5 Ryobi Lighting Accessories No Night Owl DIYer Should Be Without
Good lighting is essential for working with power tools, but that doesn't mean that your outdoor projects need to be mitigated by the limited hours of light offered by the sun. There are a lot of excellent lighting solutions out there that can keep your work area brightly illuminated long after the natural light has faded into the horizon. Many of them can be purchased from your local Home Depot.
Ryobi is a power brand that has built a reputation for offering great tools at reasonable prices. They make a lot more than just drills and saws though. Ryobi also manufactures a wide range of lighting accessories, many of which are powered by the same One+ rechargeable battery system that is used to power its tools. The company makes flashlights, area lights, flood lights, clamp lights, and many other varieties. Its catalog is so extensive that it can be hard to decide which of them is best suited for your needs. To make things easier, we've selected five of the highest-rated, brightest, and most versatile lights made by Ryobi. We then examined professional reviews of these products in order to make sure that they performed up to their reported specifications. These lights would make a great addition to any DIYer's arsenal.
18V One+ Hybrid LED Worklight
There are few lanterns that are as versatile as a good cordless worklight. They're portable, posable, and often offer the most powerful battery-operated illumination for your workspace. This is great whether you're working on a construction project or you're elbow-deep under the hood of a car.
The best one on offer from Ryobi is the 18V One+ Hybrid LED Worklight, which was just added to the company's catalog in 2024. It can produce up to 3,000 lumens of LED output, making it one of the brightest options that Ryobi offers. This power is complemented by a flexible range of functionality. You can adjust the brightness of the light to ensure eye comfort, visibility, and the longevity of the battery. Its hybrid design also makes it so that it can either be powered by an extension cord for maximum efficiency and unlimited runtime, or it can be powered by one of Ryobi's One+ batteries for up to 16 hours on low settings. It also has a surprisingly versatile design. The light itself is attached to a swiveling mount which offers 360-degree rotation and is compatible with Ryobi's LINK system, so you can position its focus on the areas that most need illumination.
Pro Tool Reviews loved the 18V One+ Hybrid LED Worklight. They praised its low price, compact design, and range of functionality, stating that it, "presents a pretty solid option because of its flexible output levels, pleasing color temperature, and even spread. This is a great "grab-and-go light that you can toss in your work truck or van. You also can't beat the myriad of hanging options."
18V One+ Hybrid LED Panel Light
The second light on our list is similar to the first, but it offers a little more directionality. The Ryobi 18V One+ Hybrid LED Panel Light has three light settings which can reach a maximum output of 3,000 lumens and it also has two power options. You can plug it in with an extension cord, or you can use it cordlessly by powering it with one of Ryobi's One+ batteries. That's where the similarities end though.
This tool has a main center light and two side panels that can rotate 360-degrees and pivot 150-degrees. This allows you a greater amount of control over the area that the light is illuminating. You can open up the panels to spread the light over a wider area or you can bring them back in to focus the light on a single subject. It also has a portable passthrough handle and can fold together for easy storage. This added versatility would make this light a no-brainer if it weren't for the fact that it costs a full $30 more than the basic worklight.
Expense notwithstanding, this is still an extremely popular item. Chris Boll of Pro Tool Reviews liked the coverage of the rotating panels and the added mounting options "It's a great lighting solution for a variety of applications," he said. "We grab it anytime we find ourselves working in dim conditions. However, we're just as likely to grab it when we want to light up the back porch or a campsite."
USB Lithium LED Compact Area Light
Bright, targeted lights are great, but sometimes you need to light up a whole room. Area lights are one of the best options to take camping, they're really handy to have during a power outage and they're also one of the better options for late-night DIY.
Ryobi's USB Lithium LED Compact Area Light is an excellent option for all of these situations. It's compact, convenient to store, and easy to take with you wherever you might need it. The entire top third of its surface area lights up with multiple brightness levels, allowing it to produce a full 360 degrees of illumination. The biggest downside is that it only goes up to 300 lumens which isn't ideal for illuminating a project that requires high visibility in a small space. It's probably not the best option for anything involving power tools. This is more of an area light that is best suited to projects that require the use of a whole room, but which can be performed safely with moderate visibility. It's also one of the few lights sold by Ryobi that includes an internal, USB-charged battery. So you don't need to invest in the One+ battery system in order to take advantage of it. It comes with a carabiner clip and a simple metal kickstand and it's Ryobi LINK compatible.
We tried this lighting kit and found it performed well. We were especially impressed with its battery life, which Ryobi claims lasts up to 52 hours at 300 lumens.
18V One+ LED Workbench Light
Lighting a workbench can be tricky. Light cast from a single direction tends to throw shadows and it can be difficult to find the perfect angle so that you can see what you're doing without blinding yourself.
The Ryobi 18V One+ LED Workbench Light offers a unique solution to this dilemma. It has a bifurcating light with an elbow joint at the center. This dual-panel design offers you a wide range of versatile lighting options. You can stand it up into a single bar, bend the joint to use it like a desk lamp, or use the built-in hooks to hang it from a shelf or pegboard and use it like an overhead lamp. It can also swivel a full 360 degrees, making it easy to angle the light, even when it's not positioned on its base. It has four unique brightness modes and generates up to 1,700 lumens, which should be more than enough to illuminate a single bench. Ryobi claims that the light can last up to 16 hours on a single battery.
Kenny Koehler of Pro Tool Reviews loved this light in his review. "The Ryobi 18V One+ LED Workbench Light is really versatile thanks to the 270-degree swinging arm and a wide variety of ways to hang it," he said. "If you turned your garage or shed into a shop, this is one of the most useful lights you're going to be able to bring in to direct light where you need it when you need it." This is also the cheapest light on this list at just $29.97.
18V One+ Hybrid LED Tripod Stand Light
Lights tend to work better when they aren't at ground level. Sometimes it's easy and convenient to place them on a shelf or hang them from a rafter, but other times you might need a good stand to position the light where you need it.
The Ryobi 18V One+ Hybrid LED Tripod Stand Light combines an efficient, 2,700-lumen light with an adjustable tripod. This tool has a range of 22" up to 5'. Both the light and the mounting pole that the light sits on can also rotate. The lighting head can pivot 310-degrees and the tower pole can be rotated until the light itself is just barely off the ground. This allows you to position it at all kinds of unique angles. You could use it to light the underside of a car or to light up a basketball court in the evening. It has a 10-hour runtime on a single 18V One+ battery or it can be plugged in with an extension cord for all-day use.
Chris Boll tested this light for Pro Tool Reviews as well. He liked that the power button was positioned in the stand so he could turn it on and adjust brightness with his foot, though he noted that he wished the button was bigger. Overall he enjoyed the light's power and the versatility of the stand. This seems to indicate that this light would be an excellent addition to any number of late-night DIY projects.
Our Methodology
In order to make this list, we started by examining all of the lighting options that Ryobi currently sells. We narrowed down this list to those with the highest average review scores from users, those with the highest value, and those that appeared to have the most utility for DIYers. Once we had our list, we examined each of their feature sets so that we could break down what it is about these lights that makes them so special, and looked for professional reviews in order to make sure that these products performed up to their reported specifications.