Ryobi 18V Cordless Air Compressor Torture Test!

I thought it might be fun to put my new Ryobi 18V (P739) air compressor through a bit of stress testing, brand new, out of the box. I ran it for about 75 minutes straight and the results were surprising!
Video Links
Air Compressors and Air Tools Playlist ► • Air Compressors & Air ...
Stuff Links (Affiliated)
Ryobi 18V Compressor ► amzn.to/3ghp4AZ
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[@Jenuin]

Great video. Exactly what I was looking for. New sub.

[@TheBrokenLife]

Awesome! I'm glad you found it useful! 👍

A very good test 😀

[@TheBrokenLife]

Thanks! 👍

[@peternorthrup6274]

Picked up a tractor supply 2 gallon unit. Put a 1500 watt inverter in my rig to run it. Works great. Full size air compressor hose. $150.00 total. Those batteries don't last very long. And they are not cheap. Great video. 👍

[@TheBrokenLife]

Thanks! It's not a perfect solution for everyone, but since I was already invested in the large batteries it made sense for me. For being cordless, I'm still quite impressed with it.

[@carmenvizcaino4484]

Marina vina and

[@demetriusmccullough3994]

Great video thank you

[@TheBrokenLife]

You're very welcome. Thanks for watching! 👍

[@jo9732]

Thanks for the video. I don’t see the use case for this item. I found the handheld inflator is useful. But for a job that requires a gallon of air I’d say a plug job is better.

[@TheBrokenLife]

The nice thing about this one is there's usually less waiting. If you you're doing a truck, a trailer, and something on the trailer, and you just need normal amounts of topping off, it can usually recharge itself as you're moving around. It's also nice to start off at 135 psi and not take forever waiting to get there on something like an inflator. If you have a tire that operates at 80psi, that's really nice. I agree there's a unique market for this one, but that happened to be the market to suit my needs. In reality it's about 50% slower than I had hoped, but it's still pretty good.

[@44Mag]

Thanks for the video. Can you tell me what the psi output is when using it to blow dust off? I saw you were able to get about 15 seconds with it, but I could not tell where the output level was (it did not sound very high, maybe about 50psi, and gradually lowered?) Also, does it stabilize at a certain output psi when continually using it? I was thinking about it for running an airbrush, but you pretty much need a steady airflow that can be regulated from 15-35psi (depending on paint type, viscosity, etc) Thanks

[@TheBrokenLife]

Keep in mind that just my hose length effectively doubled, or maybe even tripled, the tank volume. My results in the video will not be the same result you get unless you also have 75 feet of 3/8" hose plugged into it. I suspect you'd get about 5 seconds of "dusting" out of just the tank. With that in mind, the pressure started at maximum, which is around 125psi, and then dropped rapidly, as you suspected. But, that was running fully unregulated. As far as using it to run an airbrush, perhaps it would work, but unless you need to do that "in the field", you're probably better off with something that plugs into the wall. You should probably compare the expected flow rate of your airbrush (usually in CFM) to what any compressor is capable of.

[@richgarland6170]

Hey bud nice video , Can I ask you some questions please ? I've just bought one of these unit's & the necessary air hose pipe + air gun . I'm wondering did you have to tape up or seal in some way , all threaded join's on you're hose fittings ??? After setting everything up on my unit there's hissing air coming from the thread that connects the hose into the gun ...☹️ Was thinking do I have some faulty hose fittings... ? Or do I need to do some thread taping in order to make completely air tight ? Can you shed some light ? Thanks ...

[@TheBrokenLife]

Thanks! I have a whole video about sealing pneumatic fittings. It's in the air tools/compressor playlist (which I think is linked in the description).

[@richgarland6170]

@@TheBrokenLife thanks bud 👍👍 I'll check it out

[@williamoleary9330]

How about using it for an air blower? My son & I have RC vehicles & when we’re out bashing with them we have to wait until se get home to clean them. We’d rather do it in the field. Please advise Thank you

[@TheBrokenLife]

Ehhhh... Probably not recommended on its own. I'm planning to add something like a 3-5 gallon storage tank to mine for projects like that.

[@woodysgeekchannel2204]

Great channel !. Is this still working? I just picked up a refurbished one from Ryobi for $50

[@TheBrokenLife]

Thanks! 👍 So far, yes. I admit I don't use it a ton though.

[@dirediredude]

Nice! I'm actually planning to use it to clean out radiators and condensors outside of the garage. You mentioned it had about 15 seconds of continuous pressure, do you think you could use the regulator to effectively double or triple that before the tank has to refill? Also you refilled it to refill your other larger tank but I think I might have missed the time it takes to just refill this 1 gal tank? I'd be curious to know that as well. Thanks!

[@TheBrokenLife]

I may not have been as clear as I think maybe I should have been. The 15 seconds included about 75 feet of air hose plugged into it. That amount of air hose radically expands the compressed air capacity. On its own, it's only good for a couple of seconds. Usually regulating blow guns down sort of defeats the purpose. The gun you saw me using in the video has a very small inflator tip installed on its outlet (it's like a tiny cone with a 1/8" hole at the end). This focuses the air into a very fine, localized, area with as much pressure as I can stuff through it. I'm regulating the volume, not the pressure. That blow gun setup is pretty much ideal for what you're trying to do... but the compressor can still only run it for a few seconds. From stored tank pressure from a larger compressor, it would only take a few seconds to inflate the 1 gallon tank. With all of that said... depending on how far "outside the shop" is, you'd probably be better off to buy a conventional air compressor and a _really_ long hose for what you're hoping to do with it. Or... You may be better off with a battery powered leaf blower..?

[@dirediredude]

@@TheBrokenLife Thanks for the quick reply. Appreciate the feedback, I'll give it a go and see how it works. I'm using a 50 ft hose so it should be comparable to your setup. I have a suspicion though from what you've said I'll be annoyed waiting for it to fill up between clean outs. We'll see!

[@TheBrokenLife]

@@dirediredude I suspect, what you suspect, to be correct. 😉 If you go into it with the idea that it's a fantastic inflator to have around no matter how your other uses go, you'll still be pleased with it. It's pretty great if you have a fleet of tires to run around and air up.

[@seniorLu48]

I do some very small projects (nothing big) and carry with me a 5gal portable air tank, but it's a bit tiring to refill at service stations. I wonder how this unit will work if I connect it to my 5gal tank? Also, most of my tools are battery power so I have plenty of Ryobi batteries. Thanks again for you time.

[@TheBrokenLife]

That's pretty much my long term plan with mine. I expect to work alright, but be a bit slow. If you don't need the portability, a small corded compressor would probably be a better bet.

[@jo9732]

Definitely get a small corded one. It will be cheaper long term as compared to the battery one.

[@sunnydylan8034]

How would it work up against 16 guage nailer for base boards

[@TheBrokenLife]

People claim it does pretty well for that job. I'm no trim carpenter so I really can't say for certain.

[@AmsterDanTheAmerican]

What is the Ryobi Supercharger and where can I pick one up?

[@TheBrokenLife]

It's a 6 bay battery charger. I did a brief review of mine several years ago that has a link in the decription: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jH-siqZ3fLqepMU

[@bignicksixty9ine]

would it power an airbrush kit? cheers

[@TheBrokenLife]

I'm really not sure. Someone else asked me that question too and my response to them was that unless you had a specific need for an air brush "in the field", you'd probably be better served by a traditional plug-in compressor. I keep trying to come up with a reason to own an air brush and try it myself.

[@daves485]

Can it fill tires after off roading? Let’s say 4 tires from 20psi to 35psi?

[@TheBrokenLife]

Yes, and I think that would be on of the better uses for it. For something like big mud tires it will take a little bit, but it's still faster than something you plug into your lighter port.

[@bubba6richards729]

I’m thinking if this for an airbrush at 20-30lbs psi. Think it would be good for that? And is this quiet caompared to a pancake nailer compressor? Ty

[@TheBrokenLife]

Unless you need to airbrush in the field, I would just go with a compressor intended for airbrushes that plugs into the wall. If for some reason you _do_ need to airbrush out in the world, I'd probably consider adding a 2-5 gallon air tank to this unit just to play it safe. It's also about the same amount of noise compared to any other compressor of its size.

[@bubba6richards729]

Thank you! 😎

[@JDAfrica]

Can you convert the Ryobi to Makita battery? In theory should work

[@TheBrokenLife]

It seems so: amzn.to/3Uccxkf I have something similar that adapts my Milwaukee batteries to my Ryobi tools. I can't speak from the one I linked, since I don't have any Makita tools, but what I have works fine. What you need to be mindful of is whether or not the adapter and the battery will fit into your tool.

[@ricky450f]

I’m buying one to keep in my van purely to inflate my paddle boards

[@eurika7655]

Would like to see how long it would take to air up an empty truck tire. Say 35 or smaller 2500 HD tire.

[@TheBrokenLife]

From dead flat you'd be waiting awhile. I'd say you'd be into something like for probably around 10 minutes. It's not all that much faster than a plug-in 12V compressor once the tank is discharged. It's more about convenience than speed with this thing... and it _is_ convenient.

[@eurika7655]

@TheBrokenLife thank you. I was looking for something a little more rugged and stronger than your typical inflator. This one cought my eye. At home depot I place the unit in a ridgid stackable crate. It fit in one perfectly if I turned it on its side. I put the hose inflator and even a tool bag in the create. Just to see what all I could put in it. I think this is going to work out great. Tomorrow they have a $99 charger and 2 -4 hour batteries on sale. After your video I think I'm going to take the plunge and buy one. This is something I can travel with on vacation without a cheap inflator breaking on the first use.

[@TheBrokenLife]

@@eurika7655 Sounds like you have a decent plan worked out. For occasional use and "rescue", I have no complaints with mine. It's gotten me out of a couple of pinches.

[@dilipbhaithakor7730]

I want3 buy it

[@TheBrokenLife]

Cool! There's a link for it in the description.

[@tarstarkusz]

It's hard to think of a worse use case for a battery than to compress air. These things are very inefficient (all that noise and heat are coming from your battery) and batteries simply are not energy dense enough to use it (air compressor) as a source of power. These little guys are usually about 1/10th of a HP (around 75 watts) with a pretty large fraction of that going to heat and vibration. In your demonstration (admittedly silly) use-case of pumping up a large tank to quickly use an impact gun, well, I'd say running a battery operated impact gun is a much better matched use of such a limited amount of energy. Where these small units shine, is when they have a cigarette plug designed to fill up low tires with relatively low max pressure like a passenger vehicle.

[@TheBrokenLife]

All of that is admittedly true, with a couple of side points. Regarding energy density, I already made the investment in enough batteries to run that thing for literally hours at a time and that batteries are fairly easy to transport. My time for it to work is part of a Faustian bargain perhaps, but one that has already been struck. I do think Ryobi should have offered it as dual voltage, 18/36, and come up with a way for it to accept 2 batteries. With twice the power, it would be pretty legit. A cordless impact is on my agenda for sure, but replacing my entire air tool arsenal with battery equipped tools is going to be very expensive. The Ryobi is a much cheaper half measure to get me out of pickle in an unplanned emergency. My suspicion that it would do it, although be ridiculous, was true. Regarding the 12V plug ins... I've had one of those for 20 years and they're even more ridiculously slow and loud. I've tinkered around with the Ryobi a bit and the use case for it to run around a truck, trailer, and something on the trailer scenario is actually pretty decent as long as all of the tires aren't at 10psi when you start. Something like a 1 ton that has tires with an 80psi air requirement one of the little 12V guys would really struggle with, but the Ryobi will do it no problem. So, in the situation where you have a truck with duals, a tandem trailer, and a tractor on the trailer, you have 14 tires to check and inflate and you have to climb/walk around all sorts of stuff to do it over 40-50 feet. I'd much rather have the cordless for that job than drag a hose around. A 12V would be fairly out of the question just do to the length of wiring you'd need. My _long_ term goal with this guy is to make it part of a more-or-less permanent service cart, with probably a 5 gallon accessory tank strapped to it, that can be wheeled out to the back 40 to service something remotely. Think of a scenario where a tractor pops a tire, a plug is installed, and now has to be filled up with air. Or, an air tool is needed for a very short burst to get over some hump so you can get something on a trailer or off the highway. This tool is in a pretty unique segment of the market as being one of the few affordable options for those scenarios, although I admit it's going to need more tank.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@TheBrokenLife Don't they make better quality corded ones? Assuming .8 utilization of the 20amp fuse most lighters have, that's about 225 watts, though, I would imagine they don't want consumers getting that close to the fuse when there might be other things in the circuit. I wasn't criticizing your use case. It sounded to me like you had a reasonable use case of "in an emergency" which any tool is better than no tool, especially since you already have all those big batteries.l. Something like this would be good to fill a can too I had a friend that used to fill an air can before going to the track. He wanted to pump his tires up for better traction, but didn't want to ride on the streets with such overinflated tires. He would usually fill it on the way in a gas station coin-op air thing. But I've seen videos shilling this thing for construction sites!! (I know you're not shilling it). Most people are going to more or less be limited to inflating their regular old car tires in using this. Also, I'm kind of a sperg about this push to make everything battery operated. They are selling battery powered weed eaters and even snow throwers and vacuum cleaners!!!. You have all these "geek" types pushing their anti-petrol idiocy. I saw a Jay Leno video recently with Briggs and Stratton claiming they are fixing to (slowly) abandon small engines and go with batteries, something they cannot even manufacture. This is absolutely moronic. here's the Leno video: /watch?v=ftMxCehD08U TBH, I'm not crazy about most cordless tools. Unless you earn money via your tools, cordless tools are a bad investment. I prefer corded, but I am usually not on ladders or on sites with no electricity. I'm just a home-gamer and the batteries will die before I use it 25 times. Plus, any 15 amp socket will give you 1440 watts (again, 80% of 15amps). I just cannot see the wisdom to have to buy new batteries every 4 or 5 years which end up costing a fortune. Talk about planned obsolescence. Really, unless you have a pretty niche need for this, it's too small to be useful and it's too big and requires big, expensive, heavy batteries. Again, I get that you have a good use case and knew what you were buying before hand.

[@TheBrokenLife]

@@tarstarkusz You're going to have the same inefficiencies through a lighter port that you do via the Ryobi, but the Ryobi can deliver a ton more wattage than the lighter port could. Lithium Ion batteries are excellent at discharging themselves in a hurry. That's what makes them dangerous. As far as whether or not there are better 12v ones, I dunno. I've only seen them get smaller over the years, not anything that is obviously better. I confess I haven't looked at the market. Perhaps I will? I know you weren't attacking me or anything like that. I know you like to look at things from the other end of the spectrum, which is completely welcomed conversation. Just because something makes sense to me doesn't mean it will to everyone. That said, this thing is pretty much exactly what your buddy was using, but you can refill it with the flip of a switch. Amateur racing/offroading is actually an excellent use for it. It's way better than a tank alone or a 12v compressor (of the ones I've used). Ehhh... If you check the tool reviews playlist you'll see that I have a cordless weedeater that I'm pretty fond of. ;) I get it that cordless isn't the ultimate answer to all things, but I like 95% of the cordless stuff I have and would like to get more. I'm in the shop enough that they pay back with time and convenience for me and generally speaking I'm not buying at the top of the market (hence the Ryobi stuff). Stuff like the Ryobi line also double up as emergency use tools because of the inverter. I got into the Milwaukee M12 line because of the excellent underhood light, which really doesn't have any parallel from what I've seen. I wouldn't just jump into cordless without thinking through long term plans and that's kinda where I started to get deep into both brands. They each had something that I really wanted that set the hook in me. I confess that I'm curious about what the average use case for the compressor really is. One of the fun things about KZbin is that in time plenty of people will be along to share their experiences. If the thing really will run a brad nailer all day, I'd sure be curious to hear about it. I would think on a job site you'd be better off with a generator and a traditional pancake compressor, but I've never spent a day doing anything resembling professional construction so I have nothing but guesses. I will say that if it would do that, it would be nice not to listen to a generator 100% of the day.

[@jo9732]

The real kicker is why Ryobi makes a combo fan that runs both battery and a plug / but no one in their product development thought to do that on this tool? THAT would be a great option. Plug it in when at home and run off a battery when camping or whatever. Come on Ryobi. Get after it.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@jo9732 I would go with the one with a plug. The batteries will add a hefty premium. If you car is running, it's over 14v and the voltage don't sag, which they do on these battery machines. While lithium-ion cells discharge well, most simply are not rated to put out 10amps continuously for 5-10 minutes. These are used very infrequently, so it probably doesn't matter other than the risk of fire, which they most likely have a thermal sensor to just shut it down. But for niche applications, it's probably great.

[@Sparkyspage]

I wonder how long it would last… Oil - less doesn’t sound promising. Any cheap inflator I’ve owned hasn’t lasted long ..

[@TheBrokenLife]

I agree on all accounts. But... this this actually seems to have pretty decent thermal management. If it come up to temp and just be allowed to stay there while working for a bit, I think there's hope. It's a very niche product as it is. How many people are really going to be pushing theirs? Time will tell...