IF YOU ARE LUCKY--You get what you pay for

Jiles · Jan 5, 2010

I have owned a Milwaukee 3/8" cordless drill and light for about eight years. It is so worn that the country of manufactur is unknown but assumed USA or Mexico.
About a year ago, I bought a Riobi cordless pack that consisted of a drill motor, skill saw, recipro. saw and light. I needed a 1/2" drill. Now ALL batteries are bad! MADE IN COMMUNIST CHINA!
The eight year old Milwaukee batteries are still good.
The replacement batteries for the Riobi are $56 for two.
I am thinking that maby I should have purchased 1/2" milwaukee instead. But I bet they are Communist made now!

Old Magnet · Jan 5, 2010

Yes they are...along with the rest of them.

mike321 · Jan 5, 2010

You actually bought a Ryobi product and thought you were getting good quality? wow.. enough said

JDemaris · Jan 5, 2010

I've heard that from a few people, and it's hard to figure. I gave up on all my Makita and Dewalt battery powered tools and switched over to Ryobi 18 volt and it's all been great (all Ni-Cad, not Li-Ion).

I'm going on three years now without a single battery failure and I've been using the heck out of them - including building a house with no AC power is availalble. Got the AC chargers, DC chargers, fan, circular saws, scroll saws, reciprocating saws, air pump, flashights, and screw guns. All built pretty rugged.

By the way, I've got many Makita 9.6 volt batteries that are 20 years old and still work fine. But when I tried some Makita 12 volt, they were dead in one year.

What I cannot figure is . . . I've got over 20 of the Ryobi 18 volt Ni-Cad batteries scattered at three locations and I haven't had a single one go bad. All made in China, part # P100. All from Home Depot. You've got the same and all your's failed?

Anonymous-0 · Jan 5, 2010

An awful lot of the guys I work with like the ryobi tools. Not because they are great durable tools, which they are not, but in our work area (Baltimore) most tools are simply stolen before they can break or wear out. They figure that the price of the tool outweighs the long term reliability and odds of posession. It makes sense, you can buy 5 ryobi drills for the price of one good makita or dewalt. One time we were framing a house in Baltimore (catonsville area) and the saw starting walking across the floor. Looked out the window and two guys were carrying our generator down the street. Didn't even bother to unplug it. Man it sure is nice working in "Charm City".

Anonymous-0 · Jan 5, 2010

The secret to battery life is to use them hard every day. Using them a little and letting them set a week or two before using them again is what is hard on them. I've had good luck with the Ryobi's, when using steady. Have had Dewalts last good when using steady, but bought a used one that was a couple of years old that looked like new. Batteries crapped out shortly. Just like a vehicle battery, an everyday user will out last an occasional user.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 5, 2010

I have used they Ryobi cordless tools and several years later they have held up as good or better than the DeWalt units they replaced. Everyone gets a lemmon sometimes but having professionaly used both brands of cordless drills (mostly drills) the ryobi stuff is as good or better than the DeWalt stuff costing 3x more.

guido · Jan 5, 2010

Hello Jdemaris,
I have some Makita batteries that are still good, no drill! the more voltage ,the more batteries in a pack, and as you know it only takes one bad cell to kill the pack.
Also NiCad, need to be 100% used before charging them, as they will built memory and then they won't take a full charge. All the packs on the pictures were fine, one bad cell and a bad connection in the bunch, charger took 1 hour or better to charge each pack. All pack were 14.4 Volts.
Guido.

bc · Jan 5, 2010

doesn't Ryobi make the Craftsmans drills too?

kossuth · Jan 5, 2010

Gasp you think the Ryobi batteries are expensive price two replacement dewalt 18V batteries. I had one of mine go bad within a year of owning the drill. The other has been fine for the last 6 so probiably just a fluke the one died but still.

JDemaris · Jan 6, 2010

I don't think use versus down time has any effect on Ni-Cads. Lead-Acid-yes. Lithium Ion, yes. I've used all my Ni Cads the same for many years and most have been fine. I've got some 9.6 volt Makitas that barely ever get used anymore and are close to 20 years old and still work OK. On the other hand, a few years back I tried Makita 12 volt and both batteries were bad in 6 months. Ni-Ca and NiMh don't suffer from storage but need to be charged correctly. Li-Ion - regardless of what the literature says - I've had nothing but problems with.

My Ryobi 18 volt batteries have been great. Some are in storage at remote properties and sit unused for 10 months a year. I'm going to assume that there is NOT a design problem with the Ryobi batteries since many have done great. For the bad ones? Must be either a use issue or maybe quality control and a bad batch somewhere?

JDemaris · Jan 6, 2010

I'm aware of the separate cells. I've pulled a few apart and soldered in new separate cells when only one was bad. Easy to do with some and difficult with others.

Tims A · Jan 7, 2010

Check this site, and refurbish information. I was ready to ditch my Ryobi batteries and then tried this. After 4 times the batteries acted like new again. I think they started acting bad after I left them in the charger too long. Here is the link.
http://ysuusy.com/easybatteryfix.html
Good luck!
Tim

IF YOU ARE LUCKY--You get what you pay for

Jiles

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Old Magnet

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mike321

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JDemaris

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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guido

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bc

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kossuth

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JDemaris

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JDemaris

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Tims A

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