We do not publish manufacturer figures. Every performance number on this site comes from our own testing, run to a fixed protocol so that a drill tested in 2024 is comparable with one tested this month.
Torque is measured on a brake dynamometer at the chuck, not the motor, with the manufacturer’s own fully charged battery. We record peak and — more importantly — sustained torque before thermal cutout.
Runtime tests use a fixed workload rather than a time limit: hole saw cycles through 45 mm softwood, cuts through 40 mm mild steel box section, screws driven into a standardised board. We run each test three times and publish the median.
We buy most of the tools we test. Where a manufacturer supplies a sample, we say so in the review. No manufacturer sees a review before publication, and no manufacturer has ever been given approval over a score.
What we refuse to do: score on specifications, recommend a tool we have not used on a real job, or let an affiliate relationship affect a ranking. If a tool we earn commission on is worse than one we do not, we say so.
