Different Magazine Review

[Dan Stuewe]

I received the April "Workbench" magazine over the weekend. In it they did a "review" of cordless drills. I say "review" because they never mentioned brands but did more of a let's chop these things up and see what the difference is between "consumer" and "professional" cordless drills (their designations - http://www.workbenchmagazine.com/main/wb288-drill01.html ). The general price point went along the lines of "what is the $100 difference between these levels of drills. It was interesting to see the difference and the authors seemed opened to both levels being valid for their intended purpose, but I was a bit frustrated that they gave no way to tell if your $150 drill actually had the better parts or if your $80 drill was all plastic. The only brand hints I saw was a Rigid charger labeled as a "professional" and a B&D Firestorm charger as a "consumer". There was also a gray housing in one of the pictures that could be a Porter Cable, but it wasn't labeled. They did mention that they bought several drills (i don't recall the number quoted in the article).

Anyway, the bottom line of this long winded post is, what do you think about this type of "review"? There seems to be a lot of complaints (in the on-line forums) about bias in magazine reviews, so I was wondering how this would fly in our comunity.

[Dave Wright #2]

Last year's FWW Tools & Shops issue had a similar teardown sidebar as part of their cordless drill review. They followed up by classifying each drill on their results table by class. One surprising difference was runtime. The professional quality drills run way longer than the consumer grade ones. A pro drill with two batteries can essentially be run continuously by a craftsman working alone - one battery recharged by the time the other is dead. Consumers grade drills run out too quickly for this swapping workstyle.

It might be worth noting that the swapping workstyle does not work for teams. One person driving screws while others shuffle the boards will run out even a pro level battery before the other one is charged. If that's your style then stick to pro level tools that come with 15 or 20 minute chargers instead of the standard 60 minute.

[Frank Pellow]

I think this kind of review would be better if they listed the drills that they placed into each category. Without source references, any test or review has much less credibility with me. They don't need to go into details or recommendations about any specific drill.

I have not seen the review in Workbench magazone, but I read the FWW review mentioned by Dave and thought it was quite informative (and FWW does list their sources).

[Dave Wright #2]

Of yea - what do I think of this reviewing style? I like it as long as the review also says where products in the marketplace fall. Otherwise what's the point? Are we supposed to tear down drills in the store before buying?

It would be cool if someone had the data and time to stick a pie chart on every tool you see in a store and on the Web. Pie sections would be labeled "manufacturing", "packaging", "design, marketing & corporate", "shipping", and "distributor". A pro level tool might cost 2x a consumer tool, but it might cost 3x to manuacturer. Better value.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I also like this kind of review, except I think that they should associate which drills have which parts. I have seen a similar review on routers where the did not hide the brands and it was much more useful.

[John Hulett]

This is an interesting question. With television and radio, they only make money by selling advertising; the product - the music you hear on the radio, or television you get from broadcast is free to the end-user. With printed media, newspapers and magazines, they still sell advertising, but that is not their sole source of income. They also receive revenue from the newsstand and subscriptions. Since magazines are hesitent on really slamming a given product in a "true" review, my assumption is that advertising revenue far outweighs that from readership.

I prefer to read a review that is unbiased and if one of the drills is garbage, I expect the review to tell me so - otherwise don't do a revew; I can get sales literature from the manufacturer. If the manufacturer's product receives a poor review, fix it for next year's review. This should be the manufacturer's motivation to produce a quality product.

I picked up a "Wood Magazine" this month, and they had a very good review of 14.4 V cordless drills. This review didn't pull the punches - not every drill made the cut. I think the top 3 were DeWalt, Panasonic and Festool.

[Peter Gavin]

But don't you think this kind of review helps you make a decision based upon your work style/needs? A B&D Firestorm might be a peice of garbage to a professional, but to someone who needs to do odd jobs around the house it would make perfect sense. This kind of review tells a lot more of the story than 'The best Drill is..........' and then ignores the fact that it costs three times what another drill does that might perform perfectly adequately for your needs.

Peter

[John Hulett]

But don't you think this kind of review helps you make a decision based upon your work style/needs? A B&D Firestorm might be a peice of garbage to a professional, but to someone who needs to do odd jobs around the house it would make perfect sense. This kind of review tells a lot more of the story than 'The best Drill is..........' and then ignores the fact that it costs three times what another drill does that might perform perfectly adequately for your needs.

Peter
I agree 100%. Reviews should be done on like-equipment. You couldn't even compare a 14" bandsaw with a bunch of 16" or 18" models. It's not just he size that is different, but there are other aspects that would be different as well, such as guide system. However, a field of all 14" models could certainly be compared. Or in the review I referenced already... 'The Best 14.4 V Drill is.....' - that is relevant information I can use in my decision.

[Ken Garlock]

I also read the article on the differences in drill quality. At the end of the "review" I thought and now, and now.... It was like they had gotten through the introduction, and forgot to put in the real review.

To paraphrase Ross Perot "Even the brain dead" know that a cheap tool has cheap parts. The real question is do the professional tools also have cheap parts?

My subscription is paid up for another 2 years, at which time I will not be renewing. :mad:

My opinions are worth what you paid.

[jerry mayfield]

You are absolutly correct about their tool reviews, but their so called finishing column where Bruce Johnson says he is answer questions by readers is utterly amazing. All of his solutions recommend Minwax,or companies owned by Minwax. Mr.Johnson is listed as a Minwax funishing expert. How about that for integrity!. The Workbench magazine has become one long plug for their sponsors in my opinion.

regards
jerry