Urinary stone disease is a major and growing medical field, with significant impact on patients’ quality of life and health. It is most commonly treated using lasers to destroy stones, and the technology has evolved rapidly over the last 30 years. This research examines lasers representing the two most commonly used technologies (Ho:YAG and thulium fibre lasers) in a bench environment, to investigate how the properties of these lasers correlate to performance outcomes. These outcomes include ablation rate (how quickly stone is destroyed), retropulsion (how much and what kind of unintended stone motion is caused) and particle size (the fragments remaining after stone destruction). This research also aims to establish robust, repeatable experimental frameworks by which other lasers can be assessed and compared.