If I was asked which power tool brand had the most variety in their cordless 18V line, I could easily say Ryobi. Besides the usual staple power tools such as drills and saws, they carry other tools specific for certain trades, they carry outdoor power equipment, and even tools designed for use at home such as cordless air compressor inflators and others such as the cordless 10″ orbital buffer as seen in this review.
This cordless 10″ model is very similar to the corded variety except it’s completely cordless as it runs on any Ryobi 18 volt One+ battery. It uses a foam pad covered by either an application bonnet or buffing bonnet which 1 of each are included, to apply wax to your vehicle and when the wax has set to a haze you can also buff it away. Personally I’ve never tried out an orbital buffer before this unit as I’ve waxed my car by hand for many years and I did find this buffer to be much easier and quicker than using man power. Operation is very straight forward, simply attach either bonnet and power up the unit and get to work. The buffer does all the hard work for you, it doesn’t do all the work for you as you still need to move the buffer to and fro to wax your vehicle but like I said makes it much easier and much quicker.
The orbital action works as it rotates the foam pad in a circular fashion just like how your wheels turn and also orbits on a separate axis so you have rotating motion and orbital action all happening at once. This is especially useful when applying wax as it reduces swirl marks. As you move the buffer along either applying wax or buffing away haze, let the buffer do all the work as you run the machine softly over the surface. Make sure not to apply too much pressure.
After washing my vehicle and waxing it with this cordless orbital buffer, the results were great. It came out with a nice premium shine as can be seen in the video above and what I like most besides how easy the cordless buffer made the job, but it was much quicker. Traditionally this type of tool is corded and you have to bring out the extension cord and it was nice not to have to go unwrap my extension cord, plug it in, and drag it out to my drive way. All I needed was a spare battery and I was ready to go. At first I didn’t know what to expect with the battery power, like I said I never used a corded orbital buffer before so I couldn’t compare it to one but it had plenty of power to accomplish the job. If I pushed too hard on the buffer while in operation, it would slow down, but there’s no need to apply exaggerated amounts of pressure when waxing as it defeats the purpose and the buffer worked best when applying little pressure. So it had good performance for the job and I probably spent about 20 minutes applying wax to my vehicle and buffing it away using this buffer- all while using a fully charged 4.0 ah battery and the battery had 3 out of 4 bars remaining on the fuel gauge when I was finished. This is excellent runtime for a cordless battery powered unit. I could imagine I would easily get another 2 cars done with the remaining charge.
Specifications:
- RPM: 2,500 (No Load Speed)
- Pad Coverage: 10 in.
- Weight: 4.3 lbs.
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