Ryobi Cordless Glue Gun P305 Review

Make Those Quick Repairs and Projects More Convenient with the Ryobi Cordless Glue Gun

Like anyone else, you’ve likely got at least a few things around the shop that could use a healthy dose of hot glue to get them back to working order. We definitely do. Or, maybe you like to work on arts and crafts in your spare time. Who knows? We’re not judging. Helpful as they are, glue guns generally require you to plug them in, don’t have cord lengths that are particularly forgiving from a mobility perspective, and are usually tucked away in some forgotten nook of your closet or something. The Ryobi Cordless Glue Gun brings you the kind of mobility that only battery power provides.

Pros

• Cordless-ness brings a whole new level of convenience to the hot glue gun
• 3.5-hour runtime with a 4.0Ah battery
• Stands up on its own
• Plastic guard on the tip protects against accidental burns

Cons

• A “temp ready” indicator light would be useful

InGluerious Basterds

I’ve Got a Glue Attitude

We had a few projects around the shop that were screaming for some of the ol’ hot glue treatment. So I cranked up the Ryobi P305. By “cranked up”, I mean that I slapped an 18V One+ battery into it, jammed a glue stick into the appropriate slot, and turned the glue gun to the “on” position. Then, I played the waiting game while the gun heated up.

It doesn’t hurt to throw a shop towel under the nozzle to catch any wayward drips that occur while the gun isn’t in use. In our testing, this isn’t a big deal since the Ryobi P305 didn’t drip a whole lot. But c’mon, it’s still a hot glue gun, and it’ll drip a bit.

The Ryobi Cordless Glue Gun heats up in roughly 6–8 minutes. That may seem like a long time and it is compared to some corded models. However, generating heat takes a lot of energy and hot glue doesn’t need a super-high temp to work. It’s on par with common low-temp corded models.

You’ll know the gun’s good to go when you give the trigger a moderate squeeze and glue pours freely from the nozzle. In fact, you should avoid forcing the trigger down as it could damage some internal components. If the glue isn’t being cooperative, give the gun a few more minutes to heat up.

If you’re the patient type, a good indication that the glue gun has reached operational temperature is when the glue starts dribbling out the tip. An indicator light that notifies you when the gun reaches temp would be nice, but the ol’ glue-drip-out-from-the-tip trick works just as well.

Glue That Voodoo That You Glue So Well

After reaching operating temperature, we set ourselves to a couple of jobs we had in store specifically for the Ryobi Cordless Glue Gun. We needed to attach rubber nubs to the bottom of a wood base for another project, and this seemed like the perfect task for our new cordless glue gun. We had also been contemplating a more professional-looking alternative to attaching our Casella Vibration Monitor to zip-ties.

The rubber bumpers proved to be a job well-suited for the Ryobi Cordless Glue Gun. I really like that it does you the service of including a plastic guard over the heated tip to protect you from burning yourself. Of course, if you jam your thumb into the pile of hot glue you just laid down, you’re going to burn yourself anyway.

The Casella job worked even better than expected. It didn’t take a whole lot of hot glue to keep it firmly in place on the top of a jiggling recip saw. When it’s time to remove to the meter, the dried glue peels off both metal and plastic surfaces easily enough for frequent changes during our shootouts.

It only takes a moderate pull on the two-finger trigger to get the glue flowing. Like most glue guns, you have to put some effort into making the trigger push your glue stick forward. The upside is that you have to be intentional about applying glue and that keeps you from inadvertently flinging hot glue everywhere.

Ryobi reports a 3.5-hour runtime for this cordless hot glue gun with a 4.0Ah battery. We’ll never need that much for the kind of projects we tackle. However, it’s good to know that a couple of batteries can get you through a long day of projects and repairs.

Price

The Ryobi Cordless Glue Gun sells as a bare tool for $29.97. Because it’s so useful and the price is so inexpensive, it’s a no-brainer if you’re already using Ryobi One+ batteries.

ConGluesion

If you like your tools to be convenient, then perhaps the Ryobi cordless glue gun is the perfect fit for you. Normally, we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the merits of the often-overlooked hot glue gun, but admittedly, it’s kind of weird that we don’t see more manufacturers embracing this inexpensive, useful tool. Thankfully, Ryobi doesn’t share other manufacturer’s Glueten intolerance, and they’ve made a solid cordless model that is a lot of help when we need it and stays unobtrusively out of the way when we don’t.

Ryobi Cordless Glue Gun Specs

• Model Number: Ryobi P305
• Power Source: Ryobi One+ 18V battery
• Weight: 0.55 lbs
• Runtime: 3.5 hours using a 4Ah battery
• Warranty: 3-Year Warranty
• Price: $29.97 at The Home Depot
• Includes: 3 Glue sticks and Operator’s Manual