CT 36 E - Hot End Tab Corroded and Broke. DIY or Send in?

[aquilianww]

Hi all,

First time posting here. Thank you for taking time to read this.

I bought a CT 36 E in an auction, and it worked great for about a month. Then, CT 36 E recently stopped turning on, and I deduced that power wasn't getting to the unit. When I opened the electrical, I noticed that the power cord going into the hot end was heavily corroded. I live in Orlando, Florida, and I have heard that this happens in humid environments.

I tried to fix it myself but the tab on the hot end broke from corrosion and weakness during the repair, so now I have to decide what to do next. Is this the kind of thing that can be fixed by ordering a new electrical board, or do I take the L and send it in for repairs? From looking at schematics I believe I know the right part to order but want to see if I should just take the L and send it in. Please forgive me lack of precise terminology on electrical parts.

Picture here shows the current state of the right side where the power cord is supposed to be attached. You can see the hot end tab on top has completely broken, and the surrounding plastic has melted from the heat (I had no idea)

Three other pictures that may be useful for future:
1) picture of the corrosion before the DIY,
2) picture of the tab after the corroded core was removed but before I broke off the tab
3) picture of the unit's model information,

 

[onocoffee]

This is certainly something that you could repair, and I'm pretty sure someone has run into this issue before. If you feel comfortable doing repairs (which I presume you do), then have a look at the spare parts on Festool's EKAT section of the website.

Since it's used and probably out of warranty, the risk is that you send it in, they inspect the vac, send you a quote for repairs - and that "may" exceed the cost of a new one. You naturally balk and they give you the option of: 1) repair, 2) disposal or 3) sending you back the CT in parts.