Switching to Ryobi cordless tools

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Buckinghamshire
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I've currently got 4 cordless powertools which require changing for various reasons:
combo hammer drill
lawn mower
hedge trimmer
grass edger/strimmer

I only use them at home. Drill gets light DIY use, the garden tools get frequent use. Most of the issues with the above are due to battery issues. Each of the items came with it's own battery and charger which creates a bit of a mess with charging.

I've just found out about the Ryobi cordless tools and the single battery system which sound really really good. I was thinking of replacing all these tools for Ryobi ones to make it easier for charging and battery management. The Ryobi lawnmower I'm looking at (Ryobi RLM18X41H240) takes two batteries and actually comes bundled with it (2x 18V 4.0Ah batteries). The other tools are body only.

My question is, are these good batteries to run the other Ryobi tools with (as well as other future tools I may get)?

I know Ryobi do a 5Ah battery now, is the only difference the run time or do some tools require a minimum battery size to power it?

I was thinking of having two large batteries anyway that I could use in rotation as needed for all the tools. Is getting these batteries with the mower an economical way to get started or are there cheaper starter kits to consider?

Thanks in advance
 
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Even the best power tool batteries will drain quite quickly with high draw tools like lawnmowers and strimmers.

I would go for the best you can afford, for me that is Makita, but Bosch and Dewalt are good too.

I am not convinced that Ryobi are premier league tools, but may be fine for occasional use

Blup
 
Ryobi 4 and 5 Ah batteries are good, use quality cells and last a reasonable amount of time - they will last the same as any other maker's batteries would. They will last longer if the tools you buy are brushless, and there are 6 and 9Ah batteries available now. Any one+ tool can use any Ah battery, it's just the run time that will differ.

I have several 4 and 5 Ah batteries and they last a long time when I'm doing various jobs. I have the single battery lawn mower and it will use under 50% of a 4Ah battery for what I would say was an average sized front and back lawn - 60m2.

Just do the sums for battery prices and kit offers, some good offers crop up regularly, on Amazon, B&Q and Homebase.

But what I've noticed is that Ryobi batteries are relatively expensive compared to other maker's equivalent capacity batteries. But the tools are slightly cheaper and the range extensive, so they might be more likely to have the tools you may want for home and garden.
 
Even the best power tool batteries will drain quite quickly with high draw tools like lawnmowers and strimmers.

I would go for the best you can afford, for me that is Makita, but Bosch and Dewalt are good too.

I am not convinced that Ryobi are premier league tools, but may be fine for occasional use

Blup

Fair enough. As I mentioned, I'm not a trades person. This will only be used for personal use (and fairly light home use too). As far as I see (from googling) there are no other companies that have the same one battery system. I like that Ryobi sell all their tools without batteries. Otherwise, you'd end up with dozens of the same interchangeable batteries which would be a big waste.
 
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Quality aside, Makita have 160+ cordless tools (also sold with or without batteries) compared to Ryobi's 100 + across a wider range of applications. I don't need to defend Makita but mention it because they don't market in as high profile a way as say Bosch.

Perhaps saying Ryobi are fine for occasional use was overstating the position.

Blup
 
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. He is a gardener and is worried about the amount of 2 stoke fumes that he inhales. He spoke to the Stihl rep at a trade show. They offer three options which range all the way up to wearing an expensive and heavy battery back pack.

I appreciate that you aren't planning to run a leaf blower for 4 hours a day but I have to agree with Blurp that Ryobi seem to be pitched at the light trade/DIY market. In my experience, not only do tools aimed at that market fail prematurely when pushed, it is often more difficult to get the same quality of finish when working with them.

That said, if the better brands are out of your budget range, buy what you can afford.
 
I have ryobi cordless hammer combi, a jigsaw, and a right angle drill (waste of time tbh)
Very happy with all of them (the right angle one is good in tight spaces but only used once in a blue room)
The combi is a lot heavier than Makita.

I would be happy with ryobi if I were you


Funnily enough the gardeners at work use leaf blowers and I was chatting to our safety person because although when spraying the gardners dress like spacemen, they don't .

The leaf blowers wear eye and hearing protection yet stand in a cloud of two stroke fumes. When I passed one in the car park I got a lungful. A few days before I'd started my motorbike in the garage so understand the issue!
The h&s person said that it was probably ok because the backpacks exhaust to the side but the poor sods do turn around all the time?
 
Quality aside, Makita have 160+ cordless tools (also sold with or without batteries) compared to Ryobi's 100 + across a wider range of applications. I don't need to defend Makita but mention it because they don't market in as high profile a way as say Bosch.

Perhaps saying Ryobi are fine for occasional use was overstating the position.

Blup
Alrighty then. Makita sell 160 tools so that's what everyone should buy, even if they will only ever buy and use five tools. :rolleyes:

That's the old Apple marketing ploy when they say that there are 50 million apps for their phones, and that somehow made them better.

And talking of brand fan boi's, "this brand is better than that brand" is the mantra of the tool using the tool.
 
As far as I see (from googling) there are no other companies that have the same one battery system. I like that Ryobi sell all their tools without batteries.

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't makita and deWalt have standardized batteries now, makita LXT and deWalt XRP, all slide on batteries that fit all their tools. And both sell the tools naked if needs be
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but don't makita and deWalt have standardized batteries now, makita LXT and deWalt XRP, all slide on batteries that fit all their tools. And both sell the tools naked if needs be

Correct
 
Alrighty then. Makita sell 160 tools so that's what everyone should buy, even if they will only ever buy and use five tools. :rolleyes:

That's the old Apple marketing ploy when they say that there are 50 million apps for their phones, and that somehow made them better.

And talking of brand fan boi's, "this brand is better than that brand" is the mantra of the tool using the tool.

I’m a fan of Makita yes

Blup
 
I'm a DeWalt fan boi and I'm also a firm believer of the saying 'he who buys cheap buys twice' but at the same time also aware that you buy what you can afford, Ryobi is perfectly fine for diy and light trade use, any more than that you either have to put your hand in your pocket OR buy a cheap tool with a rock solid no quibble guarantee like screwfix's
 
life long fan off ryobi and have praised them over the years as " i rate ryobi as diy and light to medium trade will do 80% off the big boys toys at 40% off the cost "
buuuutttt ryobi has now upped its game and the tools are better built and the batteries and tools are rather expensive on there own now
although i have around 30 tools from the one plus range i also have about 10 from the dewalt 18v and now with a choice opt for dewalt by default as the batteries are around £40-45 for a 4ah and £50-57 for a 5ah
with ryobi being 30-40% more per ah
and as said above b&q is a good place to get ryobi sets with 4 or 5ah batts iff you wait long enough till they are on offer
example brushless drill 2x5ah down from £227 to about £185
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but don't makita and deWalt have standardized batteries now, makita LXT and deWalt XRP, all slide on batteries that fit all their tools. And both sell the tools naked if needs be

I believe they are also compatible with the battery powered Graco airless sprayers as well.
 
Yes. DW have actually sold their battery technology to some of the firms in the garage tool trade as well (e.g. Mac Tools) as well as the plumbing trade. The other elephant in the room that nobody has mentioned yet (?) is Milwaukee whose ever-increasing range now covers areas that were previously the domain of specialist manufacturers. They seem set to dominate the market (which is no surprise as the CEO is the ex-CEO of DW)

I think the OP might be right to switch to Ryobi - not full trade quality, but not full trade price, either, and there's quite a few sellers on eBay and the like selling battery conversion adaptors to allow you to use non-Ryobi batteries on Ryobis (although you'd need to buy the appropriate charger to go with them)
 

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