Ryobi One+ Kit Review

[jg]

Hi,
Just wanted to share some quick thoughts on the one+ kit I got from TJ Hughes a little while back now that i've had a chance to use it a bit.

Combi Drill.
I've already got the bosch 10.8 driver and impact driver. Using the ryobi makes me realise just how light the bosch is. Driving more than a few screws is a real arm ache. I'd rather use the bosch, but it's definately better than the manual way :).
It has a couple of driver bits attached to the body of the drill, however the pz2 bit didn't last long, not the best quality bits. Also, the clips that hold them in place are awkward to use. You have to force the bits into them, and them sometimes the bits come out a little too easily.
The chuck is an auto tightening quick change one, works very well, you just grab it and turn it, no second part of the chuck to try and hold still while you tighten it.
For drilling, there is plenty of power there, I've used some 50mm spade bits in it no problem. However, the hammer drilling i've found to be useless. It took me about 4 mins of continuous drilling to do one 5.5mm hole when fitting a light switch in my garage. I've since tried it on some more brick on my house, and the same result. The hammer action does just about nothing. This is a shame, I thought i'd be able to ditch the corded drill for simple little jobs like this, but no such luck.
The drill has a spirit level on the top to help you see if you're drilling straight or not, there's also a small one on the back of the drill for when you're drilling into the floor. Bit of a gimick I think, but maybe one day i'll look at them.
What it could really do with is a work light like the little bosch has.

Angle drill:
Unlike the combi drill, this drill has the two part chuck which is not so easy to tighten.
It is a little shorter than my bosch 10.8 standard drill driver, so a bit better in the tight spots.
I've only used it a couple of times but would not have been able to do those jobs without it. If you're drilling through joists, and can't get your standard drill in, this is what you need.

Dust Buster:
It does have half decent power, and if you need it, it will do a good job of clearing up a small amount of dust. I usually just grab the normal house hoover though, so don't really use it much. Might be handy for clearing up the car, I use the "shop vac" for that. I do use it for draining down batteries once they're too weak to run any of the useful tools.

Corner Sander:
Seems to be a good little sander, not used it much yet, but it is definately no weedy little sander. Not sure how readily available the sheets are for this one, the ones that came with it were some kind of two part sheet designed to fit this, or a smaller sander by splitting the sheet into two. The velcro backing pad grips the sheets a little too well. Removing the sanding sheet has taken the velcro pad half offf the sander. I should really call ryobi about this, or maybe i'll just GripFill it back on like my brother did :)

To follow,
Jigsaw
Circular saw

[big-all]

a good review jg thank you
although you need to use the same masonry bit in another 18v battery drill to compare apples with apples
did you have it in second gear ??
cheap masonry bits don't last long and a comparison with corded wont be a fair one
good review though

[skiking]

I have one of the first Combi drills. I think they are slightly sturdier than the current equivilant. They also do a drill driver which is, obviously, for lighter duty.

I also have the impact driver which in my view is the best tool they do in the range. Always planty of power and batteried will last for ages and has never had a fixing defeat it. It is noisy though.

The worst item, again in my view, is the circular saw - this cannot complete a cut without completely draining the battery first.

Not tried any of the above in the Lion batteries

[big-all]

I have one of the first Combi drills. I think they are slightly sturdier than the current equivilant. They also do a drill driver which is, obviously, for lighter duty.

I also have the impact driver which in my view is the best tool they do in the range. Always planty of power and batteried will last for ages and has never had a fixing defeat it. It is noisy though.

The worst item, again in my view, is the circular saw - this cannot complete a cut without completely draining the battery first.

Not tried any of the above in the Lion batteries

high drain items like circular saws laminate trimmers and chop saws will always cane the batteries as they are working on the edge off what they can give and will always frustrate so get the highest ah batteries you can get use ptfe lubricating spray make sure the work is fully supported so the blade doesn't bind

and the best tip off all step the batteries down to a lesser draining tool when the circ saw has finished go for the sander or jigsaw as there's still 20 to 40% left in the battery then you use the drill on screwdriver duties as these are normally in first gear

if you have both nicads and li-ions top up charge the li-ion and use the nicads first so you can step the batteries down
number all the batteries don't worry about charging in rotation as this wont work but every time a battery goes flat note the number as a pattern off good and bad batteries will emerge
and remember 15- 20 mins charge on a li-ion will give you 50-70% full charge so iff you are really stuck with no power bung your li-ion on charge for 10 mins and keep repeating the cycle till you have a nicad fully charged but do not short charge a nicad as you will eventually loose capacity as the battery will develop a memory and stop taking charge at a progresivly lower level

[jg]

I'll have to admit, I've no idea what gear I was in for the drill. I assume I should be in Gear 1 for the best results, might give that another go then. I was never expecting to be able to fit massive wall anchors with the drill, but standard red and brown plugs should be within range of anything that claims to do hammer action, otherwise what's the point. Anyway, i'll report back once I've had an excuse to give it another go.

Moving on,
Jigsaw:
I've only had a chance to use this on some thin ply 4mm and 12mm, and a bit of 18mm chipboard. The saw came supplied with two wood cutting blades and one metal one. I've used the wood ones, both fairly course cut, but I wasn't looking for a super sharp finish, and was very pleased with the power. I'm sure this could be used to cut some thicker wood if desired, maybe even worktop, but that's not something I've needed to do. Cutting the ply and chipboard was no problem at all. The blade change is a simple tool free lever similar to my B&D mains jigsaw I've had for about 10 years. Unfortunately for me, this saw uses the bayonet style blades while my B&D uses the U shank blades. Ah well. Talking of blades, the saw has a small compartment for storing blades. Brilliant idea until you realise that the only supplied blade that fits in there is the metal cutting one. And guess which blade I've not had reason to use yet :)

It also has a guide fence if you needed to do a straight cut, I've not used this yet as I'd rather use the circular saw for such cuts.

Things that could be improved are having a blower to clear dust from the blade, and maybe a work light to help see what you're cutting.
I think the ryobi will definately be my first choice for jigsaw to use. I can't think of a situation where i'd use the mains one now, unless I found myself without batteries.

Circular Saw:
On to the last and probably my favourite tool out of the bunch. This is a small light weight circular saw, supplied with blade. The saw has a place to keep the allen key so no need to hunt around for it when time to change the blade comes. As noted in other posts, this thing eats batteries, if you're intending to do more than a few cuts, then best try a mains one.

I've used it for making boxing in for some pipes, cutting a section of floor out when laying wires for my alarm, cutting laminate flooring, and trimming the bottom of a door off.

It is relatively easy to stall the saw, but as long as you take your time, it gets the job done. The depth of cut is 45mm which I found was slightly too small for trimming the bottom of the door off :( I'd say sheet material is what it was designed for. It comes iwth a guide fence like most circular saws.
A big to ryobi for this one: If you're running the base up against a straight edge, then the blade is 25mm from one edge, and 100mm from the other edge. Makes setting out the straight edge much less taxing on the brain :) Not like my mains saw which is some odd number which I can never remember.

Tool Bag:
The kit I got came with the large tool bag. This is a sturdy canvas type bag with solid bottom and sides, and a chunky bar across the top to keep it all rigid. I fit all of the above tools in there with two of the three supplied batteries, along with some other bits and bobs like hammer drill bits, screwdrivers etc. With all that it, you wouldn't want to carry it ver far though.

Batteries and charger
I always said that for my usage pattern, nicads were not the best choice. When I bought the kit I'd intended to sell the batteries and charger, then buy some lions as replacements. However the cost of the lithium batteries combined with the bargain price I ended up paying for this kit meant it was just not worth it. I've decided to just use the nicads until a good deal on the lions turns up. At least I know with this kit that if it says one+ it will work.

General comments:
The ryobi stuff has some nice little features which are genuinely useful, not too much in the gimick department. As BA has said many times, they're good for DIY and light trade. I'm just DIY, so might use them over a weekend then not touch them for a month, but having all of these tools available means I don't have to struggle or improvise by using the wrong tool for the job when I need it without shelling out a fortune many separate tools.

Any questions, just ask.

[big-all]

a thing to note about ryobi circular saw is the blade is on the left hand side the opposite to most saws
also the correct way to set up a saw is material thickness plus 2mm
also 45mm is enough for cutting almost all doors as they tend to be 32 to 44mm thick

i would never use a fence or strait edge with a jigsaw
most blades tend to wander by a degree or two you are best to cut by watching the blade and ignore how the body off the machine lies

[The man with no aim]

You think the circular saw goes through batteries you should try the P551 Chop Saw, its gotta be Li and preferable the 2.4 with a second on charge however, at speed it spins its just plain awesome compared to the older take 5 model. I tend to find my hedgetrimmer can chew through the AH pretty fast too.

Anybody seen the Li+ batteries out in the States 4AH & 35% more torque WTF, I need some of them bad

[big-all]

just waiting for the 4 hour batteries to turn up here

you wont get more power from a larger battery just longer run time
think off the battery amp hours [ah]as the fuel tank and the voltage as the horse power

and the driver bits you get are usually philips ph so will chew up pozi screws

[jmcp]

Hi,

I have found some inconsistencies with the ryobi batteries. I have a 1.4 and 2.4 lithium batteries but the 1.4 is pretty much useless and always has been, for instance, on my jigsaw, it lasts barely and more than 10 mins worth of cutting but the 2.4 lasts for at least 30 mins of cutting. This was noticeable recently when laying a new laminate floor. Basically, don't plan on having the 1.4 as your only battery.

Cheers, John

[The man with no aim]

John

The 1.4 Lii do have a place in my kit, they create the perfect balance point for my garden strimmer, the 2.4 just lifts the strimming head and if you adjust the D handle the spacing between my hand positions just doesn't quite feel right so, I keep a couple. They really lighten up an impact driver in confined space too, not a work horse but, certainly has its place in the corner of tool bag.

Regards
T

[jmcp]

Hi,

I know what you are saying about the weight when using the impact driver as it does lighten it up and has been ok for me with it, just using the jigsaw has really exposed it although, it did give me ample time to get the 2.4 charged up.

I have a few times thought about buying the circular saw but thought that even the 2.4 would be insufficient with it, maybe the 4ah would make it a more viable tool but would probably take it up close to the price of one of the premium brands like makita etc..


Cheers, John

[big-all]

to keep any high load tool going fairly constantly at high load will require around 6ah worth off batteries
this includes planers routers circular saws chop saws
but dont put them on charge if they are nicads they will still be 1/3 to 1/2 charged step them down to drill/sander/jigsaw or other medium use tool
then finish on the low level tools like the radio cooling fan or fluro light

[The man with no aim]

Big-all

Personally I think nicads have only one place in life...... On Ebay

[The man with no aim]

Big All

I can't find any 4Ah on the bay right now but, I'll keep looking

Niether the Home Depot or Amazon will ship thes to the UK, heck Home Depot won't ship to Hi

Any thoughts on this, do these batteries not fly well or do the airlines not wish to carry them

Regards
T

[big-all]

Big All

I can't find any 4Ah on the bay right now but, I'll keep looking

Niether the Home Depot or Amazon will ship thes to the UK, heck Home Depot won't ship to Hi

Any thoughts on this, do these batteries not fly well or do the airlines not wish to carry them

Regards
T

i have only seen 2 posted on e bay but usually a precursor the smaller ones are about as well

and mr man with no aim i haven't bought a nicad for years apart from the last ryobi as li-ions wheren't available then