Best U.S. source for the widest range of Tanos light grey Systainers?

[AlexThePalex]

There is one difference between Tanos and Festool systainers.
On top and the front of the Festool systainer there is the brand printed name in bright green.

Yep, true, but it's just ink, which is easily removed with paint thinner. The embossed letters stay of course.

 

[elfick]

      In the USA you will not be able to get colors other than light gray (Festool color), light gray (Tanos color - same as Festool ), or Anthracite.

You can also get Black and Yellow Sys1-5 + mini + midi from Lee Valley.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=70759&cat=1,43326,68749

 

[HDClown]

I would need to see one in person to know for certain, but based on pictures and YouTube videos, I don't like the Tanos in Anthracite compared to light gray.  With stuff sitting in my garage, which gets rather dusty very quickly, the darker color always shows dust a lot more, which is another reason I'm trying to avoid it.  I have a Woodcraft 10 minutes from me but I never noticed any Anthracite boxes out, everything was all Festool.  Maybe they have one in the store somewhere I could see in person just to confirm my feelings.

But for now, I'll assume I'll go light gray.

If we look out outside the USA, how does the Tanos light gray vs. Festool offering compare? 

 

[Sal Bandini]

I have an anthracite and light grey box and you're right, the anthracite shows the dust. I kind of like the color but the light grey has grown on me and I decided to go with that color for future boxes.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I also prefer light grey over the darker colours. Darker systainers show dust sooner, but light systainers show dirt sooner, and they discolour more over time. But it is way easier to find stuff inside a light systainer. 

If we look out outside the USA, how does the Tanos light gray vs. Festool offering compare?

Festool range

Tanos Range

 

[jacko9]

My Systainer is a division of Woodcraft, the advantage of Lee Valley is they have never charged me shipping.

I know that Lee Valley has special free shipping promotions from time to time but, normally they do charge for shipping.  Unless I'm missing something here?

Jack

 

[rst]

I've bought quite a few Tanos from Lee Valley and never paid shipping.  I haven't bought any recently...I have 65 systainers in all, most Festool but a lot of Tanos.  I have PC, Milwaukee, Bosch, Makita, Hitachi and various others in systainers with color coded latches.

 

[jacko9]

I've bought quite a few Tanos from Lee Valley and never paid shipping.  I haven't bought any recently...I have 65 systainers in all, most Festool but a lot of Tanos.  I have PC, Milwaukee, Bosch, Makita, Hitachi and various others in systainers with color coded latches.

If I go to the Lee Valley web site right now, there is a shipping charge for any purchase.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/home/HelpShippingReturns.aspx?pb=1#ShippingCharges

Jack

 

[semenza]

If we look out outside the USA, how does the Tanos light gray vs. Festool offering compare?

    In what way .... the line of products? The color is the same. The Tanos line has more in it than the Festool line.

    This place will ship to the USA.

    https://www.kofferfunshop.de/en/systainer/systainer.html

Seth

 

[HDClown]

I wanted to try and build a list of differences in the Festool Systainer offering vs. Tanos.  I compared what you can see from "outside" of a box, thus no inserts are considered.  So this also means that I am not listing specific "combination" products (a standard Systainer with an insert, even if the insert is exclusive to Festool or Tanos only). 

For Festool, I used undefined and undefined
For Tanos I used the Tanos 2015 Catalogue and Tanos New Product 2014/2015 Leaflet

Here's what I came up with, anyone care to correct me on anything?

Not offered by Festool

• Tanos MIDI II
• Tanos Rack Systainer IV
• Tanos Drawer Systainer IV
• Tanos Lockable Systainer Strongbox
• Tanos Large Lockable Systainer Strongbox
• Tanos Lockable Systainer Strongbox Drawer
• Tanos SYS-Connect
• Tanos Folding Trolley "TRAPO vario"
• Tanos Folding Trolley "MAXI-TRAPO"

Festool Exclusive

• Festool Cooltainer (exclusive in color only)
• Festool SYS-PORT 500
• Festool SYS-PORT 1000

Anyone have any corrections or things I missed?

I left the Festool CTL SYS out of the Festool Exclusives because I classify that's a tool and not just a systainer storage unit.

PS - Seth, you said the SYS-MFT is available from Festool only but Tanos does sell it as well, it's in the new products leaflet and the 2015 catalogue.

 

[semenza]

I think the strongbox and the sysport are the same thing.

Seth

 

[HDClown]

Sys-Ports and Strongboxes aren't quite the same.

Biggest difference is that the SysPorts are taller and have extra capacity.  Sys-Port 1000 has a max capacity of 8 Systainer 1 and the large Strongbox only 8.  The Sys-Port 500 should hold 4 Systianer 1's (based on the marketing showing 2xSys 1 and 1xSys 2) and the small strongbox has a max of 3 Systainer 1's.

Strongboxes have individual drawer releases on left side of drawer on both small and large units, while the Sys-Port 500 has no drawer releases and the Sys-Port 1000 has a single drawer release at the top.

Sys-Port's are also slightly wider, but that's really nothing to write home about.  There's also the caster option on the Sys-Port 1000 but it doesn't seem like there's one for the large strongbox.

I also found a variety of "Cooltainer" options from Tanos here: https://www.kofferfunshop.de/en/systainer/insulating-systainer-t-loc/insulating-systainer-t-loc.html.  So other than Festool's model being a special color, it doesn't seem to be an exclusive.