How Heavy Is The Ryobi 18V 12AH Battery And Which Tools Does It Work With?

Ryobi currently makes four different types of battery systems: USB Lithium, 18V One+, 40V, and 80V. Each of these offers different power outputs, making them ideal for different kinds of tools. But out of all of these, the 18V One+ battery system is by far the most popular. This system strikes an ideal balance between price and performance that makes it good for a wide variety of Ryobi’s most versatile handheld products.

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Those looking to get started collecting Ryobi tools will likely want to start with the 18V One+ battery line, but you should keep in mind that there’s more to choosing a battery than simply selecting its voltage. You’ll also want to make sure that you choose the ideal capacity.

Power tool batteries measure capacity in Ampere hours (Ah). A lot of Ryobi’s starter kits include a 2.0Ah battery. These are good enough to get you going, but you might find that these start to putter out before you can get through a full day’s work. The biggest capacity 18V One+ battery that Ryobi currently makes is a 12.0Ah battery, but this is a pretty big (and pricy) piece of equipment, so you’ll want to know how much this battery weighs and which tools it works with before you commit to a purchase.

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Higher-capacity batteries last longer, but that extra electrical storage doesn’t come from nowhere. According to the Ryobi product page, “This 12Ah battery has premium 21700 cells that when combined with our INTELLICELL technology delivers up to 40% more power and up to 10X more runtime increasing overall efficiency.” So naturally, these larger cells significantly increase their size and weight.

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The Ryobi 18V One+ 12.0Ah battery is 5.75 inches tall, 5.25 inches long, and 3.5 inches wide, so it’s quite a bit bigger than most of the company’s other batteries. Interestingly enough, the product specifications on both the official Ryobi site and the Home Depot site fail to list weight, and it doesn’t seem that this product is available on Amazon just yet. Fortunately, a customer on the Home Depot site asked about the weight, and a Ryobi representative responded by stating that it weighs 3 lbs, 6 oz. This means that it weighs roughly three-and-a-half times as much as the 2.0Ah battery. That’s not bad considering it has six times the capacity, but it’s still pretty chunky.

You also might be curious which Ryobi 18V tools you’ll be able to use with the 12Ah battery. The short answer? Pretty much all of the newer models.

Older Ryobi tools that relied on nickel-cadmium batteries will not be able to be powered by the newer lithium-ion batteries in the 18V One+ line. Also, a higher capacity doesn’t change the voltage, so you won’t be able to use this battery with any of Ryobi’s 40V or 80V products, but all of Ryobi’s 18V One+ batteries are compatible with all of the company’s 18V One+ tools. This is a collection of over 300 products that include everything from drills and drivers to chainsaws and leaf blowers. There are even a few non-Ryobi products that work with Ryobi batteries out there. 

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That said, even though you can use this battery with any 18V One+ tool, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ideal for every situation. The extra weight might make some typically light tools too cumbersome to use. There are also some products made by the company, such as the popular Ryobi Power Scrubber, which have plastic enclosures that may not be able to close with such a large battery inside. Be sure to carefully consider which tools you’ll be using and whether the extra size and weight are a worthy trade-off for the boost in capacity.