ETS EC 150/5

D

Doc Fluty

Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2017
Messages
7
I guess coming from the world of $50 oscillating sanders and box store sanding paper, I wasn't expecting what happened the first time I ran a few grades of Granat over some Sapele wood.

Wow!

After planing one side and going through a quick run of 80, 120 and 180 grit granat, on the hard sanding pad, I found a board smoother than any wood I think I've touched in my life. I didn't even run long because my ct 26 won't get here until Monday and dust was going everywhere, so I just wanted to give it a whirl. but after 30-45 seconds on each pad, I was thoroughly impressed with the outcome. So after less than 2 minutes sanding I came away with glass smooth wood.

Maybe that's to be expected from these high end tools, but it was awesome to me!

The vibration isn't bad at all as well as being somewhat quiet. Once i get it hook up to my dust extractor Monday I imagine it will only get more pleasant. I'm very new to woodworking and pretty much jumped in the deep end with both feet investing in Festool products, but so far I am glad I did.

I might pick up an ETS EC 125/3 for smaller pieces and maybe finer sanding, or maybe not if i decide not to want to invest in two different sizes of paper, but i'm not sure how the results can get much better than this!

Love it!
 
I love both the ETS EC 150/5 and ETS EC 150/3. I was using a Dewalt 443 sander before I went all in for the Festool sanders. What a difference! You'll love the dust extraction [emoji41]

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 
[member=66377]Doc Fluty[/member] ,  so many of us here hated or at least disliked sanding before buying an ETS or other Festool sander.  You have experienced what many others have.  Once you get it hooked up to dust collection (hopefully Festool with variable suction and low noise) you will wonder why you waited so long.  Hope to read more about your experiences and if the members here can answer any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Peter
 
Best finish sander available to me!  Smooth, lightweight, well balanced. Low height for getting into tighter places like drawer rails, etc.
 
I still love my ETS 150 more. I have an ETS EC 125 that is nice but the 150 (non-EC) will always have a place in my heart.

Cheers. Bryan.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Great sanders and DC. You start with one and then before you know if they seem to multiply in your shop. Congrats on the new sander.
 
A little heads up from a long term user. Love the machine (ETS EC 150 / 5) but the plug it connector failed after almost three years due to internal vibration. Often usedbut never abused. [mad] I thought (and hoped) I had a bad cord but the fault was in the machine. Luckily I had one _month_ left on the warranty...  ;D

Apparently this is also why the Vecturo comes with a fixed cord nowadays. I have a plug it converted Supercut and since the extension is "soft" and not integrated in the chassis I have never  had a problem in seven to eight years of use with the Supercut on a Plug it. 
 
I actually had the same problem develop last year, and I think mine was only 2 years or so in use.  But it turned out to be an easy replacement that I could do myself.  Just required purchasing a spare socket for less than $10:
http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tool-problems/loose-plug-it-connection-on-ets-ec-1505/

Henrik R / Pingvinlakrits said:
A little heads up from a long term user. Love the machine (ETS EC 150 / 5) but the plug it connector failed after almost three years due to internal vibration. Often usedbut never abused. [mad] I thought (and hoped) I had a bad cord but the fault was in the machine. Luckily I had one _month_ left on the warranty...  ;D

Apparently this is also why the Vecturo comes with a fixed cord nowadays. I have a plug it converted Supercut and since the extension is "soft" and not integrated in the chassis I have never  had a problem in seven to eight years of use with the Supercut on a Plug it.
Click to expand...
 
Ah, yes, should have remembered that thread. :)

It is in for repair now anyway. Might pick up a spare socket for future use though.
 
It’s good to hear you’re happy with your ETS-EC.  I still have to make a decision between the Mirka 5 mm and the Festool ETS-EC 5mm.  It’s a coin toss between the two with the Mirka being a little faster and the Festool have better breaking time.

You’ll be happy with your ETS-EC.
 
Steven Owen said:
It’s good to hear you’re happy with your ETS-EC.  I still have to make a decision between the Mirka 5 mm and the Festool ETS-EC 5mm.  It’s a coin toss between the two with the Mirka being a little faster and the Festool have better breaking time.

You’ll be happy with your ETS-EC.
Click to expand...

We have both at the work shop. Can't say one is better than the other, both are great machines. The Mirka makes a run for it if you accidentally place it upside down on the table... Interestingly enough both machines have had power cord failures, the Mirka more often than the Festool though.
 
My ETS EC 150/5 has been in over three weeks  going on a month next week [mad] and it is starting to throw me off a bit.  According to the rep it is a known fault and an easy fix but they are not allowed to handle warranty repairs any longer (they only handle out of warranty repairs now) or I could have had it fixed from one day to another. They have looked into the repair twice but nothing from Festool.

This is very poor performance for a professional tool repair service and this will certainly be taken into consideration next time I am considering a tool from Festool. I wonder why the have centralized repairs as that is bound to prolong repair turn around times, not shorten them. Cost cutting due to too many repairs? I don't know.

As I was browsing my Festool pages I did notice that I have bought around thirty machines from Festool over the years (!) and I still hold some of them as truly unique and keepers, for sure. I have noticed a decline in innovation and keeping up with the competition in the last couple of years but I had hoped customer repair and after sales services would not be one of them. 

Still looking forward to that Impact driver though, if they ever get it launched. ;)
 
Update: turns out Festool has lost the machine in house!

The machine was shipped out with another repair one month ago in the same package and the other machine has been repaired and returned well over two weeks ago and Festool has no idea where my machine is though it is with them.

I am not actually angry about this, things happen, but I don't like being kept out of the loop. I could have been informed a few weeks back already. Well, hopefully they find it or get me a replacement, sooner rather than later. I have a huge sanding backlog at the moment... 
 
I'm surprised that they didn't just ship you a brand new machine when they discovered the error.    Anyway, the issues with the plugit end going bad on the tool
are (to me, at least) more of an expected maintenance thing that comes with the territory of being able to hot swap multiple sanders with dust collection.  It's really no different than brushes, pads and switches (and logic boards in our times) in my book.

The actual power cord going bad on the Mirkas, however.  The experience you are having is ridiculous.    From a 2018 manufacturing standpoint, there's really no reason to have that going on.

 
Yeti: no, it is almost that one. They look the same but the center flat pin (ground) is rotated 90 degrees. This I am sure to prevent using non locking (or other mfg locking) connectors.  >:(

The type you linked to is very common and the connector type is a wide spread standard over here. Mirka chose to deviate from the standard. It will be very interesting to see if the Metabo clone offering also deviates from standard or if they adhere to the standard - in that case it would be strong point for Metabo.
 
yetihunter said:
I'm surprised that they didn't just ship you a brand new machine when they discovered the error.    Anyway, the issues with the plugit end going bad on the tool
are (to me, at least) more of an expected maintenance thing that comes with the territory of being able to hot swap multiple sanders with dust collection.  It's really no different than brushes, pads and switches (and logic boards in our times) in my book.

The actual power cord going bad on the Mirkas, however.  The experience you are having is ridiculous.    From a 2018 manufacturing standpoint, there's really no reason to have that going on.
Click to expand...

I totally agree - if the plug it socket on the machine had been user replaceable, which it seems it isn't on the ETS EC 150.
I don't mind changing out sockets or plug its - it doesn't happen too often.
 
After two months I finally received a replacement ETS EC 150/5.

On one hand I am happy I got a new one through the extended warranty - but on the other hand I am shocked by the poor and slow customer service of Festool. This is far from professional in my book and it has further dented my view of the company for sure. 
Also the replacement machine will be prone to the same type of failure eventually since it is a design flaw. When that happens I am out of warranty as the replacement machine can't be registered as a new machine.

From the local Festool rep and from the pushers nest I have had good moral support along the way - though it did not help speeding up the process and in total five people got involved - me excluded.

I have a lot of Festools under my belt and I will not hold a permanent grudge against Festool but I will be a bit more careful with what I buy and where I buy from in the future.
 
Henrik R / Pingvinlakrits said:
Yeti: no, it is almost that one. They look the same but the center flat pin (ground) is rotated 90 degrees. This I am sure to prevent using non locking (or other mfg locking) connectors.  >:(

The type you linked to is very common and the connector type is a wide spread standard over here. Mirka chose to deviate from the standard. It will be very interesting to see if the Metabo clone offering also deviates from standard or if they adhere to the standard - in that case it would be strong point for Metabo.
Click to expand...

I will bet one million dollars that they did that to prevent someone from using a very light gauge cord on it.
However, if they were being so generous, they could have used the iec standard...
https://www.cableleader.com/6ft-14-...MIlre82vj72gIVCYZpCh2hwwQDEAQYASABEgJPiPD_BwE
 
yetihunter said:
Henrik R / Pingvinlakrits said:
Yeti: no, it is almost that one. They look the same but the center flat pin (ground) is rotated 90 degrees. This I am sure to prevent using non locking (or other mfg locking) connectors.  >:(

The type you linked to is very common and the connector type is a wide spread standard over here. Mirka chose to deviate from the standard. It will be very interesting to see if the Metabo clone offering also deviates from standard or if they adhere to the standard - in that case it would be strong point for Metabo.
Click to expand...

I will bet one million dollars that they did that to prevent someone from using a very light gauge cord on it.
However, if they were being so generous, they could have used the iec standard...
https://www.cableleader.com/6ft-14-...MIlre82vj72gIVCYZpCh2hwwQDEAQYASABEgJPiPD_BwE
Click to expand...

I don’t think anyone can go wrong if they chose the Mirka or the ETS-EC.  It’s an apples and Oranges thing; in this case a yellow or green thing.  Both sanders are solid units. 

As a home business casual user, I’m betting I’ll get more mileage out of the cords since I’m not using the sanders on a daily basis like a pro-user. 
 
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