Is Ryobi's ONE+ 18V Electric Snow Shovel Any Good? What To Know Before Buying
There are a lot of home maintenance tasks to contend with in the winter. Doors and windows need to be weatherproofed, you might need to check the filters on your HVAC system, and unless you're living somewhere that's warm year-round, you'll probably have to shovel some snow. That first snowfall of the year might feel magical, but the magic fades pretty quickly when you're huffing and puffing in a parka, trying to chip away at built-up ice.
You might have considered investing in an electric snow shovel at some point. These basically work like small electric blowers that you simply push along any areas you need cleared. There are plenty of benefits to using an electric snow shovel over a plain steel spade. They're more effective than ordinary shovels, cheaper and more energy-efficient than gas blowers, and your lower back will certainly thank you. Even if you're set on buying one, however, you might not be sure which brand you should choose.
Ryobi has several products that are ideal for helping you clean up snow covered driveways and sidewalks, including a lightweight, 18V electric snow shovel. It any good? Here's everything you need to know about the Ryobi One+ 18V Electric Snow Shovel.
Price
Ryobi brand products aren't always the most powerful tools on the market, but the company does have a well-earned reputation for value. Many consider the lower cost of Ryobi tools relative to their performance to be an excellent bargain. The 18V electric snow shovel is no exception.
The Ryobi 18V One+ 10" Snow Shovel currently goes for $119 without the battery. That's definitely pricy compared to a normal shovel you might grab off the rack. It's also a bit more expensive than the 11" 10 amp Snow Joe or the 12" 8 amp Greenworks electric snow shovels, which both go for just under $100. This might lead you to believe that Ryobi isn't the bargain it's cracked up to be, but it's worth pointing out that the Ryobi model is cordless, making it much easier to maneuver.
Cordless tools are nearly always more expensive than their cable-tethered counterparts. Things look different when comparing the shovel to other cordless models. The 60V 12" Cordless Greenworks costs $279.99, the Snow Joe 24V 13" Cordless goes for $184.80, and the Toro Power Shove 60V sells for $299.00. Compared to these, the price of the Ryobi seems much more reasonable.
Specs and features
To better understand if the Ryobi One+ 18V Electric Snow Shovel is a good deal, we first have to take a look at its features and design. The shovel has a 10-inch clearing width and a 6-inch clearing depth. This is definitely on the smaller side compared to other electric snow shovels, which is a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it will allow you to more easily maneuver in compact areas like walkways, decks, and patios. It's also lighter at only 12.3 lbs. and takes up less room when you need to store it for the other nine months of the year. On the other, the smaller clearing width means more passes over a wide surface like a driveway.
According to Ryobi, the shovel can throw snow up to 20' for 20 minutes with a charged 4Ah battery. That's decent for small cleanups. A higher amperage battery might get you a longer run time, but that can vary depending on use.
Performance
Specs from the manufacturer are all well and good, but you should always take them with a grain of salt. It's in the manufacturer's best interest to show its machine's performance under optimistic conditions that rarely reflect real-world use.
The Ryobi One+ 18V Electric Snow Shovel has an average customer review score of 4.4 out of 5 on Ryobi's website and 4.2 out of 5 on the Home Depot website. Most reviews on both pages praised the little electric shovel for its light weight and efficiency, with many reporting that it worked exactly as advertised. Toolspecs tested the tool on a frozen walkway and found that it had little trouble clearing away the harder and more compact ice. This seems to indicate that the shovel is more than powerful enough for its intended use.
Not every review was positive, however. Desy Cheng reviewed the shovel on his YouTube channel, reporting that the tool died after the first few uses. He claimed that the battery was fully charged, but that the motor had simply stopped working after only a few minutes of light work. A handful of user reviews reported a similar problem. This suggests that motor failure, while not commonplace, occurs frequently enough that prospective users should know about it.
Should you buy it?
The Ryobi One+ 18V Electric Snow Shovel isn't a bad tool, but it's a tricky one to recommend except under very specific circumstances. The small clearing width means that it isn't ideal for large driveways and private roads. You'll probably want to invest in a larger model for those use cases. This tool is best used for sidewalks, walkways, decks, and patios. Even then, there are cheaper tools that can do these jobs just as efficiently, if not more so, presuming you're willing to tolerate using an extension cord.
There are a few people who may wish to consider it, though. You might want this tool if you have a large number of walkways on your property, particularly if they are spread out over a large space far from a power outlet. You might also be more interested in buying this electric snow shovel if you have already invested in the Ryobi One+ battery system. Buying a new battery makes up a significant portion of the cost, so anyone who already has one or more of Ryobi's 18V One+ batteries will get a better cost-benefit ratio than those who have to purchase the tool, a battery, and a charger. It's also worth noting that Home Depot has a 90-day return policy for all power tools, so you should be able to return it if the motor has any issues in the first season.
Our methodology
In order to write this article, SlashGear compared the price, specs, and features of the Ryobi's ONE+ 18V Electric Snow Shovel to those that were available from other, popular name brands. We pored through dozens of customer reviews, looking for recurring comments about the shovel's strengths and weaknesses. To make our final recommendations, we weighed the pros and cons of the shovel against competing products in a similar price bracket and considered the situations where this shovel may or may not be a buyer's best option.