Ryobi has been advertising their new cordless drill on social media, and they rolled out a new comparison that puts Craftsman to shame.
We recently posted about the new Ryobi 18V HP brushless drill – see Ryobi 18V Next-Gen Cordless Tools Dial up the Power – which they say “delivers over 35% faster drilling and up to 850 in-lbs of torque to power through the most demanding jobs.”
Indeed, the newest Ryobi cordless drills do have shockingly high torque specs, at least compared to the types of tools the DIY and homeowner brand is typically known for.
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Ryobi took their new cordless drill, which is so powerful that it requires an auxiliary handle, paired it with their new high performance Edge tabless Li-ion battery, and compared its performance against a compact Craftsman cordless drill.
It’s a very uneven matchup, with the Ryobi completing a series of large self-drilling holes while the Craftsman stalls on first one.
These are 2 different classes of cordless drills, and they’re powered with 2 very different types of power tool batteries.
On the other hand, while this is a very lopsided comparison, Craftsman doesn’t have a comparable cordless drill. Why not?
Looking deeper, I found some other interesting things we should probably talk about.
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First, the new Ryobi cordless drill is now available for sale via Home Depot, and it’s kitted with a different 4Ah battery than is shown in the videos. The videos show the drill powered with the new Edge tabless Li-ion battery, but that’s not what you get with the kit.
It also seems surprising that the new Gen 2 model, which just launched, already has dozens of reviews and a 5-star rating.
But if you click through to the reviews, the most recent one was posted in September 2023, where someone says they got a different hammer drill for $40. All of the reviews go back a couple of years and are for different products.
This is a single-SKU product page with 47 reviews and an overall 5 star rating that don’t apply.
You might be thinking that maybe Home Depot and Ryobi simply updated the product page for the Gen 1 model, but they didn’t. The Gen 1 is still available – see it here.
So if the dozens of reviews and 5-star rating aren’t for the new Gen 2 model or even the Gen 1 model, where do they come from and why are they shown on the product page for the newly launched Ryobi HP Gen 2 cordless hammer drill?
They seem to take some shots at Kobalt as well, without naming them.
But is Ryobi comparing their new drill’s performance to that of the Kobalt XTR 24V Max brushless drill, which delivers 1200 in-lbs of max torque, or a different model? At this time the Kobalt kit is $99 for the drill with a battery and charger, compared to $179 for the Ryobi kit.
I’d like to see a video comparing those two models – the Kobalt 24V Max with 1200 in-lbs max torque and the Ryobi 18V brushless with 850 in-lbs max torque.
Home Depot also has a comparison video, features a spray-painted competitive model, as well as Ryobi’s HP Gen 1 model. This strikes me as a more professional approach.
KokoTheTalkingApe
The user reviews on Home Depot are garbage. Often they’re for an entirely different product, or just one piece in a multi-piece kit, like the battery. And that’s if you can even tell if they’re for the wrong tool.
mikedt
I find far too many HD reviews have “review part of promotion” tagged to them. You eliminate all of those and there’s very few real reviews.
eddiesky
True. And most negative reviews aren’t related to the performance/usage of the item. They will complain the packaging was damaged mostly or the review is from outside. Even the “verified” are so filled with excrement. I mean, Review is either “Works as advertised”, “Did the job, its amazing, I can see rainbows…” or its “Box was damaged. I returned it”.
Eric
I knew the shady random letter brand 3rd party sellers on Amazon were using those tactics by swapping out listings of well reviewed products with completely different ones to make their product look like it was good. But you kind of expect that from some fly by night company that at best is operating in a grey area. It’s pretty disgusting that legitimate companies are now using those awful tactics as well.
Jared
On the one hand, if you don’t know what you’re looking at – it makes an impression.
On the other, if Ryobi wants to play that game… they’ve got LOTS of options for their competitors to poke fun at.
I own some Ryobi tools myself and while some models (the HP tools in particular) are pretty good, they also have some budget stinkers.
Tdot77
Nothing unusual going on here just your normal scammer shadiness. Brand new tool just released with dozens of ‘reviews’ that are all fake. And then comparing tools drilling through wood with a self-feed but with non-comparable batteries. TTI & HD playing dirty games. Straight up Scammers!
JR Ramos
Regarding the reviews on HD, since they started aggregating them (worst idea ever) you can select “Current Item Selections” in the filters and then see only reviews for the item itself. When you do this for this new drill it has zero reviews.
No scammers or shadiness or fakes, just irritating web design decisions.
You can do the same on Amazon where it’s helpful, once you open up the main review page instead of the inline review section on the main product pages.
Stuart
If you have tool-only and kit SKUs on the same page, that’s where aggregated reviews could come in handy. In this case, there’s no benefit other than for Ryobi to have a high review count and 5-star rating at launch. How many consumers are going to click through to the reviews section and then play around with filter options?
Even if not intentional, this is still an example of how aggregate reviews can be misleading. Where are these 2 and 3 year old reviews even coming from, is it because they’re for Ryobi drills and this is a new drill?
I brought it up to Ryobi/Ridgid and Home Depot years ago, and eventually realized that nobody cares as long as it’s making them money. I also asked Home Depot multiple times about why their Canadian website has country of origin info on every product page (at least that I’ve checked) in the specifications section, but not the USA site.
JR Ramos
I don’t think this mess was Ryobi’s or any other vendor’s decision and they have no choice in it. If it benefits them (or doesn’t) that’s all on HD. They can just as easily get dinged hard by inclusion of a product with more negative reviews.
COO is a mess, too. Amazon just recently changed up their pages and now you can’t see that at all anymore (it was never definitively accurate anyway with so much grossly outdated listings/information and multiple sellers being able to edit AISN pages). If it’s available still I couldn’t find it directly. I’m sure they did that to help prop up their majority china vendors given the USA manufacturing sentiment of late.
Ram12375
Good tip JR, I didn’t know that. It still took me a minute to find it as you have to swipe left on the individual star ratings to find it on mobile. But there it was, hiding off screen
Ak-Adventurer
The Koblt XTR HAMMER Drill is $240, and currently only comes with 4ah battery and charger, which would be the direct comparison here, since this Ryobi is a hammer drill, kit. Comparing it in cost to the Non Hammer version of the XTR is apples to oranges.
Up to about 3 months ago the XTR hammer drill was available as a bare tool for about $180. That disappeared about the time I had the money set aside for it.
The Non XTR drills, both hammer and non hammer are both 800 in-ibs. They run about $150 for a Kit, and $80 to $100 for a bare tool, Normally. Lately the Kit has been on sale a lot for around $99.
I did a LOT of comparing current drills and specifically hammer drills this winter, for upgrading my ice auger drill. Don’t need a hammer drill for an ice auger, but already owning 5 cordless drills, if I was getting another, I needed to add a feature other than gaining torque, to justify the purchase.
The closest I could get comparing UWO numbers from Craftsman, Dewalt, and Porter Cable(who use UWO ratings, but are also listed with in-lb ratings on their official site, and on at times on product boxes, which gave a base line to compare the other brands to), the current Craftman v20 hammer drill comes in at about 600 in-lbs. The “RP” unit puts out more than the “standard”, but no idea how much…
A good reading of the lower output of the Craftman is that NO side handle is required/included, something that used to be “legally” required above a certain torque. (I think I read that on This site several years ago–unsure.) (Then again the craftsman is $100 less than the lowest of the rest too. )
I was extremely dissapointed by this. I’ve been very happy with Craftman V20 tools so far, and have several that are good working tools, even used professionally, a great value. They do hold up, so far anyway. I have the most batteries in this brand right now, and it would have been simplest to go Craftsman for the ice auger.
in my opinion, IF you have the batteries, (or the adaptors), the Ryobi is a good value for the cost at 850 in-lbs. IF you know the tools will hold up to your tasks;
For me it was too many maybes on a brand I hadn’t ever owned or, or even used(no one I know runs them professionally, I’ve never seen one outside of a Home Depot). Plus I find Ryobi batteries overly bulky for what they are. I wasn’t interested in a new to me brand and experimenting on a outdoors tool; I went with the Kobalt XTR because I have tools and batts already, (have more Craftsman and PC though), and know what they can take. The extra ~400 in-lbs was a no brainer. 😉
I also managed a bare tool on the secondary market from a guy breaking up big tool sets, brand new for $80, but thats apples to oranges again. 😉
Stuart
You make a good point. However, for less than the $140 price difference between the Kobalt XTR cordless drill kit ($99) and the hammer drill kit ($240), one could also get the Kobalt brushless rotary hammer ($99 tool-only), which would do a much better job in masonry drilling applications.
eddiesky
Those bits look like some serious wood threat! I think Ryobi might be upping their “edge”. But the color scheme still yells “Monster Drink!” or toys. Even Festool, a pricey and pro tool, its colors of deep purple and bright green or grey systainers…look like toys.
Next month, I am getting the Ryobi kit of Stapler and brad nailer (both 18guage) for my niece. She wants to upholster and also do interior moulding/trim repairs. And this kit is the price of one Milwaukee nailer.
A-A-Ron
Does the new Ryobi have anti-kickback? Because the Kobalt XTRs, which have been out for a few years now, do.
Craftsman doesn’t have an elite drill to compare to the Ryobi drill because, just like Porter-Cable before them, it seems like SBD has a glass ceiling over them and doesn’t want their features to compete with, let alone overshine, DeWalt’s offerings.
Luis
It doesn’t have anti Kickback. My guess is this Ryobi only competes with the regular Kobalt Brushless Gen 2 drill at 800 in-lbs but way lower MSRP
A-A-Ron
How weak of Ryobi. If you’re going to bring another brand up, and you’re promoting your top-of-the-line drill and battery tech, you’d best do the same for the competitor. I’m glad to see them get rightfully called out for this silliness.
MN_Josh
Anyone else notice that the times in the video screenshot are 15:84 vs 24:89? Why not 16:24 vs 25:29? I mean, that’s how time works. It’s just weird.
Stuart
Seconds and fractions of a second?
MN_Josh
Well now, don’t I feel stupid. Isn’t that usually noted by a period not a colon?
Stuart
I initially thought the video was sped up, and was confused again after seeing your comment.
MM:SS is standard for minutes and seconds. Fractions of a second are indeed denoted by a period and not a colon. So it would be SS.FF
SS:FF breaks from accepted standards, and you’re not the only person confused by this. Basically, don’t feel bad.
NASA has a good rundown on ISO 8601: https://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/iso-time.html
NIST: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/FIPS/fipspub4-1-1991.pdf
ElectroAtletico
This is very very silly of Ryobi. Just highlight your product, don’t worry about the rest.
I’m glad that I saved $100 and went with the 20v Hercules drill (I already own plenty of batteries and a couple of chargers).
Fyrfytr998
While I am skeptical of this video. I’m not surprised. Everyone knows Stanley stepped the Craftsman RP line down to make sure they can’t out work the DeWalts. They made that mistake once by making the USA branded Craftsman drills and drivers too comparable. In some YT videos the USA Craftsman’s won the head to head with their DeWalt twin.
SteveP
As noted – many of the reviews on HD and Lowe’s (etc.) are unreliable. I do find it useful to start with the one-star reviews (on Amazon as well) and see what issues people report. Often they are *delivery* problems which have nothing much to do with the product, but do indicate how some are packaged for shipment. That’s good to know because you can buy in-store or have it delivered to the store so you can refuse it if damaged (things like shower enclosures seem problematic)
Often on HD the supplier will respond to questions and that is also informative. Many times they ask the customer to contact them directly for action, which is also a positive sign in my book