I have the Thumblers Tumbler which is the same size as the big one your supplier has.
pros - it does an excellent job........its water tight (my son tumbled rocks in it) and it has tumbled thousands and thousands of pieces of brass. I have forgot and left it on for a couple days at a time....no problem. You can do a whole bunch of 22-250 's at a time.

cons - It is big and you have more media to sift thru. Its kinda noisy (I run mine outside behind my garage). It wasn't cheap.....good things rarely are.

A friend is considering buying a tumbler and was wonderingwhich is the best sort of tumber to buy and what the pros and cons of each brand and type are?

He loads 22-250 and 30-06 for hunting, generally in lots of 100 rounds..I would guess that he only loads 3 batches of each a year. I went to a local supplier and saw an RCBS model (I think) but came back saying it seemed huge and would be like having a 3 gallon bucket sitting on his reloading bench. Does anybody know of a more "compact" tumbler?
Also, typically how long does it take to tumble a batch of cases assuming they will be tumbled after every firing?

Regards,

Pete

try the lyman Pro 1200
http://www.lymanproducts.com/lymanproducts/index.htm
i have 1 that i do small batchs of brass in [100 - 22/250s]
cleans quick & quite