Ryobi isn’t just a tool brand. They have been developing new and unique items for their 18-volt line for the past few years that makes life easier and more fun. So instead of thinking of Ryobi as a tool brand, I like to think of them as a lifestyle brand. Case in point, this year, Ryobi introduced two new 18-volt items that can be used in your pool or hot tub. In this review, we will be checking out the Ryobi Floating Speaker and Light Show Review.
Ryobi Floating Speaker and Light Show Review Overview
Ryobi continues to amaze me. Each year, they seem to release unique tools ahead of every other tool brand. Their cordless line up is nothing short of impressive. Sometimes they even stray away from tools and offer extremely unique items in other genres. This year is no exception.
Back in about December of 2017, I received a flier from Ryobi showing off all of their outdoor offering for 2018. I was quite surprised by two new items directed to the homeowners with a pool or hot tub. One is an 18-volt pool vacuum and the other is an 18-volt Bluetooth floating speaker with a light show. For this article, I am going to focus on the Ryobi 18-volt Bluetooth floating speaker and light show. I will focus on the 18-volt pool vac in an upcoming review.
The Ryobi Bluetooth floating speaker with light show is exactly what you would expect according to the name. It is a sphere type object that will connect to your phone and play tunes as it floats in your pool or hot tube. At night time, you can have a light show that will play along with the music or if you don’t want any music, the light show can stand alone.
Ryobi Floating Speaker and Light Show Review Features
If you are like me, the first question you have is, “If this runs off of the Ryobi 18-volt battery platform, how is this item going to protect the battery from getting wet?”. This was the first thing I looked at when I got this speaker home.
The Bluetooth floating speaker with light show has two halves that snap together with 4 latches and is sealed with a nice rubber gasket. The latches snap together very tightly and prevent water from getting to the battery. As you can see from the photos, any Ryobi 18-volt battery will plug into the top unit.
You can connect you Ryobi Bluetooth floating speaker with light show to any Bluetooth device with almost no effort at all. The days of adding a password are gone. Just search for Bluetooth devices and connect. The unit is controlled by rubber buttons on the top. You can turn the unit on by the power button and that will allow you to play music while the lights are on. If you want to just have the lights on push the light button. Of course, you have the option to increase or decrease the volume of your music on the top of this unit as well by the volume controls on your phone. The speaker is located in the top half under the volume control buttons. It is spread out over 360 degrees and comes out the gap you see all the way around the unit.
There are small LED lights around the inside rim of the top half of the unit. They line up with round lenses mounted on the bottom half of the unit. This allows the light to be spread over the bottom of a pool or hot tub
The Ryobi Bluetooth floating speaker with light show does an excellent job of lighting up a pool or hot tub when it is dark out. You will not be able to see any lights during the daytime hours though.
Ryobi Floating Speaker and Light Show Review Performance
The first thing I want to touch on is the Bluetooth Speaker. This unit connects to my phone extremely easily and has a very good range. Unfortunately, the sound quality and loudness is fairly poor. This was the biggest disappointment for me. It is only a single speaker unit and I shouldn’t be too surprised that it isn’t very loud and doesn’t sound great, but when I’m in the pool with my kids, or better yet, when my kids have friends over, I want to have the ability to play the music over all of the screaming kids. I think this unit would work a lot better in a hot tub since the people would sit a lot closer to the speaker.
The light show, on the other hand, is pretty cool. The LED lights do a great job spreading light to every area of the pool. We have an 8-foot deep end in our pool which looks like a multi-colored disco ball at night.
The water seal on this unit is great for keeping your batteries dry. Our Ryobi Bluetooth floating speaker and light show has been dunked on many occasions and I have yet to see a drop of water in the battery compartment.
Ryobi Floating Speaker and Light Show Review Value
The Ryobi Bluetooth floating speaker and light show can be purchased at The Home Depot as a kit with one 1.3 amp hour battery and charger for $139 or as a bare tool for $79.
If you are looking to add a little night time fun to your pool or hot tub, then I think this is a cool little unit to have. But if you are mostly looking to add music to your water fun, I think you purchase better options than the Ryobi Floating speaker. If music is what you want, I would recommend the Ryobi Score Speakers which are just awesome.
Ryobi Floating Speaker and Light Show Review Final Thoughts
I absolutely love that Ryobi is branching out from tools into other items that make life easier or more fun. Sometimes they hit a home run and other times, not so much. To me, the Ryobi Bluetooth floating speaker with light show falls somewhere in between the two extremes. For the $79 price point, if you already have Ryobi batteries, I think this will appeal to a good deal of people that want to make their nighttime swimming a little more like a party. Just be prepared to bring out another source for your music.
