With many tools specs and ratings plateauing as manufacturers continue to try to one-up each other, specs and ratings play a much smaller part than they used to. When researching which tools to buy, do you often feel the same?
These days, everything is a numbers game, at least from a marketing perspective. Megapixels, lumens, torque rating, the number of screws a drill can drive on a single charge, and so forth. From a buyer’s perspective, while numbers do matter, they’re not as useful for direct comparison as they used to be.
What brought this to mind was a friendly argument about flashlights. A colleague pointed to my trusty Fenix LD20 flashlight and remarked about how his new generic-branded super-lumen direct-from-China for $5 LED flashlight is better. Why? Because its lumen rating was higher.
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To settle things, we passed by a darkened storage room, propped the door open, and tested the lights. I took both lights, told him that my LD20 would be tested first and his second. Instead, I tested his first and mine second. Disgusted at the poor color and quality of the first flashlight’s throw, he absolutely loved the light coming from the second. I then showed him that my LD20 was the second one and returned his flashlight.
It’s difficult to say whether my colleague’s flashlight really does have a higher lumen output. But, it definitely output a much poorer quality beam – the color, illumination intensity and spill – all of it was just off.
Now, I’m a very numbers-oriented kind of guy. I admit it, like many others, one of the first things I do when researching a purchase is to find its specs and ratings. But these days, that’s not enough. In terms of cameras, megapixels are less important than sensor size. In terms of flashlights, power isn’t the only thing to look at. And in terms of power tools, there is far more to be considered than torque ratings and the number of screws that can be driven per charge.
This… complication, also comes into play whenever someone asks me to recommend a particular power tool. While it’s easy to look at specs and ratings to see that a particular tool from Brand A trumps brands B and C based on one factor, there are so many other considerations that are too often downplayed.
So what do all you other tool buyers look at when researching tools or accessories you plan to buy and, more specifically, how with much weight do you consider manufacturer-supplied specs and ratings?
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Maikeru
Personally I look at specs if I’m not sure which to get. However, I’ll also put in a little research on forums as I’ll often find better information there than some user ratings on various merchant sites. There’s still bias, but people will often ask why the other person has the opinion that they have and thus if there’s no merit to their opinion it becomes quite apparent. Combining this with various consumer magazines and the manufacturer specs helps me make the final decision.
Though above all if I know very little about the manufacturer or the quality of the product I’ll purchase the item in a physical store so that returns are a bit easier if it turns out that it’s not so good. I purchased my Griptilian in a physical store as I had no experience with the company (even if most reviews, forums, and one friend said that they were a decent company) and I wanted some hands experience with the actual model. That said I purchased my last couple of Leatherman tools (they manage to get stolen or they fall off of me and never returned by the finder) online since I knew what to expect of the company, their tools, and how their specs relate to their tools. If there’s any spec that feels unclear you can e-mail them and they get back to you about it with a proper explanation.
Stuart
One of the most discussed specs on forums is the type of steel used in a knife, chisel, or similar hand tool. The discussions can sometimes get VERY heated (no pun intended). But the fact of the matter is that heat treatment and the care of the “recipe” can be as important or even more important than the type of steel used.
By the way, I know I mentioned it before, but thumbs up on the Griptilian purchase!
Maikeru
Yeah, the type of steel is what gives the knife maker something to work with, but the heat treatment can often lead to a completely different quality of steel. I recall that part of this complexity can even baffle even those with equipment used for the analysis of unknown substances. One material used by a particular knife maker was called by a particular name by them and was apparently a proprietary material. When subjected to a spectrometer it was shown to be highly similar (close enough that any difference might be a minor variation in the mixture of metals that went into the test blade’s batch) to a known type of steel. However, the blade properties were fairly different than other blades made of the same material and thus it’s those studying the material figure that any difference was likely due to a special heat treatment.
Of course knife strength and cutting ability is further complicated by how the edge is ground as some varieties just aren’t right for certain types of steel and heat treat combinations.
BTW, speaking of flashlights have you every played around with any of the lights made by LED Lenser? Two interesting things about them; supposedly they’re the only company making LED lights that use both a reflector and adjustable optics, and apparently Leatherman bought a majority stake in them some months back. Right now I’m playing with a P5 and it’s easily the brightest AA powered, single LED light that I’ve played with—the output from it reminds me of that of the xenon HID headlamps that some cars use due to the colour and the way that the beam can be focused.
Bob
Makeiru,
Thanks for the heads up on LED Lenser. I have been looking for a good headlamp for hands free work in dark places (like the inside of industrial carbon tank water vessels). I went to Lowes today, found the Lenser display, then played with the Lenser H7 headlamp. This unit exceeds way above and beyond what I was looking for, this one’s the real deal.
At first it was hard to swallow the $43.00 price tag, but putting the beginning paings of buyer’s remorse aside I ponied up. Now I am so glad I spent more and purchased that model over the other $10-15 gizmos…
No joke, the H7 headlamp with 3 AAA batteries, is at least 4x brighter than my 4-D cell LED Mag-Lite! I even have Energizer NiMH rechargeables in my Mag, which make it perform better over the regular alkaline batteries.
Next time I am in the market for a light I would definitely not hesitate to go with Lenser.
Go play with one (the packaging has a “try it before you buy it” feature), I highly doubt you’ll be dissapointed, and if you’re in the market for a light, I doubt you’ll leave the store without one.
-Thanks again Makeiru, And thanks ToolGuyd!
Paul
I couldn’t agree with you more! Over at Todaysmower I changed from a “what’s best” rating this year to a “what’s best for you”
There are a few products on the market that no one should buy, but in most cases every product is made for a specific buyer. It’s up to bloggers like us to help our readers decide what is best for them…not what we think is best for our own toolbox.