Festool Recon Topic (compiled)

[Cheese]

I’m sure they have multiples of those items, it’s been up since Friday. It’s a great deal if you need the combo but it’s kind of a niche item. Line 2 of the combos up, sell them and then move on to different products.    Rinse & repeat.

Reminds me of the LEX 3 that was the only item for 4 days.

 

[jeh]

My guess is Planex's are probably the most returned tool.  People buy one to do there house, return it in 30 days.  Thus why there are always Planex on recon and always at a good discount.

The CT36 and CT48 have a place I'm sure, but a CT48 is big and now with cyclones, I would think even in shops where the 48 might have made sense in the past, now it doesn't so much.  A CT26 with cyclone is only 1" taller than a CT48 by itself.  Of course neither is below 36"/900mm bench height.  In a non-cyclone world, I guess in a shop the CT48 makes some sense. A bag hold almost twice that of a 26, but only cost 20% more.  So there would be some value.

So you have some big vacs that probably most folks don't want now, and a tool that gets constantly returned.  I would think festool does all they can to just stop them from piling up on them.  Thus the "3 CT48 combo kit" comment.

I seriously hope that is not why there are so many of them and hope the same is true for other tools. The people, if they exist, who are doing this are pushing their rentals until those of us who are buying. As for the Planex I do not see an amateur buying one to do their house. A properly done drywall job cannot be done by an amateur as a once off. Additionally the pros I know do not require one and their work requires very little sanding.

 

[DeformedTree]

don't underestimate how much people hate sanding drywall.

I don't see any other way to explain why you see so many planex pass thru.  If rental shops carried festool stuff, I'm sure this would be what they rent.  Festool might do well to contact home depot and just do the planex and a ct.  Of course those poor CTs would have so much bad stuff done to them.

 

[peter halle]

Of all the Festool products sold here in North America, I could imagine that as percentage of those sold, the Planex, Conturo, and DF-700 would be the most likely to be used for a project and then returned under the 30 day policy once the project is completed.

Offering that return policy is a powerful marketing tool.

Peter

 

[ForumMFG]

Peter is correct, is a great marketing tool.  I cant tell you how many times my company and others have bought festool products and said, well if we don’t like it we can return it within 30 days and that justifies the purchase.  But we have never returned a single item once.  With the price of their tools, it makes the pill easier to swallow. 

 

[DeformedTree]

At least with Festool, because of the recon, the stuff doesn't get trashed, etc.  Good return systems work well for stuff that just goes right back on the shelf, or has a system like recon.  The problem is stuff that goes to a dump.

I'm sure Festool has worked out the math and worked out that even if something has a high rate of return it's worth it. Just from a gateway drug standpoint. Someone might return the planex, but keep the vac. Or they return both, just to remember how nice things where and end up buying some other stuff they keep.

Even for those who don't make the 30 day return, items like Planex still see lot of getting re-sold by folks. Which is nice to see. A tool just works thru a community as people do their homes.

I do wonder how much Festool learns for improvements to tools from the 30 day return. Some tools probably come back like they have been in battle, good way to look for weak spots in tools, get a sense of how people are using them.

 

[cpw]

don't underestimate how much people hate sanding drywall.

I don't see any other way to explain why you see so many planex pass thru.  If rental shops carried festool stuff, I'm sure this would be what they rent.  Festool might do well to contact home depot and just do the planex and a ct.  Of course those poor CTs would have so much bad stuff done to them.

Home Depot Rental already has drywall sanders/vacs, just cheaper ones than a Planex.  I rented a lift then the vac/sander as a one-off to do my garage ceiling.  Taping drywall is truly an art form, and I'm slower and worse than professionals; but also too cheap to pay someone else.  The materials are not expensive at all, and the rental is still better than dealing with contractors for a small to medium job.

 

[DeformedTree]

never knew there was similar products to the Planex. Never seen one at a home depot.  Did look at sunbelt, $160 for a week, $510 for 4 weeks.  So someone can buy a Planex and return it in 30 days get money back and maybe pay for some shipping, or they can spend $510 bucks and get nothing back. Or wait for a used one to show up on recon for similar prices to a 4 week rental, but have it for life, and or sell it on craigslist.

I'm not saying I would buy something, use it and then return it. But we all know a lot of people will.

 

[slavi.yordanov]

Keep in mind, that you don’t know how the rental units have been used. Somebody could have used it to remove asbestos materials. Same for floor sanders. I was going to rent a floor sander for my house, but decided to use my 6” Rotex style Bosch instead. Way slower, and result is not as good, but no exposure to lead/asbestos.

I think we are going off topic here, but If I was remodeling my house again, I would for sure buy a proper drywall sander. You can always sell it afterwards.

 

[squall_line]

never knew there was similar products to the Planex. Never seen one at a home depot.  Did look at sunbelt, $160 for a week, $510 for 4 weeks.  So someone can buy a Planex and return it in 30 days get money back and maybe pay for some shipping, or they can spend $510 bucks and get nothing back. Or wait for a used one to show up on recon for similar prices to a 4 week rental, but have it for life, and or sell it on craigslist.

I'm not saying I would buy something, use it and then return it. But we all know a lot of people will.

You may be overestimating the visibility of Festool.  We have one dealer in town, an Acme Tools, and I have only ever encountered one other customer in their tiny Festool area; 99% of the people I see come into that store swarm to the same brands they can get in the big box stores, likely because they have an account or something.  Even then, it doesn't compare at all to the swarms in the big box stores.  We're a 250k+ population Metro Statistical Area.

The one other Festool customer I encountered was buying a CT36 (or whatever they had in stock at the time; they only had a single DC, can't remember if it was a 36 or 48) and Dust Separator to replace his recently-dead vac and cyclone so that he could finish his kitchen project.  His wife was with him and talked him INTO the cyclone and a set of bags; I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.

In any case, they have a Planex in that store, but it probably has more dust on it from sitting than it would get from being used to sand drywall.  I only know about Festool because I needed a HEPA-certified DC 5 years ago for some lead paint cleanup, and it was about the only thing I could get in town on short notice after a bunch of googling and searching.  Any time I go in to ask questions about other Festool tools, they either don't have anything in stock and/or the staff have no knowledge about them and laugh and say "never used it, I could never afford that stuff..."

slavi makes a good point about asbestos, too, with rentals.  It'd sure be nice if the rentals had waivers for people to sign about the hazards and did pre/post testing before renting it out again.

 

[DeformedTree]

Not at all,  this isn't about how well know festool at all.  This would be a situation for those within the know of them.

But yes, I 100% agree on festool not being very well know.  When people see my tools, or I mention them, no one has ever heard of this company. I found them more or less by accident when looking for metric tools. Only reason I know a festool drywall sander like the Planex exist is because of finding other festool stuff first.  Remove that, I wouldn't know anyone has a sander like the planex.

Like a lot of woodworking stuff, I think there are folks who think festool and plenty of other businesses that serve the market are well know. Many don't seam to understand that folks could have been in construction and woodworking their whole life and never heard of them.  Their sponsorship with This Old House is a smart move, people might go look up what this company is if they notice, but even with that partnership you still see the crew using mainly non-festool stuff.

 

[slavi.yordanov]

I wish Festool would think about the people on the West Coast, so we wouldn’t have to wake up at 4:00 am to be able to buy something [emoji854]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[squall_line]

I wish Festool would think about the people on the West Coast, so we wouldn’t have to wake up at 4:00 am to be able to buy something [emoji854]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mean, even in the Central timezone, the sale had already started when I checked at 5:40 CDT.  Lebanon, Indiana is in Eastern Timezone, but that's still only 6:40 AM local for them.

Fortune favors the bold, or the foolish.

 

[Christophl]

Damn guys, so unfair to us west coasters!  All that's left is the CT36...ugh.

 

[squall_line]

It appears sales started around 6:16 AM ET today. This is what I saw today

snip
7:41 AM Random Orbital Sander ETS 125 REQ-Plus $205.00 $153.75
7:42 AM CT SYS Dust Extractor $380.00 $285.00
7:5? AM    TID 18 HPC 4,0-I-Set T18    $549.00    $411.75
7:55 AM TS 55 REQ-F Track Saw $599.00 $449.25
8:02 AM Random Orbital Sander ETS 150\/5 EQ-Plus $390.00 $292.50
9:37 AM  Dust Extractor CT 36 E AC CLEANTEC $925.00 $693.75

You really need to be ready early if you want a shot at the popular items. Many of today's items were up for less then 5 minutes.

There was a TID/T18 4.0 Set in between the CT-SYS and TS-55.  I have a feeling it was a single unit and was sold as soon as it was listed.  I was watching most of the morning while making breakfast and managed to snag a TS55.  The TID/T18 combo came up very briefly as "Wow, that was fast!", and when I refreshed the page, it was on the TS55.

I almost regret missing the TID/T18, but I got the equivalent Makita set from HD last month in their special with a pair of extra batteries and 45-pack of impact bits, so I'm set as far as drills go.

Based on your script, I'm guessing it was up for only about 30-45 seconds and sneaked in between cronjobs.

 

[Christophl]

Wow, I've been waiting for the TS75 and Domino 500 forever.  Good to know at least what I'm missing, thanks for keeping this thread updated guys!

 

[rlsatND]

My script checks the website once a minute, so I can definitely miss things that are up for < 60 seconds. On mornings of big sales like today of popular items, I think the only strategy that really works is sitting there refreshing the page.

Once things go up for sale in the morning, if you checkhttps://www.festoolrecon.com/collections/oneanddone you will see the items that appear to be up for sale that day, so you can quickly determine how to spend your morning if so inclined.
         
                  Good Luck,
                          -- Bob

It appears sales started around 6:16 AM ET today. This is what I saw today

There was a TID/T18 4.0 Set in between the CT-SYS and TS-55.

 

[squall_line]

Cordless Drill T 18+3 Li 3,1 I-Compact just posted art 10:58am EDT.

Very odd listing.  Includes 3.1Ah batteries (yay! light!) and the CentroTec, Jacobs, and Eccentric Chucks, but not the Right Angle chuck, which is what used to be included in the old 3.1 model from the factory (model 575695).

Grabbed it anyway, because I've been looking at a model with the 3.1 batteries at my local dealer and I can still get the Right Angle chuck separately (or use the one from my C12) and still be money ahead of the local dealer's "discontinued" price.

 

[Christopher Fitch]

I think that might include the Right Angle Chuck. I got one of those a few weeks ago and it included the chuck. I think the picture is wrong for that item.

If you search around, you can find other sites that have it and they list it as including the chuck in the "What's included" section
https://www.toolmarts.com/festool-575695-cordless-drill-t18-3li3-1-i-compact-usa

 

[squall_line]

Yeah, I definitely stopped relying on the pictures; the listings for the newest 4.0 model of the T 18+3 had the RA chuck in the picture, but not the descriptions.  If I end up with a RA chuck in the box, it'll just be icing on the proverbial cake.