We will do a tool review on the Ryobi Pool Speaker floating speaker with Bluetooth wireless technology. Some of the features are as below:
- Easy setup and connection to Bluetooth devices
- Can be paired with up to 8 devices at once
- Floats in the water, so it won’t get lost or damaged by the chlorine in your pool
- You can control the volume level of the speaker from the buttons on top of it, so you don’t have to go all the way up on your diving board just to adjust the volume!
- It’s waterproof up to 3 feet deep
- Water-resistant for use in saltwater pools and hot tubs
Buy On Amazon: Ryobi Pool Speaker P3520 Floating Speaker
Right on top, we’ve got the power button, up volume, down volume, and then the light switching so you can have this set for the lights either going with the music that you were playing, you can have it change to one specific light at a time, or you can have the lights off when you’re using it. So, one thing I noticed, just as I get this open, is that you have to push the great piece before you reach under there and pull it up.
Being a man, I was not paying attention to the instructions, so I broke the tab off that helps to clamp that on. So that does not appear to affect its functioning at all. The base most of the weight is going to be down there. They’ve got a steel ring bolted on the bottom for some extra ballast weight as a bit of foam block that your batteries will sit on, as you may notice a little bit by the profile. There is maybe about 3 or 4 inches deep at the most, but I just stick my fingers in there for some reference.
Most of the electronic stuff here is in the housing of the top unit, so you may notice that it’s the speaker at the head unit. So I will put those entirely to the test to see how well that speaker holds up and is submerged in the water. We’ve got the little LED lights going around the Ryobi floating speaker, which will play a role so kind of interesting.
I’ve got three different batteries for testing purposes. I’ve got the standard 1.5 amp battery, and I’ve got one of the off-brand eBay 4 amp batteries that I am not going to use on a brand new tool because that impacts the warranty, and then I’ve got the Robbie 9 amp battery. I would not recommend putting a 9 amp battery in an electronic tool that you would be submerging in water, or at least this one, just because of how pricey they are; it wouldn’t fit in there anyway. I’m going to guess the six amp one, either. The 1.5 amp makes a good fit. We will try this one out just to see what it does.
So living in Kansas City, currently, there are no pools open outside. So I’m doing the next best thing that I can. I’m hanging out using our bathtub to test the Ryobi floating speaker in the bathroom. We have filled it up with water before getting it wet and testing it out. Just seeing how this plays out, I will do a few comparison tests so some of you may have this radio. This is the P741 of the old blue radios, and we’re just going to give this a shot here to see how this compares sound-wise.
For the old radio, at its loudest volume, that would probably be a comfortable volume just ear-wise. OK, so we got that, so let’s get the Ryobi pool speaker ready in our bathtub. The little clips that I had broken off before were a little finicky, so it looks like the gray button there is what holds that to the plastic underneath. Make sure that it stays clamped shut. The lights have already come on after that.
So you push the button, and I will automatically connect with your phone via Bluetooth. We connected with my phone to compare the old radio in terms of sound-wise. The lights are already going after I turned it on. Super sparkly, and so with the power being on, we’ve got the light switch, so when we get the music running, we’ll push this button to change the different colors. It’s got blue flashing that indicates it is connected to the phone. So then press the power button again, and it will beep again. All the lights will flash, and it turns back off—the same thing as turning it on. Ryobi pool speaker is a Bluetooth-only speaker, so there is no radio whatsoever, so you have to make sure you’ve got some device that you can connect to it.
This version goes along with it while it goes along with the music, like a nice little Star Wars tune. All right, and then, if you push again, it just changes so that it goes from color to color. And then you can push it a third time to turn the lights all the way up. At the loudest volume, this is probably a little bit more of a comfortable volume for me. So, I would say it is a quieter speaker than the old radio. It seems to have decent sound. I mean, I’m not going to expect it to have phenomenal sound.
When you push the volume when it gets to the highest volume, I notice that it will beep and cut out the music for a little bit. I bought this from Home Depot, and it is a pretty excellent sale price. If I remember correctly, the list price is $79.99 over at Home Depot had it on sale. I figured we’d got a neighborhood pool. The kids like to go over there. They spend a lot of time in the pool during the summertime when school’s out, so I’m going to give this $20 speaker a shot and just see what happens with it.
And so, we’re going to put it to the test in the water because if it doesn’t handle the test here in the tub, then it’s certainly not going to perform in the pool because there’s going to be a lot more movement going on over there. So let’s see if we can do and we are going to go ahead and put our speaker into the tub. I looked at the manual, and the blue lights that come on when you first turn it on indicate that it is waiting for the device you have connected to it to start working. So, you just have to start selecting some music and go from there. It does not have the feature on the device here itself to pause or change music or any of that kind of stuff. I saw that it has none of the instructions in the manual that indicated it would do that, so I will also say I’m going to be putting it through some more damage testing. So it does say in the owner’s manual not to submerge it intentionally as it may damage the speaker, so we’re going to see what that actually means.
So with it being in the water, it floats pretty effortlessly here. Please put it in a four-foot or deeper pool then the light will spread all over the place. I think it’ll end up being pretty cool. So that part is rather enjoyable. And obviously, in hearing the volume, too, I was pretty decent sound. I think that also the sound is going to echo off the water a little bit, too, so you may get a little bit of extra amplification. I’m also acknowledging that the bathroom is full of mirrors, tile, and hard surfaces so that the sound will reflect a lot in the bathroom. I have no idea how that will play out when we are outside in the pool. But in here, at least, it seems to be pretty decent. But then I’m going to start messing with this, putting it under the water, and seeing what it’s like when it gets wet.
So, if it splashes with some water, it still seems to be running fine. When I submerged it all the way, it seemed relatively resilient. I turned the volume up even more and dunked it under the water. So, it will not play when it’s submerged, so I don’t know if that’s a protective feature or if it just deepens out the sound. But that seems to be pretty resilient. I like it when you tip it side to side. It looks like the weight of the ballast on that metal ring in the bottom will balance out, so it sets upright. If you flip it, it always goes back right side up. It took a little bit of time to dry off, and there’s still a bit of residual water and stuff in there. Not a huge deal. I was going to open it back up just to see how it did water protection-wise. It seemed bone dry, so the gasket appeared to do the trick.
All the way around, it seemed like it did its job as advertised, so I would say that the Ryobi pool speaker itself is a pretty good deal. I don’t know if I would pay the $80.00 for it. I also acknowledge that I am somewhat of a cheapskate with that kind of stuff, so I probably would not have invested in that, but I do really like it, and so now I have a chance to try it out. It would probably be even worth the retail price for you guys.