Ryobi is launching a new 18V cordless drill, model PCL201K1, which is advertised as having a lightweight design for overhead use.
Marketing materials mention in multiple places that the new Ryobi cordless drill has a 3/8″ keyless chuck.
Personally, I am okay with 3/8″ chucks on 12V-class drills, but expect 1/2″ chucks on 18V-class drills.
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But, if that makes this drill lighter and more compact, I suppose I can see how it could align with some users’ needs.
I then took a closer look at the images and specs, and it seems that the drill is missing some things.
Where’s the adjustable torque clutch? Speed selector switch?
Ryobi doesn’t mention the max torque, and the online user manual refers to the wrong model, so I couldn’t find it there either.
They do give the max speed – 600 RPM.
- 3/8″ keyless chuck
- 600 RPM max speed
- Variable speed trigger
- On-board LED worklight
- Weighs 2.8 lbs
Price: $60 for the kit
ETA: February 2024
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Or, you can buy Ryobi’s 1/2″ cordless drill, with 2-speed selector switch, 515 in-lbs max torque, and adjustable torque clutch. That model is $59 right now, for the kit with a 1.5Ah battery and charger.
I feel that this drill is like a chocolate chip cookie, but without the chocolate chips.
Ryobi’s basic 1/2″ cordless drill kit is $59 right now, but the new 3/8″ cordless drill kit will be $60? Maybe it will be on sale seasonally for $39 or $49.
It’s never good when a brand leaves the max torque spec out of a cordless drill listings, either intentionally or not.
As for 600 RPM max, that’s decent for a low speed setting, but will be anemic for most drilling tasks.
No adjustable torque clutch means this is a (slow) drilling-only tool.
I keep thinking “who is this for?” and the only answer I can come up with is “someone who wants to spend as little as possible on a basic cordless drill.”
They wouldn’t make something like this if there weren’t users asking for it, right?
John
600 RPM is stupid low as the highest speed for a drill. Just seems as if this is a race to the bottom for specs and price.
Dustin
Nothing but a Tonka toy but thats ryobi in my opinion anyways.
Dtf
The rpms seem pitiful but as for the clutch I don’t believe I’ve ever used it to my advantage.
WS
The clutch is absolutely necessary if you need to drive a bit into soft material (pine, thin gauge sheet metal) without stripping the screw head and/or need to do it consistently.
John
An impact driver is a better choice for driving fasteners, and over driving isn’t an issue with them if you’re careful since they don’t have almost any inertia.
Cam
If you are screwing in a lot of M3 machine screws the last thing you want in an impact driver. Even screwing fastners into soft wood, learning to set a chuck appropriately can save you a lot of time regardless of how careful you are
Nate
Yep. Impacts are not for precision work. Give me a good drill/driver with clutch or a dedicated “driver”. Impact drivers are very nice, but I don’t use them for precision work with small fasteners.
Kevin
Funny. I feel the same way about the clutch…. On any drill. Kinda a useless feature. The variable speed always did the trick for me
Michael F
There are applications where a clutch is absolutely indispensable. Fastening screws into wood without stripping them is one thing that immediately comes to mind. I’ve installed multiple doors recently and the electronic clutch on my Festool CX 12 helped ensure I didn’t strip any of the hardware. The clutch is also super useful building IKEA or other flat pack furniture that heavily uses engineered wood. Otherwise, I agree that an impact is what I’m reaching for.
Chuck
I use the clutch on the lowest setting when working with plastic toys. Helps speed things up without stripping the plastic.
Sure I could buy another 4v drill, or do it by hand, but using the clutch makes the drill more versatile.
rob masek
For most apartment dwellers who need a basic drill, this fits the bill. This is an entry level tool to get people the ability to do a simple task.
Hon Cho
Yes, inexpensive basic drill. Just a manufacturer filling all the gaps in the product lineup to extract money from wallets. Not intended for people who would visit ToolGuyd.
Kent
100% This drill is for drilling holes in drywall when hanging at most a tv but more likely ikea floating shelves.
Bruce763
I totally see the niche for this if it’s on sale. It’s an entry level tool for apartment dwellers or totally new (just getting their feet wet) never-did-any-DYI home dwellers. (I’ve sold houses to people like that — who ask “who do I hire to change the light bulbs?”)
About a year ago, I bought one of those crappy Amazon drills for my daughter who had moved into her first college apartment in Boson. She grew up with a cordless drill in her hand (supervised, putting together stuff from the time she was about 7), but I wanted something cheap that could be thrown away after two years.
Had this been available, I would have bought it in a heartbeat — because with the 18v battery, it would have become the first step in a the ladder for a toolbox of “good enough/weekender/” set of tools.
So I do actually see the niche for this. It’s not for anybody who reads this site. But you buy it, get the 18v battery, and then the car vac is next.
A little over priced, but a smart marketing move on their part.
James Vis
No thanks… Like you said, why not get the better drill for the same price. I understand they are primarily reaching out to DIY (like me!) and want to keep the price down, but you still need a tool that can do more than drill thru drywall, or maybe a 2x if you don’t mind waiting awhile.
Also, minor typo near the end… “means this is a (slow) drilling-only [tool].”
JMJR
I’d guess this is HD/Ryobi’s attempt to compete against the crazy cheap Amazon drills that are sold purely on price. This drill will likely be used exclusively to hang pictures and assemble IKEA furniture, so the only requirement is that it is faster than hand drilling/screwing. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s perpetually on sale for $40 with a bonus pack of basic drill and driver bits.
American2theBone
Possibly, but then just buy their USB 4v drill.
MC703
The consumer they are targeting doesn’t know 4v vs 12v vs 18v. This buyer will nor be comparing torque specs. Like the older coworker who is cutting the cord and asked me today whether to get a Fire Stick or Roku.
I asked her what her needs were (basic sticks or 4k etc) and she just wants to stream Netflix on her old flat screen.
No requirements
Samuel VDot
For $47.99 you can just get IKEA’s FIXA 14.4V screwdriver/drill if that’s all you need one for.
MC703
This is precisely it
me
Slower single speed drills are often good for repetitive tasks requiring higher torque. I worked for a guy who put in metal roofs, and slow speed Skils or Makitas were all he’d use till he was introduced to hex impact.
Jamie Lee Davis
When the ” basic ” attributes of a drill are so…… Basic….. Why? It would add little to the size of weight to be a functional, proper tool. They could even add brushless, as the cost is now nominal at best.
Joe Hurst-Waj
Just watch how many influencers start singing the praises of this revolutionary new drill!
AJS
So true. They get their free drill, do an unboxing video, using it once and talking it up like it’s the greatest thing ever.
Rafe
It’s surprising how many people don’t own a drill and or have rarely used one. Us tool people think it’s something that everyone uses or knows how to use and that’s not the case. Cheap, light and not complicated is perfect for many folks.
Saulac
I thought only drill-drivers have torque clutch? So why expect it on a drill?
Stuart
Can you find any cordless drills from Craftsman, Milwaukee, Makita, Dewalt, Bosch, Hercules, Kobalt, Ridgid, Skil, Metabo HPT, Hilti, or others that don’t have an adjustable torque clutch?
Nearly every cordless drill on the market is also a drill/driver. The same is not true for corded drills, which is where I suspect the differentiation came from.
Koko The Talking Ape
I always wondered why even new corded drills don’t have clutches.
Hon Cho
Ryobi used to have an inexpensive corded drill/driver with a clutch. I bought one for my kids to use when they were at their mom’s house. Don’t know what happened to it.
MM
I agree, these days it seems that a cordless drill is usually a “drill/driver” by default. I’m certainly guilty of saying “drill” when I mean “drill/driver”, it’s just that ubiquitous when it comes to cordless tools I rarely bother to type out “driver”. I can think of several cordless drills which don’t have a clutch, but they are all niche varieties: hammer, right-angle, stud-and-joist, and mixer drills typically lack clutches. There’s also Metabo’s high speed sheet metal drill.
MM
It sure seems strange to me. I understand the appeal of a low-cost or “entry level” drill–but this is no cheaper than Ryobi’s half-inch drill kit, which is a much more capable tool? Also, I understand the appeal of compact or lightweight tools as well, but this doesn’t really seem like either. Maybe the person modeling in the photos has small hands or I’m so used to seeing 1/2 chucks but the drill doesn’t look all that compact to me either. Also, 2.8 lbs tool weight is not very impressive if this is supposed to be a lightweight tool. The M18 Compact drill/driver & the Dewalt Atomic are both lighter than that while having half-inch capacity, being more powerful, and having a clutch & gearbox. And while those are more expensive than the Ryobi they are not exactly high end tools and weight is not their main advertised selling point.
In my opinion this drill either needs to be cheaper, otherwise why would anyone purchase it over the half-inch standard model, or it needs to have some really tangible weight or bulk savings, which it doesn’t really seem to have.
Jared
I’m with you – the price is way too high for what you get. It looks like something Ryobi designed to be an extreme budget offering, but with a tool that looks so lousy it must be hard to charge anything for it above the battery price before the entry-level 1/2″-chuck model becomes a better option.
The good news is, with a 600rpm top-speed and no torque spec, you probably don’t need a clutch and there’s nothing with a >3/8″ shank that belongs in this drill.
While some might think “light” and “simple” are appealing attributes, this drill looks so wimpy and limited that it would likely be frustrating to use.
AlexK
A long time ago, I bought the cheapest ratchets and hand tools because I couldn’t afford better ones and because I didn’t know better. If that was me now, and Ryobi had the cheapest drill, I’d find myself in their system and as I grew, I’d get their better tools because I’d have a battery and charger.
Not sure if there is any real user benefit to the drill, but if the manufacturing cost is low because of its simplicity, maybe they will compete with Amazon”s lowest cost drills and then they have a customer for years. Not a gamblin’ man, but I’m picking $29,99 as their Sale price. Just to get people in their system.
jd
I started out with a 3 or 4 tool Ryobi package deal on a black Friday special. It wasn’t perfect, but I made plenty of projects and remodeled a house with it. I’ve mostly transitioned to M18 now, but I still have plenty of oddball Ryobi stuff. The drill in the package deal was far more capable that this one, and for it’s capabilities I think a cheap impact would be better for the typical buyer.
BigTimeTommy
There are definitely people who are genuinely confused by all the “extra settings” and just “need” a drill to hang pictures and “just in case”
Probably thinking this will get people to buy into the Ryobi platform where they’d otherwise get a black and decker drill from target or something.
Brad
$60 seems pretty steep for a Ryobi that can basically drill into drywall and pine. Try, say, a 12V Bosch that’s far lighter, more compact, much better equipped, and overall higher quality. Sometimes the price drops under $100.
Mopar
I wonder if the 2.8lbs weight listed is for the whole kit or a typo?
Because otherwise it doesn’t make much sense. The bigger, better Ryobi drill that Stuart mentions is listed as weighing less at 2.65lbs than this compact lightweight featureless drill.
Stuart
They don’t specify. It’ll either be 2.8 lbs with or without battery. When it’s a kit, I tend to assume they mean with the included battery, and that seems reasonable here.
Mopar
well, the 1/2 drill you linked to is a kit, with the same size battery, and lighter.
https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/33287200184#specifications
Who knows?
AlexK
Starting out without a mentor (or Youtube), it was years before I understood what the clutch was for.
Growing up in the 60’s in Brooklyn, I used a hammer and nails to get three boards attached to a tree for my hideaway. I didn’t own a drill until I was in my 40’s. In my 50’s I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity looking to help and learn. Met someone who builds acoustic guitars and learnt what I could, but he wasn’t a good teacher. During Covid, I worked with a guy who had a woodshop and sawmill. He was a fantastic teacher and that is when I learnt to not overdrive screws. Part of my training was him having me drive screws as slow as I could. Feathering the trigger while the screw turned slowly (and being yelled at that it wasn’t slow enough!). Nowadays, people use the impact driver for a lot of drilling without a clutch.
Sorry for the ramble. The post triggered memories of learning and growing.
Matt
This is for the person that just wants the cheapest drill on the shelf. It may be a terrible purchase to those who regularly do things like ‘thinking’, but let’s be real, there is a huge market for the cheapest thing.
Plus marked down to ~$45 or less there are people for whom this would meet their needs. It would buy you into Ryobi 18v if you wanted some of the little tools (thinking glue gun, etc) too.
Don’t see many readers of this site buying though!
Shuey
Hi, thanks for your amazing articles. I’m wondering if you have a post comparing the “better drill” vs the 1/2 in HP model?
Stuart
The 18V HP models are Ryobi’s premium brushless line. If you have the budget, that’d definitely be my pick over the other 1/2″ drill.
jd
I feel like for your casual drill user would be better off with a cheap 1/4′ impact and set of 1/4″shank bits. For someone like my wife, she doesn’t understand how a chuck on a drill works, isn’t every going to intentionally change a clutch setting, and will never drill a hole over 3/8 inch. She doesn’t need high precision either. Something light weight, dead simple to use, and zero torque feedback to wrist is preferable.
kent_skinner
Perhaps it’s aimed at the IKEA furniture assembler?
3/8″ max shank means small bits, and 600 max RPM means it’s not for drilling with small bits.
I’d call it a screwdriver, if it had a clutch.
Ryobi is making some interesting stuff these days, bu this one is confusing.
Blocky
Is this there to make the other baseline ryobi look fully-featured?
Pablo
I have an older Ryobi 18v drill that I got for $39 on a holiday special it has both hi and low speed as well as a clutch. It does have a 3/8 clutch. This was back in the NiCd days.
It was well worth the price paid and I’m glad the newer Ryobi lithium batteries are backwards compatible. I’ve since purchased many nicer drills from both Ryobi and Dewalt.
While I mostly agree with Stuart in believing that a 1/2 chuck should be part of an 18v drill, many of mine that have the larger chuck can’t grab the small drill bits. When that happens I go back to my old Ryobi.
Rog
We are not the target demographic for this drill. There is a whole subset of people out there who this is perfectly fine for their use.
Harrison
Agreed.
For those people, the lack of a 2 speed gearbox and torque settings are a feature, not a flaw. They don’t need the confusion of which gear they should be in- No settings, no distractions, less intimidating to pick up and use.
At least this drill has a variable speed trigger, some ultra cheap drills don’t, and are very frustrating to use.
frobo
I’d be interested in knowing how many people reading this actually use the clutch on drill/drivers. I have probably 5 of them, all equipped with clutches, yet they’re always set in drill mode. When driving screws, I just put it in low gear and feather the trigger.
I have an impact too, but rarely use it unless I have repetitive work with large screws. It makes too much racket for my taste so I tend to avoid it unless I really need it.
MM
Most of the time I do what you do, feather the trigger. I use the clutch whenever I have a large number of identical screws to drive or if I’m power-tapping with a small diameter tap and I want a little extra cushion against snapping it.
Wayne R.
I use the clutch, sure. Great on machine screws that would cause the driver to swing around and bang stuff without the clutch (I don’t focus too much on driving those screws carefully).
kent_skinner
I think the people buying the lowest price drill won’t have the experience or feel to know how far to drive a fastener. Those folks need a clutch more than we do.
Jronman
I use the clutch on my m12 installation driver quite a bit but at the same time I’m nota fan of feathering the trigger.
blocky
I think it’d be kinda cool if it had a battery pack tether ala the recent heat gun.
The two-piece counter-twist chuck, the brushed motor – maybe this is a way to burn through a large back stock of outdated parts.
How do you think this stacks up against a Bosch IXO?
Kaspar James
This is replacing the current 18V entry drill/driver that usually retails for $49.
Not sure why they removed the clutch and speed switch, but I’m sure it was to drive costs down in material and assembly.
The people that usually buy these need the cheapest cordless drill, but love the fact that it comes with a battery and charger. It puts them in the Ryobi ONE+ system at the same price of buying a battery alone.
bg100
If I’m in charge of marketing, I’m releasing this at the same price as it’s big brother because I’m about to jack the price of the big brother. Then I can say, hey the good one’s gotta be worth $100, look at what the $50 drill gets you. I hope I’m wrong. Ryobi is exactly the right price for the tool you get.
Doresoom
Black and Decker has a 20V drill kit that comes with a bunch of drill and driver bits that hovers between $50-60. But it has a single speed 750 RPM output with a 24 position clutch. If Ryobi was trying to compete with that, I fear they missed their price target. The B&D offers a much better value for basic homeowners that just need something to hang pictures.
MT
I suspect anything that might need to go in a 1/2 inch chuck might overtax the drill’s innards.
IronWood
I’m guessing Fisher-Price is the OEM for this one.
Kidding aside it looks to be targeted squarely at people with little to no tool experience. They need a drill, go to home depot, remember the green tools from some tiktok/instagram/youtube “weird trick” clickbait video and snap this baby up for only $50. The margins on something this basic must be decent, and when the buyer eventually realizes they need a better drill, you already have them in the Ryobi battery ecosystem.
Vards Uzvards
Most often, my wife is using a drill for her soap making (although, she knows how to / when to use an SDS+ drill, or impact driver, and does it too). In this “primary use” case, this new Ryobi model would work as well as any other, more expensive thing.
IronWood
Fair point. My wife uses an M12 power screwdriver with a 3d printed attachment to spin her knitting loom. It’s not a great driver (to my mind) but boy does it turn out the hats and scarves!
Nathan
Either the specs are way off or the price is off. Otherwise it makes little sense
Meanwhile on the discussion. I wouldn’t mind a powerful compact drill without the clutch and ‘driver’ aspect. I don’t use a drill as a driver I use a driver. Love the 3 speed variable impact driver
Say it made a 5.5 inch length drill 5 inch and maybe also added some speed. I’d be interested.
Jronman
The junk I would never buy off Amazon is arguably better than this. They have lower prices and include some features the Ryobi is missing.
RCWARD
Ryobi, Why would you be surprised?
Tim
I’ve probably used the clutch on a drill 5 times in 25 years and almost every time thereafter went “nope” and grabbed a different tool for the purposes.
I think I’d be fine with the removal of this from most drills especially if it saved weight or size.
One of my favorite tools is the Metabo BE 18 LTX 6 which has neither a clutch or a speed selector.
Jeremiah McKenna
Before I bought my FUEL installation tool, I used to adjust the clutch settings on my drill a lot. When assembling furniture or installing pulls, etc., it is nice to have the lighter settings.
TomD
For one-off things feathering the trigger is fine.
For repeated use as in assembling something with fifty billion identical screws, a proper clutch setting is key.
Some high end industrial screwdrivers let you specifically set the torque so it’s just right every time. Then you just pull the trigger until it goes click.
Jeremiah McKenna
Who is this for? People that don’t know ow what they need. Would they make it unless people are asking? Absolutely. Ryobi has made things and like an Italian grandma, threw her pasta against the wall to see if it sticks.
Honestly, even if this was supposed to be a basic, entry level drill, the specs scream screwdriver. Even for a basic homeowner this is going to feel like a toy. But maybe there is a disabled person that could benefit from the light weight and low speed. Only time will tell us how this tool fares.
TomD
My wife refuses to use anything but the surge set to 1, so I could definitely see a customer for a drill that will never go faster than the user feels comfortable with.
Still would want a clutch, even if a fixed one.
Richard
just bought the clutch less Ryobi drill but after reading all these review I am returning this one for the one with features