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I have a Ryobi cordless drill that is an excellent workhorse. I also have a cordless weedwacker and hedge trimmer. No complaints after several years of use. Was surprised to learn my Rigid table say was made by them too. I was recently given an old Ryobi plunge router, haven’t used it yet.

 

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Can anyone give me some insight into this? What gives? Is Ryobi bad?

I pick my current tools based on years of previous experiences that I have had.

Before cordless, almost everything I owned was from Craftsman. Back then, they weren’t the most advanced tools, but you could pretty much count on them doing what was needed.
When I first started out with cordless tools, I was a fan of Porter Cable. Their tools that I bought in the 80’s and 90’s were of excellent quality, and reasonably priced. But then in the early 2000’s, I started having issues where parts would fail, and I found out that Porter Cable does a poor job of making/stocking repair parts, except for the most recent models. I had nearly-new tools with broken triggers or gears that I couldn’t get replacement parts for.

I then went on to DeWalt. They make some of the best cordless drills on the market, but I had issues with some other tools that they made. I wanted to keep within one brand, because the batteries are so expensive, so I looked for another brand that made quality tools throughout their line.

I tried a few of the Ryobi cordless tools. Overall, they weren’t built as tough as some of the other tools that I had, but they performed reasonably well for light to medium-duty work. My biggest problem with Ryobi is with their batteries. They are prone to overheating, and they don’t hold a charge nearly as well as other brands.

Now, I have Milwaukee cordless tools. They are too expensive in my mind, but I am sticking with them because they hold up everything that I have done to them. I don’t like to keep buying tools, and hope that the quality of Milwaukee stayed where it is. They always work when I need them.

The lack of availability of parts for tools is horrible. I swapped for a Hitachi chop saw that needed a blade guard. It’s discontinued and unavailable so I donated the saw to a local ministry thrift shop. I looked into availability for a motor fir a 4 year old Rigid table saw in case I burned this one up. Forget about it. Sadly the greedy tool makers just want us to keep buying new.

 

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MY opinion is for the home owner/weekend warrior the Ridged brand sold by Home Depot is the way to go. The warrenty is what tipped it for me. Lifetime on the tool AND battery. No questions asked. MY opinion again but they seems to be powerful enough to 95% of any homeowner job and I've abused my 1/4" impact that would have killed lesser tools. I was driving 2 1/2" construction screws as fast as I could and burned through two batteries without stop. The impact wasn't even fazed by the work.

Ken

That warranty was the clincher to buy the table saw but I doubt they’ll honor it if I burn up the discontinued motor. I’ve seen others post about not getting what they expected from the Rigid warranty. Hoping I never need to find out about it, the saw works great. Only complaint is the riving knife is too close in width to thin kerf blades and is impossible to adjust perfectly on center which causes some issues when trying to get sufficient flatness for invisible glue ups. A full kerf blade is out of my current budget.