Ryobi Impact Driver & Impact Wrench 5 Year Review

I have a bit of a problem. A green problem, actually. It’s called Ryobi, and it’s a company I’ve given far too much of my money to. That’s not to say these are terrible, far from it, but they are also far from perfect so let me explain.

I fell, hook line and sinker, for the whole “one battery for all your tools” spiel. I have their impacts, their drill, angle grinder, tyre inflator, multitool saw thing, orbital sander and probably some more I’m forgetting. I technically only own one official battery, the 5Ah one, but I also have two knockoff brand 2.5Ah batteries too which work really well and cost considerably less than even one 2.5Ah ‘official’ battery so I’d consider that money well spent.

For the purposes of this video, I want to talk about their impact driver and impact wrench, the mid-torque ½” drive. I’ll stick the model numbers on screen, but they are both the brushed units rather than brushless, and both have the three speed control setting. Starting with the big boy, this is rated for 400 Nm, or at least that’s what they say. It’s a ½” drive, has three decently bright LEDs on the nose right around your socket and has a large switch on the top with three speed/force settings. I’ve had this one the longest, it has to be going on three or four years at this point, and remarkably it’s still working!

The little guy is a touch newer, but not by all that much. It’s an impact driver, so it’s designed to accept all sorts of bits and adapters. I’ve got a set of all the common sizes, ¼”, ⅜”, ½” although 3/8ths is by far the most common for me. This one is rated for 220 Nm, also has triple LEDs and has a 3 speed switch on the back.

So, what are they like? Well, those torque ratings are far, far from accurate. I’ve had the wrench struggle to remove wheel bolts on regular passenger vehicles, admittedly ones that have been tightened with the force of a thousand apes, but they were far from 400 Nm – 200 Nm at a serious push. I don’t have any test equipment for this, but the old ‘wrist dyno’ would probably rate this at between 150 – 200 Nm, especially after all these years of use.

On top of that, when you are heavy on the trigger giving it all the beans, the whole thing rattles like mad to the point you expect it to snap itself into a million pieces right in your hand. That generally means you are cautious on the trigger, only going all in when you really need to. On top of that, the harder you push it, the more it stinks. The brushes burn impressively quickly, although surprisingly it’s still working just fine. I have generally babied it though, so if you have less mechanical sympathy yours might not last overly long.

The 3 speed switch really doesn’t see much use. The trigger control is actually pretty easy to modulate, with reasonably low speed and force on its lower end. It’s rare to want to switch it to the lower settings rather than just be gentle on the trigger, especially as if the bolt is that sensitive it’s probably worth using hand tools instead. With that said, I’m actually really glad to have this – or at least have an impact wrench in general. It’s really useful for winding most wheel bolts out, cracking tough suspension bolts and nuts free and strangely enough actually for removing bolts you are afraid to strip the heads on. It sounds weird, but because the impact is imparting blows as the hammer rotates and hits the anvil, rather than a constant levered force, it’s generally pretty good at removing fasteners you are worried about stripping.

Size is a bit of an issue, this is far from the smallest impact around which means it often struggles to fit in tight spaces where it’s frequently most useful to have an impact. It’s not unusual for this to not fit on brake caliper bracket bolts as the body not only doesn’t fit around the control arms, but it’s also normally too long as well. Happily it’s not too heavy, even with the 5Ah battery, so it’s almost always a benefit having it available even if you can’t always make use of it.

Moving onto the impact driver, like I said this takes adapters rather than having a drive output built in. This makes it considerably more versatile. Sure, you can use socket adapters like I do, but you can also use screwdriver bits instead which makes using this for DIY projects, woodworking and really anything that involves screwing or unscrewing so much easier. It’s got a keyless bit changer, which is spring loaded. Just push a new bit in and it’ll lock in, then pull the collar forward to release it with a bit of force. Be careful when installing bits though, as the collar can lock itself before the shank is all the way in – if that happens just pull the collar up to unlock it then insert the bit again with a bit of force.

This is supposedly rated for 220 Nm, which again I’d say is optimistic. I don’t think this has ever loosened a wheel bolt, and those all get torqued to 120 Nm with our cars, so I’d say 80-100 Nm is where this thing stands for me after a good few years of use. With that said, it’s still something I’m even more glad to have around when working on cars. This one sees more use than the wrench as it’s shorter, even lighter and is often better suited to the sorts of things we are trying to remove. There are definitely some jobs I wouldn’t have completed without this, like the Mini’s oil change! The sump plug on that was tightened to the point I couldn’t undo it with a ½” ratchet and the angle I was at, but a few ugga-duggas with this knocked it free.

Much like the wrench, the speed switch very rarely sees position 1 or 2, in favour of just being gentle on the trigger when needed. I must admit, their “Tri-Beam LED lights” are actually fantastic on both. The number of times we’ve been struggling to see some bolt under a car, or when the sun goes down but we are still working away, and we’ve just used the LEDs on the front of these to see where the bolt or nut is meant to go, well that’s happened a lot. It’s decently bright and having it literally wrapped around your socket is very useful.

Pricing is also in Ryobi’s favour with these, the driver sells for something like £80 right now, and the wrench I think is slowly being phased out in favour of the brushless versions, but it’s around £100, of course those are both without batteries or chargers. That’s still a decently low price, as their sister company Milwaukee generally runs 20-200% more expensive albeit for often significantly more impressive tools too.

If I were to start again, it does seem like the Milwaukee catalogue offers a better selection (including right angle impacts!) and much better power output, although I can’t say that these Ryobi tools have done me all that wrong. None have broken, and generally speaking I haven’t been looking for more power from them too often. I certainly wouldn’t mind some more especially from the wrench, and less of a burning smell every time you even glance at the trigger would be great but for the money I’m honestly not too mad.

Would I recommend these to you? If you’ve already got a Ryobi battery, I’d probably say yes to the driver, it’s a great value and it’s versatile enough that it’s worth having around. As for the wrench, that’s less of a sure bet. It’s fine, for the price point I couldn’t complain too much and seeing as the only brushless version you can get in the UK right now is only rated for 300 Nm down from 400 Nm on this brushed version, I’d say it’s a good bet. Their P262 brushless wrench isn’t available in the UK yet it seems, although when it is available that might be one worth picking up instead assuming the price is reasonable. If you don’t have any tools yet, I think the Milwaukee line might be where I’d head instead.