Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Hi Folks, back again, finally starting to see some white stuff around here - Santa brought it Dec 25th.

Very little action for the machines so far, maybe yours too, so here's some reading for ya:

Ratings.

Cheers!

Anyone who takes CR seriously for evaluating OPE  is deluding themselves. 

Yep, Mr. Borat and I agree.  CR's priorities are seldom mine.  And they rarely, if ever, give any evaluation of the quality of construction and expected lifetime of the items reviewed.

It would interesting (and enlightening) if CR did a 2, 3 , or 5 year follow-up of their OPE equipment reviews. I think they would be very disappointed with the results....

All in all, the magazine is useful and a good monthly read. I am entering my 21st year of hard-copy subscription. They often make valid points, but definitely durability and longevity don't factor in as much as they should.

I have to laugh/weep at this issue though; they continue to like my Ariens year after year, but condemn my Poulan and label it as "a model to avoid: the $450 Poulan Pro PR621ES, which proved wimpier than some plug-in electric models we tested." On page four the magazine continues to slag it in the "Best & worst scores" of the entire issue with a 22, some water filter got a 95.

Oh well, one out of two ain't bad.

IMO the Poulan does OK in new, fluffy snow and can also do a real nice clean-up job after the Ariens is through with the heavy lifting. For CA$237 + tax it is what it is, and also a keeper.

I find it hard to take the rankings seriously when the models compared varied significantly from size, power, and price.

I find CR particularly useful when it comes to buying water filters, baking soda, and table salt.  They are spot on. 

NotMoneyGuy wrote:
Maybe they couldn't get the engine to run and they were trying to blow snow using the power from the electric starter motor. 

Where did they the snow to perform the tests?  We didn't get any snow yet this year. 

aa335 wrote:

Here's what the Feb 2012 issue says on page 46:

"We test snow blowers in snowy upstate New York and at our Yonkers, N.Y., headquarters, where we use wet sawdust to reliably mimic the wettest, heaviest snow."

They cannot be experts on everything, more likely they are not experts on everything. I prefer magazines that test one product, (motor vehicles)      like Car and Driver  or Road and TRack.

NotMoneyGuy wrote:

Well now I know what model to buy when I want to blow wet sawdust!

Steve_Cebu wrote:
As funny as it sounds, I can't really fault them. It's probably more repeatable than using actual snow, even if we were getting snow at the moment. If you get to test half the machines on cold, dry snow, and the other half can't be tested (not enough people to run them all, say) until the next storm, which is wet, heavy stuff, then it would be awfully hard to make a useful comparison.

I've wondered how the manufacturers themselves test them. I hadn't considered wet sawdust, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had their own not-really-snow concoctions. I'm sure they'd like to be able to test new designs on something during the warmer months, before trying to get a machine rolled out into production.

And, as others have said, I take some of their reviews with a grain of salt. Computers, A/V equipment, and OPE are things that I tend to do my own research on. That's not to say I won't read what they have to say. But I do have to raise an eyebrow when, say, an MTD blower out-ranks a Honda. Maybe this year, on select criteria, OK. But what about in 5 years, 20 years?

But for things that are suited to testing in a structured environment, and which are hard for the rest of us to truly *compare* (air conditioners, dehumidifiers, refrigerators, food processors, things like that), I really appreciate their work. I might be able to post a review of my window A/C. It's "good" (because I bought the right size for my room, or maybe one that's too big for it), it's "quiet" (because maybe I'm tolerant of noise, or it's not near me, etc). But that's very different than gauging how well it truly compares in cooling performance against other similar-BTU units, and comparing noise levels, across 20 units, as well as energy consumption. None of us can offer that kind of big-picture feedback by ourselves. And it can be tough to really compare units myself, just reading reviews on the stores' websites.

Agreed, if you want a car review, go check a car magazine. But I haven't seen any advertisements for Refrigerators Monthly