Customer Reviews for RIDGID 18-Volt Earth Auger with 8 in. Bit and (2) 4.0 Ah Batteries and Charger

Bought this for putting up a new shed and fence. I’ve owned Ridgid tools for a long time (even have the cordless planer) and wanted something that worked on the same battery platform. This unit does the work but you have to lay it down like a little tiny fragile baby because the steel tubing they used for the handle is really wimpy and thin. It bent and crimped after 12 holes, so it’s not construction grade whatsoever and that’s very disappointing to say the least

I wish I had bought this years ago! I have manually dug many holes for various fence projects and rural mailbox installations. This auger dug 8 2 ft deep holes and still had battery left. It also stopped when I accidentally hit an un-used PVC lawn sprinkler line left in the ground. It is easy to handle and does not require super long extension cords or gas when in remote areas. It does not consume a lot of space when the auger is easily removed for storage. 5 Stars Rigid

I am about to rebuild a section of my privacy fence, 11 holes, 8 inches wide and up to two foot deep. Plus my father-in-law had a large section of his fence took out by a car accident. From the pictures I’ve seen he can use to dig a dozen holes. So an auger is needed. This one has a lot of features I want. First and foremost, battery power and powerful enough to do the job. I just took it for a test run, 8 inch wide and a foot deep in about 5 seconds or less. I then hit bedrock, not uncommon for my area and since I was just doing a test, did not want to take a chance of damaging the bit. It also has an anti kick back safety feature and trigger control. If you are not holding that trigger, it is not running, So no run away augers. If you have Ridgid tools a big bonus is two new 4 AH batteries come with. Add on a life time warranty and you can’t lose.

Digging post holes and in-ground basketball hoop holes is a major pain, but this auger does the trick! The Auger comes with the motor attached to a middle cage part and you need to assemble the two handle sides using 4 torx-head screws and nylock locking nuts per side. After that you attach the auger bit and two batteries and you are ready to go. The kit comes with two 18V 4Ah batteries which provide 36V of total power and give this thing a good amount of torque for almost any soil. The auger bit is about 31 inches long and 8 inches in diameter. According to Ridgid it weighs about 31 points, but if you carry it by the center part of the metal cage it is fairly well balanced for moving around and doesn't feel to heavy. Using both handles to do the work it also doesn't feel too heavy or out of balance at all. I used the auger to help dig a 16" square hole 36 inches deep for setting a basketball hoop anchor system. I started by digging out two 8" holes in two opposite corners of the square I needed all the way down to the 31" the auger would go. It went so much quicker being able to pull out about half of the dirt from making those two holes. The first 18-20 inches were very easy and done quickly. The last 16-18 inches we in denser clay-like soil with a couple of rocks, but the auger still performed great. Those first two holes took less than 15 minutes despite their depth and it being my first time using a one-person auger. After the first two holes in my 16" square I used the auger to loosen the rest of the dirt, but it obviously kept slipping into the two holes I had already made. The auger still worked great to loosen everything and pull out a decent amount of the dirt. It loosened the remaining soil to the point that I could easily scoop it out with a shovel or my post hole digger. Overall it took just over 1 hour to get the 16" square made and I even carved a 2-3 inch wider base at the bottom. In total I probably had the Auger on around 30 minutes (not always under a full load due to my application) and my two 4Ah batteries still showed 2 lights (out of 4) on the indicator. Note: I used two of my old batteries (about 5 years old), while the new batteries were charging. Overall I give this 5 stars because it made my work so much easier and handled everything so well! I will definitely be using this to help replace our fence this summer and to help friends with their projects!

The 18-Volt Earth Auger with 8 in. Bit and (2) 4.0 Ah Batteries and Charger is an excellent, useful tool for outdoor applications. It is so well-designed that it is impossible to assemble it incorrectly. If you want to use your own tools to speed the assembly, the instructions are incorrect. I used an 8 mm ratcheting wrench (not the 10 mm in the instructions) and a Torx screwdriver (not the hex key noted in the instructions). The auger comes with two batteries which is an unusual feature for RIDGID tools. Since the batteries will fit any RIDGID cordless tool and are guaranteed forever if registered within 90 days of purchase, that is an outstanding inclusion. It also comes with a fast charger. It took only about 30 minutes each to charge the batteries. The unit is well balanced. Although it weighs 34 lbs., it does not seem heavy to use. The auger is easy to attach and detach from the control unit. When the batteries are added, it gives the unit a Princess Leia look. The controls have a plastic cover to keep out debris (a great feature if it holds up). It also has a lockout for safety. It is so well-placed that it is almost automatic to use. Having the summary of the instructions tied to the handle is a useful idea. Unfortunately the flimsy plastic chain broke almost immediately. I will reattach it more permanently. The product is useful for many purposes. I have used it to dig holes for our vegetable garden. I also plan to use it to dig a hole for a pole for a bluebird house and for preparing a large hole for planting a blueberry. I plan to dig the latter by digging a center hole and then digging 8 holes in a circle around it. Digging the garden holes were soooo much easier than digging by hand. For holes where the soil had been worked before, it took only a few minutes per hole. However, If the soil had not been worked before or if it had rocks or roots in it, it took much longer. I dug the holes to 27" deep but could have dug them to 31". The low speed seems very fast. I could tell little difference from the high speed. A variable speed trigger would have made the unit much easier to use. The kickback feature helps but it could be made more useful if it could stop the unit at a smaller angle of rotation. With the fast low speed, the unit turned at least 180 degrees before it stopped. The unit supposedly has three light colors for “running,” ” overload,” and “kickback,” but I could never see the displayed color because of the sunlight but that did not seem to cause a problem. Basically, it is a superior digging tool. It is made in Viet Nam

I recently got the auger drill kit for to make work easier while doing, landscaping and putting up fencing and digging holes for planting at home. So far I really enjoyed using the electric auger, it made things so much simpler and less back breaking work. Also the auger cutting down the digging time from hours down to minutes. I’m very impressed with the unit being so durable, lightweight, and keeping up with my work demands. It came packaged well and easy to assemble, I also love the fact that it doesn't use gasoline or oil, so no more breathing exhausts fumes. There are two speed modes plus revers, as well as an anti-kickback system that protects you if a bind-up were to occur. It comes with an 8-inch bit, but it’s quick-connect attachment system allows you to attach other sizes if needed.The auger connection is very tight and does not have any play whatsoever. If I had to say the PROS, no emissions, runs on 2X rechargeable lithium batteries, they do have more powerful batteries that are 6AH in capacity it will give more run time. The housing is super resilient and the unit is lightweight, the auger kit come with 8" x 30" steel and heat treated so I believe it won’t rust. It has forward and reverse capabilities, LED light, easy to grip and easy on the hands because of the ergonomic grips and placement of the buttons on the auger. For cons, haven't had any yet, but will update if that changes.

The Ridgid 18-volt earth auger has lived up to my expectations for Ridgid 18-volt tools. I used it for the first time to install 22 - 4x4 posts for a fence in soil composed of clay and sand along with several roots. The auger dug into the soil relatively easily. I probably could have used just one set of batteries, but I used two sets. I still had four bars on the second set when I completed the task. I was not expecting the replaceable teeth on the auger bit which consisted of a flat blade and a blade with three cutting teeth. I had a gas-powered auger standing by, but I did not need it. My only recommendation is to consider adding other sized auger bits, and I noticed that the handle I had to put together had some wiggle, but it does not affect the performance.

This is a fantastic auger unit, great for really anyone. The unit comes with the everything you will, what’s included is the power head, a 2 foot auger bit, 2 4aH batteries and then one single port battery charger. The battery charger looks like it can charge a battery in around 30 to 40 minutes. So even though it is a single poet charger you can have your batteries ready to go in an hour if you use them completely up. Auger assembly is very easy and straightforward. You need to connect 8 nuts and bolts together to hold both auger handles on. Then attach two cables together and attach the auger bit and the unit is ready to go. Ridgid provides both the wrench and T25 torx Allen key to attach the nuts and bolts. The unit has a low and high speed and one reverse speed. The speed can be switched by a toggle switch near the auger’s on/off trigger. The on trigger comes with a safety switch but is not difficult at all to engage while properly using the device. The auger also comes with an instruction card for those not familiar with using such a unit on how your stance should be and where to be watching. The unit also comes with kick back protection so it doesn’t wreck your wrist if it binds up on anything. You are also getting a lifetime service agreement on the auger and on the batteries with the kit. That is really awesome knowing if there is a defect in the unit or batteries that Ridgid will fix the unit or replace it if they are unable to fix it. The auger did a great job digging through the soil at my house. I was able to dig 6 holes about 2 feet in depth and each battery only lost a single cell of battery. So I am assuming you would get 20 to 24 holes on the fully charged batteries or roughly 20 to 25 minutes of run time. Overall I am super impressed with this unit. I think it is obviously great for the home owner/DIYer but definitely think a professional could be using this week in and week out without any issues. Definitely recommend.

This thing is a beast. Chewed right down. I believe i only lifted it 4 times to clear out dirt. I was skeptical about battery, but would buy again. 100%. Im in southern ga digging in red clay

Just got my auger today. Was waiting for this tool to do a fence project. Easily did 7 fence post holes on two 4 ah batteries. Used this in Tucson caliche and it worked great. Only issue is that the anti-kickback is unpredictable. Sometimes kicked in for little things or wouldn’t kick in at all. Overall this is much better than a gas powered. Noise is minimal. Feels well built. Definitely recommend.

Excellent choice as all rigid tools are

Exceeded expectations. Good power and easy to use.

An excellent tool for the yard toolbox. RIDGID 18 volt earth auger is mobile, light weight, and powerful. A pleasure to use.

The drill was adequate, but the gearbox failed prior to completion. I will be returning for assessment and with hopes of fix or replacement, thanks

Expensive, but worth the money. lightweight But it gets the job done. You would need a 10 inch auger 4 x 4 post. At full power, it digs about 20 posts per charge, so by 2 extra batteries. This machine makes very little noise oppose to a gas auger.

Very happy with my purchase. Would prefer an auger extension to drill 3’ holes is all.

The Auger comes assembled. Just charge the batteries and read the instructions. We were able to do 25 holes on a single charge. The stopping function works properly when you hit things like a tree root. My soil has a lot of sand also so I don’t know how it works in soil with a lot of clay. I highly recommend this tool.

Saved hours of digging

Better then a gas auger.

Works awesome!!! Love it!

Works very fast. Easy to use

Awesome piece of equipment! Plenty of power.

Dug some post holes for an outside cooking area with roof, very impressed .

Went together easily, went to work right out of the box. Auger is a good one with a good teeth setup. Has enough power to dig thru AZ clay and some caliche. Over torque works surprisingly well. Only issue so far is that it's similar to the Ridgid tire inflator in that you can't leave a battery or batteries installed for very long before they discharge. Just sitting idle for several hours and they die. But if you know enough to remove them, alls well.

Bought a different model 4"auger to use for posts. Worked great even with the rocky soil. Couple times it bound up, but to be expected with the soil. Glad it did as I would have been riding it like a merry go round otherwise.

It diggs better then expected. I am very impressed with how good it diggs.