Please help us out by answering this question – what brands do you think we should discuss or review more often in the future?
In recent feedback it has been suggested that we consider Makita and a few other underrepresented brands for review and discussion. After taking a look at our archive, it does look like we haven’t really paid enough attention to Makita. This is unintentional, and we actually have a Makita post already scheduled for later this week. Still, this is a situation that we hope to rectify.
ToolGuyd is nearing its two year anniversary (woo!), and while we try to cover as many brands as possible, it’s inevitable and natural that we will occasionally discuss some more than others. This is not intentional, it just happens.
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Now, we’re not going to go out of our way to talk about various tool brands just for the sake of talking about them. But, we do have a very long list of tools and topics just waiting to be posted about and discussed. If you feel that a particular brand is underrepresented, there’s a good chance that it’s on that list of pending posts. If not, then we’d still appreciate the opportunity to learn about a brand we’re not familiar with!
So, if you can, let us know which brands you want to see discussed or reviewed more on ToolGuyd in the future. These can be underrepresented brands, or just brands you’re partial to and want to read more of.
Thanks!
rob
I may be in the minority here, but I would imagine not everyone can afford nor buys some of the high end tools you review here. I would imagine many that read your site like me actually have quite a few Ryobi, Homelite, Craftsman, Stanley tools around. I know their are much better tools out there, but I tend to buy what I can afford based on how often I’ll use a tool. We’d all love the top of the line tool(s) but when you don’t use them all the time it just doesn’t make as much sense.
Stuart
Thanks for the feedback! We received a few comments via email as well. I’ll keep these brands in mind. Most of our reviews are of mid-range tools, but I’ll see if we can get a few value-oriented ones into the mix.
While we would have liked to see more comments about this, fewer suggests that we’ve been doing a pretty decent job of keeping our posts diverse.
Neil Bruce
If you would like the view from the UK we are happy to recommend tools and even review tools as a guest reviewer. We’re mor than happy to get involved on the blog
PutnamEco
I do like hearing about any and all tools, especially by people that are enthusiastic about them. I do like an impartial impression from time to time though, this becomes rather more important when it comes time to part with some money for said tools.
Mafell and Hilti are a couple brands I never hear enough about. Festool can be interesting as well, but with all their fans and the non OEM websites it’s easy to get a fix.
It is really the tools that I haven’t heard of yet that really get my interest.
Chad Johnson
I’m a specialty contractor and I play, er work, with a lot of different grades of tools. I like the coverage you give to Milwaukee and Ridgid, and I use a lot of their products. I also agree that you need some more Makita reviews. I’ve used several Makita products, and for the most part am pleased with them.
I’d also recommend that you look at Hitachi on the cheaper end and Bosch on the more expensive side of things. I’ve been a big fan of Bosch since getting to use one of their circular saws for a few projects, and we use Hitachi products daily.
Chad Johnson
Also, what I’d be interested in is how sets of products stacked up against other sets — such as Milwaukee’s M12 line versus Ryobi’s TEK4 (or whatever), provided that they had similar offerings. We really like the M12 system.
Stuart
Chad, I’ll keep those suggestions in mind.
We have our hands and time full with enough reviews to carry us through to the new year, but will start looking at tools to review to fill our 2011 Q1 schedule. I’ll keep your Hitachi and Bosch suggestions in mind.
I’ve considered the possibility of a Brand A to Brand B comparison, but it wouldn’t be easy to do. As mentioned in a different post, each brand has its own merits, and most of the power tool brands are now producing compact cordless tools that are fairly competitively designed. Direct comparison is unavoidably subjective, which would lead to incredibly complex recommendations. This is something we would like to do, but might not be possible in the near future.
That said, a cross-brand comparison looking at the specs, features pros and cons, may be more feasible.
PutnamEco, we’ll look into your Mafell and Hilti review suggestions as well, but it may take some time.