Ryobi announced that they will be launching another 18V 4Ah cordless power tool battery, called “High Performance Edge.”
The Ryobi 18V cordless power tool platform currently has an 18V battery and an 18V High Performance battery. The 18V High Performance Edge battery is advertised as delivering more power and runtime, cooler operation, and a longer lifespan.
The battery is built with 21700-sized Li-ion batteries with “tabless” electrode contacts.
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Ryobi claims:
this all-new ONE+ battery provides more power and longer runtime while running cooler and living longer than other ONE+ batteries in a more compact size.
Ryobi says their High Performance battery “Provides up to 30% more power than standard lithium.” Press materials offer an example where the new 18V Edge battery delivers 75% faster cutting than Ryobi’s standard battery, but they didn’t otherwis quantify the boost in power.
The new battery, model PBP1104, is set to launch in Summer 2024.
Discussion
This looks like an interesting direction for DIYer cordless tool brand, although having 3x 4Ah batteries – all capable of delivering different power levels – might get confusing.
Will the Edge battery replace the current High Performance battery?
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Ryobi hasn’t said how much it will cost.
21700-sized Li-ion cells with tabless electrodes? Nice.
Here’s an important part – Ryobi says the battery is forward and backwards compatible with all of their 18V tools, which is definitely a concern whenever a battery with new physical size is launched.
Ryobi and Ridgid 18V cordless platforms – exclusive to to Home Depot and both developed by TTI North America – seemed to have focused heavily on compact brushless tools in recent years, with Ryobi 18V HP and Ridgid 18V SubCompact products.
Now, with this new larger and higher performing battery, can we expect to see a new line of higher-performing Ryobi 18V cordless power tools?
Ryobi could have done better with the name, in my opinion, and with all of the stickers, the battery looks ready for Nascar.
It’s going to be more powerful, potentially bigger (but shorter), and presumably more expensive.
I didn’t see this coming. Were Ryobi cordless power tool users asking for a more powerful 4Ah battery?
With a summer 2024 ETA, we’ll know more in maybe 7-8 months.
Briancal6
If batteries are forward and backward compatible, could that possibly mean that new tools would not work with older batteries?
Stuart
I doubt that would be the case.
I see tool and battery compatibility as one of Ryobi’s core competitive advantages.
its_jake
The fact that they are sinking more resources into the old post format batteries says to me that they wouldn’t do that. The only thing in their 18v battery ecosystem that ever seemed to be incompatible is some chargers with some battery chemistries.
This is reinforcing my black friday decision to switch over from a relatively small collection of Makita tools when my drill driver failed a second time.
My guess is that it may be sort of like flexvolt advantage where it will work just fine with non HP or Edge batteries, but would work MORE fine with the nicer battery. Plus it gives a more up-market kit option I’m sure. The bigger and badder drills with the bigger and badder batteries.
David Z
For years (over a decade), Ryobi has emphasized that all One+ tools work with all One+ batteries. I doubt they would move away from that.
If they want to evolve in a different direction, I’d suspect they’d drop the post and make a cheap adapter. Alternately, they’d use a new name. This battery, of course, keeps the same form factor and One+ name.
Stuart
Hart?
Joe H
HAHAHA, Blue Ryobi
Tony
Some of us do remember when Ryobi was blue
Boomer
I still have a blue and yellow drill, seawall and 5 in circular saw, they work great with the modern battery’s
Dus
Probably not. I suspect they would introduce a new battery form factor with an adapter to work on old tools. Similar to what dewalt did, then phase it out over a year or two. Ryobi seems to be a sandbox for tti.
David Beath
Hmm. I’m no electrician, but I don’t understand how batteries with the same voltage and amp hours can have different power levels. Different size, lifespan, etc, — yes.
Stuart
You have two pitchers, each with the same capacity. One has a larger spout, the other has a smaller spout. Which fills your cup faster?
Voltage ~ force exerted on water exiting the pitcher.
Amp-hours ~ how much water a pitcher can hold.
Amps ~ the flow of water from the pitcher.
Things are getting more complicated.
What flows more easily from a bottle with the same size spout, ketchup or salad dressing?
Internal resistance ~ viscosity of a liquid.
These are loose analogies, but hopefully you get the point. I’d say that battery tech sits somewhere between electrical engineering and applied physics.
Debra
My green battery works my blue drill
Jared
No doubt Ryobi will maintain compatibility, but it seems like this new battery may herald the introduction of high-draw tools that may not play well with the smallest batteries.
That’s the point of battery tech like this isn’t it? To make tools that can benefit from the extra power.
If you instead slap a 1.3ah compact pack onto a new high-draw tool, it might fit and turn on but be underpowered and have poor runtime.
Boomer
This is basically how it work even if you have a HP 1.3ah. They just dont have the punch. I mainly use the 4ah’s, works with all tools and the price point isn’t to high.
Jerry
I still have a couple Ryobi NiCad batteries that aren’t quite dead yet. They will power my HP brushless tools, but at a reduced power level. So I’m predicting that the old batteries will still work on newer tools, just not to the full potential of the tool.
Robert
“Provides up to 30% more power than standard lithium.” The “up to” implies under ideal conditions, or a mediocre standard lithium. So the actual gain could be less, not too compelling a sales point. Not sure if I was a current user and didn’t need to replace a dead battery, that I would bother upgrading. At least Ryobi is honest.
Stuart
Right. But we don’t know what the “up to X% more power than” is here compared to the “standard” or existing High Performance battery.
Ryobi is upgrading to 27100 cells and tabless, which should provide a substantial boost in current delivery.
928'er
Right, the big change is that they are replacing the old 18650 cells with higher capacity 27100 cells.
Stuart
This is the order of Ryobi claims:
More Power
More Runtime
Runs Cooler
Lives Longer
Other brands came out with compact 4Ah 27100-based batteries at least 6 years ago or so. Such batteries were advertises as matching the performance of 10-cell 18650-based batteries.
Ryobi’s top claim is “more power,” and at some point they’ll likely quantify it, because that’s what customers and end users want to know. “Why buy this battery over Ryobi’s two other 4Ah batteries?”
928'er
With my Bosch 18v tools, the “Core” batteries with 21700 cells made a significant improvement in performance over the standard batteries with the 18650 cells.
So, I’d expect the same improvement with Ryobi tools.
Dabmanjones
I will be grabbing one of those new ryobi batteries once they drop jist to see how it is. I’m sure w the 21700 and tabless will be a significantly noticeable improvement in power n runtime…
Luckily I decided to hold off when they released the 8ah n 12ah batts a while back just due to the sheer size… and I’m glad I did cuz like 2 months after those dropped I saw someone post about this one, lol.
But still I went to home depot and asked to see each of those and just held them and sad naaahhh..
The 8ah wouldn’t be bad like maybe in a Sawzall or angle grinder but fuck that 12ah. I weighs more than like 3 impacts put together lol…
I’ll be happy enough w those new 4ah 21700 ones when they drop..
If I need more power than that for anything I’ve got a 3d printed adapter tti use flex 24v batts , n I’ve got the 3.5ah n 6ah stacked batteries, which give me more than enough juice but just te adapter adds to how they stick out from the tools which can be cumbersome at times..
I am excited to see how this new tabless battery tech compares to the stacked pouch lithium, given all the hype around it from everywhere… I figured the new ryobi 4ah would be a good comparison w the 3.5ah flex stacked..
Backcountry164
“Up to” is standard legalese intended to deter frivolous lawsuits
Rog
“Up to” is the standard use term across almost all marketing claims. Even if 30% *is* the repeatable average, “up to” adds a lot of wiggle room to make the legal department happy.
MikeS
Go to the Ryobi site and watch the video of them using the same circular saw cutting the same material, with 4 different batteries, and you can clearly see what you get for your money with each battery.
This is exactly like M18 Forge – where the 6ah Forge == 12ah HDO (or whatever label they give it, I forget) in terms of sustained work it can do (obviously, not in runtime).
Rob
Are they going to credit recently purchased batteries?
Kat
According to the article these batteries won’t be out for at least 6 more months so maybe just don’t buy anymore until then? But if you’re saying you just purchased batteries then no, I highly doubt you’ll be credited considering 6+ months from now won’t be considered “recently purchased” anymore.
Backcountry164
Will they work in the cold? That’s the only issue I have with half of my batteries.
James
Really? Lithium? I have never had an issue in as cold as -40 although I try to do as little work as possible in those conditions sometimes the wife is insisting 😉
Eric
The chemistry is the same, it’s just the format that is changing. So I expect them to behave similarly to the other batteries.
Eric
I am curious if they’ll fit in the waterproof boxes on some of the tools. I just looked and an M18 6.0 is slightly to big to fit at the corners, and extremely tight on the sides. But it has square corners and this battery looks to have rounded corners. I wonder if that’s enough to let them fit.
Rik
Ryobi batteries are BY FAR the worst part of their line-up…I have been strongly considering upgrading all my home tools to Dewalt, at considerable expense, just BECAUSE of the battery…