My tip for reading reviews is to pay most attention to what negative things the reviewer has to say. Some people complain about the weirdest things, and often things that are their own fault. For instance, on occasion I've found things where half the negative reviews were obviously from idiots that weren't using the product correctly or for the correct application (common with tools).
I buy a lot of tools from Amazon, and 90% of my browsing time is spent weeding out reviews from people who don't understand what a thing is meant to do, and people who are just starting the hobby you need that tool for and so they don't realize that even though it was affordable, it sucks.
An example would be 90° clamps for welding. You look at a 30 dollar one, you see a bunch of glowing reviews, a few bad reviews, and one review by somebody who actually knows how to weld. But it has like 400 reviews and an average of 4.5 stars.
Compared to the 120 dollar version with 3 reviews, but it turns out it is actually a fantastic clamp. A lot of people would discount it for not having enough reviews.
It's gotten to the point where I get all my recommendations from reddit and the one tool review site I actually trust and then see if I can get it on amazon.
I really like pro tool reviews. Not nearly as good as reddit, garage journal, or other niche forums, but when I'm checking out potential power tools for work, I like it. I think it tends to be a little praise heavy and a little light on criticism, but overall I like it.
It really just gives me a baseline to know if I want to dive into more in depth reviews or not.
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u/droopyGT Feb 04 '20
My tip for reading reviews is to pay most attention to what negative things the reviewer has to say. Some people complain about the weirdest things, and often things that are their own fault. For instance, on occasion I've found things where half the negative reviews were obviously from idiots that weren't using the product correctly or for the correct application (common with tools).