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The batteries are a selling point for Ryobi too, they’ve maintained compatibility with one 18v design since like 1990 so you don’t wonder “are they going to rep

The batteries are a selling point for Ryobi too, they’ve maintained compatibility with one 18v design since like 1990 so you don’t wonder “are they going to replace this battery design with an incompatible one next year?” I think the companies that wouldn’t like the proprietary are ones trying to make a new entry into the market, since you have to convince someone your tool is worth adding a new battery/charger to the garage while knowing there’s not a full system of everything that could use it. If there were a standard battery it’d be easier to say “we’re a company that only makes a circular saw.”

myself248 3y ago
Yeah, I'm on the Ryobi system for exactly that reason, and still using some of my original blue tools from the 90s. They just refuse to quit, and with modern batteries they perform better than ever. It's also the broadest system, with everything from drills and saws, to lights and fans, to soldering irons and dremel-like tools. Some of their stuff isn't as compact or as full-featured as Milwaukee, and this is shitty artificial segmentation on the part of their shared parent company, but for the most part it's all I've needed. (The new HP drill with the metal chuck and anti-backdriving clutch finally answers my chief complaint about all Ryobi drills before that.) But, NOBODY, on any battery platform, or even all of them put together, makes EVERYTHING I want, and I end up doing a fair amount of hacking. Ryobi 18v is a forgiving system, with the BMS integrated into the batteries, so you can just draw power and do whatever. I made my own soldering iron long before Ryobi released their own. I've had USB outputs since long before Ryobi released their own. I've cobbled together a 100W USB-C one now, while the official ones top out at 45W. I've been using those batteries to drive an electric cooler/freezer since long before Ryobi released their own. If I hypothetically had universal batteries that would fit any tool from any brand, would that make it better? Not significantly, I don't think. Other brands don't seem to offer significantly more, or significantly earlier. If I want a lot more or a lot earlier, I have to do it myself. A universal battery would've given me an anti-backdriving drill earlier, and I could have the Makita microwave, that's legitimately cool but it's also ungodly expensive and I wouldn't buy one even if I was already on the Makita battery platform. DeWalt's radio is probably nicer but I don't even use the Ryobi radio I've got, so I don't think that matters. A universal battery WOULD be great, just for competition's sake, but in practice I don't think it would change much for me. I'm already basically there, through a combination of a very versatile base platform that goes most places, and the ability to chop things up and make new stuff when I want to go even further.
- wlesieutre 3y ago
  > It's also the broadest system, with everything from drills and saws, to lights and fans, to soldering irons and dremel-like tools. A little over the top sometimes, like do they really need 20 different cordless leaf blowers? Or is that just so they can brag about how many tools the ONE+ system has? Should I get a P21110? Or a P21140? Or maybe a RY40412VNM or PBLLB01K?
  - myself248 3y ago
    Absolutely over-the-top. They need 2 of any given tool. But over time they introduce new ones, and so it doesn't bother me that there are a dozen different drills over the years. What does bother me, as you've pointed out, is that they'll introduce 20 years worth of different tools _all at the same time._ Like, no, just pick the good one and the cheap one and scrap the rest, please. I don't count that crap when I say broadest, though. I mean, there's a battery-powered pump which is great for draining or loading medium-sized vessels, where you don't want to suck-start a siphon or maybe gravity goes the wrong way. Milwaukee makes one too, but I don't think anyone else does -- there's a third-party one that takes Makita batteries and a different third-party one that takes DeWalt batteries, but that's it. Or there's a heatgun now, I think a few brands have those now too. There's hot-melt glue guns, only Ryobi has first-party, everyone else is using adapters and stuff. That's what I mean when I say broadest, there's just a ridiculous variety of stuff on those batteries, like the overlap of all other brands combined, and a lot of it is really useful. I can't count how many times a corded hot-glue gun launched itself into my lap because I snagged the cord while moving around, and that simply can't happen with the cordless one.
    - wlesieutre 3y ago
      Yeah what I'm complaining about is more the "depth" of the product line than the breadth. I don't own anything toooo unusual, the weirdest is probably the hot glue gun that you mentioned. It's great as a cordless tool because the cord on a hot glue gun is always trying to tip it over and burn your arm or pull it off the table. And of course they do have two different hot glue guns. One where the battery locks into the handle, and one where the battery goes into a base station and the gun is a smaller unpowered piece that you pick up with some thermal mass to stay hot until it goes back on the base to heat up again.

myself248 3y ago

Yeah, I'm on the Ryobi system for exactly that reason, and still using some of my original blue tools from the 90s. They just refuse to quit, and with modern batteries they perform better than ever. It's also the broadest system, with everything from drills and saws, to lights and fans, to soldering irons and dremel-like tools. Some of their stuff isn't as compact or as full-featured as Milwaukee, and this is shitty artificial segmentation on the part of their shared parent company, but for the most part it's all I've needed. (The new HP drill with the metal chuck and anti-backdriving clutch finally answers my chief complaint about all Ryobi drills before that.) But, NOBODY, on any battery platform, or even all of them put together, makes EVERYTHING I want, and I end up doing a fair amount of hacking. Ryobi 18v is a forgiving system, with the BMS integrated into the batteries, so you can just draw power and do whatever. I made my own soldering iron long before Ryobi released their own. I've had USB outputs since long before Ryobi released their own. I've cobbled together a 100W USB-C one now, while the official ones top out at 45W. I've been using those batteries to drive an electric cooler/freezer since long before Ryobi released their own. If I hypothetically had universal batteries that would fit any tool from any brand, would that make it better? Not significantly, I don't think. Other brands don't seem to offer significantly more, or significantly earlier. If I want a lot more or a lot earlier, I have to do it myself. A universal battery would've given me an anti-backdriving drill earlier, and I could have the Makita microwave, that's legitimately cool but it's also ungodly expensive and I wouldn't buy one even if I was already on the Makita battery platform. DeWalt's radio is probably nicer but I don't even use the Ryobi radio I've got, so I don't think that matters. A universal battery WOULD be great, just for competition's sake, but in practice I don't think it would change much for me. I'm already basically there, through a combination of a very versatile base platform that goes most places, and the ability to chop things up and make new stuff when I want to go even further.

wlesieutre 3y ago
> It's also the broadest system, with everything from drills and saws, to lights and fans, to soldering irons and dremel-like tools. A little over the top sometimes, like do they really need 20 different cordless leaf blowers? Or is that just so they can brag about how many tools the ONE+ system has? Should I get a P21110? Or a P21140? Or maybe a RY40412VNM or PBLLB01K?
- myself248 3y ago
  Absolutely over-the-top. They need 2 of any given tool. But over time they introduce new ones, and so it doesn't bother me that there are a dozen different drills over the years. What does bother me, as you've pointed out, is that they'll introduce 20 years worth of different tools _all at the same time._ Like, no, just pick the good one and the cheap one and scrap the rest, please. I don't count that crap when I say broadest, though. I mean, there's a battery-powered pump which is great for draining or loading medium-sized vessels, where you don't want to suck-start a siphon or maybe gravity goes the wrong way. Milwaukee makes one too, but I don't think anyone else does -- there's a third-party one that takes Makita batteries and a different third-party one that takes DeWalt batteries, but that's it. Or there's a heatgun now, I think a few brands have those now too. There's hot-melt glue guns, only Ryobi has first-party, everyone else is using adapters and stuff. That's what I mean when I say broadest, there's just a ridiculous variety of stuff on those batteries, like the overlap of all other brands combined, and a lot of it is really useful. I can't count how many times a corded hot-glue gun launched itself into my lap because I snagged the cord while moving around, and that simply can't happen with the cordless one.
  - wlesieutre 3y ago
    Yeah what I'm complaining about is more the "depth" of the product line than the breadth. I don't own anything toooo unusual, the weirdest is probably the hot glue gun that you mentioned. It's great as a cordless tool because the cord on a hot glue gun is always trying to tip it over and burn your arm or pull it off the table. And of course they do have two different hot glue guns. One where the battery locks into the handle, and one where the battery goes into a base station and the gun is a smaller unpowered piece that you pick up with some thermal mass to stay hot until it goes back on the base to heat up again.