Ryobi One+ - Are they any good?.

Ryobi produce a large range of garden and power tools that all use a common battery.

Although this is now common amongst cordless tool manufacturers, back when it was launched, it was not unusual to find that manufacturers used different batteries for different tools depending on the intended market.

Now, it is not un-common to find different manufacturers using a common battery (albeit with extra 'blobs' of plastic to prevent their use in rivals tools). For instance, the Ferrex batteries sold in Aldi also, (with minor modification with a craft knife), fit tools made by Worx, JCB and Parkside.

The Ryobi range is now over 150 tools big (although not all tools are available in every country).

I have a collection of Ryobi tools that fit my needs as a tradesman/hobbyist woodworker.

My collection started with a 2nd hand grinder and drill with a charger and 2 battery packs. These were purchased as I undertook a job in which I was assured thet power was available. It wasn't, so I needed to obtain a cheap cordless grinder to complete the work. The first 2nd hand one I came across was the Ryobi unit I purchased from my local Cashconverter store.

The grinder wasn't that impressive and over-heated the 1.5A/Hr battery in 3 minutes flat. I was that un-impressed, I shoved the grinder in the back of my tool cupboard and forgot about it.. The drill however, worked a treat. In fact, I was impressed enough to return to Cashconverters and purchase the cordless circular saw and impact driver they had. This came with a 2.A/Hr pack.

As the circular saw was a power hungry tool, I found a genuine 4.0A/Hr pack on line. I tried this in the grinder and it was like a new tool. No over-heating of the pack at all.

Next up, was a torch followed by a multi-tool, another, newer, drill (I sold the old one), SDS drill (still not used), Brad nailer/stapler, orbital sander, area light, 18Ga. brad nailer (2nd hand from a local Cash in Hand shop, but like new and un-registered), brushless drill and finally a 15Ga. slanted nailer (imported from the USA as they don't sell them over here in the UK.

I also purchased a strimmer and a reciprocating saw.

Amongst all this, I also purchased a Mower for my son as his council flat had a garden.

So, why Ryobi?.

Well, it was the first cordless grinder I came across in my hour of need. When I set out on my 2nd-hand tool search, I had DeWalt and Makita on my list, but couldn't find a grinder for sale. If I had, then this article would have been much different in it's content.

Starting with the mower which came with a 5A/Hr battery and charger.

This was a 2nd-hand unit and had been used 3 times only. We got it back to my son's place and immediately tried it out. It quite happily munched through the long grass (i'm talking knee height). I was impressed-enough to create a video review of it HERE.

My son has since moved back home and the mower has come back with him. I have used it to cut my large back garden and it gets through the job on half a battery with a lot less noise than the petrol mower I normally use. I would rate this as 9/10

Strimmer - bought to strim back the weeds at my deceased father-in-law's house.

What can I say. Does the job brilliantly a full 10/10 tool.

The drills do what drills do. they drill holes. The only problem I have is that the chuck is not designed to hold drill bits below 2.0mm in size, so you need to purchase a collet to use the smallest drill bits (this is common with all the drills I have used, so not just a Ryobi problem).

The impact driver driver drives long wood screws in without any bother at all.

The grinder, (an early green one with the ability to swivel the battery pack out of the way depending on the job), works extremely well provided you use a decent battery.

All nailers work very well, and I often find that I need to wind back the power and depth settings to avoid driving the brads too deep. The 15Ga. is a real monster and not a tool for the weak of arm. The brad nailer/stapler was an old discontinued CN-15. This was quite a handy tool and I only sold it as I had spotted the 18Ga. unit. The CN-15 units hold their value very well. I paid £35 2nd-hand and sold it for the same amount. There are a few pipe cover boxes in a new build estate near me that were put together with the CN-15.

The orbital sander, when fitted with good quality pads, makes the job of sanding a real breeze.

Both work lights provide a huge amount of illumination, but the folding strip light has an issue with the hinge. It won't stay tight enough to hold the upper light unit in position. I have modified it with a spring washer and it has helped a bit.

The reciprocating saw cuts through everything I have tried it on and comes in handy for pruning branches in the garden. Just make sure to use decent blades and don't try cutting through steel at full whack and the tool will work fine.

The circular saw does what circular saws do. You do need a decent battery if you intend to do a lot of cutting with it and you need to be aware of it's depth limitations and that the blades are no longer that common as the majority of manufacturers have moved on to bigger blade sizes (Ryobi do do a brushless unit with the larger 164mm blade).

Now, the fly in the ointment, the multi-tool. This works as it should, but the quick release has a tendancy to allow the fitted sawing tool to swivel anti-clockwise by one hole. This might be down to the tools not being official Ryobi. I have yet to try different types of tools with it. It does, however, do the job extremely well and has been used to notch-out wood and, with the detail sander foot fitted, makes for a powerful detail sander.

Personally, I would reccommend them having used them. However, bare in mind that, just like every cordless tool manufacturer, their range is not without the odd dud tool. The SDS, by all accounts, is not a heavy duty tool and will burn-out if over-pushed. So if I am in the need for a heavy duty cordless SDS I might be minded to go down the Makita or Bosch line (and purchase an adapter to use the battery on my Ryobi of course).

There are slightly better designs of some of the tools out there such as Dewalt's Multi-tool which has a better quick change system (but when used with a 4.0A/Hr battery, won't sit flat to the ground which is worth considering if using for undercutting baseboard for flooring).

Only a small range of tools are available in the UK in comparrison with other countries, so if you want a specific tool you will need to import one.

This is a lot easier than you may think due to the large number of US and Aussie sellers on eBay willing to ship via the Global Shipping program. This is how I got my 15Ga. nailer.

There are things to consider -

• If importing from the US, you only want the bare tool due to voltage differences.
• If you are after one of the battery/mains duel units, Australia or New Zealand are your best bet as they both use 220V the same as use, so you only need to change the plug to a UK one.
• Import duty - yes, HMRC will want their slice of money. The duty on my nailer was £66.
• Are there already sellers importing into the UK. CBS Tools bulk import some Ryobi stuff not normally available in the UK.
• Warranty not honoured by Ryobi. Yes, you read that right. Ryobi will not repair tools under warranty if they are not purchased in the country they are not available in.

Is it worth it?. Well, if you are after a Ryobi storage system (only available in Australia), or a multi-power string light (US/Aus.) then importing is worth the hassle.