Here's why Ridgid Li-ion Tools have such a poor rep

Rigid must be the bomb!! …don’t think they have them over here - maybe they are sold under the ‘Ozito’ brand…. :cowboy_hat_face:

Bort, You asked for it, you got it!

Another rant. I LIKE this guy!

I have had just the opposite experience, I have owned 2 Ridgid cordless drills for years, a 12V and a 18V. They both get heavy use and the batteries last about 1 year, when they start to go I drive over to a service center and exchange them. Never been questioned or had a problem doing it, put the old ones on the counter and they exchange them.

I am pretty sure they are AEG over here. Bunnings sells them. Similar pricing to Makita etc.

As adolescents we used to peer into the windows of local small business to see the Ridgid calenders on the walls. I always associated the brand “Ridgid” with what would then happen at that age. :bigsmile:

Back then, me too, but not from laughing.

That would explain a lot. If you notice in both videos, they each have a tough time breaking the tool. I have a high regard for the quality of the actual tool. They are very rugged and powerful. What I think happened is that perhaps initially there were some instances of poor cells (China) or poor charging circuits. Supposedly that has been corrected and the lifetime service agreement is in place to restore the confidence of customers.
I have quite a few of the Ryobi 18V NiCad tools. Once again the tools are of good quality, but the NiCad packs are soooooooo bad.

I think he is right, see above

Tell me how that works, I also have 12V tools (JobMax and Drill) with LSA. I got them at HomeDepot. Is the counter that you speak of at HD or some local Ridgid service center?

BTW, I like my Ridgid tools. However my EDC is the Milwakee 12V drill and driver combo. It is lighter (probably not as robust at the Ridgid) and came with a nice aluminum carry case.

That was funny…
Never seen one of the the smallest or the biggest hammer type.

You are suppose to get it done st8 through Ridgid, just google ridgid service center and try to find the nearest one to you. Some Home Depot will do it but it depends on the store managers. The policy is for them to direct you to Ridgid.

Go to https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/service-centers, fill in your location (you can use your zip code) chose "power tools" and hit search. I have 6 centers within 19 miles of my house.

Two years ago I got a Rigid shop vac to suck the water out of the basement every spring when it experiences minor flooding. Since then, I have used it for vehicles and a fair bit of general vacum duty. So far it has not malfunctioned, but now I’m paranoid that it’s going to burn out next time my basement gets water in it, and then I’ll have to make a video with my ancient ice axe as well.

FWIW, Ridgid tools are made by Emerson Electric. Emerson is one of those conglomerate companies with many brand names. Like InSinkErator disposers, ClosetMaid storage stuff, etc. Mostly they sell to industrial customers.

David Farr, the CEO, has gotten in hot water a few years ago for publicly complaining about the 0bama economy and the high cost of manufacturing in the US. They have been aggressively moving their manufacturing out of the US to China and other less expensive countries over the last few years.

I don't know what they have done with Ridgid Tools, but this might explain a decline in quality.

it sounds like they asked him for a receipt, and there was no tool smashing :~
i keep receipts for anything with a warranty, though some places are using some kind of thermal paper that only lasts a year or sometimes less before it goes blank

Why don’t they just replace the cells with a decent brand? Then the tools will work?

One technique that used to work if you lost your receipt, or warranty cost to send it half way around the world at your own expense and then wait 2 or 3 months discouraged you, was just go buy a new one, put the old one back in the box, and return it 2 weeks later. However many stores have got wise to that and now look at the serial number. In the case of a power tool, that means you’re relegated to taking the working guts out of the new one, putting the non-working guts back in, and then returning it, which could be quite an undertaking, especially if you bought a Hummer or Fighter Jet.

Because what if it still didn't work even with Japanese/Korean cells? Then who would they blame? Too much risk, much easier to blame the C-word on the wrapper.

they don’t know that

I have measured the voltage of each of the 3 cells.
4.2
3.6
2.6
I am in the process of charging each individually while they are still in the pack. When they are all charged up, I will do a run test and see what happens. Maybe an imbalance occurred because of the charging circuit. But I think what actually happened is that those 2 cells failed. We shall see.
I have 20 IMR’s available from this thread.

I will probably just replace the China cells with 3 of those.

I took a L-ion pack into a Makita store last month while visiting one of my daughters just because. I told them I heard a rumor that they had a machine that could tell how many charging cycles the pack had been through before it failed. The answer was 6.

Turns out the pack draws power for the smart chip from just 1 cell and that is what killed the pack (Sony IMRs, IIRC). This pack was on a work light that I hardly ever swapped into rotation since it was one of the smaller half-size packs.

I never registered it - and it was a year out of warranty - but they gave me a new double size pack to replace it anyway.

:slight_smile:

I have been using Ridgid cordless tools for a long time and started with Ryobi before Ridgid was thought of. Always had good luck with them and some Craftsmen that were made by Ryobi at the time. just a few months back I got three new batteries for my 18volt tools through the lifetime warranty. Batteries were 8 years old and just not giving any rum time. I have sold Porter Cable, Makita and Dewalt drills in the past due to poor performance but not my Ridgids.

I was and am a long-time user of Ryobi 18v One+ and have added some li-ion things over the years, but I also picked up a Ridgid compact drill and impact drivers for some heavier work a few years back. Both Ridgid batteries died (luckily after the project I was working on) and the Home Depot service center tried to turn me away, but I just stood there like I didn’t understand until they finally gave me two new batteries and a charger :).
I had registered them originally and had the paperwork, but I didn’t re-register the replacements (will try the same when these fail). So far so good after a year though.

Ryobi is not quite as nice but I swear they make some pretty decent stuff.

Rigid tools are crap IMO, slightly better than Craftsman. Have gone through many power tools as a contractor and the only ones that hold up are the top of the line blue Makita 18 volts. Milwaukee experience is mixed, I like the corded professional line of drills, portabands and some saws. The battery life is very important to commercial contractors, when your hanging off a skyscraper it matters.

The only battery powered tools that have been consistently good performers are all Makita, not the home owner light duty stuff either. Dewalt is just a glorified Craftsman to me, gone through lots of stripped gears and bad batteries with those. Consumer reports did a battery drill test a few years ago and they had the same opinion, I think it was Makita, Dewalt and Milwaukee on top and Ryobi got the home owner value award. So far, I haven’t had a premature Makita 18 volt battery death. My personal 14 volt Makitas went many years hanging door hardware in commercial buildings. Never had a Craftsman or Rigid make it past 6 months of daily use. My buddy kept returning his Rigid 18 volt hammer drills every 6 months or so for repair. He had the whole package deal, but he used the warranty repair service often. Even the white home owner grade Makitas will go a couple years or so in commercial use. I tried Bosch a few years back since I loved the big hammer drills. The battery powered stuff didn’t last either, had gear failure. But I did use the battery drills more than most people for many years, we actually drilled through metal so weak designs showed themselves quickly. When I had to buy my own tools I had to choose the most durable. I tried the cheap route a few times and it always cost me more in the end. Those Craftsman 19.2 volts were the worst IMO, but I never tried anything cheaper.