Ryobi cordless tools - Good or bad luck?

[beenthere]

Many thanks for the descriptive, helpful post. It may just be enough of a challenge to give it a go. 

Will keep it in mind. I've a portable RotoZip with a bad battery, and will see about reviving it with your trick. Also will check out Interstate.  Thanks

[Engineer]

I've read all the reviews about how awful Ryobi stuff is, but in spite of it, I bought a 18V Ryobi sawzall a couple years ago with the intention of using and abusing it until it died.  Well, today I was hacking apart a root ball from an apple tree with it, and it was still very much alive and working fine.  I have since bought additional Ryobi cordless stuff.  As long as your expectations are kept low, it's decent stuff at basically throw-away prices.    I got the sawzall first with one battery and a charger, followed by a right-angle drill (which has been awesome for house-building chores, mixing paint, etc.), then the flashlight which goes with me everywhere.  A month ago I picked up a second battery, and today Home Depot had a sale on a circ saw/drill combo with battery and charger for $49.  So I have five cordless tools, three batteries and two chargers, and have about $220 into everything.    However I have a DeWalt cordless trim saw that uses the same blades as the Ryobi, and a couple older Bosch drills and a bunch of batteries and chargers that will all go on eBay, so by the time I'm done, maybe I'll have $150 into the whole Ryobi deal....  Some of the stuff seems to be totally worthless (like the cordless vacuum or the "inflator"), but what I have seems to be pretty decent.  I was cutting through some 5/4 dry hard maple with the trim saw and it was struggling, but working.  I really thrash the sawzall, and if it dies, I'm gonna get another.

[Saki]

Thanks for all the good replies, guys. I did go ahead and buy the 4 piece starter kit yesterday. I will be using it in a general manner around the house for minor repairs, craft work, etc. Won't be using it in building homes, or heavy industrial use or anything, so I hope it will be fine for me. Looking forward to trying it out . Even bought 2 extra batteries ( total of 4 ) and the extra 1 year warranty ( now covered for 3 years ) so maybe I can really try it out  . Thanks again.

[sharp edge]

Would like to get my two cents in here or more like two 18v bulbs. The first replacements bought at a big box.The next two got at Harbor feight. Had to buy a  drill, flashlite,kit to get them.( which cost a little more) Would like to find a place to get them cheaper. I get along great with junk tools at home, at work used quilty tools. Tried to solider a bat. once, but had a hare time getting heat up without hurting the bat. Next time will go to interstate bat. Another thing, went back to all philips drives just to simply things.
       Harbor Fright  Kid

[slowzuki]

When I started building our place I bought a bunch of throwaway cordlesses, 1 impact and 2 x drills.  They each came with a pair of batteries and chargers so sometimes I'd be going though 10 batteries a day on the impact driving big lag bolts while they cycled through the charger.  I planned on the drills dying but they have been dropped from 10 ft onto concrete, dropped 25 ft onto dirt, used as hammers to start 120 lbs of roofing screws, drilled and driven 200 lb of 5/8" lag bolts and generally abused by a half dozen different guys.

Unfortunatly they still work fine with the exception of one finicky battery pack.  I was hoping to replace them with a nice li-ion set when they died, but they will now be with me until the last battery dies out.

[woodmills1]

I assume you got the royobi +1 kit that is on sale at the big stores this week.

I  bought the drill, light, sawzawl, circle saw  2 battery kit at a sort of pawn shop called cash converters for 100 bucks, came in a nice carry bag and was new boxed and sealed.  I love it   now I know it is homeowner not commercial grade but has performed well up on the scaffold putting in the new rakes during the front roof job.  The circle saw cuts real nice.   And just for info I was upgrading from my ancient makita 7.2.

[Engineer]

Interesting experiment, somewhat unexpected, happened today.

I was trying to drill a 1-1/4" diameter hole in a piece of 6x8 pine, sideways across the grain.  Figured the new 18V Ryobi drill would be able to ram the auger bit in with no problem.  Boy was I wrong.  Keeping in mind, the only thing that drill has been used for is to stir 2 gallons of paint with a paint paddle, so virtually no battery use.   It only went in about two turns before it stopped dead and wouldn't spin the bit anymore.  Even on the "drill only" setting and not a standard clutch setting. 

So I grabbed my 12V Hitachi impact driver and proceeded to bury that bit six inches deep in a few seconds.   I guess the Ryobi will be relegated to paint stirring for the rest of its' life..... 

[mike_van]

Engineer, you are so right, i have 3 drills, a 12V B&D that i won as a prize, my old 12V Milwaukee, and a new 18V Dewalt.  The B&D is the "paint stirrer"  The keyless chuck ring is so small you can't get a grip to tighten it.  Tapping trees, it does about 8 holes & it's dead.  The Milwaukee does  about 16, and the Dewalt  30 or more.  As with most things, you get what you pay for - 

[BBTom]

Mike, I use a real sharp auger bit and can get close to 90 trees with my DW 18v drill.  Unfortunately Irwin no longer manufactures that tapping bit.  It is a double cutter w/ single flighting that worked great for wet wood. 

Sorry to jump off topic.

[sawmill_john]

I've had my ryobi 18 volt drill for for at least 5 years, I bought it when I replaced my deck, I've had no problems with the drill, and since have been using it at work, it keeps up with the dewalts when driving in tek 5's in 1/4" steel angle.  About a year ago I bought the impact and now I don't use the drill unless I have to. But I mostly drive smaller sheet metal or selftapping screws, definatly not extreme heavy duty, although it has taken some good drops and seems to keep on screwin'.

john

[TexasTimbers]

I hate to get off topic here too but what do you guys mean "tapping trees"?

I only do this on big cedar to see if they are hollow inside. Are y'all doing this for tapping maple trees for syrup?

[BBTom]

Yep, you guessed it!  I have one of those engine drills to tap the maple trees, but it wears out a man just to carry it thru the woods all day.  The 18V cordless drills are armsavers when drilling 300-400 tapholes in trees a day.

[TexasTimbers]

I thought this would fit close enough here that no new thread was necessary.
On page 90 of Woodworkers Journal there is a cool article.

Jesse James and the Discovery Channels Monster Garage, filled the trunk of a 1962 Bela Air with 384 Milwaukee V28 Lithium Ion batteries, the exact same unmodified ones they use in their tools and wired them together, then to a pair  of electric motors. The whole shameel produced 336 VDC and 3000 amps! Thats with 3 zeros behind that numeral!
Well it was just too much it just smoked the tires, so they de-tuned it and got the tires to get enough traction to run a 14.53 second 1/4 mile.
To do it with NiCad technology they would have hgad to use at least 2000 lbs of batteries.
they quoted David Selby (of Milwaukee) as saying that as " a pure energy source density...." Li-Ion is two to one over NiCad.
Li-Ion will come down in price and wipe out the NiCad technology. That was from me.
Investors will note that Li-Ion technology is in it's infancy, and will gobble up many mnay more markets other than just power tools. 

[WH_Conley]

Just checked with the little store down the road, they sell Interestate batteries, owner called the route man and he priced rebuilding my 19.2 Craftsman batteries at $65.00 a piece. OUCH.

[TexasTimbers]

Forget that noise!

[Saki]

Used the saw some over this last weekend,and I really like it. Wasn't doing any heavy duty cutting, but it seemed to perform real nice. Look forward to trying the other stuff out.

[brdmkr]

I tried that little circular saw recently.  It didn't seem like it was made that well, but it sure cut well.  I plan on getting a couple more batteries so I can always have one fully charged.  It cut great on 1x stuff.  I was pleasantly surprised.