Electrical contractors and other end users on the panel that evaluated this year's entrants in the CEE News/EC&M Product-of-the-Year competition had a pretty simple evaluation criteria: Will this product help me do my job faster, safer, smarter or more profitably?
Over two dozen contractors and facility maintenance personnel cast their votes for the most innovative products. Out of the dozens of new products entered in the competition, the panel selected 24 as finalists. CEE News and EC&M readers will vote on the finalists in the March issues of the magazines, and on the magazines' Web sites. The winner of the Product of the Year will be announced at the Electric 2002 trade show in New York on June 17.
Tools and test instruments were the two product categories with the most Product of the Year finalists. Finalists in these categories were the Fluke 337 meter, Gardner Bender's Wire Tracker, the LAN Tek 7 tester by Ideal Industries, Ideal's Kinetic Super Wire Stripper, Klein's Journeyman Pliers and Klein-Kurve wire stripper, the Milwaukee Electric Tool Sawzall cordless reciprocating saw, the Meterman DM 73B, and the Pull-It 3000 cable puller by Ray Practical Technologies.
Southwire's color-coded Romex Extra Color and Encore Wire's Colored Feeder also garnered a lot of attention from the panelists.