CTL26 Socket wiring

[Roseland]

The other day I plugged an extension lead containing a safety circuit breaker into the appliance socket on my CTL26, and the breaker tripped.  I reset it, and tried again with the same result.  I tried the extension lead straight into the wall socket and it was fine, so I suspected something amiss with the CTL.

I plugged a 'Martindale' socket tester (one of those little plugs that has 3 neons in it) into the appliance socket, and it showed live and neutral were switched.  I checked the wall socket that the vacuum was plugged into, and that was fine.

As a final test, I got a Plug-It cable and took the fuse out.  I then plugged that cable into the appliance socket and touched a voltage sensing 'pencil' against the wire; it lit red, indicating it was still live.  With the fuse out of the live side it must have been the neutral wire that was live.

I returned the vacuum to Festool UK (all credit to them, they arranged free collection and return) but they promptly called me to say they had tested it and it was working OK, no fault found.  They have returned it today, and it now works as expected.

Either there is a curious fault that can toggle live and neutral feeds to the socket, or Festool did find a fault and fixed it...

 

[Alan m]

id say they dont want to admit they fixed it

 

[Theshipstore]

Yeah kinda sounds that way to me, someone or something moved the hot and neutral around for sure.
Sal

 

[Stone Message]

Hi Everyone,

I thought that it would be a good idea to check my CT26 - it is fine as, I am sure, 99.99% of those in our various workshops must be.

Well done Festool UK (or the Fairies at the bottom of their garden) for fixing the problem at no cost to you. This is just the sort of service that we all expect from Festool.

Peter

 

[Peterm]

That's interesting - I had exactly this problem on my CT22. It was out of warranty by the time I found out (like yours, it only showed up due to incidental testing of an extension cable attached to the 22s socket) so I dealt with it myself, no problem - though still a surprise to find this kind of fault, frankly.

Pete

 

[BT50]

A safety recall was issued in Australia regarding the same issue you have. I received a letter from Festool explaining the fault and how to return it for repair. It took 2 weeks to be rectified and upon its return, I found 5 free self clean bags, a retractable knife and a box of pencils sitting on the top of the carton.  [big grin] Sounds like it is a bit more widespread.

 

[Stone Message]

A safety recall was issued in Australia regarding the same issue you have. I received a letter from Festool explaining the fault and how to return it for repair. It took 2 weeks to be rectified and upon its return, I found 5 free self clean bags, a retractable knife and a box of pencils sitting on the top of the carton.  [big grin] Sounds like it is a bit more widespread.

I (sort of) wish mine were faulty now!!!

Peter