The best Ryobi Black Friday tool deals for 2024 are good, but not as great as last year. It’s not clear why they changed things, but the differences are significant.
Over at Home Depot, the holiday season deals are now available online and in stores. While I haven’t seen the retailer’s official Black Friday sales flyer yet, the already-available Ryobi deals are unlikely to change.
Home Depot’s free tool promo was the biggest Ryobi deal of the season last year, at least in my opinion.
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With this year’s deal, you buy a Ryobi starter kit for $99 and choose one free gift.
The starter kit this time around features a compact 2Ah battery and a 4Ah battery, plus a charger. Last year’s deal featured 2x 4Ah batteries.
The selection of free tools is mixed, and also not as good as last year’s.
Basically, these are Ryobi’s cheaper tier of cordless power tools, plus some accessories mixed in (such as the powered scrubber).
Where are the HP+ brushless tools that were available as free tool options last year?
I called last year’s promo an “unbeatable value.” This promo is – not to mince words – disappointingly lame.
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Not only has the value of the starter kit been reduced, the free tool selection is uncompelling.
There’s a second promo tier, where you buy a Ryobi 18V HP brushless drill and impact driver combo kit for $199 and choose one free gift from the same pool of options.
I’m not really not liking the options pool. Was last year’s Black Friday deal so successful that they had to downgrade every part of the BOGO free tools offer this year?
There are still some great Ryobi 18V cordless power tool deals. And I don’t mean to imply that these free tools are worthless, they’re just nowhere as good of a value as what we saw last year, where the $99 “buy this” starter kit and “get one of those for free” tool options were so much better.
To illustrate what I mean, check out the values of last year’s free tools selection. The retail value of this year’s options top out at $79, compared to last year’s range of $70 to $149.
Last year, you could pick one free brushless tool with the $99 starter kit, or two with the $199 starter kit. This year, you get one $35 to $79 free tool with the downgraded $99 starter kit, or just one with the same $199 combo kit tier.
The deals are still good, I guess, but I cannot help but feel massively disappointed.
Maybe Home Depot and Ryobi will unexpectedly upgrade these promos around Black Friday, but that seems unlikely.
Robert
Stuart, as you revisit last year Ryobi deals, it brings back my thoughts back then that Ryobi users really are in a sweet spot for value. But this year’s is obviously inferior.
My impression is this year’s Black Friday month is mediocre in general. I’ve seen nothing on my to buy list on sale, nor have any of the offerings really being compelling.
Stuart
There are some GREAT tool deals and bargains right now, just not these.
S
I’m learning to not wait for black Friday any more.
It seems there’s more deals on real inventory numbers that can be had by working people that don’t have time to sit in front of a computer all day clicking refresh.
I’ve currently updated 7 of my batteries, and added 3 new power tools from my to-buy liat to my collection, for about 1/3-1/2 of what it normally costs, which I’d all rank as pretty good deals. Not murderous stampede for an inventory of 3 in the store deal, but a deal enough to justify pulling the trigger.
B.Daniels
HD has a Special Buy kit for a Dewalt Atomic Max 1/2″ wrench, plus a 5 AH battery, plus a charger, plus a bag for $169. I just pick up one of these kits.
Briancal
Not only are Ryobi deals disappointing, there are no brands offering two free tools this year at Hole Depot.
Bread
Lowes has a Dewalt 20v starter kit (2x 5ah and charger) for 279$ that offers two tools, and the selection is pretty great. Impact wrenches, XR sawzall, brushless jig.
Could get up to 440$ of value outta the free tools.
Daugi
my thoughts on this is they are trying to get rid of the low end batteries n cheap tools. there’s a new battery that’s hitting soon lithium edge, so I’m sure in 25 there will be a higher bogo using the newer battery line
Stuart
“They’re just trying to get rid of…” is not a typical Black Friday strategy for a retailer with more than 2000 stores in the USA and warehouses for online fulfillment.
Clay
Anyone know if that Ryobi scrubber is any good?
AP
I like mine for general purpose cleaning. Can’t really crank down on it but you shouldn’t need to with the right bristle brush. I use a M12 3/8” right angle drill for when I need to apply pressure and the same bristle brushes fit in it.
Clay
Nice. Thanks!
JoelLikestools
The summer deals for 99$ were not as good either. A 2 and 4ah battery instead of 2x 4ah we used to see. Also the inflator and fans models have changed to be less product for more money.
eddiesky
I don’t think HD or Lowes have much deals. Its either an EOL product, a clearance because conflict with Husky/Kobalt or someone else got floor space. Sure, we see some cheap battery deals…but where are all the flatpack-gonna-save-the-world batteries with more power, and cheaper price?
I nearly twisted/sprained my wrist this weekend…using 18V dewalt with 5AH battery,… don’t underestimate the power of a 1/2″ drill with a DC motor and holesaw!
aaron+s
I picked up one of these starter kits, and the batteries don’t have the two added contacts that the newer Ryobi batteries have had. Are these going to give me crappy performance with Ryobi brushless tools? I’m mostly Milwaukee, but lots of Ryobi odd balls so I’m not sure how picky it’s worth it to be?
Jeremiah
I’ve noticed that HD is giving a lot better Deal of the Day specials as compared to the Black Friday or other seasonal sales. Sometimes you’ll also find some great tool deals on the Deal of the Week page, but most of the time that page is showing other items they want to push, like Splits or mattresses or other materials etc.
I have heard from the TTI rep that the sales should get a little better once Black Friday kicks off. He didn’t specify if it was the offerings/tools or just the prices.
My issue is these deals are on tools I already have. I’m looking for the miter saw and table saw to get a decent discount.
B.Daniels
I agree. I’ve seen some great Deal of the Day or Halloween Day special. The two 4AH Ridgid batteries, plus charger, plus bag for $79 was an insane deal. Didn’t see it advertised much and deal was one day only.
Today, at HD, I picked up a Special Buy deal for Dewalt Atomic Max 1/2 brushless wrench, plus a 5AH battery, charger and bag for $169. The wrench alone is $219. I don’t expect this kit to last long.
Scott K
I agree – I was hoping for a leaf blower after missing out last year. I saw that printed sign in my local store a week ago and that made me think the deals were set for the season which is a bummer.
Mark S
I agree. I saw the signage as soon as it was up in my store and I was honestly confused as to why it was so lame. Ryobi has always had a sweet spot in value, function and marketing. And when these deals come up they can leverage any or all of them.
Not this year.
I think it’s mostly a cost/inflation reaction. Trying to balance the raising costs with the “it has to be on sale now” mentality.
But these “Green” deals straight up suck this time around. That $199 kit should yield teo freebies, not just one.
As another commenter said, HDs Deal of the Day or Pro pick of the week deals typically run better values. And way more often then they used to be. I snoozed on a Dewlt framing nailer last week, added to my cart at 6AM, left the house for work, forgot about it until about 2PM and it sold out. $229 for a bare framing nailer would have been awesome!
Here nor there. I do agree with another comment that Lowe’s has good Dewalt deals too.
Derrick Wells
I was at home depot and did not see this anywhere, maybe it is in the US.
I did get two 6Ah batteries on Amazon for $89.00
Stuart
Sorry, I only cover USA deals and developments.
Jon
I’m also bummed about the holiday says. I get that deals on basic kits may get new users into the battery platform, but I wish Ryobi/HD would also come up with a way to offer deals on bare tools. Maybe “buy 2 save 10%, buy 3 save 20%”. I don’t need anymore batteries!
Ryobi enthusiast
There is a good Ryobi battery deal at HD right now. It’s not a featured sale, but you can get two 18v 4ah batteries for 79 bucks. No charger, but if you’re like me, I got four chargers left from last year’s battery deals. Then you can buy a bare tool and the total amount you spend won’t be too high.
Stuart
(Here’s the link)
AP
Wouldn’t mind snagging a few USB lithium tools from Ryobi but they seem stingy with the deals.
harry henderson
i want to pick up the RYBOI cordless vac, the one you get free with purchase, however, i’ve i’ll ready got two batteries as part of good deals for a couple of other RYOBI tools so i don’t want to buy more batteries just to get a free cordless vac. it seems lately that all the specials involve getting more batteries. it reminds me of the old monty python skit SPAM. “but i don’t want any [more] batteries!”, “well then get the batteries, batteries, batteries and drill. that doesn’t have too much batteries in it”
Stuart
A lot of these deals are like cell phone and cable contracts; they’re designed to entice new customers.
Scott K
You can typically return the batteries for a partial refund. It sometimes shows you the value of each portion of the purchase when you go to checkout.
Musky
This is through the 27th. Black Friday is the 29th. Wait for the new ad .
Stuart
Signage says thru 2/3/2025. These types of deals NEVER change after they launch.