The honest bit, first
Tool Brief is a desk-based UK editorial team. We do not currently run a calibrated workshop rig with a dynamometer, tachometer, or environmental chamber. We do not have every tool on a test bench and time each screw. Where we publish a verdict today, it rests on three sources:
- Manufacturer UK specifications — torque, chuck, weight, capacity, hammer BPM, gear ratios.
- Named independent UK reviewer tests — Which?, Farmers Weekly, dedicated trade reviewers. We cite them, link to them, and tell you the test method.
- Hands-on use of tools the team already owns and uses. Where a verdict is grounded in our own use of a tool, we say so. Where it isn't, we say that too.
What our hands-on use covers
Where Tool Brief team members use a tool on real UK jobs — site work, home renovation, vehicle maintenance — we record:
- The job and material: a fence panel fix in CLS pine, a kitchen unit on 18mm MDF, a 6mm hole in London brick.
- The bit, battery, and clutch setting.
- Whether the tool completed the job without strain, stall, kickback, or overheating.
- Anything that surprised us, in either direction.
We do not time every screw. We do not run a measured hole-count-per-charge test. We are honest about that.
What we cite from independent UK reviewers
UK reviewers whose published test methods we trust and routinely cite:
- Which? Buys every cordless drill at retail. Uses a tachometer to measure no-load and under-load speed. Standardised 2.0Ah battery for runtime tests. Same drill bits in every drill. The full comparison is paywalled; the methodology is public.
- Farmers Weekly head-to-head reviews of trade cordless drills. Real-world holes-in-hardwood counts at measured seconds-per-hole.
- greengaffer.co.uk standardised tests: 80mm and 100mm screws in softwood/hardwood, 25mm auger through 90mm timber, two-hour sustained session, brick and concrete for hammer drills. Named author, named test rig.
- DIY Garden hands-on real-world drilling on UK materials (London brick, CLS timber). Slower cadence but UK-context-specific.
- T3 for fit, finish, ergonomics and price/feature balance.
- Homebuilding & Renovating for trade-applicable verdict on homeowner-adjacent tools.
What we don't test (and why)
- Continuous runtime to absolute flat. We don't run a drill until the battery dies on a 2-hour load. Cited reviewer tests do this with a fresh pack.
- Calibrated dynamometer torque measurement. We trust manufacturer and Which? figures.
- Multi-week site abuse. We don't currently own ten drills to subject to a month of scaffolding. Where a tool has a known reliability issue (Milwaukee M18 FPD2 overheating on sustained timber boring, Ryobi R18PD7 chuck self-loosening on early units), we cite the user-reported pattern.
- SDS-plus and impact driver head-to-head. These tool categories deserve separate test rigs. Out of scope for the current buyer's guides.
What we will change
Tool Brief is building toward in-house bench testing for the most-covered tool categories — cordless drills, impact drivers, multi-tools — in 2026/27. When that test rig goes live, the how we test page will be updated with the method and the published numbers. Until then, this page is the source of truth.
Calling out our own limits
If you read a verdict and want to know whether it was desk research, hands-on use, or third-party test — every Tool Brief article includes a "How we got here" line. Where the line is missing, treat it as a flag and tell us via contact.