The BRO Gear Guide

Your grandfather’s hammer is probably still in somebody’s garage. His cordless anything is not, because he didn’t have one, and that’s the point: the things that last are usually simple, heavy where it matters, held together with screws, and made by somebody who still sells the parts.

We don’t run a test lab, and we won’t pretend to. No “we tested 14 drills”, no scores out of ten, no invented numbers. What we do is read what makers actually publish, decode the warranty, check whether it can be repaired, and tell you exactly what to look for yourself.

• Specs come from the manufacturer, and we say so. If we are not sure of one, we tell you where to check it.
• We never quote a price. Prices change weekly; check the current price where you buy.
• How long something lasts is something you find out from long-term owners: one-year-later reviews, repair forums, the pattern in the one-star reviews. We tell you what to look for.
• We say when the cheap one is the right buy. For a tool you use twice a year, it often is.

A price tag is the wrong number. The right one is what it costs you every time you use it: the price, plus upkeep over the years, minus what you can sell it for, divided by how many times you’ll actually use it.

The word on the box is “warranty”. The useful information is in the document. Pull it up on the maker’s website before you buy, and answer these. Print it and take it to the store if that helps.

Everything breaks eventually. The question is whether it breaks into a Saturday repair or into the trash. The more of these you can tick, the longer it stays in your garage.

Some tools were finished a long time ago. Every “improved” version adds a feature and a way to fail. These are the ones worth owning in their plain form, and looking after.

Our recurring columns on gear and gadgets. Each one is analysis, not a test report, and each one ends with what to check yourself.