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Comment by nsxwolf | Hacker News Reader

Amazing that this has never met my attention. Why doesn't IKEA make this more clear?

Probably because there are little marks on the top of each pozidrive screws that indicate it is different. The don’t explain it in Europe either, it’s just a thing you should notice and account for when building stuff. I would put identifying pozidrive vs Phillips in the same camp as just knowing how to use a screw driver but perhaps I’m being harsh

Parochialism-induced harshness — what could go wrong? POZIDRIV® bits are practically unheard of here (Canada); you have to go out of your way to find them, on the level of triwing or pentalobe, or JIS.

I have triwing and pentalobe bits (Oregon), but this is the first time I've heard of POZIDRIV®, no wonder I've had so many Ikea mishaps.

I think from your comment you may be from Europe, so in that case for added context, you may be underestimating how uncommon Pozidriv screws and screwdrivers are in the United States. I have never seen a Pozidriv screw on any manufactured product other than Ikea furniture in the US. You cannot buy Pozidriv screws or drivers at major hardware stores (try searching "Pozidriv" on Lowes, Home Depot, or Ace Hardware), with the exception of one or two drivers that are in stock online only.

So consider that this is an extremely rare fastener format in the US market, and which looks almost identical to Phillips (the most common US screwdriver). I think many people like myself who are interested in tools and hardware are aware of Pozidriv and can identify it easily, but I can completely see why the average US consumer mistakes it for Phillips.

Yeah I’m in the UK, ok so probably as rare as square heads here then.

Interesting, I did not realize square drive was uncommon in the UK. It's a really nice screw head to work with, and as someone mentioned elsewhere in the thread, becoming more common in certain woodworking applications in the US.

It's a Canadian invention, and to this day quite localized to Canada, where it's nearly the standard for carpentry (at least, every deck screw I've ever seen here is Robertson drive). It's good that it's catching on, it has a few distinct advantages over Phillips, my favourite being that you can mount a screw on the driver and it will stay on the driver due to an interference fit, freeing your other hand to secure, support, or stabilize.

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