Have 5 festool vacs. All garages broken

It seems to be a cold weather thing. Must have something to do with the type of plastic they used and it not handling temperature swings well.
 
I keep coming here to check to see if festool Sent me a private message, offering to send me a few hose garages, just so there tools don't look like rubbish when every customer of mine sees them. If one was broke, so be it.  But 5 of them is nonsense.
  I install, and restore wood floors for a living.  If a customer called and said 5 of the floor boards you installed in the last 2-3 years have completely broken. I would run to there house and fix it.  Just for the sake of keeping people happy.  This is obviously an ongoing issue w festool.  I have quite an obsession with festool.  My systainers stack is over 50 deep, this is a big stain on my feeling about festool lately. 
 
It's not the cold weather.  They have that in Germany too.

I've had a failed garage too and I live in the sunbelt - which is much warmer then Germany ever gets.

Bottom line is , the plastic specified for the product is inadequate. FT doesn't care because the lemmings keep buying replacements a $60+ a pop.
 
    Lemmings?  Just because people want to replace a broken hose garage does not mean they think Festool can do no wrong. It means they want their vac fixed. Whether Festool is right or wrong on the situation doesn't mean the vac gets magically fixed if no longer under warranty. So the decision is to buy hose garage and fix it or leave it broken.

    If no one ever bought a replacement hose garage how would that change the outlook from Festool. There would simply be however many broken hose garages out there instead of however many repaired hose garages. The feedback to Festool would change to only seeing the ones that are reported about on FOG (or elsewhere) and the ones they are contacted about. Basically Festool would see fewer broken garage reports because they wouldn't be selling as many replacements.

  Based on the reports on FOG there are quite a few broken hose garages. Of course there are a lot that aren't broken too.

Seth
 
Garage at CT26 is made of to skinny plastic - talking here about the front. My broke after few weeks.
It is not fixed since then.. oh boy it is almost two years now ;)

 
I prefer the top of the Protool style vacs that have become the CT36 HD. The garage on my mini has broken several times (I've glued the thing back together, but as Alex says, it's the wrong plastic).

I'd rather no garage and a hose specific style Systainer ... and the mini and midi to be updated with a full size hose connection at the front.
 
Is this primarily a problem with the newer units? My Midi is the original model and about 6 years old. It has been beat up somewhat, transported, used for many different tasks, never babied and no problems. Just looked at it and the plastic for the hose garage is quite thick and sturdy. I sure can't flex it at all. My old CT22 is a shop vac so doesn't see any hard usage.

I would love to be able to fit a Systainers directly to the vac as a hose garage replacing the existing one as I use a longer 27mm hose and it won't all fit in the existing garage. Guess I could add a Sys1 and cut out the bottom.
 
Seth, no need to muster the infantry.

I've purchased a garage or two myself.

My point is Festool has no incentive to fix a problem , even if it is a small percentage , when their customers continue to:

1. purchase spare parts at a healthy markup
2. buy vacuums with weak tops that will cause #1

And that's IF they even chose to acknowledge there is an issue.

Let's face it, it's a substandard design with reagard to durability. Whether inadvertently, or a near miss on the ABS formula, or some conspiracy by the parts department.  There are just too many failures on this generation when compared to the 22/33 gen. and SR series from the Festo days.  Most of you prob. have never seen one of those.

There are also waaaay to many failures compared to WAP, Bosch, Fein, and the Italian made Porter C. vacs too.  All of which I've dragged around to jobsites during the last three decades. With zero breakages. 
 
There are always Bosch and Starmix vacuums. It is not like the hoses don't fit.
 
I have no infantry to muster. Please don't make it sound like I am jumping to Festool's defense. I am defending the members of the forum from being lumped into a category of Festool cult followers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Good that you decided to repair your broken hose garage rather than just let it be broken forever. I guess that makes you a lemming too.  [big grin]  As an after the fact situation it is not so easy to just buy a different vac. as a way of protesting with dollars.

    As an anecdote I have two CT Minis for site work. Nothing broken after several years of use.

    Personally I wish the hose garage was still optional like on the CT22/33.  I have a 33 in the shop. If it had the garage it would just be adding height and  taking systainer space since the hose never gets put away.

Seth
 
Thought that was evident  [big grin]

And it's a descriptive rather than a derogatory term , and nowhere near a cult. [scared]

Clearly there are more vacs with unbroken garages , else the FOG would be overrun with more posts then devoted to Kapex's woes.    I have more CT's with unbroken garages than I do with cracked ones too. So even if a small percentage of total sales - it's still way higher than it should be with these units.  And that's what I think we're too forgiving of; and what FT should address. 

 
I've had my ct36ac for about four years and within the first few months of owning it, the garage clip broke that holds the Systainers on.  So after I realized how brittle these garages are, I treated the vac like it was made of glass.  My wife used the vac last week.  She had taken off my Oneida dust deputy and when she did the vac tipped over and crushed in the side.  She tipped it back upright and then tried to place the deputy back on, but she dropped it down too hard and shattered the top even more.  Her response was, "I can't believe how weak this vacuum is!"  The only good thing is that I just got a new garage for $33, which isn't too bad.
 
Jaybolishes said:
I've had my ct36ac for about four years and within the first few months of owning it, the garage clip broke that holds the Systainers on.  So after I realized how brittle these garages are, I treated the vac like it was made of glass.  My wife used the vac last week.  She had taken off my Oneida dust deputy and when she did the vac tipped over and crushed in the side.  She tipped it back upright and then tried to place the deputy back on, but she dropped it down too hard and shattered the top even more.  Her response was, "I can't believe how weak this vacuum is!"  The only good thing is that I just got a new garage for $33, which isn't too bad.
Click to expand...
Yep, I treat all my Festool tools like they are made of glass. I dont care what people think or say about the ones they own, I look at all these tools and I see a lot of plastic. They are good tools internally, perhaps the best out there in some cases, but as with anything, they arent perfect and there is always room for improvement.
 
I've got 2 festool vacs 22 and a 26 never had any problems with them but I did learn ya can't use one with a hose garage as a step ladder.

Don't ask me how I learned that, but I did buy another hose garage .
 
I'm really wondering why no one who represents Festool is coming onto this topic and offering a solution. Nothing against you Tyler or whomever represents Festool on this site. But I feel cheated badly by these vacs. Sure they work, but I tell my customers that I use all current hepa vacs and the top of line ones at that. Well rolling into someone's house with these broken vacs is an embarrassment to me and to Festool as well.  I seem to remember SHANE getting in touch with me any time I had a Festool issue. This topic has been ongoing for 4-5 days now and not one Festool rep has said a word to me. I feel confident that Shane would have already contacted me numerous times by now. I guess spending 14k in the last 2-3 years on Festool doesn't mean anything anymore. 
 
The hose garage on my CT26 has broken a few times. Tired of buying new ones. I was really close to buying a new Midi vac but decided not to. Think I'll go with the Fein.
 
Oddly enough.  Today I run into a contractor buddy of mine.  This is someone I talked into giving festool a shot. Well after years he did, got a planex, domino, sanders, etc.  And a 36 and a midi...
  Well he seen 2 of my mini vacs that have no hose garage at all, and went on to show he his 36 and midi vac.  Both garages are broken, the midi is totally destroyed.  My buddy cherishes his tools, he takes care of them like no one I know.  And both of his vacs are shot.  Keep in mind the 36 is only about a year old. 

    So as of today, I have not heard a word from anyone at festool....  I feel cheated very badly. Every contractor in my area knows me as the festool guy.  Now they will see how the vacs hold up.  This isn't going away for me.  I expect that festool will take care of this.  5 vacs guys.  I have 5 broken vacs. 
 
My 26 fell today and it was the final blow.  After crafting repairs for 3 other breaks, there is no fix for this time other than replacement.  The plastic is so thin and brittle on top of that.  I figured it would be much more expensive to replace than $34.00.  If its Festool,  and cost as much as a RO90 sanding pad, it can't be made out of much, hence the lack of durability.
 
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