That Time We Talked About Ryobi’s New Tools

This is episode number 120 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hacken, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could be with us for this exciting episode of The Homeowner Show.

That's right. Exciting. It's new. It's different. It's exciting. You've not heard this one before because we've not done it before.

We hadn't done it before.

That's right.

Yeah. It's Christmas time, man.

I this is my favorite time of year. There's the bumpity bumps.

We're just gonna we gotta ride it out. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. It's classic. I miss one every once in a while.

It's all right. People who know, know, right?

They know.

So it's my favorite time of year.

I'm not a meticulous man, Kevin.

No, you're not. No, there's a lot of things you are. That's not one of them. Uh, I do love Christmas. Yeah, for so many reasons.

Have you gotten your lights up yet?

Well, that depends on what you mean.

Well, you've got the inflatable things out in the yard, right? Yes, but no lights.

Well, we, we have some like No, the, the lights that are not the icicle lights that we talked about last episode, I did not put those up this year.

Okay.

Um, we've got some other— they're like ornaments. They're large ornaments that are lit.

Okay.

And they're kind of in our doorway. There's 5 of them. They're in our doorway. We've got the, the Elsa blow-up, the little puppy dog. So we're somewhat festive, and we've got our tree Which is huge. It's a 10-foot tree and it's massive.

Uh-huh.

Um, like inside your house? Yeah.

Is this a new tree?

No, yeah, we've had it for like 3— yeah, we've had it for like 3 years. Someone gave it to us. Um, it's one of those old ones you have to put each branch on.

Oh.

Yeah, it's old. Uh, one of, one of our mutual friends gave it to us and, um, we were looking for one, but they're pretty— I mean, to get a 10-foot artificial tree, they're, they're expensive.

Yeah.

And This one's really nice, but it's not pre-lit. And so you got to put the— I mean, it's, it's a lot of work, uh, to make it look good. But, um, we get, we got those big windows in the front of our house. And so we've got one, one of the windows that we, we open up so you can see the tree outside. Looks nice.

Yeah.

So we have some more things that we want to do that, to do to the house. We just, we're not quite there yet.

I got to tell you, pre-lit artificial tree. Is— I love that thing.

Yeah.

I mean, like, and it's, um, so it has multiple settings on the lights. So you can do colored, you can do white, you can—

Yeah, so it's LED.

Yeah, so you can cycle back and forth between colored and light and fade in and fade out and da da da. Best thing on the planet.

Yeah, um, so, so there's definitely pros and cons to pre-lit. One of the cons They're mostly pros, by the way. One of the cons is you, unless you want to put more lights on it, you just kind of have the number of lights that it comes with.

Yeah, you have that, right?

And if you want a brighter tree than that, you got to put more lights on it or just deal with the fact that you're not going to get a brighter tree. But I mean, it's a lot of work putting on lights. Yeah, stringing it, stringing a Christmas tree is—

It's the worst.

It's, it, I mean, so from start to finish, putting up that tree took me 4 hours. And it probably should have taken me longer than that, but I ran out of lights. I need it. I need— like, at the end of the season, I'm buying more lights.

Okay.

Um, because I don't want to buy a new tree. It's a whole lot cheaper to buy new lights than it is to buy a new tree.

Well, and like, if you like— and if you just go with like a real tree, yeah, I mean, then you get like all sappy and sticky and—

Well, my, my wife has real bad allergies, and we, we Thankfully cannot bring a real tree into our house. I love a real tree.

I mean, like I really do. I mean, I think I'm pretty like when I was a kid. I mean, like we almost always had a real tree.

Okay, we never did.

I like the smell of them. Yeah, you know, I get that the pine needles drop and all that kind of stuff, but it's just it's it's you know if you can it's fun.

Yeah, I don't I mean I don't disagree. There's something there's something awesome about going. As a family, picking out the tree, you know, fitting it through the window.

Yeah.

Getting it home, whatever. I mean, it— I, I get it.

Yeah.

It— we've never done it. It's not a thing for me. I like the artificial tree just fine.

Yeah.

So, and I only have to buy it once. And I'll just tell you, buying a Christmas tree every year, they're not cheap.

No.

I mean, they're— I mean, artificial ones, I mean, you're north of $200 easy.

Yeah.

But that's like, what, 3 years of buying an art— a real tree?

Oh, I don't know what—

yeah, I mean, like, these days I was just at Walmart the other day and they're $80 for a real tree. For a real tree.

Wow.

Now that's Walmart. I mean, you can probably get it somewhere else for less, but, um, although they are the shop for less place. Yeah, but I would say that, like, I mean, even if it's $50, that's 4 years and you've paid for an artificial one. You keep artificial one for a long time. Yes. So I mean, I like our artificial tree.

I mean, you know, I miss the smell. Maybe I'll just get one of those like, uh, car fresheners.

There you go. Yeah, it's problem solved.

Or just a sprig and I'll just shove it in there.

Just enough.

Just, just that one.

Yeah, yeah. Well, we had a, we had a funny incident happen at our house, uh, yesterday actually. So I was coming home and, um, Normally the yard guy— so there's a yard guy that does the, the, the lawns on either side of our house and one across the street. He kind of does them all at the same time. Normally comes at the end of the week, but for whatever reason, um, he came on Sunday.

Okay.

And so he's just kind of wrapping things up, and I mean, it looks really good. I'm like, ah, great, now I'm gonna have to go rake my leaves because theirs looks so good. Um, And within the hour, he's still kind of cleaning up. He's been doing all kinds of work over there. Within the hour, a windstorm comes. I mean, and it's been raining all day too. I'm kind of like, why are you— I mean, he's been mowing through the rain.

Oh wow.

I mean, which I, I just don't do. Like, if it's wet outside, my, my mower is not commercial. Those commercial ones will do it, but sure, uh, unless they get stuck. But yeah, and anyway, that it can happen. So Oh, with this windstorm come and it, it was a— you were— you live close. Yeah, this storm came with a vengeance.

Yeah, it was.

I mean, I've got one of those— I don't even know what they're called. They're, they're— they almost look like the needles off of a pine tree, but it's just straight up tree, right? It's just real skinny.

Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about. And I don't know what they're called either.

I mean, this thing was like almost touching the ground on either side, whipping back and forth. Yeah, yeah, almost touching the ground. I'm like That might not make it. It might completely uproot. Uh, and I've got so many leaves like in front of my door right now because it's just like a vacuum, right? And like all the work that he did, there's, there's leaves all over those yards. He just spent hours and I'm like, that's got to be the worst.

That's when you walk away.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, because, because, you know, it's like one of those Hey, I thought you were gonna come clean up my yard. And he doesn't speak good English, so I'm not gonna talk like he does. Sure.

He's like, I did, but you practiced and you can.

Yeah, no, I had it prepared. Okay, but we're not gonna go there.

We're not gonna be offensive.

I'll just say this. You're not gonna be offensive.

No, you leave that to me.

Well, I, I, I'll just put it this way. I use Google Translate with him all the time. He's a great guy. I really like the dude. But I can't speak Spanish.

Oh man. So, so I've been here for a couple bad windstorms. The worst one, uh, which I don't even know if we've ever talked about this on the show before, when I had the tree fall through my house.

No.

Um, which on this house.

Okay.

Yeah, that was fun. Um, because, well, on that one in particular, if you haven't listened to any stories about my house before, my kitchen is on the second and a half floor. Every time, every time you say it It gets more funny because it's true.

It's just, I'm like, I'm like, yeah, it's still, it's, it's second and a half floors.

And let me, let me ask you, Kevin, because like I, I use that all the time to like tell people what my house is like.

Yeah. Is there a better way?

Nope. Because you, to describe my kitchen?

Nope. Okay. It is 100% the most accurate way you can describe your house. You have You have a first floor, a second floor, very clear second floor.

Yes.

A second and a half floor and a third floor.

Okay.

And your third floor might have possibly been meant to be an attic.

I don't know. I don't—

probably not the way it's built. Yeah, because there's stairs going up to it. But yeah, you clearly have 3 floors and then there's a second and a half floor.

Yeah, I didn't know if like the second and a half should be a third floor and the other one should be a fourth. No, no, no, because there's I know it's in between the two, but like, well, normally that would be the third and the fourth floor.

Yeah, but there's like, what, 6 steps that go up to it?

Yeah.

You cannot call a whole nother floor 6 steps.

So maybe— so maybe, maybe you could make the argument that it's a multi-leveled second floor. No.

Second and a half. Not to mention the fact it's not the entire— it's not the entire floor.

It's just—

I mean, because then you couldn't walk underneath it. Well, I could, but most people couldn't. And And so it's only kind of on half. So that's the other reason it's a half. It's on the half of the—

Yeah.

So it's a second and a half. That's the only way you can describe it.

All that to say, I'm standing in the kitchen looking out through the window, which is the prettiest window in the house, by the way. Beautiful. I watched the tree go through the house from there. Like it comes right at me and it goes through the porch.

Yeah. Oh man.

So yeah, it was scary. But anyway, this windstorm yesterday, I saw something I've never seen before.

Okay.

It blew off a traffic light.

Really?

Yeah. I was going, I wanna say it was on 1488. For those of you that live around here, I was driving down 1488 and there was like just traffic and just like random traffic on a Sunday afternoon.

That's odd.

And I was like, well, this is weird. And I finally get up to it and there was 3 traffic lights and the one on the far right-hand side had been blown off the line and just splattered into the middle and third lane.

Weird.

Yeah. And so there were like, when you drove up on it, you were like, what's all this stuff in the road? Yeah. And then you look up and you're like, oh, like that, that fell down from there.

Yeah. And, and it's like seeing a sign right up in person. You have no clue how big those things are until they're on the ground next to you. They're huge.

We're really lucky like it didn't fall on somebody.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because Because you would, you would literally, you would be in bad, bad, bad shape if that landed on your car.

Oh yeah. I mean, it might go through the cab.

Absolutely. Yeah, it's crazy how big they are. Like, I was actually up next to one of those, um, I was going crossing the street at one point not too long ago, and I was doing— you saw the little walk sign? You walk— yeah, yeah, those things are huge. I mean, which, you think about it, okay, they kind of have to be, but They're huge.

Well, and they need to be dense in order to like withstand weather, which obviously that one did not.

Well, I'm telling you, man, we— I don't, I don't know. I mean, those were 50, 60 mile an hour winds that were coming through here. It was pretty nasty. It was, it was crazy.

Like, it was, it was one of those that like, it felt kind of like a windstorm in Dallas almost, you know, the ones that kind of like when you're going on the highway can kind of like shift you on the road.

Dude, I grew up in West Texas. Like, I, I—

West Texas has—

which I'm sure people in like Kansas and Nebraska are just like laughing at us. No, no, no, no, there— I promise you, growing up where I grew up, there's nothing to stop the wind and it just blows for days. That's why they're like— there's wind, wind, uh, mill farms for days out there right now because there's an endless supply of wind.

It just—

it's always windy. I remember going to Chicago and going—

I was fixed to ask that.

Who named this place the Windy City? Because they've never been to West Texas, ever, ever. Yeah, I mean, what— it's crazy.

I mean, because I think everybody knows Chicago as the Windy City.

Yep.

Or like most, most people probably do.

But actually, here's a really, really crazy, um, thing, a bit of history. So the town I grew up in It's called Lamesa. And, um, its original name before it was Lamesa was Chicago. Chicago, Texas. A long, long, long, long time ago.

Texas has a long history of, uh, you know, trying to abdicate the names of other famous cities.

Yes. So they've done a pretty good job. Yeah, there's a bunch.

Yeah. So anyway, today, uh, we're actually doing a pretty cool deal. Uh, and we, we may do this with some other brands, but just, was it last week?

Yeah.

Like, so like very, very recently.

Yeah.

Ryobi did a major news drop announcement of all these new tools that they're, they're hitting the shelves in '21. And I, some of them have specific release dates. Some of them don't have specific release dates yet.

Um, all 2021 though.

All 2021.

And I will say before we get any further in this, So did you watch— did you watch the, uh, the whole like news thing that they came out with? It's like 52 minutes. Did you watch the whole thing?

I didn't watch the whole thing. I watched most of it.

Okay, I didn't watch the whole thing either. I just— I ran out of time, but I started at the beginning. Did you start at the beginning?

Yeah.

Okay, so at the beginning they have like, like the bigwigs in, in the company come out. Um, just so you know, people out there in the stratosphere that are listening right now, They called it Ryobi.

Ryobi. That's right.

Yeah. Every single time. Every single time. I noticed that. They called it Ryobi.

I don't know. I've never met anyone that pronounces it that way.

Nope. And they touted multiple times that they're, you know, in Home Depot exclusively, right?

Yep.

And I've never heard a Home Depot employee say, well, the Ryobi stuff— I mean, the Ryobi stuff is over there. They always say Ryobi.

Ryobi.

I've always called it Ryobi.

Yeah.

The people who are advertising the new products that are bigwigs in the company are saying—

Made it a point to say Ryobi numerous times. I noticed that too.

Yeah. So I don't— I'm probably going to continue to fail in saying it correctly, but I think I'm gonna think every time I do, like, I think I should have said Ryobi just now.

Yeah, I think I want to hear from folks on this one because like, I, I think we're probably in the majority here. And I think, I think the people over there at that company, and I'm not going to say their name because I don't want to like trigger them, but I think they might need to consider coming over to the good side.

Yeah, because I mean, it's, it's like La Mesa. Uh-huh.

A lot of people say La Mesa.

Oh, all the time.

Yeah.

And, and I'm like, look, I grew up there. I lived there. for 18 years almost.

Well, so, but you're arguing for them now because I'm like, they work there.

No, that's what I'm saying. Like, but, but the point is there is a common— there's a common way to say something and then there's the right way to say something.

Yeah.

So, um, that, that's kind of my point though, is like whether it's common or right, which one do you go with?

Yeah.

You know? But in this case, I think Ryobi is— it's what people say.

Yeah. So, well, like, in talking about like city names, like, I, I have a good friend who grew up in El Dorado, but there's also El Dorado.

Yep.

And they're spelled the same.

Yep.

There's 2 totally different cities.

Yep.

What the heck, Texas? I don't know.

I, I lived in McKinney for 3 years. McKinney, Texas is north Dallas, and, um, there's an El Dorado Street. That's what I grew up hearing it be called, but it's El Dorado. Everybody there calls it El Dorado, right? And so I started calling it El Dorado because that's what it is.

Well, because it's a good John Wayne movie, you should pronounce it that way.

Exactly. I'm just saying. But, um, I grew up thinking El Dorado, and That's what it is. It's like Kirkendall.

I feel like if I didn't say it that way, I would get punched by the Duke.

Yeah, and nobody wants to get punched by the Duke.

You mispronounce my movie?

No. Yeah. Anyway, so we're, we are going to talk about Ryobi. Ryobi, call it what you will.

Um, Ryobi.

But they— exactly. Uh, they introduced a lot of stuff.

So I, I will say this, so like, because I did watch their video. Yeah, I feel like they need our help.

Okay.

I found their video lacking.

Okay, well, on what level? Because I did too. I'll tell you this.

Multiple levels.

Part of it, I guarantee that I am so completely jaded by Apple. I am so completely jaded by their presentation of products.

Yeah.

That this felt like someone out of their garage.

It did.

I mean, and it's totally—

but Well, fair enough. It felt like someone in their garage trying to copy Apple. Yeah.

Yep. Mm-hmm. Because Harald Finn was like, and now we're gonna pass it off to so-and-so to give you more information. It's exactly what Apple does, only they do it seamlessly and really, really well.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

I'm jaded. Well, you know, props to Ryobi. Ryobi. That's gonna bug me all night.

The entire episode's gonna be like that.

I hate you guys. I hate you. That's right. Um, pick a lane.

Yeah, I think they did. I think it's— I think it's us that's definitely trying to—

Pick a lane I like.

Pick the right lane.

Anyway, uh, what was I saying?

Chalk it up to something, I don't know. Oh, I was—

it was like I was giving them props because like they obviously used real employees.

Yes.

Who have never been on video in their life.

Right.

Mm-hmm. Um, and like, really, you're fascinated by teleprompters.

Yep. Nope. I thought that 100%.

So anyway, like, so I was excited to watch this stuff because I knew they were going to be coming out with, with some neat things that I was going to be interested in. But I was like, oh, this video is bad. It's really bad.

Yeah. So I thought the same thing. Yeah.

Now some of their, uh, oddly enough, the guy that I felt like performed the best was like the rep from Home Depot.

Yeah. Okay. That is exactly what I was about to say. That guy was like, he was full of energy. He was excited to have his job. Yeah, he had done his homework. He was ready to be there. Yes, he was. That's exactly— so funny you said that. That's exactly what I was thinking.

So anyway, what I thought, and you can interject here, Kevin, I thought we would run through the list of tools, and then you and I were gonna zero in on a few that we were excited about. And I'm gonna handle the 18-volt, you're gonna handle the 40-volt.

I got the easier job.

Yeah, your list, your list is shorter, right?

Yeah, so, um, there's a total of 26 products and only 7, I think only 7 of them were, uh, were 40-volt.

Okay.

The rest of them were all 18-volt.

Okay.

I think that's right.

So, and, and what, before I go through the list, one of the things that I know you really wanted to, we've talked about this before, but you wanted to zero in on the fact that like this is all brushless.

Yeah, so I think that that's something we, we've mentioned this on an episode before when we were talking about some of the new Ryobi stuff, and I said that on purpose, um, is that there's this new technology called brushless. And that is a weird term because it's very technical.

Yes.

And when you think of it, you think, oh, there's an actual brush. This is something like— this is— what is this about? It, it is very simple in what it actually means. It basically means that, uh, the tool has a motor that adjusts its speed and its torque and this— the amount of power that it supplies, uh, whenever you pull the trigger, um, based on whatever task it's doing. So it's very smart. So if you're driving, uh, a screw with the— with a drill that's brushless into pine 2x4, it doesn't have to work all that hard because pine's a pretty soft wood. If you're drilling it into walnut, it's gonna have to work harder. Or if you're trying to drill into a piece of concrete, um, it's

gonna have to work harder. So the amount of power and torque that it supplies whenever you pull that trigger is directly congruent with the pro— the project that you're working on.

Right.

So it's intelligent. You don't have to do anything with it. It just kind of knows. And so this brushless technology What you wind up getting with it is you get a, uh, a more efficient battery use because it doesn't have to work as hard if it's not needing as much power.

Right.

And so it will conserve battery for that. Uh, it will also give you more power when you need it. So it's not just a one— whatever amount of power the, the drill will do is what the battery will supply.

Right.

Um, it's just very intelligent and it's intuitive. So Um, you're getting a more versatile, more powerful, a longer lasting tool. The tool itself is just built better, and so it's gonna last longer, um, not just battery-wise. I mean, the amount of time you can own it will be longer. So yeah, it's a little bit more expensive than the other stuff. Part of it's because it's a new technology, but on top of that, you're getting a superior product in many, many ways. So All of the tools, you, you will not see another manufacturer right now build a brushless tool, not with a battery.

I mean, you won't see with them—

I don't think you'll see another, another company, whether it's Ryobi, Milwaukee, DeWalt, uh, you know, Skil, whoever it is, I don't think you're gonna see them not do brushless from now on. Okay, it's the way of the future, and the, the technology is new. The prices are a little bit more expensive what you're getting out of the tool is way better.

Surely we'll still see that normal kind of stuff at like Harbor Freight and—

Yeah, I mean, I think so, but I was at Harbor Freight just the other day and they had brushless tools.

Fine, I would assume they have brushless tools, but—

So I, I just think that the way of the future for now is going to be this brushless technology.

Yeah. So, um, all that, that being said, all of the tools that we're going to talk about today Okay, well, and, and one of the things that you mentioned that I think is, is worth bringing up that they talked about is they— the way that they've improved their batteries. That was a big deal in that video, and I don't— they didn't spend a whole lot of time on it, but I think it's something worth mentioning, uh, because the batteries are now— they're smarter batteries.

Yep.

In, in the sense of what you're talking about with like the brushless motors, the batteries are distributing power in a different way now.

It's actually a different type of lithium battery.

Yes.

So, uh, it's still lithium battery, but it's got different technology in the battery. And, um, if you, if you ever want to see what that looks like, like, go Google the EGO battery and let— I mean, the EGO has got some incredible technology inside their batteries, and other people have caught up with that.

Yeah, Tesla's got incredible battery technology, so Yeah, and I've already got some of these new, uh, Ryobi batteries.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, and they're fantastic.

Yeah. And they've got an LED readout for how much power consumption they're using or how much they've got left. Yeah. So with a little indicator. Yeah. Yep.

Um, which if you're familiar with like, uh, DJI products, they're very similar. They're smart battery, like a DJI battery, which those are crazy expensive, by the way. Um, but anyway. Um, so new batteries, more power, longer lasting, all that kind of good stuff.

Yep.

So anyway, let's get into the tools. Let me, let me run through these for you real quick. So first off, right off the bat, we've got a 4-mode half-inch impact wrench.

Yeah, so that's, that, that is like a, what you would consider an air gun for, like a, like a torque gun that you would take off lug nuts with, right? That's what that's for.

Yeah.

Okay.

You have a 1-inch SDS Plus rotary hammer. This is a tool you use to drill through concrete, to get up tile. You can use it as a chisel, as a hammer. Very, very powerful rotary hammer. Next up is an 18-volt push mower.

Yeah.

So this is, this is, this is kind of cool just because it's 18-volt. All the other ones have been 40-volt up until this point. Um, and so this is, uh, I'm not gonna get in— this is not one of the ones I'm, I'm more excited about. This may be one for Kevin. Um, I don't, I don't know which ones you're excited about. This one's interesting, but it was— it didn't make my list, but it's interesting nonetheless.

It's not to me either, but let me just say something about it right now. What it means is you don't have to buy a different battery to have this mower, right? That's huge.

That is huge.

So, you know, one of the things that Milwaukee has had going for it for so long is that all of their products, both indoor and outdoor products, power tools and outdoor products, I should say it that way, are all built on their 18-volt battery. This is a step that I think Ryobi is making to say, look, we've got a mower that can work on 18 volts.

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I could be wrong, I'm fairly certain Milwaukee does not have a mower that operates on their 18-volt.

I haven't seen it. Uh, that maybe they may have it met today. Yeah.

And we're gonna—

I don't remember seeing it.

And we're probably gonna do the, the, the new tools for '21 with Milwaukee too, because they have some really interesting ones as well. I did not see a mower in there.

I didn't either.

Um, and I haven't seen one from anybody else. Um, that's 18-volt.

No, I haven't either.

Um, so they may be the first. Um, which could be good, could be bad. I don't know.

Yep.

So anyway, next is the new circular saw. The next up is the hammer drill. Following that up is the new string trimmer, which again, significant about that is 18-volt.

Yep. And it— a weed eater.

Yeah.

If you're wanting to know what a string trimmer is, it's a weed eater.

Yeah. 4-mode impact driver. So, and, and that's not going to be on my list either. I don't know about your list. Is that on your list?

Nope.

So one of the interesting things about that one is one of those modes is a stabilization mode.

Yeah.

Very, very cool. Which, if you ever used an impact driver that got hung up, it like, it won't get hung up like that and like twist you around.

Right.

So very, very cool. After that, the angle grinder slash cutoff tool.

Very cool.

They've never had one of those before.

Right.

Um, a blower, like a leaf blower. Uh, and then a standard impact driver, a jigsaw, uh, a chainsaw, uh, a just standard drill driver, um, and a hedge trimmer. And a multi-tool, right? And I think that's it.

One more.

Oh, the auger.

No, actually there's 2 more. Yeah, there's an auger and then there's also the reciprocating saw.

Reciprocating saw.

Yep.

And that's it. Yep.

So that's it.

There you go. There, there's the list for you. Uh, you can actually go to, uh, ryobitools.com and, and find out lots and lots of Cool information about each one of those. Uh, Kev, what do we have in the 40-volt line?

Okay, so moving over to the 40-volt line, um, there, there's, there's fewer tools, but you're using a battery that's, that's got more than twice the voltage, right?

Right. And this is a newer line for Ryobi too. I mean, like, they— how long have they been doing the outdoor tools?

It's been a couple years.

Yeah, it's not— it hasn't been that long.

No. Um, And, and they've, I think they've still got the most number of tools in the 40-volt line of the outdoor equipment. I think I could be wrong about that. Um, but, uh, so the new stuff, so they've got 2 mowers. Uh, one of them is, uh, a crosscut self-propelled mower. The other one is just a self-propelled mower.

Okay.

Um, and so, you know, basically, uh, The, the difference is the crosscut has 2 blades on it, whereas the regular self-propelled just has 1 blade like a traditional mower. So it just does more work with the crosscut.

Okay.

Then they've got a string trimmer, uh, they've got a hedge trimmer, an auger, and a chainsaw. Now here's what's interesting about that. Every single one of those products is available as an 18-volt. And a 40-volt, right? So I, I think the thing you have— there's 2 things you have to kind of think about in your mind. What kind of work am I doing? How often am I doing it? And, uh, how much do I want to buy a whole nother set of products? Yeah, because this is a different line.

I imagine these are more expensive.

They are.

They have a little bit more power. That's right. Okay.

They're, they're going to be heavier.

Okay.

They're going to be, um, just bigger in general. And you've got a whole nother set of batteries at this point. You know, 18-volt batteries do not fit on these, you know, nor do they work on these. So it's a whole nother, it's a whole nother ecosystem in some ways, even though it's, you know, same products as far as the brand goes. It's kind of a different ecosystem though. So let's, let's, um, Well, let's start here.

Let's, um, get into the juicy stuff.

Yeah, so, you know, I've already kind of mentioned something about the self-propelled mower. I'll tell you right now, um, I will not ever buy another gas-powered mower. And I wouldn't have said that 2 years ago.

Yeah.

Because I didn't understand. But any battery-powered or electric-powered, uh, mower that I've ever seen has been completely underpowered. It couldn't do the job. And it ran out of battery too fast, or, you know, you had to drag it. What? I mean, seriously, of all the things you want to do, you want to drag a cord around while mowing the grass? How many of those— Sharp blade that's spinning. Exactly. Come on now. Um, so I'll tell you right now, I will never, ever, ever buy another gas-powered mower. I don't think it's responsible to do so. I don't think the emissions you're putting out is good. The sound output is not great. Um, and it just doesn't make sense. I mean, the, the

ga— the battery-powered mowers— this is crazy, I'm gonna say it anyway because it's true— are more powerful than the gas-powered mowers.

Mm-hmm.

And so especially whenever you consider one that's got a crosscut blade on it, that's incredible. Um, so, uh, I have a uh, the EGO trimmer, right? We've talked about that. There's a whole episode that we've done on that. And so, um, I will tell you that once you get up into the, the 40-volt— I mean, the, the EGO stuff is a 56-volt. Once you get up into that higher voltage, it's got a lot of power. So I, I would, I would go into the store if you're interested in trimmer and, and check that thing out.

Yeah.

You know, Um, but I think the thing, um, and they've got a chainsaw. Lots of places have chainsaws, um, as far as lots of different brands go. Uh, this is an 18-inch chainsaw, so it's a big dude, you know. But it's gonna be a whole lot lighter for you to carry around, especially if you're climbing a tree or something trying to get something down. It's gonna be a whole lot lighter than carrying around something that's gas-powered. Um, but I think one of the things that's really interesting to me is this auger.

Mm-hmm.

It's an 8-inch auger, right? That's not a small— No, that's not little post hole that you're trying to dig, you know, with this. Um, but it's got some— it's got 3 different speeds on it. Um, it's got what, what they call anti-kickback technology. So, you know, again, kind of what you were talking about with that impact, if like, if, if it starts to torque on you, it's gonna kind of stop itself, which is huge because Um, you've used an auger before, I assume?

Oh yeah, we, we have a big one.

Okay, you got to be careful.

Yeah.

I mean, you, you can, you kill yourself using one of those things.

I mean, even like on like a normal one, if it's like, if it's a single person auger, yeah, you can really easily like break a rib.

Yep.

Break your arm.

Yep.

I mean, like, they're, they're very, very powerful.

Yes.

Um, yep. And you know, they're designed to spin.

That's right. Powerfully.

Yeah. They don't care which end. Nope. And they got a lot—

they got a ton of blades on them.

Yeah.

You know, like this one continuous large blade, right? So they can be, they can be very dangerous. So this anti-kickback technology is a smart way to go. And, um, they're, they're saying that it's a really good fit if you're trying to do, um, like digging for fence holes, you know, fence post. Yeah, those types of things. It's gonna be perfect for landscaping, um, you know, any light cultivating or preps, prepping of soil for, you know, if you're trying to, you know, put in a plant or something like that. Yeah.

So this, this one was on your list?

This one was on my list.

Is it the 40-volt or the 18-volt?

This is the 40-volt.

Yeah.

So I think it, it may be on your list too for the 18-volt, but this 40-volt, it's gonna do a lot of work. Yeah, it's gonna be a workhorse.

The, the 18-volt is definitely on my list, and, and in my business we have an application for it that would actually be like really, really helpful if it works. Yeah, I'm, I'm very suspicious of the amount of power that thing can actually generate, uh, because at least around here— I mean, I don't know about other parts of the country, um, but we have a lot of clay. Yeah, and clay is difficult if it's dry, and it's difficult if it's wet.

Yep.

Um, and, and like augers have a hard time with it.

Yeah, they do.

Um, and, and we even have like power auger on the back of like a tractor. It's like an immersion, uh, auger.

Yeah.

Um, you know, that's hydraulically controlled.

Right.

That thing struggles. Yeah. You know, and so like, I'm, I would just be, I'm very curious as to how well the 18-volt one would perform.

Yeah.

Um, if it does, I'm I'm excited.

Yeah.

Um, and, and part, part of the reason is because, I mean, like, we, we just got done outfitting all of our company vehicles with Ryobi tools.

Okay.

Um, like, we, we set up all of our guys with, like, a full set of all this. The, the catalyst for that was the, the backpack sprayer. Yeah, honestly.

Yeah.

Um, and once we had that, it was like, well, this is a no-brainer going forward. I mean, like, we have all these other tools these guys can use now because they've already got the battery, they've already got the backpack. Like, let's just go ahead and set them up.

Yeah, and the tools are pretty inexpensive, really. Yeah, when the batteries are the most expensive part of this system, you know. Now, one thing I do want to mention, um, is that the 18-volt is a lot lighter, that auger. It's also a 6-inch auger instead of an 8-inch auger, right?

But I mean, well, and still the other thing I'm curious about is a lot of times with augers, and I don't, I don't know about this one that because they didn't mention it, um, you can change the blades out. You don't have to use a 6-inch, you could use a 4-inch, you could use, you know, um, there's, there's typically options.

Yeah. So, uh, one of the things that it says here is that it's got a quick connect 6-inch auger, and I would assume, um, that the other one is a quick connect 8-inch. It's very possible that they're interchangeable.

Well, I don't know, they're either interchangeable or replaceable. Sure, because you do have to take them off to sharpen them from time to time.

Sure. So I would assume that you can, you can buy an extra blade for it somewhere. Yeah. Um, and most likely any 6-inch auger blade, I mean, as long as it can attach, it will work. But, um, Again, it— I mean, it says kind of the same thing. It's great for digging fence posts and landscaping work.

Let me give everybody a tip real quick on this kind of stuff, um, because I mean, like, like, like you mentioned, we have one, you know, but a lot of times depending on the soil I'm in, my drill actually works better.

That's true.

Uh, so I— we have auger attachments for our hand drills. They're just much smaller bits.

Sure. Um, and can you— do you have like a 4-inch auger or is it more like a 2-inch auger?

I, I have multiple sizes.

Oh, okay, cool.

Yeah. Um, and my, my cordless drills tears it up.

Yep.

Because I can take smaller chunks. Yeah.

And you can also, if you got a hammer drill, you can hammer through some of that stuff.

Um, they don't, they don't work with hammer drills.

Oh, they don't?

No.

Um, what's the difference?

If it— sorry, I'm thinking impact.

Yeah, no, it's not an impact.

They don't work with impact.

So I've got a hammer drill.

Hammer drill works fine. Okay.

Yeah, sorry, wrong term for me. That's all good. Yeah, so the only other one that I want to mention is I'm, I'm really interested to, uh, to try out the hedge trimmer because—

Which one?

The, the 40-volt.

Okay.

Because I've got, um, I've, I've got a Ryobi ONE hedge trimmer.

Okay.

It's an old blue one.

Okay.

So I got a lot of the older, older blue Battery powered? Yeah, it's battery powered.

Okay.

Um, which is something I—

that was one of the things I meant to mention earlier when I was talking about the batteries, is they made a big deal about their newer batteries working perfectly with the old blue tools.

Yes, yes, and they do. I mean, I, I, I don't even have any of the nickel, uh, batteries anymore. I've only got the lithium batteries, and I've got a bunch of the older tools, and they still work. Um, but I— so I've got a hedge trimmer. The problem with it is it's slow. And it, it, it'll do the— it'll do a pretty good job. I mean, I've cut some, some pretty good-sized bushes with it. Um, but it just, it's just kind of slow.

Right.

And it's just, I mean, I would imagine that this 40-volt has a lot more power behind it and its ability to cut is going to be a lot stronger. So, um, I, I'm interested to try something like that. Um, I'd also like to see how it fares against— we're talking, once you get into the 40-volt line, we're talking outdoor tools. Yeah, we're not talking handheld power tools, we're talking outdoor tools. The EGO is a, is a system I'm really interested in, and I've got a battery for, for that already. I'd like to see those head-to-head.

Do they have a hedge trimmer?

Yes, they do.

Okay.

Yep, they got a couple of them. They got 2 different ones.

Um, so you should send one over.

Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to, love to check it out. So talk to me about your picks on the 18-volt besides the auger.

Yeah, so obviously the auger we already hit. The next one would be the multi-tool. Um, and part, part of that is because I don't think Ryobi's had a multi-tool in their lineup before.

I don't remember seeing one.

Um, and I, I had one. I had a Porter-Cable one before this, and I, I really loved that tool. Um, but I just decided to get away from that line because they weren't innovating worth doodah. Um, and I was just, I was getting kind of bummed out owning them, honestly. Yeah. I mean, they're good tools.

Yeah.

But like, I mean, like, give me something.

Yeah. And, and a lot of them are even, uh, they're corded. And, and, you know, sometimes it's like, I need to be somewhere where, and honestly, a lot of times, even with the multi-tools, like I'm, I'm drilling somewhere where I mean, I'm trying to cut into a place here. I, I don't have a good power source.

Yeah, you know, so mine were all cordless. Okay, 20-volt. Yeah, so I mean, like, again, they were good tools.

Sure.

Um, there's just, you know, not a lot of selection.

Yeah.

Um, but anyway, um, one of the tools I missed having from them was my multi-tool.

Yeah.

Um, which, if you've never owned one and you're interested in doing like any sort of trim work or cutting holes in sheetrock. I mean, like, when they say multi-tool, they mean multi-tool. I mean, like, you could do lots of different— they can even do sanding.

Yeah.

Um, if you really, really want to, they— you can get the— and I'm pretty sure everybody across the board uses the same head attachment.

I think so too.

On those. Um, so, and again, this is the new brushless, so it has a variable speed trigger.

Yep.

Um, and it also has a different kind, um, My multi-tool was just on and off, and then you had a variable speed that you could adjust. Okay. This one, it looks like it has. I'm gonna pull this up here real quick. Make sure I'm getting this right.

And do do do do do.

Yeah, very. Okay. So there's a variable speed dial, but it's also trigger sensitive.

Hmm.

Um, which is very, very cool.

Yeah.

Um, and then it also has, um, one of the things we were pointing out on my new set from Ryobi was how well the lighting was done.

Yeah.

On, on these new tools. And they've adjusted the lighting on this one as well, and it looks like it would be a lot more helpful, right, than any previous version. So I'm, I'm excited because they've not had one. And I think I even mentioned this before, like, it looked like they were kind of going this route with the new HP compact, like they were going to be bringing out some new tools. So I was really happy with this, with this new, you know, batch of tools that they came out with, uh, that, that this one was included.

Yeah.

Um, so anyway, really excited about that one. We'll probably go pick it up. I, you know, I'll probably be able to pick it up for around $100. It seems like that's what they're dropping all these new tools around. Um, the next one for me is, is gonna be that, uh, I mean, yeah, there it is. the SDS Plus rotary hammer.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Yeah. So if they're able to actually deliver this in an 18-volt package, I'm gonna be blown away.

Yeah.

This is something that I actually use pretty regular in my work. We use it to drill holes through concrete.

Really?

And like little like half-inch holes through concrete. And but like, again, it can be used for lots of different things, you know, like the chisel and the hammer and, you know, all those different kinds of things. If it actually performs, it's going to be incredible for us. Um, because, you know, we, we have some big industrial ones that we use on a regular basis, but they're corded.

Right.

And so a lot of times we're in a situation where we're like, man, we've got to run like 2 extension cords to get— that's not good for the tool, for one.

Right.

Um, but sometimes, I mean, unless you want to haul around a generator, right, that's the only option you've got.

Yep.

Um, and I ain't hauling a generator. No.

And I mean, this takes hammer drill to a whole different Yeah, I mean, it, it, it— if you've got a drill that doubles as a hammer drill, yeah, this is like an actual hammer drill.

Let's see if you guys can, can actually see that. I mean, just to kind of get perspective on like how big and massive this thing is. Um, it— I mean, like, you're not holding it with one hand, right? Um, so it's, you know, it's a big piece of equipment. And the fact that it's, you know, I— when I saw this in their you know, they had like all the tools together in the back and they're like going there. I was like, well, man, that's a hammer drill over there. I bet you that's going to be on the 40-volt. Yeah.

Nope.

And like, nope, it's on the 18-volt.

Yeah. Not only that, it's got a really cool like shock absorbent technology. Did you see that?

Yeah.

Whenever they were testing it, like, and it's for the battery. It's— yeah. And it's just the way it— but it doesn't shake your whole hand too. So like, just, it's not going to jar you to use it like you would think it would. So, so it's a pretty cool tool.

So yeah, anyway, those are, those are the ones I'm excited about. We'd be interested in hearing from you guys if you guys were able to watch any of this or been able to go to the link and, and look at the tools they got. Which ones are you guys interested in? Which ones caught your attention? Um, you know, I imagine there's a lot of people pretty excited about the circular saw. Yeah, because that should be a pretty powerful saw.

Yeah, for, for a small blade, it's a 7¼-inch blade, I believe. Um, it— that's a That's a nice— that's a nice set, uh, of, of tools there with their— with their— coupled with its jigsaw. Um, I mean, I've got a jigsaw, the blue one, and I, I might go buy this one because, I mean, it's gonna be so much more powerful than the one that I've got.

Oh, sure.

And, and I, and I do woodworking, so like that, that one's pretty interesting to me. For sure.

So, so anyway, there's a lot of interesting tools on here, and those—

Yeah.

These are just the ones that caught Kevin and I's attention. Uh, we'd be interested in hearing from you guys which one catches your attention. And what's another, uh, tool line that, uh, has caught your attention maybe for '21? What's, what's dropping some cool tools? Uh, I will tell you, Milwaukee has done some stuff right off the bat, and that may be the next one that we do. Um, that I thought was really interesting.

Yeah.

Um, they, uh, they're doing lots of interesting things right now.

Yeah.

Um, and it's Milwaukee. Milwaukee does really, really good products. Um, so, you know, always interested to see what they're, they're up to as well. Um, but, uh, yeah, if you guys, if you guys hear of, uh, anything interesting in the tool world, we want to know about it and we can get on there and get the information out to everybody.

That's right.

This, this we felt like was a really important one to talk about because I mean, like, This is a much more accessible tool line.

Yeah, well, and one of the things that they said, I don't know if you noticed, whenever they were doing the videos, they said, um, that for, uh, for professionals, you know, that aren't just weekend warriors, professionals, it's a cost-effective option.

They—

the, the, the owners of the company were saying that.

Yeah, this is a cost-effective option.

Multiple times throughout the presentation.

Multiple times.

They were talking about just that we've made this accessible where Some of these other tools, they're more expensive. Um, oh yeah, and, and, and they've got over 175 tools in their lineup. There's, there's not another lineup that even comes close. No, they've got— I think one of the things they said was more than 3 times the number of tools in their series.

Kevin, I saw an ad. It wasn't really like an ad, but it was a product that came up in my feed.

It was a Ryobi floor dryer.

Really?

Yeah.

And it was—

That's interesting.

And it was like a janitorial piece of equipment. You know, like the things that you see when people put the signs out that says wet floor caution?

Yeah.

It's a holder for that sign, but then it's also got fans at the bottom to dry the floor.

Wow.

And I'm like, what don't they make? That—

well, we— when they've got like pool Bluetooth speaker things with light shows, with light shows.

Yeah, I mean, I still need to get that.

It's like they're just, they're just having fun.

I'd probably be more motivated if it wasn't so stinking cold right now.

That's true, that's true.

I really want to get one of those.

Yeah, in fact, I'm sitting here looking at a picture of all the things they've got. on their website, there's a picture of a, um, uh, like a professional-looking snake.

Hmm.

Like, like not just like a handheld.

Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Like, like, yeah, like a battery-powered snake.

I think they actually have 2 models. I'm sure they do. Well, I looked at those before. I'm still mad about the garage door thing.

Um, man, that was such a cool tool, man. That, that— what? I'm mad that they disconnect— discontinued that.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was, that was, that was awesome. If you don't know what we're talking about, they had the— they had this garage door opener that had like, uh, I think there were like 15 different, uh, accessories that you could mount onto this thing. And everything from a shop light to like a, like a, a hose.

And they all used the same jack as the batteries because you could plug your batteries in to recharge the batteries on it as well.

Exactly. Yeah, it was— anyway, it was, it was a brilliant lineup. It had like a, like a hose for your air tools, had all kinds of stuff. Yeah, it was pretty brilliant.

A lot of really cool stuff.

Yeah. So, well, I'll tell you what, um, there's probably something we've missed, but that's just because there's so much to talk about in this lineup of tools that, that Ryobi has. And, uh, we encourage you to look it out. I mean, we, we've, we've done some pretty interesting stuff on, on, on social media before, kind of getting people's opinions of what's their favorite lineup that's out there. And there's a lot of opinions, and a lot of people just, you know, really dogged on, on this, this line of products. And Craig and I have them, and we have them because they're good. I mean, they work thus far.

So far, disappointed?

Nope. Yeah. So, well, listen, thank you guys for, uh, for downloading today's episode. Uh, one of the things that Craig and I were talking about just before the episode aired is that we are now on every possible platform available. So if you're trying to listen on Apple, we're there. If you're listening on, uh, Google platform, we're there. If you're listening on Pandora, we now are on Pandora.

We are now. I know you, you, you early announced that before and we weren't on there. We are now on Pandora. We are. And I, I went and listened to it today.

Yes, we are now on Pandora, we're on Spotify, we're on Stitcher, Stitcher, all of the— if you can—

Audible. Did we say Audible?

Nope, but we're on Audible. We're there. So, um, you have no excuses and neither do your friends. So tell your friends.

YouTube.

Yep, don't forget the YouTube. We put new, uh, episodes out on, on YouTube.

You might be watching this on YouTube right now. It might be You idiot. I know that because I'm watching this.

Exactly. So yeah, wherever you prefer to listen to the podcast, yeah, we're— we are there. And so no excuses.

Hey, are you— are you doing the new, uh, social media thing that everyone's evacuating to?

No.

What is that thing called?

Uh, Parler.

Parler.

Yep. Yeah, you're not on Parler? I'm not an early adopter.

No?

Nobody really is because it's been out for like 2 years. It's so—

has it been out for 2 years?

Yes. Yeah, Parler's been around for a long time. People just started jumping ship whenever they didn't like the privacy things that, uh, that Facebook was putting into place. There were— well, there was not privacy as much as it was censoring. Facebook was doing some censoring that people didn't agree with, so they were jumping ship. And it's funny because everybody was like on Facebook, hey, here's my handle over on Parler, I'm jumping ship. I'm like, no, you didn't. Obviously you're still here.

Anyway, then you had to come back over here to let everybody know. Exactly.

And then go find the next day. The next day you had your pictures of your grandkids. So it's like, nope, you hadn't left.

I haven't checked it out yet. I'm going to. Okay, I want to see what it's about.

Yeah.

Um, but there's a ton of them now.

Oh yeah, it's too much.

So I don't have time for all that.

No, neither do I. Anyway, thanks for downloading the episode. We hope you enjoyed it. Please, if you have any questions, if you have any comments, send them over to us, info@homownershow.com. Find us on Facebook, uh, all, all of this other places you can find us. Uh, but I will say this, one of the most helpful things you can do for us is to go to iTunes and leave us a rating and review. Yep, that's one of the most things— one of the most beneficial things you can do is do that for us. But yeah, you got anything else, Craig?

That's it.

All right, man, thanks for downloading. We'll talk to you later. See ya. See ya.