Kapex power issue weird

[honeydoman]

Working at a house set up kapex as usuall and it works 1-2 times but slow start then no more would not power up. Huh. But laser comes on. Huh
So I switch up ext cords, switch outlets, switch from garage to house. Nope. Nothing but laser still on.  Near the end of the day it works again huh

Luckily another guy is doing work at the house so I use his makita 10" and it works great.  Called service and was going to send it in for repair and see whats up. Last night I borrow a friends 1 year old kapex to use today

Same thing. It works a bit then nope I plug it into the vac it works a bit then nope. But laser still comes on same thing as my other saw

All my other tools work fine. Radio ts55 etc all of them.  All of them.

The house is only 10 or so yrs old  Temp was between. 38. And 60

Strange but true.

What's up anybody else had this strange thing happen????? 
I have a makita I can use if it's this house but no stand available.  So huh

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Kreg,

Check the local churches for exorcisms.  It's probably attached to the house and you don't want it coming home with you.

 

[mastercabman]

I get the same weird thing when my kapex is  plug in a generator.Maybe some wrong with the power at that house.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

I just spoke to Kreg and reminded him that Rick Christopherson had posted about the "sensitivity" of the Kapex to electrical sources and especially generators.

Read Rick's posts here

 

[honeydoman]

Thanks but that all generators  talk this is house current but still could be a strange house but it's a track neighborhood house

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Kreg,

The generator info would be helpful for people like mastercabman who posted that issue, but like I told you, it's probably a similar thing occurring with the Kapex in response to electrical issues at that house.

 

[honeydoman]

i know... and that is probably what it is... I am going to go to the end of the block and unplug the neighborhood power cord and then plug it back in and maybe that will help......lol

 

[peter halle]

Maybe you could check out an outlet on the back deck instead.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Last night I borrow a friends 1 year old kapex to use today Same thing. It works a bit then nope I plug it into the vac it works a bit then nope. But laser still comes on same thing as my other saw

I don't have enough information to give you an answer, but if I understand what you said here, it would appear to be a problem with the house wiring interfering with the electronics in Kapex. I assume you meant you brought another Kapex to the same location with the same results.

I'm grasping at straws here, but possibly the GFI's are interfering with the electronics. This would be odd because we would have heard many more reports about it sooner. I didn't know this until recently, but newer GFI's insert a small 120 Hz signal on the neutral connection to detect if there is a downstream ground-to-neutral bond that should not be there. It could also be a situation of just having poor power quality with enough fluctuations to give Kapex a headache.

Oh, something that could be more likely would be a floating neutral in the house, or at least the garage circuits. If you have a volt meter, connect it between hot and neutral and observe the voltage, especially as you try to start Kapex. If you see this voltage drop significantly, then the homeowner should be made aware of the problem, because it can be very serious. This would also explain your comment about Kapex not going fast when it did run. It would also possibly explain why it began to work later in the day. If another load was turned on, it would counterbalance the load from Kapex.

 

[TomLewis]

Make sure the circuit isn't protected by a GFI.

This sounds very similar to an intermittent problem I had with my 25 year old air compressor. I figured it was probably time to upgrade, but the new one did the same thing! And it's replacement did too! The outlet metered good but the power was doing something funky and once I changed outlets, everything worked fine. Even the old compressor.

I'm not sure what the problem is, but it appears GFI's aren't good with higher current loads.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

I told Kreg to just get out the hand saws.

 

[merlinmaster]

Just bought a new Kapex last week and encountered the same problem.  [unsure]  One thing we found out was that the power coming into the house was not "Clean" the transformer that feeds power was going bad.  The electronics in the Kapex to control speed and breaking requires full sign wave power. (knew that oscilloscope would come in handy : ) after the transformer was replaced we had no further issues.  Hope this helps  [cool]

 

[JLB builders LLC]

Carry one of those things you plug into an outlet that lets you know if it is wired correctly.  [big grin]

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Festool should just make a battery powered version of the Kapex and you can forget about the ac line issues.  [wink]  BTW, if they're going to do that, they should refer back to the wishlist for other mods.

Carry one of those things you plug into an outlet that lets you know if it is wired correctly.  [big grin]

Unfortunately, you get what you pay for.  Those inexpensive ones aren't perfect, but, unless you are an electrician or home inspector, I doubt you'll be getting the higher priced stuff.

 

[merlinmaster]

Festool should just make a battery powered version of the Kapex and you can forget about the ac line issues.  [wink]  BTW, if they're going to do that, they should refer back to the wishlist for other mods.

Unfortunately, you get what you pay for.  Those inexpensive ones aren't perfect, but, unless you are an electrician or home inspector, I doubt you'll be getting the higher priced stuff.

Isn't that why we buy Festool?  We want the good stuff?  ;D