ETS 125 sander not working-again!

[EcoFurniture]

Hi Folks,

I'm a long time festool user and kind of frustrated. We run a very busy custom kitchen shop and have many festool products in use. Yep, I have converted all my co-workers We are now fighting for the tools.
Anyhow, for finish sanding we have two ets 125 sanders in daily use (maybe 3 hours a day). Both are about a 1.5 years old and hooked up to CL26 vacuums. They never run without dust collection. Within a one year span both died! First I thought it was just bad luck. Now a couple of days ago, the second one stopped working. It's still turning on, but very low RPM and no torque at all. Of course, I can send them in to get repaired. Last time it took 4 weeks... For a production shop that's brutal.
Anyone having the same issues and knows what to do? I'm wondering if I can bring it to a local shop to get fixed.... It also makes me look bad in front of my boss as I have to defend the higher cost of Festools.... On a side note, our Of1400 went up in smoke a while ago too..... (got fixed by Festool).

Anyhow, would be great to get some feedback.

Cheers,
Andreas

 

[duburban]

Hi Folks,

I'm a long time festool user and kind of frustrated. We run a very busy custom kitchen shop and have many festool products in use. Yep, I have converted all my co-workers We are now fighting for the tools.
Anyhow, for finish sanding we have two ets 125 sanders in daily use (maybe 3 hours a day). Both are about a 1.5 years old and hooked up to CL26 vacuums. They never run without dust collection. Within a one year span both died! First I thought it was just bad luck. Now a couple of days ago, the second one stopped working. It's still turning on, but very low RPM and no torque at all. Of course, I can send them in to get repaired. Last time it took 4 weeks... For a production shop that's brutal.
Anyone having the same issues and knows what to do? I'm wondering if I can bring it to a local shop to get fixed.... It also makes me look bad in front of my boss as I have to defend the higher cost of Festools.... On a side note, our Of1400 went up in smoke a while ago too..... (got fixed by Festool).

Anyhow, would be great to get some feedback.

Cheers,
Andreas

If your working everyday making money, just get another ets125. I almost just bought an extra ro150 when working on a floor with a co worker so that he could use it and I'd have an extra incase something went down on one. That kind of service life is pathetic and it doesn't strike me as the norm for these tools. If and when you get it fixed try running it only on the heavier gauge festool cable.

 

[EcoFurniture]

We got two, just for that reason.... Why would I use the heavy gauge cable with that sander? Btw, I don't think it would fit....

Last time we got the ets125 back from the Festool repair shop they included a report. I thought that's a great idea. On it, they mention to use better dust collection with it... doesn't make sense as we always hook up a Festool vacuum to it.

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Andreas, sorry to hear about the problems with your sander. While the heavier gauge cable will work, I doubt it will make any difference at all.

My concern is that you report a 4 week turn around for repair. It shouldn't take nearly that long. Our repair centers have a goal of a 48 hour turn around from the time we receive your tool. We meet that goal 99+% of the time on a regular basis. Not just a number I'm making up, we monitor those stats. If you didn't before, please work directly with the service guys. Don't take your tool to your dealer. Sometimes have a middle man can slow the repair process.

If there's anything I can do to make the repair process easier, feel free to contact me.

Shane

 

[EcoFurniture]

Hi Shane,

I know you guys are fast! The problem was as you guest, the retailer... I had the feeling that they are a bit lame in the customer service department. They told us that only the retailer can request that repair. In any case, will call the service number tomorrow to find out more. Thanks!
I just wanted to find out if anyone else had those sanders quit on them. When I had my own company, I ran three of them and NON of my Festools let me down, ever! Now that I'm working for someone else I'm seeing this....

Anyhow, will call and see what happens, in the mean time we have to dig out our old airsanders...

Cheers

 

[duburban]

Thats funny cause all the Kapex failures are blamed on improper current….  [cool]

 

[Peter Durand]

Andreas, sorry to hear about the problems with your sander. While the heavier gauge cable will work, I doubt it will make any difference at all.

My concern is that you report a 4 week turn around for repair. It shouldn't take nearly that long. Our repair centers have a goal of a 48 hour turn around from the time we receive your tool. We meet that goal 99+% of the time on a regular basis. Not just a number I'm making up, we monitor those stats. If you didn't before, please work directly with the service guys. Don't take your tool to your dealer. Sometimes have a middle man can slow the repair process.

If there's anything I can do to make the repair process easier, feel free to contact me.

Shane

Hi Shane,

The long turn around time I think is something that is unique to Canada. When I sent the TS55 for the recall (via the Festool UPS labels) it was a full two weeks before the nice young lady from UPS showed up at the door with the fixed saw.

It was sent to someone in Alexandria, Ont (which is in the middle of a triangle formed by Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. I followed the outbound journey on the UPS site and it was "left in front of the garage door" at the place. Boy, that raised an eyebrow.

From there I don't know where or when it was sent. I assume the same somewhat indirect journey back.

In any event, these two incidents tell  us that we don't have the fabulously quick service that our American friends have.

Cheers,

Peter

 

[Brice Burrell]

Hi Shane,

The long turn around time I think is something that is unique to Canada. When I sent the TS55 for the recall (via the Festool UPS labels) it was a full two weeks before the nice young lady from UPS showed up at the door with the fixed saw.

It was sent to someone in Alexandria, Ont (which is in the middle of a triangle formed by Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. I followed the outbound journey on the UPS site and it was "left in front of the garage door" at the place. Boy, that raised an eyebrow.

From there I don't know where or when it was sent. I assume the same somewhat indirect journey back.

In any event, these two incidents tell  us that we don't have the fabulously quick service that our American friends have.

Cheers,

Peter

I have no idea if the turn around in Canada is slower or not, but I'd guess the TS55 recall might be an exception to the normally fast service. 

 

[Peter Durand]

Hi Shane,

The long turn around time I think is something that is unique to Canada. When I sent the TS55 for the recall (via the Festool UPS labels) it was a full two weeks before the nice young lady from UPS showed up at the door with the fixed saw.

It was sent to someone in Alexandria, Ont (which is in the middle of a triangle formed by Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. I followed the outbound journey on the UPS site and it was "left in front of the garage door" at the place. Boy, that raised an eyebrow.

From there I don't know where or when it was sent. I assume the same somewhat indirect journey back.

In any event, these two incidents tell  us that we don't have the fabulously quick service that our American friends have.

Cheers,

Peter

I have no idea if the turn around in Canada is slower or not, but I'd guess the TS55 recall might be an exception to the normally fast service.  

When I asked about it here, the comments were that the American experience was a few days turnaround.

 

[EcoFurniture]

A suggestion for Festool: For canadian users, please make it more clear what service number to call. I first called the 1800 number printed on the tool. Just to find out (after several attempts) that I should call the Canadian repair center. I called and left a message. They called back this morning to tell me to print out a repair form and send the tool to them. If it would have been more clear what to do I wouldn't have wasted two days... My boss is sitting in my neck to get this sorted out as our finishing department is trying to work around the missing sander.

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Andreas, sorry for the frustrating experience. I have shared your feedback to see if we can get both numbers printed on the tools. To help others, here's a link to repair instructions on our website.

For Canadian customers:
http://festoolcanada.com/service/repairs/

For US customers:
http://festoolusa.com/service/repairs/

Those links have the correct service center phone numbers as well as the correct Repair Form in PDF format.

Shane