We want to be open with our methods and fair to every product we test. In this article, we are going to set out how we come up with the star ratings and you can decide whether you give these areas the same importance as us.
We rate roof scrapers in the following four categories: number of blades available, weight, durability and simplicity to change the blades.
Number of available blades and brushes
It is obvious that you want to buy a tool that you can use on all the jobs you get. Although most companies have a starter kit that will include around 10 blade profiles, we look at the total number available for purchase.
We include brushes in with this number. We also count double-width blades as separate from single width blades.
We use the following guidelines to determine how many stars to give based on the number of blades:
| Number of available blades and brushes | Star Rating |
| Below 9 | 1 |
| 9-15 | 2 |
| 16-22 | 3 |
| 23-29 | 4 |
| Over 29 | 5 |
Weight
Weight can be a huge factor in how tiring roof scraping is, especially if it is a long reach from where you are standing to where the tiles are, or if you are scraping out to the side.
There is an argument that weight is not a bad thing in a scraper, because it applies downward pressure to the tiles and helps remove the moss.
We understand this thought, however in our experience after trying lots of scrapers, the ones we preferred using were the lighter ones.
Therefore we have given lighter scrapers higher ratings, and heavier scrapers lower ratings.
To make it fair we weighed the scraper head and angle adapter if it comes with the set, and fitted a single width Ludlow plus profile blade into it.
| Weight (g) | Star Rating |
| Over 800 | 1 |
| 601-800 | 2 |
| 401-600 | 3 |
| 201-400 | 4 |
| Under 200g | 5 |
Durability
It is hard to test durability. We test out the scrapers on real jobs to the extent possible, but generally, this is not enough to wear them down.
To rate durability, we take into consideration blade material, blade thickness, and materials used in the construction.
Quality components made from metal will be rated higher than breakable plastic parts.
Simplicity to change blades
On some jobs, you may only need to change the blade once – when you arrive at the job. But on other jobs, you are changing it often to adapt to difficult circumstances, to add a wire brush, or for other reasons.
We try to take into account how difficult it is to change the blades, how much time it takes, if tools are needed and if there is anything that could be dropped while you are doing it from the top of a scaffold tower.
We try to imagine doing it in the winter with very cold hands that are difficult to de dextrous with.
Why are they not rated on price?
We don’t include the price in our ratings because we do not believe that price is the same as value.
We include the price in our reviews, and in our comparison table, then you can decide if it represents good value for you.
We know that you often get what you pay for so often a high price for a quality item is justified, especially when you can use it to earn a lot of money.
Concluding thoughts
We have tried to explain openly how we rate roof scrapers. As you can see two of the areas are objective and two are subjective. We hope that by being open with this you can understand why we give the ratings we do, and you can take this into consideration as you decide if these things matter to you or not.
Do you agree with what we have said? Do you think we are missing something? Please let us know in the comments section below to help us out!
Hi, I use a Marshall’s scraper would you like the info??