18V XR Brushless Compact Combi Drill

£110 seems ok with 2 smaller batteries?

As a lifelong user of Makita and DW and others , I would probably not invest in Ryobi without having had a seasons use of running( borrowing ) them and really pushing their limits hard .

I did manage to feck up one of their chainsaws pretty easily some years ago.

There are plenty of Chinese branded tools such as Mellif built to accept the Makita and DW genuine batteries
And some of that stuff is astonishingly good for the price.

Knock off batteries are very poor ( and light) in my experience and are of course unknown wrt safe charging.

The industry has come along so very far from my first NiCad 9.6v Makita drill 40 years ago( which refused to die by the way)

 

[[70521]]

Hello All

Thank you for all the comments, including @Poignard's kind offer.

Looking at the projects over the next couple of years, in the boat and other places I've decided to take the plunge and invest in Ryobi.

Thanks

Sandy

 

[oilybilge]

I wonder if Oilybilge can comment on usefulness of pressure washer. I have a problem with sea gulls mess on bopat on swing mooring. Would it be useful sucking from sea and cleaning deck?

I've used to clean seagull crap off the windows at home and it did a good job. I have to use it more cautiously on my boat because it's a wooden boat and there's a fine line between cleaning off the crap and cleaning off your paintwork. Mostly I use it for swooshing stuff out of the bilges. I've only had it a month though.

I don't see why you can't use seawater as long as you flush it thoroughly afterwards. It comes with a good long hose and a decent filter.

 

[Moodysailor]

I was a Ryobi fanboy for a number of years, but have moved away from them recently as the value isn't as good. When I first started buying them, brushless tools weren't readily available (or cheap) and they had a good price point for brushed tools that was below the competition substantially enough to make them well worth it.

With the advent of brushless, they have effectively split the range - lower cost, brushed tools and higher cost brushless. This isn't unique to Ryobi, many tool brands have lower and higher price pioints in their range. The issue I have with Ryobi is that the performance and price of their brushed range is no longer good enough to compete with others (Bosch home & garden & Einhell are similar or cheaper and just as good IMO), and the price point of their brushless is too close to Makita, Bosch Professional or Dewalt to not justify buying those instead.

I have made the switch to Makita now and am happier, for tools that matter I buy Makita genuine (their multi tool is great), and for others there are a number of bare tools that fit the Makita batteries - I have a hot glue gun and cordless heat gun that take the Makita battery and were about £40 each. Between Makita and others, you can get almost any tool you want for the same battery platform, and I even have a 12V charger so I can charge the 18V battery from my car or boat.

Another aspect that may or may not matter to you is the battery platform. The Ryobi battery shape means that some tools such as cordless routers or sanders become less balanced that an equivalent with a slide in 'casette style' battery such as many others have. The Makita batteries are very good performance and charge quickly, I used to carry 3-5 Ryobi batteries for a days work and now take 2 Makita. They last long enough and charge quickly enough that this is just about doable, although 3 would be ideal.

If I was to start again now for a budget platform I'd probably go Einhell. I have no direct experience of them, but the price point is low enough that I could get enough tools to start and build from there - they also have plenty of accessories that make the platform cost worthwhile. I have a couple of Bosch Professional tools and would not buy them again - the quality is fantastic but i'm not that impressed with the battery performance. I will continue to build the Makita selection and have no issue recommending Makita to others.