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Under the equipment category, Ryobi is not listed. Why??
Huge seller in this market (WNY) and huge with Home Depot. Surely a recognized name.

Probably because most techs feel that Ryobi is a throwaway brand. Most of us refuse to work on them. Difficult to get support and parts, and if you can find help, cost to repair is more than unit is worth repairing.

But, that doesn't help anyone that has one and needs tips or general questions. Kinda narrow minded thinking. I had a issue with a string trimmer, it was under warranty and it was sent back thru HD which included shipping costs.

You just answered your own question, not worth spending anytime on, just return it. We’ve got to make the best use of our time and trying to understand and work on a throwaway product is not worth it.

videobruce said:

Under the equipment category, Ryobi is not listed. Why??
Huge seller in this market (WNY) and huge with Home Depot. Surely a recognized name.

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The same can be said for Makita, DeWalt and many other brands, but then that's what the 'other brands' forum is for, or atleast that's where I'd be asking.

What's the difference if the question is asked in the "Others" forum or in a specific forum? It's still asked.

So all of those names that are listed some of which I've never heard of and surely can't be very popular, none have issues of getting parts or having them serviced??

And Ryobi string trimmer are nothing but Homelite in drag. And to Homelite line has really gone in the drink. They once was excellent machines but the last years they are just plain junk.

Throw away electric ____.

Ryobi is not a make, it is a marketing brand
Ryobi can be made by any one of 1000 different factories as the manufacture is contracted out .
Most Ryobi products are designed not the be repaired right down to snap in parts that can not be removed without breaking them .
On top of that depending upon the manufacturere there may or may not be an IPL let alone any sort of repair manual or even specifications .
Like most I do not repair Ryobi for 2 reasons
1) can not get parts unless it is rebadged from a major maker
2) cost of repair almost always is higher than the replacement price particularly for hand held items
Silly example for an 18" walk behind
Blades $ 30
Air filter $ 45
Fuel filter $ 14 ( Aftermarket $ 6.50 )
Fixed rate service charge $ 45
New mower $ 110
Note these are $ AUS .
The Ryobi Aust only carry limited parts for the models they imported and all of the big retailers do direct imports for various Ryobi outlets in HK, China, Korea, Vietnam, The Phillipines & even USA all of which are considered to be "grey imports"
Ryobi themselves do not repair anything they just replace items that failed under warranty and sell off the returned items at auctions .

SO no real purpose for a dedicated Ryobi section

bertsmobile1 said:

Ryobi is not a make, it is a marketing brand
Ryobi can be made by any one of 1000 different factories as the manufacture is contracted out .
Most Ryobi products are designed not the be repaired right down to snap in parts that can not be removed without breaking them .
On top of that depending upon the manufacturere there may or may not be an IPL let alone any sort of repair manual or even specifications .
Like most I do not repair Ryobi for 2 reasons
1) can not get parts unless it is rebadged from a major maker
2) cost of repair almost always is higher than the replacement price particularly for hand held items
Silly example for an 18" walk behind
Blades $ 30
Air filter $ 45
Fuel filter $ 14 ( Aftermarket $ 6.50 )
Fixed rate service charge $ 45
New mower $ 110
Note these are $ AUS .
The Ryobi Aust only carry limited parts for the models they imported and all of the big retailers do direct imports for various Ryobi outlets in HK, China, Korea, Vietnam, The Phillipines & even USA all of which are considered to be "grey imports"
Ryobi themselves do not repair anything they just replace items that failed under warranty and sell off the returned items at auctions .

SO no real purpose for a dedicated Ryobi section

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I actually dread it when a customer brings a Ryobi handheld product in my shop. As of next year I will no longer work on/repair Ryobi, Craftsman, MTD, Poulan, Troy Bilt, etc. handheld equipment. The success rate at getting them running is lower than it should be, the frustration level is often high, and the pay for time involved is low. Many of these, especially chainsaws and trimmers, have scored piston, rings, and cylinder (done).

Ryobi USA advertised their mowers are US made. Comment on that?

If there was a need for a new subsection they would put one in. Seems you’re the only one who think it’s needed. I work on Fairbanks-Morse and McCormink-Deering Hit-N-Miss engines, but there is no subsection for them. Why, because there is no need. Looks like you are from the generation of “I want it and I want it NOW.” Things don’t revolve around your wants, so go somewhere else to pick your fights.

Ryobi Limited is a Japanese manufacturer of components for automobiles, electronics, and telecommunications industries. It also sells printing equipment, power tools, and builders' hardware. Ryobi Power Tools and Ryobi Outdoor Power Equipment are brands of Techtronic Industries, used under license from Ryobi Limited.

Techtronic Industries Company Limited (TTI Group or TTI) is a Hong Kong based multinational company that designs, produces, and markets power tools; outdoor power equipment; hand tools, and floor care appliances. It pioneered cordless power tools powered by lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.

TTI manufactures in China, Vietnam, the U.S., Mexico and Europe, and in 2022, had annual sales of US$13.3 billion.

I would think they are assembled in the USA using a mix US and foreign made parts. Not 100% usa made.

FWIW we get Yard Machine branded ride on mowers down here
When I decode the MTD model numbers I end up with Kohler powered tractor style mowers marketed as Ryobi in either the USA or Canada .
So in fairness Ryobi is really not all that different to Craftsman other than Craftsman does have service information , IPL's & some sort of replacement parts supply
Ryobi ( down here any way ) does not for most of what is sold retail
And on top of what Star has pointed out each division of Ryobi is an entity unto itself so there is not even a single web site to visit
Down here & apparently in the UK the importer or retailer is obliged to supply that information for how ever long it is needed
So almost identical machines could be under the name a dozen different retail / wholesale chains and again down here access to information is limited by requiring proof of purchase so they can tell if they are liable for your particular machine.
On top of that there are no Ryobi franchise dealers so no dealer network thus no need for after sales service above & beyond replacing a faulty machine during warranty period .

Don't we just love all the equipment in drag...

And it is getting where manufactures are doing just Bert said and that is they are no longer supporting their equipment beyond the warranty period. I just ran across a Briggs engine that Briggs no longer fully support even it was just over two years old. Needed a coil but none was available.

We have a forum for electric and battery powered equipment. Not opposed to adding a main subsection for those brands.

I personally have a Ryobi battery powered mower that I bought for $75 on clearance. It gets the job done but the battery life is pretty short, not even enough to do the front and back yard of a 7500sq ft corner lot (of which maybe 1500sq ft is actual lawn).

This isn't the 1st 'brand' that outsources products under their name. That should be a reasonj NOT to include the brand, especially since they are a popular and very recognized name. I understand the repair issues with the lack of parts, but HD will cover the warrenty. I know I alrewady used it for a string trimmer that developed a minor grease leak.

But the excessive 'bad-mouthing' here surely isn't necessary.

My problem with companies that don't parts is just that. They should be required to provide the parts and service info. As an independent shop I service about anything that I can get parts for. It is becoming a problem especially with battery powered equipment that the OEMs flat refuses to provide necessary repairs after the sell. I think mostly because Chinese plant builds a bunch of equipment, dumps it, and then destroy the factory so they can out with a new design.

Just ran into that problem with a Briggs engine that was only two years old. Their subcontractor went out of business shortly after making a run of engines so no parts are available even for the engines under warranty.

Ok, I buy that, but just who (what level of government) should be responsible for the regulation and how would it be enforced? Capitalism and regulation don't seem to go together in this country,

Manufactures started years ago deciding when something was at it end life so they could force the consumers into buying new equipment. This only in their interest. One company I work insisted us service stop repairing that was 5 yrs or old so they could sell new equipment. Basically they wanted to keep their factories output near its max capacity.

For which government level office I don't know if one even exists currently. But like EU do have a system in place. It just like don't the right to repair laws in place either in the US so currently they can force us to use dealers with high repair rates. This is something that is slowly taking root again in the US and the sooner the better.

Planed obselences

Rivets said:

Probably because most techs feel that Ryobi is a throwaway brand. Most of us refuse to work on them. Difficult to get support and parts, and if you can find help, cost to repair is more than unit is worth repairing.

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videobruce said:

Ryobi USA advertised their mowers are US made. Comment on that?

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Down here we get Yardman , which is an old MTD brand
If I need mower body parts then I need to use US Ryobi IPLs
As I said in the first reply some are just rebadged major brands
As for the Ryobi petrol mowers I see down here they all come from China or Hong Kong
The models destined for the US market have those idiot bar blades and are grey imports while the local model has a 2 or 4 swing back blade system and uses Masport blades . They both have chonda engines with no service parts available other than air filters , not even gaskets and no Honda ones do not fit .
As for "made in America"
I just sold my last ret of Rotary gator style blades
There is a sticker that reads "assembled in the USA" with the rotary part number on it , stuck over the word Mexico stamped into the blade .

FWIW I scrap about 50 ryobi line trimmers a year
I have about 100 of them in the graveyard
When some one asks if I have something that they can repair with their kids I give them a truck load of them
Some even come back for more .
As for battery or electric all I replace is blades, if I can get them through my usual wholesalers

Ryobi here are rebadged MTD mowers.

As the idiot bar blades they are a common item here but we tend keep our lawns rock, and stump free. But once a while some tries to cut a metal post in two. Now that does a number on the blade and crankshaft.

bertsmobile1 said:

FWIW I scrap about 50 ryobi line trimmers a year
I have about 100 of them in the graveyard
When some one asks if I have something that they can repair with their kids I give them a truck load of them
Some even come back for more .
As for battery or electric all I replace is blades, if I can get them through my usual wholesalers

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As far as “bad mouthing” Ryobi. When you have seen enough crappy, sub par handheld blowers, trimmers and Tillers that are Ryobi, you have earned the right first hand to form an honest opinion. That is why I chose not to work on them as of 2024 any longer. I can not name a shop locally that will work on Ryobi . That speaks volumes.

Yes some OEMs earns the bad mouthing just like some distributors. It happens in all daily things. I recently was in the Horsepital under emergency treatment. The doctors basically kept me in the dark as to my treatment. Still really don't know all the things they did other than shock me and drained off 35-40 lbs of water. They treated like it was on need to know basic.

My GP is giving me info that apparently my Afib has got to lock heart rate of 200 bpm causing fluid build up around my heart. Currently I am idling at 49 bpm this morning. I only thing is now I am finally at my target weight range of 220-225 lbs. Four year of dieting I could never get below 235 lbs.

Not working on them is not fair to enduser that got stuck with the products but it a pain to get parts and info from OEMs. Some distributors are listing the parts under other OEM price lists too. I got particular engine line that one distributor lists the parts under Homelite and the other distributor lists them under Lauson.

I’ll never forget when I bought a Ryobi self propelled lawnmower and gave it a bad review and about a month later I got a call from one of there engineers saying I had no right to give a poor review because they work so hard on the quality of there products. I said did you even read the review and he said no just saw the rating and assume it was a mistake. The 3 year warranty is good if you have a local repair shop and it doesn’t work if it’s fuel related. I have owned Ryobi products for years and a simple muffler is not serviceable so yes they are throw away machines that’s why they are cheaper in price and design.

It is sorta a bad review I gave an eBay screw supplier that lied to me several times and to eBay. The screws were supposedly in stock in Florida. Well they weren't and it over a week to even ship them out of North Carolina. The supplier demand me to take down the review because it ruin his prefect score. Then he was going to eBay take it down. Well I know eBay would contact me and I told him he was in violation of his agreement with eBay. Never heard more about it. What worst was a quarter of the screws were defective but I let that ride.

When someone brings in a ryobi or the like I used to replace fuel lines if that was all it needed. Not any more. I don't work on them at all anymore.

Hammermechanicman said:

When someone brings in a ryobi or the like I used to replace fuel lines if that was all it needed. Not any more. I don't work on them at all anymore.

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Let me point out the main reasons I don’t work on Ryobi (or any other off brand handheld equipment any longer):

1). The juice is not worth the squeeze. Too much labor time for low profit return.
2). Mixed success. Not uncommon to spend a lot of time trying to get it run, only to have it run poorly or intermittent hard starts.
3). No compression. Scored piston, rings, and cylinder. Notify customer and they never come back to pay for diagnostic charge.
4). Repair often costs too much in relation to initial cost. Remember the 50% of retail vs repair cost ratio general rule of thumb.
5). The warranty is only as good as a local shop willing to do the work, or repair after the warranty. Let’s face it, the customer cheaped out and bought a crappy product and now wants a shop to polish a turd.
6). I don’t enjoy working on cheap, crappy equipment. Old equipment is better than cheap crappy handheld equipment.

Well Ryobi chainsaw that just came in is a Homelite parts wise. RY10521A So they are no harder to repair than the Homelite saws. Just a stupid Ruixing carb which I actually got repair GND kits for.

StarTech said:

Well Ryobi chainsaw that just came in is a Homelite parts wise. RY10521A So they are no harder to repair than the Homelite saws. Just a stupid Ruixing carb which I actually got repair GND kits for.

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Don’t work on handheld Homelite, Poulan, Troy Bilt, MTD, Ryobi, Craftsman, etc. It isn’t that they are not fixable, it is for the following 6 reasons above.

Ever heard of the business model where low cost repairs are done for the customers to bring a lot more profitable repairs? Yes a lot handheld are done here at near cost. Plus they are not that hard to do when you know what you are doing. Yes I overlook some labor collected at times but that is something can overlook as long as I make a profit on the parts. I looking at the big picture of getting more profitable repairs from the same customers.

It took me all five minutes to diagnose the problem. And it will 30-45 minutes to effect the repairs. Now of course the repair cost to the customer will be about $70 but he has already agreed to it. It when his ZTR comes in that I will make a much better profit.

Now there will be some more involved repairs but I have been doing handhelds are since 2009. When I first started it took a long time but now they are rather quick repairs. I started out with a PU load of them from another shop that just gave them to to get out of his way. I self trained myself on them and ended up repairing and sell 3/4 of that load for more the parts cost me. Yes I had to get some unique tools but they have service me well over the years.

As with all things some shops just can't wrap their heads around the repairs. Two cycle are simple but everything got to be right unlike a four cycle. Now there are shop in the area that refuses to done electrical work on equipment too.

It is basically providing a service for good customer relations. I got several major customers that started trying me out on the el cheapo equipment.

When my brother supposedly ran the business he also was refusing the handheld repairs. Well I start doing the repairs myself as he was refusing to pay me for the use of the computer and accounting I was doing him so I had do something to cover those expenses. When he seen that I taking in close to 5K a year in work he took notice. Being a a$$ he tried to stop the customers from leaving me the repairs. They just keep coming: some even threaten to take their other repairs to another shop so he final yield. Last year I did about 8K in hand repairs of the 30K in over all repairs. So shops please keep refusing these repairs.

Now this season is just starting up and the handheld repairs are already exceeding the rider repairs but that will change as soon I get out the Z830A and Z925A major repairs out.