Ryobi Changed My Mind

Posted on 26th Nov 2023

Man… DeWALT tools suck!

As I got closer to retirement I started getting more serious about woodworking and building things. It seems that as most IT professionals retire, they either get into gardening or woodworking. So I guess I am sticking with the stereotype.

After doing some research and talking to a few people (not to mention seeing what others use) I started purchasing DeWALT tools to use around my home workshop. I was not a contractor so I didn’t see the point of going with something like Milwaukee tools. DeWALT seemed to be just fine for what I wanted to achieve.

I started out small, just doing minor DIY repairs and over time started looking at bigger projects such as building a self-standing shelf (a 6 ft long one) to display my collection of D&D “artifacts” I found along with a few other non-D&D related collectables. As someone who used power tools in the IT space I was always an advocate for AC powered (corded) tools. They just had more power then anything with a battery so all my tools (except a round saw) were corded.

One day I was working on replacing a front door knob to my home when I found a round plate with a screw behind it that I needed to remove. However, I could not seem to get the plate off. After 45 minutes I decided to just drill it off. Now, I have DeWALT drill bits that are designed to go through masonry, metal, and other similar materials. Given that this small 1/16” plate wasn’t that big I figured I should be able to drill right there it without a problem. However, my DeWALT drill bits failed as each broke one-by-one. After the 3rd round I decided to stop and find another option. So DeWALT failed me. Not a big deal I said. It’s just user-error I said to myself as I moved on.

However, not long afterwards, I was using my DeWALT Miter saw to cut through some wood when BAM! the blade was loose. It still cut but the brake wasn’t working. I figured I could just remove the blade and re-seat it. However, when I went to remove the bolt holding the safety guard cover on, the bolt wouldn’t budge. I tried WD-40, a heat gun, everything to loosen it up so I could get it off and nothing seemed to work. After getting a much larger tool with a huge handle, the bolt head warped but still wouldn’t come off. There was no way I was going to pay DeWALT to repair it as it would have been cheaper just to buy another one. So after that I decided to try a different brand of miter saw. However, it turns out that my DeWALT miter table is designed specifically to only work with DeWALT branded miter saws. So there is no way I can use the table with my new non-DeWALT brand miter saw. This again, became a waste of money at this point because now I had to go purchase a miter saw table (which by the way, every other brand except DeWALT makes standardized and universal miter saw tables).

So we come to the point where I needed to clean a few things up and so I plug in my DeWALT shopvac to the AC outlet and give it the go-go button and I find the sucking power couldn’t even pick up a single piece of anything. And I’m talking about stuff smaller then rat droppings?! This is crazy, I thought to myself as I finally realized that DeWALT tools doesn’t make anything that can last more then 1 year. Doing research I found many others who have had similar experiences, most of them having DeWALT tools that fail just before 1 year.

So here I was looking for another brand when I stumbled upon Ryobi. Now, one thing that concerned me at first was, Ryobi is heavy into battery-powered tools. And there was no way it was going to work as well as an AC powered tool. But I needed a shopvac and I wasn’t about to spend money on a Milwaukee shopvac so I decided to give it a try, figuring the cheap price of the unit would justify trying it out and if it didn’t work as well, I’d return it or just take the loss. Boy oh boy I was in for a huge surprise.

Not only did the Ryobi shopvac out perform the DeWALT, but it out performed almost all my other vacuums I own. I started to do more research into Ryobi and found their HP One+ series tools which all use the same battery. So one battery type to rule them all it seems. I chose to try out a bundle kit with a driver and drill driver (both HP models) and I will tell you, it was performing at or better then my AC powered drill I use. I was highly impressed (and concerned as it was almost so powerful I thought I might twist up my wrist and sprain it). Never in my life have I ever found a battery operated power tool that was just as powerful as it’s AC cousins. I was hooked and I’m in the process of purchasing more Ryobi tools to add to my arsenal.