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Comment by jlglover | Hacker News Reader

Ryobi make mostly good tools though. The results produced by most Ryobi users, myself included, are limited by user skill not tool quality.

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If you are a DIY, you might use a tool once a week, or once a year. A pro might use a tool everyday, all day.

A different durability requirement.

A Ryobi is not bad, if it fills your needs, but might not be enough for heavy use.

Which is market segmentation at work. If the DIYers get good enough tools at cheap prices and the pros have a separate line that’s more expensive and more durable, what are we supposed to be mad about?

There was an article [1] from the same site about backpacks here couple of weeks ago, with better articulated position by the author: he is mad about market segmentation and believes there should not be different grades of products from the same company. I.e. someone who swings by Walmart to get a cheap backpack to walk some green belt trails should get the backpack capable to last 20 years of climbing Everest and hiking through Darien Gap if the company has such backpacks sold elsewhere.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777209

If you buy their brushless line, you can add a few decent tools to your lineup while using the cheap stuff for everything else. Same battery platform generally. I have a lot of their cheap stuff, plus a few good ones that see more use.

You can buy or make adapters so there is no battery platforms. If we had a functioning FTC there would be no battery platform.

Didn't realize adapters were common! I agree on the FTC / standardization point.

I have many cheap ryobi niche tools, but use Makita batteries in them.

That would suck, because even the same company might have 2 or more different battery platforms. I, for one, have Milwaukee tools from both M12 and M18 platforms. They are for different applications and I specifically bought some M12 tools because their M18 equivalent was too big for my applications, and, on the other hand, I bought some tools in M18 because their M12 counterparts were underpowered for my applications. Imagine running a driver to assemble your PC and an SDS MAX hammer off the same battery?

Their tools work, but that's different from being good, in comparison to others. They feel and sound terrible and don't perform well at all. If you buy any other brand than Ryobi, you will immediately go "oh, this is clearly better". It's like they designed Ryobi to be as bad as possible without being defective, so that you can't complain about it, but have a great reason to buy Ridgid or Milwaukee.

There has generally been a grade below Ryobi that is junk. Been that way for decades before Ryobi even existed. Ryobi isn't the best quality, but it is generally good enough and cheaper.

That tier is Harbor Freight, I believe.

Great tools really. I wish they'd bite the bullet and change the battery. Make adapters or have a trade in program. I know that's their schtick, but it's time.

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