February 25, 2009

Ryobi 12-Volt 4 Piece Power Pack

With the 12-volt craze in full swing, it was just a matter of time before Ryobi came along and filled up the shelves of Home Depot with a multi-piece kit for short money. And here it is: the 12-Volt 4 Piece Power Pack. At a glance, this kit looks very similar to their 18-volt kit, launched in the fall of '07, and our guess is that it will be just as popular.

The 12-volt kit comes with a drill/driver, a circular saw, a flashlight, and what they call a hybrid saw, which is a small reciprocating saw that uses jigsaw blades. We're all for the drill/driver, the hybrid saw, and the flashlight (probably the most used piece of our 18-volt kit), but we're a bit skeptical on the circular saw. We've found that 12-volt tools, while very useful, aren't all that powerful, so we have to wonder what the cutting capabilities are on this one. From what we've read, the blade only goes to a depth of 1" so it's obviously not going to handle any framing material, but it might be nice for small pieces of trim, 1/4" plywood, etc.

The really impressive thing about this kit is how much it's being sold for. Home Depot is practically giving them away for the irrationally low price of $119. The Bosch and Milwaukee drill/drivers alone go for that kind of cash. Our experience with the Ryobi 18-volt kit was that it was great for around the house activity and light contractor work and even though we did discover some longevity issues when pressed too hard, the low price made it more than worth the purchase. Our guess is that this little kit has the same characteristics, meaning it's a great way to get your hands on a full collection of nice 12-volt tools and not break the bank (just don't drop them off any scaffolding).

At Home Depot