"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
m...
I've often said that Makita stuff seems to punch above its weight. I've
got a 860w Makita router that performs better than a 1200w 'shed' own
brand, a 950w circular saw that eats 38mm worktop & a 14.4v combi that I
reckon would see off a lot of 18v tools.

I wonder if this is down to the way they quote the figures.

When I were in the pressure washer game there were a trade body what laid
down standards for measurement of pressure, flow rate & temperature.

At one stage I worked for a Danish manufacturer (Gerni) who quoted exact
performance figures for each machine. The standard laid down rules for
where in the pressure could be measured, how it should be measured & the
tolerance allowed. Pressure was +/- 10% and in their brochures Karcher
always used actual test pressure + 10%, whereas Gerni used actual test
pressure - which made the Gerni machines seem less powerful.

Temperature was a bit flexible in how you measured it. Gerni quoted max
temp as 135c because that was what you got at the nozzle, Karcher and all
the others quoted 150c because that was what you could measure at the
machine. The 10 metre pressure hose lost you 15c before the water got to
the nozzle, so the machines produced the same heat.

DIY pressure washers aren't covered by the trade body & the claims are
outrageous. 'Maximum' pressure 120 bar often means 85 bar working and if
it reaches 120 bar the pump head splits!

So, I wonder if a Makita 860w is another's 1200w depending on how you
measure it? Perhaps Makita quote the correct figures & others quote
'maximum' figures?

Is there a standard measure?

I doubt it. There seems to be very few standard measures about. IME the
older or more expensive something is the more likely it is to be somewhere
like it's actual specifications. OTOH the old stuff that I have is bloody
old (Ingersoll Rand compressor that's as old as the hills, B&O, Akai and
Arcam hifi gear, some of it 40 years old - you simply don't see hifis with 5
kilos of aluminium on the front anymore), so then I begin to wonder if the
reason it's still around is because it's the quality stuff of the day, and
that there were a load more people chucking out crap at the same time...

Then again, I had a look around an electrical shop the other day and
couldn't believe some of the guff they sell - they had a "surround sound
system" which consisted of 5 tweeters and a mid / bass driver in a subwoofer
casing. It was blatantly obvious with all the speakers within 3 feet of each
other that only high pitches were coming from the tweeters and all speech
was coming from the subwoofer...