The singular, unifying piece with the many Ryobi power tools and devices that we’ve reviewed and looked at recently is the battery. So-called the ONE+ ecosystem, it’s one of the more appealing and interesting aspects of opting for a Ryobi power tool instead of some other brand. By basically having a unified battery design, it ensures that over 200 different power tools and devices within Ryobi’s ONE+ ecosystem can all use the same interchangeable battery, which ought to massively simplify managing all your batteries.
Not to mention, being able to quickly swap between batteries, and in my case, it’s definitely helped with de-cluttering my huge box of random power tool batteries. From vacuum cleaners to power drills, or even your polishing machine, work light, and chainsaw… All are powered by the same battery design. Now though, it gets even better, as Ryobi introduces an evolved, next-generation version of Ryobi’s 18V ONE+ Lithium+ battery. We have two of these new batteries, and they’re definitely a different style compared to the old ones.
One Battery To Rule Them All
This ONE+ Lithium+ bundle that we have here includes a 2.0Ah battery and a 4.0Ah battery. They’re among the smaller of the battery sizes that you could pick from within Ryobi’s 18V ONE+ ecosystem, which could go up to 9Ah in capacity. I can see a bundle like this being perfect for anyone who’s buying multiple power tools from Ryobi and needs to power at least two of them at a time, or if they just need a spare battery. Aside from these two batteries, we also have a compatible ONE+ Lithium+ battery charger from Ryobi, too.
Speaking of this 2.0A battery charger, it tops up the battery pretty quickly. It takes about an hour’s charge to fill up the 2.0Ah battery, while the 4.0Ah battery will take around two hours to fully charge. The charger is very easy and straightforward to use, and all you need to do is just clip each battery in to charge it. You can also find mounting holes at the bottom of the charger, if you’d like to bolt it onto the wall or clamp the battery charger down securely onto a desk. However, what’s changed between the old and new battery?
Small Changes, Big Impact
Well, from what we could tell, it’s mostly the design of the batteries between the old and new ONE+ batteries. It does look and feel quite nice and premium, and each battery also has indicator LEDs to quickly let you see and check how much battery it has left. These four-stage LEDs – which light up when you press a button – to indicate 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the remaining charge. Meanwhile, when they’re in the battery charger, it will all light up when it’s charging. Even the design of the battery housing is taken into consideration.
That’s another neat attention to detail that I’ve come to appreciate, where these redesigned ONE+ batteries have a slight slant and angular shape at the front of the battery housing. This might not seem like a lot, but when you’re trying to fit a power tool into a tight space or a corner, that minute volume reduction and new shape does make it easier to manoeuvre around. There’s even a lot of under-the-hood tech, such as Ryobi’s IntelliCell tech, managing the battery cells to better maximise runtimes, safety, and durability; all for a better battery.
