If there is one tool I love, which who can just pick one, it would be a nailer. There are a lot of different manufacturers who make nailers, some good and some just plain bad. As you can tell by the title, today we are going to cover the Ridgid 18V cordless nailer. This is a 15 gauge angled finish nailer model R250AF18. One thing we always like doing is reading what other people are saying about a tool. That way when we perform our review, we can see if we experience the same pros and cons. One thing we did notice is there are mixed results with this nailer. Some say they have problems with the battery, nails not being easy to load and doesn’t fire quickly enough. So let’s jump in and see what’s good or bad about this nailer.
One huge advantage this nailer has over other nailers is how it drives nails. This tool is run straight from an 18V Ridgid battery. You don’t need fuel cartridges or air. All you need is a charged battery. The features on this nailer are layed out extremely well. Moving from bump to sequential is very easy. Just flick a switch that is located on the top of the tool and you are set. Even the depth adjustment is easy. Just below the bump/sequential slide, is a dial to adjust the height. A user can dial in from 1-6 depending upon the material and length of nail. Another cool feature is the LED lights. The tool lets you pick when you want the light on or off. Just push a button and you now have two LED lights that actually light up the area you are going to fire into. The unit does hold a fair amount of nails and with a single charge you can fire 500 nails, which is not shabby. When I first saw this nailer, I was expecting it to be top heavy or unbalanced. After picking up the tool and using it, I could tell I was wrong. The overall balance is very nice and doesn’t cause arm fatigue.
As we said some people were complaining about the battery. We left our battery in the tool for four days. When we came back it still had a charge and we were able to fire some nails. This uses the 1.5 battery so it only takes 20 minutes to charge. One nice feature is you can use a 3.0 battery for longer run time. As with any nail gun, you always want to remove the battery when storing the tool as it does eat away your battery even when being stored. Another con we saw people talk about with this gun, is the plastic magazine. Some were saying when you load nails, they don’t slide all the way down. We had the same problem with ours, but really not a big deal since you can easily move the nails down the magazine. We didn’t try this, but some people used WD-40 and they indicated the nails slid down the magazine much easier. Our biggest concern was the magazine cracking when dropped. While we didn’t test this, the plastic is a hardened abs plastic, so it does take a beating. Plus if you do crack or break the magazine, Ridgid makes it very easy to replace. Just four screws and you can slide a new mag in place. One of our complaints was no on/off switch. Now for safety reasons you always want to remove the battery when transporting. However there are times when you are going to another room or location and you just want to leave the battery place. It would be nice to be able to turn the gun off instead of taking the battery out and now carrying an extra thing when you change locations.
We had three cons to this tool. No Dry Lock fire, Long fire time, inconsistent.
One thing we feel is very important is a dry lock out firing feature. When the nails are gone, we don’t think the gun should fire and ruin your work. So this was a little disappointing.
Another con was the firing time. At first this was a bigger deal than it is now. I think we are just used to the operation and have adjusted. I guess this is part of the give and take when using just a battery operated gun. It does take a second for the motor to wind up and deliver a nail, so I could see how some people would not like that feature, especially if you are not used to it. You have to remember this is battery operated. If the motor kept running, the battery would die quickly. Where a fuel and battery operated, you get an instant fire. So they are a different beast.
The last item is the inconsistency when firing a lot of nails. We did experience this on a couple of occasions when we started driving a lot of nails. Again, we are not sure if this tool should really be geared towards that type of person. We don’t think this gun is going to replace your current finishing gun, but it is great for the punch list items or even the homeowner. It is kinda of like any cordless nailer, fuel or battery. If you’re doing a lot of work, air is the way to go. If you are driving some nails, you can get away with a battery powered nailer or battery/fuel nailer.
Overall this is a pretty good nailer. Again it’s not going to replace your air nailer, but it is perfect for the homeowner or punch list jobs. The features of this nailer are some of the best we have seen in terms of easy to access. The balance is great and not having to rely on fuel or carry around air is priceless. Just understand it will take some time to get used to the delay in firing nails. After a little practice and some patience, you shouldn’t have a problem at all with the delay.
SPECIFICATIONS
| Adjustable exhaust port | No | Air Tool Type | Air Nailer |
| Assembled Depth (in.) | 19.68 in | Assembled Height (in.) | 13.77 in |
| Assembled Width (in.) | 5.31 in | Color Family | Black |
| Fastener collation | Glue | Fastener depth control | Yes |
| Fasteners included | No | Item Package Type | Cardboard Container |
| Loading type | Strip | Maximum fastener size (in.) | 2.5 |
| Minimum fastener size (in.) | 1.25 | Returnable | 90-Day |
[pptgtool]H_ZLb178w1U[/pptgtool]
I’ve always wanted a battery nailer for just the reason you say, when I need to shoot just a few nails and don’t want to go to the hassle of setting up the compressor. Fixing the kids playhouse out in the back yard is an example. Guess that’s what hammers are for, lol.
how much 4 the ridgid 18v nailer, johnnyfixxx@gmail.com
THE R250AF18 NAILER IS RUBBISH.
Hou much 18v nailergun