Like many home owners I am in the Ryobi One+ 18V suite of tools. I keep seeing various models of their 36V mower on Marketplace and Gumtree for deeply discounted prices. We're talking half the price or less of the comparable 18V models. I've bought some pretty cheap Ryobi tools off Marketplace in the past, so I wouldn't discount people not knowing what things are truly worth. What's going on here? Do 18V have better resale owing to the popularity of that range? Do you have any theories?
Used Ryobi 36V mowers are always on deep discount
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The grass still grows during war! haha
With all that rain what's stopping it even 69v can't stop the graas
Cost comes down to the batteries in my opinion.
36v batteries are very expensive and don't have the same range of tools as 18v
Sometimes the deals include batteries though, it boggles the mind.
Generally, a major cost of most products is the packaging. IE @ 5 to 10 %, however Premuim Products like Perfume, and some Alochol products, the percentage can be much higher (50-60% for perfume). A good example was Chivas Regal. They put it in a fancy bottle, 'doubled the price', and sales boomed because it looked like a premium product.
Many years ago we would buy a Microsoft Mouse, and it would cost say $55 Inc, however the same Mouse Mouse without packaging would cost say $22Inc as an OEM product, however part of the agreement was that it could not be sold by itself, unless with a computer (or qualifying hardware). This happened with many things like CPU's, memory, video cards sound cards, and CD rom drives.
Hence why bundled products/combos are best value for money for Ryobi products.
Sometimes the deals include batteries though
Yes, but are the batteries functional / in a good state?
The 18v range is much larger. In addition to garden tools there's all the power tools as well whereas 36v is limited to just garden tools. The battery cost is also significantly more for 36v. Overall the 35v market is smaller and therefore less demand. They may be part of the reason. You just see a lot of mowers in general for sale used. I think more people are switching to mowing services rather than DIY these days.
Yeah I picked up a 36v mower, whipper snipper and blower from the same guy off gumtree. Its been nearly 5 years on and had to get a new battery to complete the whole mow about 2 years on, blower works great, but whipper snipper is just annoying.
Can't remember the total cost but it was like just over half price gumtree special, well worth it. Consumable wise I've only purchased 1 x new blade for the mower and 1 x new battery after 5 years.I’ve noticed the exact same thing - I think the 18V Eco system is much bigger and more popular and hence people are keen to keep within the 18V range. The 36V batteries and charger are also more expensive and I’ve found harder to come by. I just bought the 18V 36cm mower and that works fine but am curious how much better the 36V would have performed. I borrowed a 36V edger on the weekend and that worked a treat, the battery lasted over an hour of full use and cut through everything like butter.
Because people flogging them to up the voltage in the ego range. 36v is just manageable when you mow every 2 weeks and can't mow too low (manufacturers deliberately set cutting limits).
I see quite a few second hand 36v mowers too. I bought one to test, then upgraded to brushless and sold the first. Many I see for sale are downsizers, elderly people with no need for a mower any more, originally went cordless for ease of use. Others are sold with dud batteries because they realise that the 36v batteries are quite expensive.
I’d also imagine a few are sold because they want to go back to bigger power petrol because the owner doesn’t like the compromise of mowing a little slower when the grass is thick or the battery doesn’t quite make it around their larger yard.
Make sure to check what model it is. There have been various models. The earlier 36v were not brushless which means less power, less running time, and from what I read in some reviews can cause the battery to overheat and/or fail. In general those older models had mixed reviews. Whereas the current 36v models are all brushless I think and reviews are consistently good. You might find the used 36v models are the older models?
Having a bit of look at productreview (I appreciate there's a downward bias to only complain on review sites), and the older 36V models seem to be fairly shitcanned.
With the war going on anything can happen