I have had the DW788 in a middle school work environment for at least 5 years now. My first one was a bit further back. I like them for the quick blade change aspect because I go through up to 400 blades a year. They are also quieter than others I have had and the blade guard is easy for young children to manage. The issues for me are that the thumb screws changed at a certain point in time and the new design twisted the smaller diameter blades, causing them to fall out of their pinch point. Also, periodically they would just stop running. I discovered the problem to be dust in the switch. After I cleaned it out it work fine. Because of the number of operating hours on these machines with novice use and their overall lack of major mechanical issues I give them a good rating.