Lawn Mower Class Action about HP ratings

[Twayne]

Yeah; like vacuum cleaners rated in "amps"; like, that's a great way to tell how powerful it is!

[gfretwell]

It is a lot better than "Instantaneous peak horsepower" or other meaningless terms. If you know the actual full load amps you do have a clue about how much power is being presented to the task. Then the only variable would be the efficiency of the impeller.

[cjt]

Even more ridiculous is drills rated in volts.

[keith]

Only if "peak amps" is tested under a real load and not, say, the locked rotor current.

[Twayne]

Sometimes it's useful for a comparison between two or more products, assuming you trust the engineering of the motors and a reasonable efficiency. It's not very hard to have a 12 Amp vacuum produce less vacuum than an 8 - 10 Amp vacuum. 12 Amps is sort of a "standard" rating lately but all it 'proves' is that it won't blow a 15 Amp breaker. Vacuum production is all over the map with today's machines. I find it interesting no one has decided to advertise cfm by utensil and/or lift specs with water, mercury or whatever. It's as though they all colluded to make the specs meaningless for residential use products. Commercial products will usually have real specs on them.

HTH,

Twayne`