Replacement switch. BT3100?

[Dedpedal]

Hi all. Another repeated question. I’ve searched the forums but all the posts about replacement switches are at least a decade old. What’s the go to switch these days? I have one that’s welding the contacts together and one that seems finicky. I cleaned the one up some and put some dielectric grease on the contacts but I feel that’s just a bandaid. I’ve seen some Amazon parts but are they trustable?
thanks all and Happy Groundhog Day!

[LCHIEN]

Unfortunately Ryobi is no longer supporting us with replacements for these under designed switches, been too long.

Go to Google and type in TOOL POWER SWITCH

You'll find a bunch of appropriately safe switches for power tools with quickly operable OFF function and recessed START function you can use or adapt.
Some are for panel mounting and you have to wire them in if you are handy electrically and others have cords and male and female ends to put in series with the saw that you leave the saw switch on (or bypass it).

As for mounting it, Many users have located alternate power switches to the saw cabinet, others have mounted them with a T-bolts or two under the front rail on both the right and left side of the saw per their preference/handedness

[poolhound]

I replaced mine with one like these from Rockler. I had to make a transition plate from wood to mount it but was really easy.

[Black walnut]

Once you find a suitable replacement check your voltage through the switch. Low voltage causes resistance which leads to burned contacts which leads to more resistance. If you are using an extension cord or running other big draws on the same circuit you can cause voltage drops.

[Dedpedal]

Here’s an interesting discovery. I replaced the one that kept welding the contacts. It had 4 wires on the switch. 2black and 2 white. The finicky one only has two black wires on one side of the switch. I swapped them to the other side and it works fine. Anyone know what Ryobi did here?

[LCHIEN]

Yeah, they sometimes use double pole switches. that's two electrical switch mechanisms that operate jointly with the same mechanical actuator.
Double pole switches will have two sets of contacts instead of one.
You can parallel contacts so that each gets half the current (in theory). However, if the switch goes bad due to arcing of the contacts on closure or opening, paralleled contacts don't really help in reality because the contacts don't always close at the same instant - one always makes contact first.

I'm not sure the exact history, It only takes one pole to switch the saw power.
It seems many of the saws were equipped with double pole switches and owners with failing switches found they could swap the wires to the opposite pair and extend the life of the original switch by 2. Some people apparently paralleled the switch contacts in an attempt to share the current.
I'm not sure what in your case might be original or some late change by Ryobi or perhaps an owner.

[Dedpedal]

Next time I tip it over to clean I’ll check and see what’s what under there.