New Sortainer - poorly designed bins

jimk1963

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Sep 11, 2020
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Own the 200119 3-drawer Sortainer, uses bins on 60mm grid. Bins stack tightly together, next to impossible to drop a screw in-between bins. Recently, was looking for more Sortainers, came across the new one #577769. Reviewers glowed about the drawers being easier to open/close and noted it uses a new bin type, based on 50mm grid. Am really disappointed in the new Sortainer. The bins have a moat around them, which will undoubtedly catch dropped screws and who knows what else, and the bins themselves do not seat firmly into the drawer floor. Instead they just float around, ridiculously easy. Why did Festool think this was a better solution than the previous version? Looks like someone decided to commonize the bins between the Sortainer and Sys Organizer, and put zero thought into the effect on Sortainers. The only positive thing I can say is, the drawers are in fact smoother to open/close. Needless to say, the Sortainer and bins are heading straight back to the seller.
 

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That definitely seems a step backwards. I'd love to know their thinking process here, as I can't imagine there would have been hordes of people clamouring for this change?
 
Not to defend FT here, but the "old" system was a mess in a way. Different bins for SYS I plates and different bins for the Sortainer.

The point of "the old way" was such that both bin types could be optimised for their tasks.
The point of "the new way" is they are interchangeable.

One cannot have both ... personally, I gave up on the SYS3 kit due to the heights disaster it is. But this one decision is hard to be too complaining about. The "old way" was a kludge of sorts /bins only on sides of drawer/ and the new one is too, just in a different way.

The way I see it, the bins are now not really meant 'for the Sortainer' and the only reason they are "supported" is to allow a convenient way of taking a couple along with you from the Organisers you store stuff in normally. Also, the falling-off-scenario is not such a big concern as the top of the drawer slot is preventing the bins to overturn or leak when it is closed.
 
Just a variant of enshittification. Or in this case enBOTTtification. They sacrificed some important parts of the Systainer system on the altar of BOTT... and then they block the few advantages in their biggest market by not selling the stupid rails in Europe. (EDIT: Tanos now sells them... at 2x the cost they are in the USA.

Anyway; the bins... yeah they keep changing them too. There were colored bins for Systainer Classic, then other sized colored bins for Systainer T-Loc, yet different bins for Sortainer, then again other bins for Organizer. I might have lost track... I have posted a list before, but can't find it.
There are also other brands that have similar bins... 1mm smaller or bigger. It's a shame that Ze Germans didn't standardize these bins, hehe.
 
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