7 Ryobi Tools And Products You Can't Get In The US

Ryobi is one of the more prominent sellers of tools in the United States — if you're a regular customer at Home Depot, you've almost definitely seen its displays. While Ryobi has a big footprint in the United States, that's far from the only footprint it has. The company was originally founded in Japan in the 1940s, and today it's a multinational brand operating in various countries.

A quirk of Ryobi's multinational presence is that not all the products it sells in one country will be available in others. As such, there are a good number of Ryobi products that you can't find on the shelf here in the United States. In fact, two of Ryobi's largest markets are the U.K. and Australia. If you want to buy products from there, you'll need to buy them online. Just remember to treat any tools you're interested in with the same degree of skepticism you'd direct toward a tool right in front of you, even with the novelty that comes from the limited availability.

One product line that's exclusive to Australia is the Airwave series, a lineup of tools that are meant to be plugged into an air compressor for power, unlike Ryobi's electronic battery pack system that's most common here in the United States. These tools are compatible with any air compressor, Australian-made or otherwise, though the Airwave line does also include compressors.

One example of the Airwave series is the Airwave Air Reciprocating Saw. Ryobi offers various battery-powered reciprocating saws for the U.S., but this one is exclusively powered by a compressor. You just plug the air hose into the back of the tool, squeeze the safety lever, and you get a pressure-powered cutter delivering 9 psi of air power. This tool is intended primarily for demolition purposes, such as cutting through windows, walls, and plumbing. Since there's no attached battery pack, the tool itself is slightly lighter than its 18V counterparts at 0.72kg, though of course you're also limited by the attached air compressor. As long as the compressor is running, though, the Airwave Air Reciprocating Saw is rated for around 5,000 strokes per minute.

While the Airwave series includes many of the same tools that you would find powered by batteries in the United States, like drills and wrenches, there's also a slightly greater emphasis on air-centric tools. For instance, there's the Airwave Gravity Spray Gun. With the help of an air compressor, this tool is designed for spray-painting projects, drawing from an attached 600ml paint pot. The gun comes with two attachable nozzles, one 1.3mm and the other 1.4mm, which are intended for spraying on clear paint coats and thinner base coats, respectively.

The tool has several dials built in to allow you to control the pattern, flow, and direction of your paint as you spray it instead of needing to make adjustments on the air compressor. This tool is only sold at Australian hardware chain Bunnings Warehouse, where it comes bundled with a small box of accessories like a spare filter, a brush for cleaning the tip, and a wrench for performing maintenance.

Besides a paint sprayer, one of the most obvious tools you could include in a product series that focuses on air compressor power is a sandblaster. Ryobi's United States unit doesn't sell either paint sprayers or sandblasters, so if you wanted either with a Ryobi brand, it's Australia or bust.

The Airwave Sandblaster works similarly to the paint sprayer, receiving its power from an attached air compressor. The difference is that, rather than paint, this tool draws from a 900ml hopper to spray abrasive directly at spots and substances you'd prefer to go away. This tool is intended for removing stuck-on substances, such as old, chipped paint, rusty spots on metal objects, and any other nonspecific contaminants. The tool is also equipped with a recovery bag, which is meant to reduce waste while performing spot rust removals. The Airwave Sandblaster also comes with four interchangeable contact nozzles, which are used to change the pattern that the abrasive sprays in.

Besides the Airwave line, Ryobi also offers certain kits and packages of tools that aren't available in the United States. Specifically, the tools themselves could probably be purchased piecemeal at an American Home Depot, but in Australia, they're bundled together for a lump sum, and may be packaged in a unique bag or carrying case. While the tools themselves aren't unique, you'd think Ryobi could easily sell similar kits over here, but it oddly doesn't, instead selling larger, more expensive kits or similarly small bundles, but without a bag or case at all.

A prominent example of this is the Ryobi Homeowners Hand Tool Kit, which is only sold in Australia at Bunnings Warehouse. This product is meant to be a simple starter kit for new homeowners who might need to perform some spontaneous repairs or D.I.Y. work. The kit includes a 5m retractable tape measure, six screwdrivers of varying sizes with magnetic tips, a quick-change sliding knife, an 8-piece hex key, a 150mm side cutter, long-nosed pliers, and a 16oz fiberglass rip claw hammer. All of this is packed into a 355mm tool bag, which is sized to carry all of the tools simultaneously, plus a few extra pockets in the front for odds and ends.

Over in the United Kingdom, there's a good amount of crossover between the Ryobi products available there and those available here in the United States. However, there is a small handful of products that you can only find across the pond, some wholly distinct and others only slightly different from those we have here.

One example of the latter is the 165mm Plunge Saw, only available from Ryobi's U.K.-affiliated retailers. Technically, you can get a Ryobi-branded plunge saw in the U.S. as well, but not this specific plunge saw. The major differentiating factor between this model and the U.S. model is the inclusion of a pair of 2x 0.7m guide rails. These rails can be linked together and clamped into place to provide a straight and narrow track for the saw to follow along. With the rails, this plunge saw is rated for cuts of up to 1.4m in depth.

Another area where Ryobi's United Kingdom offerings differ slightly from its United States offerings is work benches and mobile work stations. In the United States, Ryobi only has one mobile workstation on offer, the Speed Bench Mobile Work Station. In the U.K., there's a completely different, slightly more compact product available: the Folding Steel Surface Work Bench.

What this work bench lacks in wheels, it makes up for in foldability. The work surface can tilt to four different locking points ranging from 0 to 80 degrees, and you can also adjust the height the table stands at from 775mm to 1,075mm. The work surface uses a sliding clamp system to hold firmly onto whatever you're working on, as well as quick-release lift boards to expand the clamping area as necessary. When you're not using it, just close the legs and fold the table for storage.

Ryobi doesn't only sell region-limited tools and systems — it also sells other, simpler products, more for fans of the brand than anything else. One such example of non-tool products is Ryobi's line of Ryobi Mini keyrings, only sold through Bunnings Warehouse. They may not be actual tools, but they sure are adorable.

The Ryobi Mini keyrings are a series of ten tiny plastic replicas of some of Ryobi's most popular tools. The currently available Ryobi Mini products include the Stick Vacuum, Recip Saw, Lawn Mower, Sander, Battery Pack, Angle Grinder, Drill, Chainsaw, Circular Saw, and Blower. Obviously, these are not functional tools. They're just little models made from 100% recycled plastic with a key ring attached, something kitschy that you can hang your work keys from for the fun of it. You can also remove the keyring and just stand them up on their own if you're a really big Ryobi fan and want to show that off to everyone who enters your work space.