When my girlfriend moved in I “inherited” a couple Ryobi drills with a few batteries. I thought it would be wasteful to not use those batteries, so I just defaulted to Ryobi. They work fine? I’m not in construction, so they work for my needs. I’m not a fan of the neon green, but it does make the tools easier to find.
I’ve noticed people like to shit on Ryobi but they’re being aggressively advertised and competitively priced. I haven’t tried them but I’m pretty curious if they’re actually bad.
I actually use mine for work, but I’m not using most of them daily. For me I needed variety (the right tool for the job) and them all to be on the same battery ecosystem. They’ve also got some great “widgets”, the 1-gal battery shop vac is around $60-70 IIRC and is an amazing little bit of kit. It’s like a suitcase of clean. The power caulker isn’t a technical marvel but has absolutely saved my wrist on a few jobs. I was on the fence about the power brush but use it a TON around the house. The battery hot glue gun is also more useful than I thought it would be.
I made a 10 amp 18v corded adapter I can use with all the tools when power is available and I don’t want to fry the battery. I also made an adapter so I can USB charge off my batteries if the power goes out or something (they make those but I had the parts).
But I’ve never had issues. It is worth researching each tool though. They tend to have tiers even within the brand (18v vs the HP+ line). The sawzall in that starter kit is… cute. It “works” in the strictest sense of the word. The little circular saw is similar, but there’s a lot more use cases for a lightweight, low-profile circ saw; I love mine. The impact drivers/drills always did right by me. The battery powered chop saw is pretty great (I love that I can just slap a battery on it for a few cuts or use my adapter).
All in all, from what I’ve heard the issue isn’t usually performance it’s durability. That being said, it’s not like I baby my tools, I just don’t use the same tool everyday like a contractor might. IMO it’s a great brand for a ton of people. I think they’re fine for home improvement, just maybe not building a house.
I’ve smoked tools from all of the major brands at work and I prefer the stink of Makita electronics over all of the others, so generally thats what I’ll gravitate towards at the tool store. That said, the stuff we’ve got at home for projects around the house is all ryobi green. Sure they feel kinda cheap, sure they aren’t as powerful, but for around the house stuff they do just fine, just don’t beat on them like I do mine.
When my girlfriend moved in I “inherited” a couple Ryobi drills with a few batteries. I thought it would be wasteful to not use those batteries, so I just defaulted to Ryobi. They work fine? I’m not in construction, so they work for my needs. I’m not a fan of the neon green, but it does make the tools easier to find.
I’ve noticed people like to shit on Ryobi but they’re being aggressively advertised and competitively priced. I haven’t tried them but I’m pretty curious if they’re actually bad.
I actually use mine for work, but I’m not using most of them daily. For me I needed variety (the right tool for the job) and them all to be on the same battery ecosystem. They’ve also got some great “widgets”, the 1-gal battery shop vac is around $60-70 IIRC and is an amazing little bit of kit. It’s like a suitcase of clean. The power caulker isn’t a technical marvel but has absolutely saved my wrist on a few jobs. I was on the fence about the power brush but use it a TON around the house. The battery hot glue gun is also more useful than I thought it would be.
I made a 10 amp 18v corded adapter I can use with all the tools when power is available and I don’t want to fry the battery. I also made an adapter so I can USB charge off my batteries if the power goes out or something (they make those but I had the parts).
But I’ve never had issues. It is worth researching each tool though. They tend to have tiers even within the brand (18v vs the HP+ line). The sawzall in that starter kit is… cute. It “works” in the strictest sense of the word. The little circular saw is similar, but there’s a lot more use cases for a lightweight, low-profile circ saw; I love mine. The impact drivers/drills always did right by me. The battery powered chop saw is pretty great (I love that I can just slap a battery on it for a few cuts or use my adapter).
All in all, from what I’ve heard the issue isn’t usually performance it’s durability. That being said, it’s not like I baby my tools, I just don’t use the same tool everyday like a contractor might. IMO it’s a great brand for a ton of people. I think they’re fine for home improvement, just maybe not building a house.
I’ve smoked tools from all of the major brands at work and I prefer the stink of Makita electronics over all of the others, so generally thats what I’ll gravitate towards at the tool store. That said, the stuff we’ve got at home for projects around the house is all ryobi green. Sure they feel kinda cheap, sure they aren’t as powerful, but for around the house stuff they do just fine, just don’t beat on them like I do mine.