Following a most infuriating influencer-hype teaser that provided zero hints, Ryobi announced that they will be launching all-new One+ 18V HP cordless framing nailers.
There will be two new Ryobi cordless framing nailers – a 21° round head nailer (PBL345), and a 30° round and clipped head nailer (PBL350).
Both nailers are part of Ryobi’s AirStrike cordless nailer family and require no air compressors, hoses, or gas cartridges to operate.
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Interesting, features include an “on-board air fill valve for field serviceability,” something we have not yet seen on other cordless nailers.
Additional features include:
- Power to drive 3-1/2″ nails
- Sequential (single) and contact actuation modes
- Tool-free driving depth adjustment
- On-board air fill valve
- Integrated rafter hook
- Shock absorber to “manage battery movement”
The new framing nailers are said to be able to drive up to 750 nails per charge on a 4Ah High Performance Li-ion battery.
Both nailers weigh 9.1 lbs. With an 18V One+ HP battery, (1.7 lbs), the operational weight would be 10.8 lbs.
Price: $329 for tool-only (each)
ETA: 2023
Ryobi says that the nailers will be available at Home Depot in tool-only and kit formats. They have only provided tool-only pricing; kit pricing will be available when the nailers launch.
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Discussion
$329 each for tool-only!
Then again, Lowe’s is charging the same for Craftsman’s cordless framing nailer, which has been out since 2021.
In the meantime, you can buy a Pro-grade Metabo HPT cordless nailer KIT for less. Amazon has the (21° for $299), and the 30° for $349.
I also don’t know how I feel about having a “built-in air fill valve.” Most other brands with pneumatic-like actuators promise sealed air canisters that never need filling. Then again, Ryobi might be looking at 5 or 10 years down the road, and knowing that DIYers aren’t going to be keen on paying money to a service center.
Kudos to Doug, MFC, G New, for hitting the nail on the head (ha!) with their guess as to what the cheesy social media influencer hype teaser was for!
John
Good for them. But the price is very high and now directly competing with well established top tier cordless nail guns, yet Ryobi is viewed as a homeowner brand, not jobsite.
David Allen Corcoran
Have used Ryobi battery power pin and trim mailers professionally for several years now and they out perform all others on the job.My brother exclusively uses Makita he has thousands rapped up in drils,screw guns ECT Ryobi battery life is four times his.I have a set of dewalt tools 6.5 saw finetool brushless drills the 4ah battery is less than one forth the time it takes to drain down a ryobi.Yes they are a little heavier but they are an excellent professional grade tool.
Michael DeAmicis
well, ryobi is just a slytly downgraded Milwaukee
Stuart
No. That’s just something people like to repeat on the internet without proof or specific examples.
Indigo
Isn’t it just because they are both owned by TTI? Doesn’t seem too different from saying Craftsman is lower tier Dewalt, etc.
Stuart
Dewalt and Craftsman tools might be developed by the same product team, depending on the type.
Milwaukee tools are developed by Milwaukee product engineers and managers HQed in Wisconsin.
Ryobi cordless power tools and products are (presumably) developed by TTI North America people at their HQ. I can’t say for certain what they do there, I’ve never been to their HQ, but I know it’s not anywhere near Milwaukee.
It’s similar to how Brisk ice tea isn’t simply non-carbonated Pepsi.
Rog
This may be the first time I disagree with a post of yours, Stuart!
The Brisk and Pepsi analogy are apples-oranges. Ryobi and Milwaukee make the same products (tea or soda, you pick).
I’m sure there are differences and yes, they are separate companies, but I find it hard to believe that the publicly-owned, corporate overlord TTI doesn’t demand *some* cross-sharing to maximize profit and efficiencies.
Stuart
Analogies are hard! I encourage anyone to come up with a better one!
Cross-sharing in what way that you have seen? Can anyone find examples of common design elements or construction?
Let’s say there’s a trivia contest and all the tool brands send a team of designers drawn from a product development group. Dewalt and Craftsman might only have one team, whereas Ryobi and Milwaukee would send teams of people that have never met each other before.
I asked the question about cross-brand collaboration a couple of years ago, and I overhear someone asking similar at nearly every Milwaukee media event.
SBD and TTI have very different corporate structures. SBD is compartmentalized in some ways as well.
I’ve analyzed Milwaukee and Ryobi tools for years, I’ve been to Milwaukee’s HQ and different facilities many times in that span, and I’ve talked to people from both brands extensively. I’ve heard “Milwaukee is just higher-priced Ryobi” and “Ryobi is just Milwaukee-lite” and “they’re all the same from the same company” many times, but it’s all internet rhetoric that nobody has ever provided a shred of proof of supporting evidence for.
So yeah, every time I hear the same ill-informed rhetoric, it’s as if Brisk ice tea is being called flat Pepsi cola just because they’re both dark-colored drinks from the same company. Maybe a Doritos vs Cheetos analogy would have been better?
Indigo
I suppose that’s a fair point, but I agree with Rog that it’s unlikely that their constraints at the corporate level aren’t directed by TTI. Product verticals, market share, value engineering, supply chain, manufacturing contracts, etc are all corporate concerns that affect the Milwaukee product engineering teams. It seems a little dismissive to say they are in totally different lanes.
You bring up a good point;however, it’s not black and white and there may be more separation within subsidiaries within some corporate structures than others.
MM
If the claim is that Brand A is a just a higher-priced redecorated version of Brand B then surely there must be some proof of this. Is there any evidence supports those claims? Perhaps a side-by-side tear-down of two different brand tools were found to contain the same parts inside?
Like Stuart I’ve heard these claims for years–along with the similar claim that “big box stores get watered-down crappier versions of power tools compared to pro and industrial suppliers”….but I’ve never seen a single set of photos to prove any of these claims.
Stuart
@Indigo
Have you ever seen indication that they are *not* in totally different lanes?
@MM
That, too! Here’s the most recent one – https://toolguyd.com/best-time-to-buy-cordless-power-tools/#comment-1459242
They claimed seeing this in their “latest tool dissection” but got aggressively argumentative when asked for a model number and place of purchase.
Indigo
@Stuart
Maybe more precision in the definition is helpful here. From the standpoint of two different subsidiaries running product engineering projects, sure; it’s very common to have them in different lanes (particular after acquisitions of successful companies like Milwaukee Electric).
If that’s what you mean by different lanes, then I absolutely believe that. I’m sure they have some level of autonomy and operate as a business unit.
However, it is somewhat naive to not acknowledge that TTI owning both will not set certain constraints on both subsidiaries in the name of avoiding market cannibalization, maximizing verticals, and cost-saving on materials/manufacturing and supply chains, all of which leads to value engineering choices and which products to develop. That sets constraints and affects the design space and product choices for both Milwaukee and Ryobi.
Asking for proof of this seems a little silly as it’s going to vary a bit by every large conglomerate and not be public information, but TTI wouldn’t be able to stay competitive against a SBD if they didn’t engage in some of this industry standard practice.
Stuart
@Indigo
As an aside – “avoiding market cannibalization?” I’m curious as to which products you believe have been influenced by this. Milwaukee and Ryobi distribution models are very different, and their price points typically spread far enough apart to where I don’t see this being a major consideration.
Going back a few years, Stephen Richman (Milwaukee Tool President) made a comment about how they didn’t think the fluorescent light bulb tester would have been a popular product, but they made it anyway because it served an unmet user need. The company tends to pave their own path.
But to my point – when someone says “Ryobi is just a slightly downgraded Milwaukee,” that’s simply wrong.
The arguments you are making are very different from the 99% of “Milwaukee and Ryobi are the same just slightly different” types of arguments I see ALL the time.
Are the companies 100% different in every way imaginable? Of course not. The question to ask is whether there are meaningful similarities or interwoven threads, to which I am saying no, there are not.
Indigo
@Stuart
Yea, that’s fair. That statement is a bit too reductionist to be helpful.
RE: cannibalization. my point is simply that TTI wouldn’t let Ryobi make an attempt at producing a more expensive (e.g.) impact driver with better components that had longer failure durations, better warranty, etc because it could cannibalize Milwaukee sales. Is Ryobi planning to do that? I’m not sure, probably not, but like you said with the lightbulb tester, maybe they weren’t planning on it before, but they decide like Harbor Freight that they want to introduce Ryobi PRO. At this point my opinion is that this would be pocket veto-ed immediately by TTI.
So in a more abstract and conceptual way, I think there is a fair point to say within TTI product verticals (good, better, best type arrangement), you have Ryobi and Milwaukee. It may not be 100% like a Harbor Freight Chicago Electric –> Bauer –> Hercules, but it’s not a poor way to think about it if you just roll into Home Depot.
To your point, will the trigger switch design inside the Ryobi just be a cheaper plastic than the Milwaukee, the bearings lower quality brand but in the same spot? No way.
Stuart
@Indigo,
In a way, Ryobi’s 18V HP line is an upscale “PRO” line, with fewer compromises, higher performance, and better features than we would have seen in the Ryobi system a few years ago. As far as I can tell, it’s been doing quite well.
I would think that there’s far more care in considering potential overlap between Ryobi and Ridgid. Ryobi and Ridgid cordless power tools at Home Depot are both handled by TTI North America, creating the type of relationship between the brands that some try to wrongfully apply to Ryobi and Milwaukee.
Let’s say Lowe’s launched a Kobalt impact with pro-grade features, power, and durability, and Home Depot said “we want similar from Ryobi, with x-number of tools to be stocked at each of our stores.” Would TTI say “no, we don’t want to take away from Milwaukee sales?” I don’t think that would be a significant influencing factor.
Indigo
@Stuart
Sure, you just nailed it:
TTI verticals:
Good: Ryobi
Better: Ridgid
Best: Milwaukee
This is not 100% and there are better values among them–every consumer’s value preferences will be different, but I would say if we had to get abstract and you walked into Home Depot this is a pretty reasonable framework for a buyer.
Since Home Depot is a massive buyer, if the terms were good enough then absolutely Ryobi would say yes. The runway for such an agreement could pay for the development regardless of the outcome and as long as the product didn’t suck, would be a little bit puzzling to consumers (we see this all the time here and there), but not hurt the brand in any lasting way. If Home Depot did ask for something silly enough to hurt the brand then yes I do think TTI would say no.
This is the distinction with Harbor Freight and where some of their disruption is coming in (being the retailer and the distributor); less friction (although they’ve bumbled their branding a bit with Bauer/Hercules and Quinn/Doyle/Icon, etc). I’ve seen many Bauer, Quinn, and Doyle stuff that’s every bit as good as Hercules and Icon.
MT
@Indigo
“Good: Ryobi
Better: Ridgid
Best: Milwaukee”
I’m not sure that’s going to be the case much longer. Ryobi has been drifting more towards the Ridgid “better” level of quality, while drifting up in price in some of its newer offerings. At the same time, Ryobi and Milwaukee both enjoy a lot of premium shelf space at Home Depot. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ridgid’s power hand tools are eventually squeezed out altogether by Ryobi’s HP line.
These days when I see or hear “Ridgid” the first products to spring to mind are wet/dry vacs.
Indigo
@MT
Yea, I’ve never personally considered Ridgid because it seemed like a no-man’s land for the price point. I think their tools are just fine, but at their price points I’d go with DeWalt, Milwaukee, or Makita much of the time (or scale down price to Ryobi).
Scott Robbins
Milwaukee is selling both cordless nailer with batteries for 400$ right now at homedepot
AlexK
I no longer see the post for “Guess what Ryobi is coming out with”. I had just seconded Adam”s post on it being a framing nailer. Actually, I said Adam “hit the nail on the head” (feel free to groan at my bad joke).
Who will use this? If I was a pro Contracter, I’d probably have a Dewalt or Milwaukee. Something that I feel would handle hard use/abuse. I assume, like all their tools, it will work fine, maybe better than fine. Not sure if it is built like the more pro brands. For casual use, has anyone used the brushed 18ga Brad nailer? At $99, the price is right, but I don’t want buyer’s remorse.
Alex
I’ve had the brushed 18ga brad nailer for a few years now. I used it to do board and batten walls in my basement and have used it for various woodworking projects and it’s largely been great. The main thing I don’t like about it is the size but that’s pretty standard for battery powered brad nailers in general.
John
I have 5 Hitachi 18v nailers, both framers, 15,16,18ga. My 18ga was having issues and not sinking nails fully so I bought the Ryobi 18ga cordless nailer to finish a wall project. I was very surprised and impressed, worked great and no complaints. The price was $129 then so $99 is a steal.
Bonnie
The older ryobi brad nailer is excellent. One of my favorite tools.
I ditched the batteries though, they were absolute garbage. A dewalt battery adapter was cheap and hasn’t burned down my garage yet (2 years in). Since the draw is only really between shots I’m not as concerned as I might be using something more power-hungry.
Stuart
(It seemed redundant to have separate “what could this poorly approached social media influencer teaser full up BLEEPs be talking about” post followed quickly by this one, and so I nixed the first before it hit the daily newsletter cut-off.)
Scott K
I’ve had the 18ga nailer for about two years now- I’ve done baseboard trim and some woodworking projects with it and it’s been great. I get great battery life with my 3ah batteries and I’ve never had a jam. There are times where I’ve found it a bit bulky but I doubt many comparable models are meaningfully smaller. You can adjust the strength and depth plus it shoots a nice variety of 18ga nails.
Nick
That 18 ga nailer is good, especially for the price. I sold it a while ago and replaced it with the dewalt. I was tired of dealing with the adapter for my dewalt batteries. It would get sticky once in awhile and require some lubrication
Marc S
As a professional contractor and owner of three P321 models, I can say this air strike unit is a rock solid tool
fred
“air canisters that never need feeling”
You might want to fix the last word in this string – that was probably supplied by your autofill software.
Anyway – having s fill valve seems like it might have plusses and minuses – as it might end up being the source of a leak. Anyway, it sure distinguishes them.
We had some of the early Senco nail guns that i believe were the first to use this technology. They called the technology “Fusion”. I don’t recall any complaints about the gas canister failing – but the Senco guns we had were not framing nailers – and I sold out and retired probably long before their life-expectancy was likely to show-up.
Stuart
Thank you, *fixed*!
Big Richard
I thought this was more well known, they blatantly teased it at the end of the release video of the new track saw/table saw/miter saw back in March. I thought I even saw conversation of it on here.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cam7aVXD0ZT/
Tim Lancaster
It’s a Ridgid clone, which was a Senco clone.
Andrew D.
Thanks, Tim, I couldn’t place why the shape looked familiar!
Andy
I always kind of wondered why they never did a framing nailer. I would put myself squarely in the “pro-sumer” class, as someone who does just 1-2 major DIY projects a year and a contract job every so often, and as someone invested in the Ryobi platform, I’ve been waiting for this. Good enough to do decent work, as long as you don’t do too much of it too often.
But that seems awfully expensive, considering price was the whole reason I wound up in the Ryobi camp to begin with. For that price I could almost start migrating to the Milwaukee or Dewalt battery platform and never look back…
Stuart
The way I see it, there are 2 main challenges with cordless framing nailers – power and size. A framing nailer needs to sink large nails consistently and reliably, and without being too heavy where the user tires out quickly.
Jonathan M. Rose
This looks identical to the Ridgid framing nailer – including the fill valve.
Stuart
There are probably shared parts, but there are differences such as with the nail magazines. The question is, what might have changed to result in the Ryobi nailers being $329 instead of $349 for the Ridgid?
Rog
Sheesh. $329?
I don’t have any Metabo tools and don’t want to add to the battery collection, but theirs is much better priced.
Jaycob P.
Yeah I gave up on Ryobi coming out with one a while ago and got the Metabo. I’m glad I did at that price.
MKY
Stuart –
That have only provided pricing for the tool-only.
Dave C
They’ve been saying “they will be $329 bare tool/389 for the kit.” in the comments on their Facebook announcement.
Stuart
Thanks! Fixed that when I added weight specs.
@Dave – PR couldn’t provide kit pricing yet. $389 sounds about right, but could be subject to change.
Adam
Semi-notable, this is one the only cordless tools I’ve seen from Ryobi with a 3 year warranty, as opposed to 5.
Vards Uzvards
I don’t remember seeing any 18V tools where Ryobi would give a 5-year warranty.
https://www.ryobitools.com/support/warranties
Adam
Oops, you’re absolutely right.
Recently I’ve seen several media posts of Ryobi product from Australia, and they have a 6yr warranty there, and while I knew it we don’t have 6 here, I was thinking 5. Then I picked up the 40v leaf vac this weekend, and it is 5. Some 40v is 5yr, and some is 3ry.
Rhys Bailey
I live in New Zealand and all the Ryobi tools carry a 4 year standard warranty which can be extended to 6 years upon registration of your product(s).
Batteries and chargers are warranted for 3 years.
This is the same as Australia
James+C
Never buy a Ryobi tool full price. E.g track saw kit regular price was listed at $399 at launch. Currently on sale for $299.
I’m guessing the sale price for this could be in the $249 range. Hopefully it sees regular sales. I was eyeing the 15 degree nailer for a while but it rarely went on sale.
Dave C
Yeah, I agree – between Home Depot’s sales throughout the year and Direct Tools Outlet (plus FB Marketplace, et. al), I’m not sure I’ve ever paid retail price for a Ryobi tool.
I’ll have my eye on one of these. I’m a DIYer/Homeowner with a ton of Ryobi tools and batteries already. I don’t currently have any projects in the pipeline that might benefit from one, but if I see a good deal (Ryobi Days or Christmas next year, maybe?) I might pick one up so I have it handy.
Charles Lee
My thoughts exactly, definitely not paying full price, or at least not without a battery or extra tool deal. With a good sale this will be a very affordable option for those of us already in the Ryobi brand pretty deep.
Patrick
Their 23 and 18 are fantastic. The new 18 was an improvement and gets in smaller spaces better. The 15 was okay, not great. This definitely seems out of their element, but I would be hoping for perfect function like the 23 and 18 at that price point.
Mark arlotta
What is the air fill valve for?
Stuart
Many cordless nailers have sealed chambers where air is compressed and expanded to drive nails with pneumatic-like performance. It’s kind of like an exhaustless air piston.
From what I’ve been told, those seals sometimes leak or fail. When that happens, a tool must be sent to a service center. I’m guessing that “field serviceability” means users can refill leaky air chamber themselves over time. This might also be an easier or less expensive way to fill the chambers at the factory.
MM
Yes, these nailers use a “gas spring”. Instead of compressing a coil of wire, they have a sealed cylinder with a piston inside acting as a spring instead. It’s the same basic idea as the gas struts used to support your car hood or trunk lid: a piston in a cylinder containing compressed gas. And like gas struts or shocks the piston seals slowly leak, at some point they need to be refilled. Milwaukee says (in their manuals) that the gas spring system is not user serviceable and that the tools must be sent to a factory service center for recharge or repair when needed. The specific components of the gas springs are absent from the parts listings too.
Making the gas spring user serviceable is a great idea, I assume the tool has a schrader valve where the pressure can be measured and topped up just like a tire.
Collin
I wonder just how tolerant the Ryobi user serviceable gas cylinder is to conditions such as excessively humid air, oiled air, debris, etc.
Someone using their air compressor to squirt some extra air into the Ryobi tool could easily introduce all sorts of things that aren’t air.
MM
That’s a good question. I know this kind of “user serviceable gas spring” technology does exist already in other fields: Some shock absorbers used for motorcycles and 4×4’s work the same way. There are also manually operated air guns which use a gas spring like this instead of a traditional spring. The concept seems to work OK in those situations. Perhaps the airguns might be serviced carefully in a clean enviornment but I’m sure plenty of the off-road crowd grabs a random air line to tweak air shocks and I’m not aware of any common seal failure issues there even though there’s probably some moisture and debris introduced from a compressor normally used for tires and air tools.
Collin
I’m pretty sure the Milwaukee equivalent claims to use a nitrogen based gas cylinder so it sounds like Milwaukee is topping their cylinders off with not just regular old air from the factory floor.
Doresoom
I’m not usually one to complain about price, but between the Link drawer units and this nailer, it seems Ryobi has forgotten their main user base is DIYers and prosumers. I usually buy Ryobi for tools I’ll use only occasionally, but in this case I’d spend $50 more and buy the Milwaukee.
They do usually have great sales a few times a year, which helps quite a bit. I still haven’t seen a significant sale on the Link wall storage yet though. Just the Black Friday deal on the 3 unit container stack.
nigeldh
1. The 30 degree is interesting because Ryobi says it does both:
full round head – plastic 21 degree strips.
clipped head – 33 degree paper strips.
So I wonder if Ryobi is offering special round head 30 degree strips. Or does the 30 degree model take both plastic and paper strips?
2. The Metabo HPT 36V cordless nailer offers the option of both cordless, and corded with the AC adapter.
As for the comments about Ryobi being a consumer brand, it sounds a bit like the old computer mainframe adage – no one gets fired for buying IBM.
* Some of the Ryobi tools are brushless and step the game up quite a bit.
* In my experience their 40V OPE, Outdoor Power Equipment, is high quality. Their OPE offerings fill many unique niches with a consistent 40V battery platform – tillers, earth auger. They have rapid chargers for 40 V.
OldDominionDIYer
Wow, I am not really surprised that many people falsely believe Milwaukee and Ryobi basically are the same apart from the color when in fact they have little in common other than a parent investment company (TTI). TTI is not a tool company, they’re in it strictly for the money. SBD is a tool company and are inherently more involved in their various company tool lines. In fact, unlike Ryobi/Milwaukee, there are lines within SBD that are nearly identical except for the name and color like the Craftsman CMCD700C1 and the Porter Cable PCC601LB or the Black & Decker BDCDHP220SB-2, or even the DeWalt DCD771C2. Ryobi has been coming out with some great stuff lately I’m happy for them.
Eric
I love Ryobi products for the most part. But that price point I’m throwing a extra 200 and buy a pasload. Or maybe even risk a used one cheaper.
Rob
I have all three platforms Ryobi, DeWalt, and Milwaukee. I have Ryobi tools that are 8 years old and work like a champ. Specifically my 18 brad nailer. I and a Locksmith and so door repair and installation. I see cross talk between Ryobi and Milwaukee. Example the Ryobi quiet strike Impact driver and the Milwaukee surge impact. (Ridged has one two) so they shared the technology. Another example is the cordless routers I have both the Milwaukee and the Ryobi. They share certain features in the adjustment and such. Much of the structure is similar. Many time it seems that Ryobi comes out first then they see if it catches traction, then the other two follow some times with more expensive items framing nailers, cordless table saws and the like they may pilot with either Ridgid or Milwaukee. The bottom line is the do cross pollinate from platforms.
This is a good thing Milwaukee benefits from market research, Ryobi benefits from slowly becoming more relevant in the work field.
Mark O
If anything, Ryobi and Ridgid tools are closer thsn their TTI big brother Milwaukee.
William
As far as I know, Milwaukee and Ryobi are developed by two different teams. Ryobi is more cost sensitive in component/supply selection, so in most cases, Milwaukee products have higher performance. But some Ryobi tools are damn good.