CMU School of Drama


Thursday, July 03, 2014

Impact Rated Bits: Dispelling the Myths

Pro Tool Reviews: I have come across this question dozens of times. I’ve read article after article and review after review touting that impact rated bits are a scam, not worth the money, no better than standard bits, and more. Customer reviews slam these accessories as an unnecessary expense developed by manufacturers as a way to make more money. We even published an article about impact rated bits and found that Bosch’s standard bits outperformed all of the impact rated ones we tested based on our methodology.

1 comment:

Julian said...

This really drives home the importance of using tools for their intended purposes. I am curious why the earlier testing picked the methodology they did considering the two bits are really for two different purposes. It seems to me that it should be easy for people doing such a study to research which tasks different bits are good at.

I’m also wondering how clearly these products are packaged. Do they list the applications where impact rated bits are better and situations where they aren’t? The different uses of different bits might not be standard knowledge to consumers, but I assume the people who design the product would know what their product is good for.

On a completely different note, it is really cool to see an explanation about how impact rated bits worked. I never would have thought they are stronger because they are more ductible, but the paper clip metaphor made it make a lot of sense. It is great to not just know which tools are for which tasks, but why they are for those tasks, and this article explains that very well.