John,
First off, welcome to the Forum. This forum is uniquely open to comments from the membership about the quality of Festools and serves as a knowledge base for members and non members alike. I have been a professional woodworker since 1983. I have personally had problems with other tools of other brands. I have had 2 issues with Festools in 5 years. Both were minor and handled expeditiously under the warranty program to my complete satisfaction. I and many of the others here who have visited Festool USA's headquarters in Indianapolis have posted about how few tools were there for service, especially when it is taken into account that there is a centralized repair center for the US unlike other manufacturers that make you take your tools to local or regional repair centers / shops.
As others have said, there can be a learning curve in the use of the various tools and sometimes this translates into comments about quality issues. We here can try to help out with those. Additionally, Festool has application trainers, who often times can offer advice about specific tools and applications. The warranty program can help if there are issues with the tools themselves. Purchasers have a thirty day window to put the tools thru the paces in their own work environment and work flow to see if the tool is right for them, and if not, return it within that period.
You may find this quote informative. I quoted it in its entirety for accuracy purposes. On March 30, 2008, Christian O. posted this information in a thread named Is it Sacrilegious to Use Festools on Construction Sites?
"I couldn't help to chime in here. Very interesting question!
It looks like Festool has a different image here in the US than it has in Europe.
When I was a kid, I was working every summer in a company that did rough carpentry. Most of the tools they had were Festool tools (back then Festo). Helmut, the owner of the company, always said he buys Festool because they are tough and outlast all other tools. They were rough on the tools.
Every time I see somebody in Germany working with a Festool product, I ask them why they bought Festool. In most cases I am told "because they last, they are tough, they get the job done".
Many of our customers in the US seem to see Festool products as "delicate, high precision instruments". For them, Festool tools are the tools you "only use for fine finish work". And in a lot of companies only "the boss" is supposed to use "his Festools". When the "boss has made that one critical cut on that expensive mahagony door", the tool is wiped off and goes back into the Systainer. The crew keeps working with "the other tools".
I understand that everybody has to decide for him-/herself, what a Festool tools is being used for. From a product standpoint, I can say this: The tools are made to withstand long and heavy use, in the shop and on jobsites. They are precise, yes, but they are also tough.
If you think a Festool product makes you work faster, easier and smarter, take your Festool for construction work or other heavy duty applications. The tool might not last as long as the one that lives most of the time in its Systainer. But the time you save will pay in most cases easily for the replacement tool.
Bottom line: When you are asking yourself if you should use Festool for construction work, the only deciding factor should be if the job gets done faster and easier with Festool and if it makes sense to use Festool for the job (I wouldn't use the TS55 to rough cut 2x4s). If yes, use Festool. On the other hand, the question if the tool will last should not be a deciding factor, because the tools are designed to last. It takes Festool about two years of testing before the market introduction of a new tool, and Festool has more rigorous tests than other tool manufacturers. They are also designed to be repaired very easily and with minimal cost (example: almost all parts are available as a single part, you don't have to pay for spare part groups).
I hope this didn't sound too much like a marketing rant. It was not my intention. It is just interesting for me to see how different the image of Festool is in the US compared to Europe.
Thanks.
Christian"
Hope that this helps.
Peter
