Ryobi (rightfully) earned a very bad reputation with their older tools. Their old (dark blue) tools are fucking garbage. But they did a rebrand about a decade ago, and the newer green ones are… Not horrible.

They’re not the best on the market, by any metric. But they’re not trying to be. For the average person who only needs a screw gun every week or two at most, they’re perfectly fine. A DeWalt would be overkill for that kind of customer.

If you’re working in construction or building hobby projects and consistently using them every single day, then yeah you’d want to invest in some nicer tools. But for light (or even medium) duty work, Ryobi is a perfectly valid choice. They’re comfortable to hold, have enough power to cut 3/4” plywood or drive a 3” screw, and don’t get bogged down by a ton of bells and whistles, (cough cough DeWalt’s Bluetooth connection in a fucking screw gun cough cough).

Ah, a fellow muggle!

We didn't get into Hogwarts. We went to Clortho Public School for Wizards.

We had one and affectionately named it Mr. Wobbly...

Ryobi is just beginner magic that doesn't really work no matter which house you're in. Also, these houses are quite often hereditary. My family is a clan of Makita Warriors.

They're not tools,that's a children's playset..

Skil: even cheaper dad

The truth hurts when I see it.

I can't even recommend DeWalts corded stuff anymore. In the last few years their warranty service has gone from "It broke and you don't have a receipt? Serial number checks out, we'll send you a new one." to "It broke 3 months into a year warranty and you do have all the receipts? Well, send it in to one of our sketchy third party repair centers for a quote."

Screw that, I'll just buy another off amazon and return the broke one for far less hassle. And I'll buy a different brand next time.

Milwaukee has an incredible catalog of cordless stuff. As a Makita, I sometimes get jealous.

I prefer Bosch for corded, but since it's not an ecosystem, Im not brand loyal there.

Is your dewalt stuff old? Their new stuff is crap.

Hilti for powder-actuated (I guess)

Venture Capitalism is one of my least favorite flavors of capitalism, I don’t even like the original

Festools are OK but they are not worth it IMHO. We used to say it's the tools for those who buy a 5000$ bike before knowing how to ride.

I delayed buying a decent drill/driver for a goddamn decade because I was paralyzed with indecision about which battery system to get locked into.

I don't buy cordless anymore. If I can have a wire I get it, it's cheaper, and I've had batteries die in the middle of the job way too many times. And I've had batteries just break/stop charging. And these batteries cost almost as much as the tools themselves if you have to buy one by itself.

VCCs are why the industry has gone so hard into the battery craze. Iterative ongoing sales. Should make a skeptic out of anyone.

Holy crap this is actually a good AI image. These a subtly scary as fuck!

I love the power drillsaw and the handle to nothing

That saw looks like it comes straight from an anime.. I can see that being someone's weapon of choice.

You must not make money with your tools.

Having to deal with an extension cord run up 35ft of scaffolding, not having power without a generator, having to run an extension cord through an attic or crawlspace, worrying about blowing a fuse because you are running a hammer drill and a vacuum, or dragging a cord around while doing anything sucks.

Being tied to a proprietary battery system only sucks if you need a tool that your chosen brand doesn't offer. The price of having to buy enough batteries to get through the day does suck, but the convenience and time-saving makes it easier to tolerate.

My Ryobi battery is fine after many years. I actually have a drill + battery from before they started the ONE+ thing. Works fine. And that's why I stuck with them when buying an impact driver, circular saw and band saw (which do require a ONE+ but I make do with 1).

They run Gringotts