RIDGID Releases Their All New 18V 7” OCTANE Grinder! (Model# R88040B) Click here for our full review.

RIDGID 7" OCTANE Grinder

RIDGID’s sister company (AEG) has had their 9” duel battery grinder release in Australia for some time now, but when people in North America got wind of it, they wanted one of their own. Luckily for all you RIDGID fan boys, they listened.

Will run on one battery

We were the first to get our hands on this new 18V beast, and we were not only impressed, but blown away but the power and functionality it offers. At 6,700 RMP we not only ground off some of the heaviest rust coated metal we have ever seen, but, we cut through rebar, angle iron, lag screws and a 5” thick concrete block with no effort at all.

Though we do not have the (official) weight on this grinder yet, I estimated it to weigh around 8lbs. That’s not bad at all considering how large this beast is, not to mention the build quality is extremely heavy duty. The guarding alone on this unit is impressive, and will rotate 360 degrees to help prevent sparks from flying back at you.

One of the coolest features that this grinder has to offer is the swivel head that will rotate left or right (180 degrees). This allows you use this grinder without ever needing to twist your wrist. All you need to do is push the release located inside the handle area and turn. The head will automatically lock in, so no levers or bolts to tighten when doing this. The trigger itself also has a lock feature that you can release simply by pushing up on the release switch that’s attached to the trigger.

Spindle Size  5/5"

The new 7” grinder runs on the RIDGID OCTANE smart batteries. It will run off of one battery, but two is recommended for longer runtimes and power. The grinder will also run off of the standard RIDGID 18v batteries, but if you want the full abilities of this grinder to shine, use the recommended OCTANE. Now that being said, do not be confused about the voltage on this unit. Just because it runs on two OCTANE batteries don’t not make this a 36v grinder. It’s still only 18 volts even with two batteries being used at once. However, RIDGID does claim that it’s the most powerful 18V 7” grinder on the market today, and I can’t really disagree with that statement.

As for the power this grinder does deliver, let’s just say it’s impressive. I cut through ½” rebar, 1/8” thick angle iron, ½” lag screws and ground some really nasty, rust infested metal, and it never missed a beat. I noticed absolutely no power loss when cutting/grinding, and never noticed any overheating when cutting/grinding for long periods of time.

Another awesome feature that this grinder has is that the handle attachment can me inserted on the left, right or top of the unit. This makes the grinder extremely versatile and right or left handed users can use it with ease, and also work in some really awkward areas.   

The only issue I had with this grinder was the wheel lock button. T was not the easiest to engage and was a bit awkward to use. It’s a bit larger than I am used to, and doesn’t stick out of the casing, so if you are wearing gloves, it makes it a real pain to press downward.

Other than that, this grinder is a heavy duty, well-built piece of equipment that will take tons of abuse. RIDGID definitely had the pros in mind when they designed this unit, and you will notice the quality build as soon as you pick it up for the first time.