I used to trim houses with a guy that swore by his Ryobi tools. I never saw one crap out on the jobsite and he was able to turn out some nice accurate work so I figure they're pretty good. I'm a Hitachi man myself. I'm very pleased with their quality, though the contractors table saw leaves a little to be desired. Don't expect to cut full sheets on it without some stability issues. Just my two cents.

I decided to go for it. Once they get the li-ion/ li-nano technology refined maybe I can get a li-nano battery and charger and make it backward compartible. Anyway, I got a $7!t load of tools for a low price. No need in spending $300-400 on a 2-driver set for a homeowner.

Jim, you did save money but your $300-400 estimate is not the prices I am seeing here for the 2 piece sets (drill and driver, 2 batts, charger, bag). These sets run @$220 here. The multi sets with the light, sawzall, circular saw or some combo like that go for the $300 plus range. For most homeowners they are not worth the cost, unless you have some work to do where an outlet is just not readily had.

Those cheapo sets will probably do ya fine. My wife bought a Ryobi plug in rechargeable drill once. She claimed she wanted it because it was lighter than my Ni(MH or Cad) Makita. It was not lighter, maybe slightly heavier. That was not so bad, but it did not have variable speed and that was the worst. It was not use for driving screws, which is what she wanted it for. Make sure yours is variable speed.

You'll probably save money in the long run with typical HO use.

i am a DIY'er and i bought the ryobi lithuim drill and flashlight set last year. I like how long it will hold a charge, and especially like how it doenst slowly go dead. you have full power or nothing. I would say for a homeowner/diy'er it is a good value for a decent tool.

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I need to remember to bring those battery packs inside for the winter since I store just about everything in my shed.

I have had a large set of the NiCad +1 tools for a couple of years, recently got a Factory Refurb set of the Lithium tools off eBay. The lithium tools seem to be more powerful, certainly longer lasting batteries! The old NiCads would lose charge sitting on the shelf for very long, the lithiums do not. Considerably more work can be done with one charge than the NiCads.

The NiCad circular saw had a laser line, but the new lithium saw does not.

I use Ryobi One+ tools professionally in my home repair/remodeling business. You can't use them hard enough to wear them out! However, I've had only "middling" success with their battery packs. After buying two lithium-ion batteries and having them die almost immediately, I've gone back to the ni-cads. (Ryobi did replace the Li batteries under warranty, but one of them failed again almost immediately.)

Ryobi's tools will give the "big boys" (DeWalt, Hitachi, etc.) strong competition, but their batteries could use some more R&D.

I have a Ryobi Drill & Impact Driver 18v and like them a lot. When they die I will probably buy something nicer, (dewalt or makita). I would steer away from any of the other cordless tools, espically the ryobi. If you want a saw/sander/etc I would get a good corded one. Just my personal opinion, the cordless lack the power of the corded ones.

I don't know why anyone would think that a cordless tool would be more powerful than a corded tool but I suppose that does happen.

Cordless tools were never designed to make corded models obsolete. They are just an optional method of performing tasks without having to get out an extension cord. Cordless tools are great to have when line power is non-existent or difficult to access. They are also handy to have when the job is relatively small and short-lived.

I've used my Ryobi cordless tools for all kinds of jobs and am not unhappy with the performance because I am REALISTIC about the tools capabilities. I don't expect my little Ryobi electric handsaw to rip 3/4" fir plywood. I'll hand that job over to my Makita or Rockwell corded saw. But being able to just grab my Ryobi recipro saw to hack off one or two items, beats having to drag out an extension cord, find an outlet and look after this 1 minute job with my Milwaukee Sawzall. The end result is the same but the time factor is the issue.

Choosing the RIGHT tool for the job is the issue, not the tool itself. You don't take a 3/4 ton pick-up truck to bring home 4 tons of gravel. It's a little thing called common sense mixed with experience.

I agree, but as a homeowner, I don't do enough work to justify having one corded and one cordless. I am very rarely if ever in a place which I can't run an extension cord, so if I am going to buy one recipro saw it will be the one which can do everything, ie the corded.

Yeah Cordless Drills perhaps Sanders are Fine , when you get into Skil Saws and Reciprocating Saws I would rather go with a Corded Unit . Especially with the low price of small
generators for areas that do not have dedicated power .

I have Ryobi 12, 14.4 and 18V Plus one drills and batteries. The price is nice, but the batteries don't hold up anywhere near the more professional brands like De Walt etc. I bought a ten year old Porter-Cable at a yard sale for ten bucks. It had more punch for drilling holes than my two year old 18V Ryobi.

Since I have good luck with the P-C, my last purchase was a Porter-Cable 18V. Drill and saw with two batteries for ninty bucks. Saw a DeWAlt 12V drill with two batteries for $160. Felt great in the hand, but those Lithium batteries were tiny!

This week I compared cutting plywood -- 18V Porter-Cable with battery at 18.3V and 18V Ryobi with battery at 20.1V. The P-C ran great and the Ryobi bogged down badly.