It was just another afternoon in a sleepy neighborhood when the Guerrilla Lawn Care company set out to do what they do best: find overgrown, out-of-control lawns to tame, to the surprise and delight of unsuspecting homeowners.
Armed with the new line of Ryobi 40-Volt Lithium-Ion outdoor tools, including a battery powered Mower, String Trimmer, Chain Saw, Hedge Trimmer and Blower, they conquered the wilds of a lawn with overgrown hedges and thigh-high grass, passing a few of the interchangeable batteries back and forth to get the job done. The homeowner couldn’t help but hug the team’s gorilla mascot when he saw the results.
Here are some of the finer points of Guerrlla Lawn Care’s tools of choice:
Ryobi Cordless 40-Volt Lithium Ion String Trimmer
- 40-volt battery has longer run time than gas-powered trimmers—with less hassle
- 90-degree pivoting head rotates for walk-behind edging
- 11- to13-inch adjustable string width for ultimate cut control
- Light enough to be handled expertly by a Guerilla Lawn Care member who admits to “never” working out
Ryobi 16 in. 40-Volt Cordless Walk Behind Lawn Mower
- Single-lever height adjustment
- Whisper-quiet mower is great for close neighbors or urban yard work
- Starts instantly—no messing with gas or chords
- Took on thigh-high grass and won
Ryobi 24 in. 40-Volt Lithium Ion Cordless Hedge Trimmer
- 40-volt battery means no extension cords or heavy gas tanks to mess with
- Wrap-around handle for comfortable trimming at all angles
- Debris guard clears clippings while you trim
- Makes user feel a little like Edward Scissorhands. In a good way.
- Variable speed trigger for adjustable clearing power
- Specially engineered for hard surfaces and small yards
- Lightweight and easy to handle
- Great for people who hate sweeping, like the Guerrilla Lawn Care member who used this tool
Ryobi Cordless 40-Volt Chainsaw
- 12-inch bar and chain are just the right size for both power and ease of use
- Tool-less chain tensioning for simple adjustments
- Ideal for heavy pruning and quick clean-up jobs
- Gave the Guerilla Lawn Care member who used it a “cool complex” that he didn’t shake for days
And that’s not to mention just how cool these tools look.
Learn more about this Ryobi line by joining Ryobi Nation. It’s your place to share successes, win prizes and get the inside scoop on projects and promotions.
OK the video was hokie, and goofy, but I have to throw my endorsement in here on the tools.
I have some 18+ series tools, started with the blower, my wife actually loves the thing and uses it nearly everyday to blow off the front walk. It was her toy. I have some other 18V tools and truly enjoy the convienence. So when I saw the light trimmer and blower combo on sale I got one, thinking the trimmer might be great for light touch ups, and a second blower wouldnt hurt since my wife had become possesive of hers!
Well the little trimmer has exceeded expectations and with the high capacity battery it will do the whole trimming job every time, so I expect the bigger models would be great as well! Its light duty but works out pretty well and the light weight line has far outlasted my expectations at this time! I have to give it a thumbs up for light/medium duty and a surprised look for putting up with a little harder than intended use!
One criticism, and this is from my wife. The high capacity 18V battery is a bit difficult to swap out from tool to charger and back with smaller and weaker hands, so maybe some more research should have been done with the female user in mind. Otherwise she loves it!
Myself, I have my eye on that 40V mower when my current gas mower needs replacement!
Oh, and offer the 18V blower with the high cap battery, it makes so much difference!
Agreed, Mblliss… and we’ll take that as a compliment! Thanks for all of the feedback. -Laura, from The Home Depot.
Great! I’ve recently purchased SEVERAL of the Ryobi Plus-1 tools & a great B&D battery mower and now this. There’s no way I can justify going to the 40VDC set for at least a couple years – DRAT! {|8<(#
Video was interesting how long do the batteries take to Charge? How do we get the Chain Saw?
We’re glad you like the video. It was a lot of fun to produce.
Ryobi says the 40v battery takes 90 minutes from dead to charge. This is a high capacity battery, thus the 90 minutes vs. one hour for Ryobi’s 18v batteries.
There seems to be great interest in the chain saw in particular. It will be available online at homedepot.com starting in August 2012. It is expected in stores in 2013.
Thanks for the question, Dee.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
I recently bought your 24-volt string trimmer because it was the most powerful battery you had available. I was not told you were coming out with the 40-volt for a small amount more than I paid. Is it possible for me to trade in my 24-volt??
I’m sorry, Ted. The Home Depot doesn’t have a trade in program for this.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
How many ninutes will the trimmer operate on a full charge?
Such as: at Full Load?
at 50% Load?
Same question for the blower.
I looked at the 18 or 24 volt trimmer that was packaged with a blower, lost interest as I felt the trimmer was poorly balanced. Naturally can not tell balance from the photo, looks like it migh be better, but the extension from the hand grip to the rear might be a problem in some situations..
Hi, Bob.
I got in touch with Ryobi about your battery question. Here’s the scoop.
For the trimmer–
No load: 46mins 20 sec
Fully Loaded: 38mins 20 sec
With the variable speed trigger, realistically, you’d have something in the middle.
This means that, fully loaded, it runs four minutes longer than a two-cycle gas trimmer on a full tank of gas.
As for the 40v blower – the run time 41 minutes. The blower is designed for blowing on hard surfaces, such as a driveway. In that case, 41 minutes would usually be plenty of battery time. If you’re hoping to blow leaves off a lawn, this probably isn’t the best choice for you.
The guy who used the blower in the video says he found the blower comfortable to hold and easy to use– and this was after blowing stuff for quite a while as the crew shot several takes and angles.
[...] Ryobi Tools Tame Wild Yard – With the Help of Guerrilla Lawn Care (ext.homedepot.com) [...]
Curios.. how many “charges” of the battery were required to do the job, assuming you used one battery for all the work.????
marv in OKC,
No one remembers exactly how many batteries they used in the video shoot. It was around four, and one or two of the batteries got a partial recharge at some point. However, this was a video shoot that lasted several hours, not a normal afternoon of lawn care. We did lots of different takes and reshot some parts. Plus, we intentionally found one of the most overgrown and unkempt yards in town for the shoot. This was NOT a test or demonstration of battery life. It was mostly just a chance for us to dress up in a gorilla suit and play with the cool Ryobi tools, which are, in fact, pretty cool.
-Craig from The Home Depot
Great Commercial, but would have to see for myself to see if they perform as well as the commercial shows and if the battery last long enough to do the jobs.
Awesome video! If you ever want to convert a hybrid to use only Ryobi 40v batteries, let me know!
Thanks, Jim. Not bad for a group of bloggers, eh?
Converting a hybrid auto to use Ryobi batteries? Interesting. Can you also use a Prius engine to run a line trimmer?
-Craig from The Home Depot
When EXACTLY will the 40V chain saw be available? All the advertisements I’ve seen so far simply states it’ll be available this summer. The summer is here and it’s still not available.
Hi, Hank.
The chain saw is available online now. The information I’m getting is that it will be in stores starting in 2013. I wasn’t able to find info on advertisements that said it would be in stores in summer 2012.If I get better info on this, I’ll post it here.Thanks for your interest.
-Craig from The Home Depot
Hank, I need to correct the information I gave you in my previous reply… and I think I figured out the mystery of why you saw advertisements saying the chain saw is coming “this summer.”
Here’s the accurate information:
The chain saw will be available ONLINE at homedepot.com starting in August 2012. Until then, it will show as being “out of stock.”
The chain saw is expected in Home Depot stores in 2013.
I apologize for the confusion.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
I would have wanted this system long ago. But I just poisoned 80% of my lawn, and have weed cloth and 10 yards of bark ready to cover the dead lawn. This is really great stuff. Low noise. Low polluting.
Kind of a bummer that the color of the grass in the video got a bit paler after cut. Oh,, well, a good haircut is always welcome, no matter what the color of the hair.
Hey, Jeff.
It’s never too late to plant some grass. And you still have hedges to trim and leaves to blow!
The grass got a little brown when we cut it because the grass was so overgrown. Ideally, you wouldn’t let your lawn go that long without a trim. If you’re just cutting off the tops of the blades of grass, it will remain green and healthy. But for the purposes of our video, we wanted to find a yard that was in dire need. The grass in the video should have recoverd its green color in a few days. If the homeowner trims it every week (I wouldn’t count on that, though!), the grass should stay green, assuming the yard gets enough water and fertilizer, of course.
Thanks for your comment.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
Why wouldn’t you publish the prices for us now that you have our interest ?
Richard, click on the links to the various products. Those links will take you to the product information webpages. That’s where you’ll get the prices, the specs, shipping information, and the opportunity to purchase it online, if you’d like.
The prices can change– for instance when we have special discounts, etc. We keep all that information up-to-date on the actual product page.
-Craig, from The Home Depot
No a bad commercial
Not a commercial! We produced this video specifically for the blog! (And, I will confess, we had a lot of fun doing so!)
Finally a rechargeable battery that can run the distance! Is the 40 volt battery interchangable with all the one+ tools?
Ryobi ONE+ are the 18V tools, which take a different set of batteries: http://www.ryobitools.com/catalog/18v_oneplus. There’s more info here on the 40V system: http://www.ryobitools.com/catalog/40v
This is really cool stuff