Rational thoughtful power tool reviews?

[Philip DeBoer]

I think a lot of it rolls out of the same factories. The better colors just do a little more QC before it gets painted.

If it comes down to quality control, then to do a fair review you need to order 10,000 units from each brand and test across the sample. This is prohibitively expensive for a third party, of course. So we use brand reputation as a proxy for this.

When the machine designs themselves are different, comparison is easier.

[glenn bradley]

As mentioned, I pull from various sources. I tend to give more value to the mags that are customer supported like Woodsmith. The no-ad rags can't afford to do as in depth a study as someplace like Fine Woodworking. On the other hand things like Laguna winning the bandsaw bake-off when it was the only saw that stalled gives me a large grain of salt. I gather as much as I can, give more weight to forum reviews from long time owners than I do to some anonymous character with sour grapes on Amazon and try to render it all down to what is best for me.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I use magazine reviews, website reviews and forum reviews. I also tend to throw out the small number of highs and lows and look for an average review. There are those out there that would push a brand even if it fell apart during delivery and customer service never returned their calls or emails. There are also those out there that would complain about the color of the paint even if it showed up in perfect condition, worked perfectly for 10 years of heavy industrial use and they sold it used for more than they paid for it. I also compare reviews for considered product to reviews for the competitive products in the same price range.

[Robert Chapman]

I like the Fine Woodworking reviews where they actually use a number of the same kinds of tools [usually power tools] and then judge which of them are the Best Overall and the Best Value. They seem to do an objective assessment and use the same evaluation criteria for every tool.

[Keith Weber]

My favorite is Amazon. Why? Because of the numbers. I tend to avoid YouTube individuals/bloggers trying to make a name for themselves by posting daily or weekly videos. Firstly, what you're hearing is just one man's opinion. Secondly, a lot of the time, these people are either sponsored by the company, or were sent a free tool to review. Surely they're going to go easy on someone putting money in their pockets. Lastly, I find the Dunning-Kruger Effect is high with a lot of these YouTube rock stars.

With Amazon, you might get 150 people putting in a review on a popular tool. If the average score is 4.8/5 for a particular tool with a large sampling like that, it's probably a pretty good tool. You can also sift through the reviews and common problems with the tool will easily stand out if there are any. As Ken mentioned, you want to ignore the highs and the lows to avoid the fanboys, and the morons that give a tool 1 star because Amazon was a day late with their delivery.

After that, I like here because you can get actual input to your questions from users that don't have anything to gain by offering their opinion.

[Peter Kuhlman]

There just isn't any single source of information in my view. Yes I definitely ask and research here for information. I also check other forums, Amazon, user groups, magazines, Google searchs, YouTube and anywhere else I can think of. To find the "best" choice takes time - lots of it. Way too easy to purchase low cost versus quality and long frustration free life. Made way too many wrong choices and had to repurchase items to make me happy.
A problem is what is acceptable quality to me can be very different to someone else. Budget of course plays a huge factor. Being on fixed income now I sometimes have to wait and save to get what I really want but luckily am well equipped.
Take your time, read and research, try to only purchase once. Nothing to me worse than buying cheap junk because I was in a hurry.

[Art Mann]

On more than one occasion, I have seen FW tool reviews that rank some of their biggest advertisers below manufacturers that don't run ads in FW at all. For this reason, I tend to believe their measurements and factual claims, even if I don't agree with their subjective opinions.

My favorite reviewer is Roland Johnson, but I have found few rational power tool reviews where machines from different manufacturers are tested side-by-side. The reason is that most places that test the machines or tools also have advertising. That said, I do read Fine Woodworking for reviews and pay attention to the consumer choices.

[Jim Becker]

FW, and Wood keep their reviews separate from any advertising activities by policy. That includes obtaining test units on the open market when it's possible to do so. But as Art points out, there is still going to be some level of subjectivity because humans are doing the actual testing.

[phil harold]

FW, and Wood keep their reviews separate from any advertising activities by policy.

That and JLC tools
But I also like to read the worst reviews on amazon, some times it is a fluke , bad tool all together and/or more often just, a bad operator

[John Sincerbeaux]

Power tools and woodworking machines are much like cars, skis, and beer. Buy German and you will be buying about the best of the best. No reviews needed.