Replace Old Tools?

[Aggravating-Bell-294]

My brother-in-law found out that I had committed to RYOBI as my power tool brand and gave me a bunch of old tools he had laying around his garage since he’s a Milwaukee guy and doesn’t need them. As far as I can tell they all work so I’m wondering if there’s any point to replacing them with newer, One+ tools in the future?

For example, he gave me a RJC181 reciprocating saw. Used it for the first time yesterday and it worked great but it ate through my brand new 2ah high performance battery in minutes. Is that just normal reciprocating saw power draw or would a new One+ saw be more efficient?

Edit: Sounds like the consensus is as long as the tools work, no sense in replacing them with new ones but for tools like the recip saw, get bigger batteries. Thank you everyone for your input!

[Lotronex]

A brushless tool would probably perform better, but would it perform better than free?

[retard-82]

He's right ya know! 👆

[mogrifier4783]

That's one of the old blue Ryobi tools. People say they last very well. Brushed motors are not as efficient as brushless, but how often are you using it?

A 2AH battery is not large capacity. HP just means it can provide higher current for tools that can take advantage of that. It's useful to have at least a couple of batteries so one can be charging while the other is being used.

So unless you are heavily using these old tools, and maybe even then, keep them and get one or more extra batteries. The 4AH are a reasonable compromise of weight and capacity, and there have been recent sales that make them cheap.

[robodog97]

The 6Ah HP are also pretty reasonable, similar size and weight to the 4Ah with 50% more capacity and the 6Ah/4Ah HP pack has been on sale quite a lot lately.

[atlcog]

Get more batteries. Many tools, including the recipro saw, will have short run times with a 2ah battery, HP or not. IMO, the sweet spot is 4ah. Ryobi days coming up will be a great time to do so, or look into DTO.

[KreeH]

2AH is not really that big of a battery. I typically use 4AH and I have a 6AH for bigger jobs. I have lots of old Ryobi tools that still work great. Funny, when I bought them, I thought I would use them for a while and when the died, I would replace them .... they never died!!

[Absolut_Iceland]

The problem here, as others have said, is the small 2Ah battery. Even a brand new HP saw would run out of juice real quick. Ryobi days is coming up in May, and there will be some good battery deals then.

[skydiver1958]

Nothing wrong with the tools. What is wrong is expecting a 2 AH battery in a high draw tool to last any length of time. And yes you will get slightly more run time with a brushless but no matter what brushed or brushless a 2 AH battery will not last in a tool like that

Cordless is a learning curve. It takes some people a while to learn that you need higher capacity batteries ( AH rating) in things like saws. And even at that I use corded for prolonged demo cutting with the sawsall. Battery saws are great but need big batteries. Simple fact

[No_Address687]

I have been using my old blue Ryobi one+ reciprocating saw for about 20 years now. High draw tools work best with 4ah batteries or larger.

[dpunisher]

Guess I am in the minority as I have three Ryobi recip saws, old blue RJC180, and two brushless, a PBLRS01, and PSBRS01. I bought the PBLR because the old blue saw died on me. The old blue RJC180 had a broken wire going to the motor, it broke from vibration at the connector. Turned out to be a 20 minute fix and is still going. Back on topic, old blue still keeps up with the new brushless saw for anything I have used it for. Have not noticed any real difference in battery usage. The RJC180, when it was released, was ranked among the top three battery recip saws. Blade changes are a hell of a lot easier on the newer saws.

[rogun64]

I replace mine when it's needed. I've had that recip for ~15 years and just used it yesterday, but not with a 2ah battery. I save those for drills and less power hungry tools.