Rotex 150 and Customer Service UGH.

[dboardman]

Bought a Rotex 150 about two weeks ago.  My wife and I run a custom shop which is a full time job for both of us.  We use our tools hard daily and I have been very pleased with my other Festool products.  After discussing the constant need to replace our cheaper 6" sanders (we have 6 rigid 6" sanders in various stages of breaking) we went with a big boy sander.  The first sander made it through a day of work and burned up towards the end of the day.  My wife started complaining of it getting hot and then it lost power, she turned it off then back on and then she said it smelled like something burning and wouldn't turn back on.  The next day (3 days after purchase) I called support to see what to do from here, the guy answered and asked what he could help with I explained the situation his EXACT response as "okay..?" I was floored at this point.  I told him to transfer me to someone who could be helpful so he sent me to his supervisors voicemail.  It took the supervisor 6 hours to call me back, at this point I had already gotten in touch with woodcraft and had the sander replaced.  The supervisor was a guy named Brad who basically tried to play dumb and apologize.  Since the sander was replaced I just let it go and went on back to work.  Here we are again the second sander had nearly the same thing happen.  I didn't smell any burning but the sander just started losing power maybe a 1/2 second it would wind down almost like someone was flicking a power switch off and on.  I started trouble shooting thinking there is no way two $600 sanders would break within 10 hours of use.  First I tried running it direct to the wall, bypassing the CT48 then I tried a different breaker thinking maybe in there is some voltage drop causing power loss to the machine, this did nothing.  So around 2 pm est I tried calling support and the line goes to voicemail, me being persistent I kept calling and kept getting to voicemail for about an hour.  I sent a video of the sander failing to the email on the festool USA website and received a nearly immediate response saying my email was being forwarded to the right people.  In the email I complained about the voicemail and the guy said they only have two people answering the phones.. That blew my mind!  I did not get a response back today about the sander.  I am beginning to think I might be better off just getting my money back and going with bosch or Makita for a 6" sander as the overwhelming majority of what I have been reading is there support has gone in the dump. 

Anyone else have their rotex die like this?  Tomorrow I am going to take a meter to the shop with me and test the lines to make sure I don't have an electrical issue as I am in a new shop.  I am also going to try the machine out with the cord that goes to my domino to see if maybe the cord is bad.  Either way something's going to have to give here. 

Has anyone made a call to Festool in Germany?  I am thinking of calling them through skype and seeing if anyone there can make something happen with FestoolUSA, as so far I am very unimpressed with them..

 

[TylerC]

I got word from the service team earlier today that they spoke with you, and it sounds like things are fairly squared away. (I'm the guy who emailed you yesterday.)

Please reach out to me again if you need additional help with anything.

 

[slimm]

is it normal for a rotex 150 to get particually hot then after 30 mins of use?

 

[Laminator]

Both of mine have been run for hours on end for days at a time with 40g granat  and have never gotten above warm.  I would expect the metal gearbox to get hot and thankfully you can't really touch it when using the sander. 

 

[nickao]

Nope, they do get hot and I mean can get very hot. I run the sander hot and have literally sanded using 24 grit and up for 8 hour days. So what it gets hot, sometimes so hot you best not touch it and it has NEVER effected the tool ever. I have one that is 7 years old the other 6 months old;

And I dont get the poster. Anyone that buys a sander with an issue 3 days out with it  turning off, why in the world would you call anyone other than to say you were exchanging it?

Any new tool that turned off on me even within a month I would just toss  in the box and immediately return it or exchange it, no questions asked. I can't think of any company I purchased a tool from that does not take a return the first 30 days let alone the first 90 days and they do not even ask why. I just don't get calling after 3 days use. Obviously if it's turning off the thing is a lemon, it happens.

I think maybe the tool was getting so hot she was a afraid to use it, mine have never turned off. And again if it did that thing would be in the box and exchanged in a heartbeat, but call? That's weird to me. Who wants a 3 day tool repaired? Why do people put themselves through this, it doesn't warrant a phone call, it's a new tool just return/exchange it!

The Rotex 150 is a beast and great sander I won't work without it, don't let this get you down.

 

[leakyroof]

Make sure you have the Plug-it Cord fully installed.

 

[nickao]

Make sure you have the Plug-it Cord fully installed.

I have melted a plug it, my fault though.

 

[dboardman]

So here is the update.  I made a new video of the issue and sent it to Brad.  Things seem to be much smoother today on their end.  My guess is the tech I got the first time I called was having a bad day?  I made sure in the video to show unplugging and plugging in the sander to make sure it was fully seated.  The sander started up and started to fail after about 20 seconds of running.  I was just holding it on in my hands and it would lose speed and torch in my hand.  Brad thinks the tachometer inside the machine is failing.  So since I am still within the 30 days I am taking it to woodcraft for a replacement. 

I am still not ready to give up on these tools, there are just too many good reviews out there.  I really feel like I have just had bad luck. 

 

[rdr]

Interesting thread, I have a One month old rotex 150 which has had a fair bit of use up-cycling half a dozen 5' cable drums into tables for a school. This has mainly involved lower grits and Rotex mode and I noticed on occasion it dipped in power momentarilaly and was also hot in the hand.

Now, I seemed to have cured the power dip or at least found the trigger for it. Our laundry room is on the same circuit and I noticed the power dip was happening when the Dryer was on. I put it down to the electronics in the Rotex getting spooked when the heater element in the dryer starts pulling the Amps or is sending interference of some sort onto the mains circuit.

My sander does get Hot to touch still after about 30 mins of low grit use in Rotex mode, is the consensus that this is normal?

 

[dboardman]

Interesting thread, I have a One month old rotex 150 which has had a fair bit of use up-cycling half a dozen 5' cable drums into tables for a school. This has mainly involved lower grits and Rotex mode and I noticed on occasion it dipped in power momentarilaly and was also hot in the hand.

Now, I seemed to have cured the power dip or at least found the trigger for it. Our laundry room is on the same circuit and I noticed the power dip was happening when the Dryer was on. I put it down to the electronics in the Rotex getting spooked when the heater element in the dryer starts pulling the Amps or is sending interference of some sort onto the mains circuit.

My sander does get Hot to touch still after about 30 mins of low grit use in Rotex mode, is the consensus that this is normal?

I thought about this before I contacted support yesterday.  My shop is in a stand alone commercial building.  The building was gutted about 10 years ago as it was built in 59.  It has a brand new 200 amp panel that was empty when I moved in a couple months back.  I had all new outlets put in, all are 20 amp breakers and have appropriately sized wires to cover any drops caused by the building being 72' long.  I checked the lines with a multimeter to see if I was getting a drop, which I wasn't.  I also made sure none of my larger tools (220 30amp) were being turned on when the issue was happening. 

As far as heat goes, when the sander is running normal it did get warm, it's 90 degrees outside now and my shop has no AC so it's likely 80 ish inside with the fans running so I expect it to be warm.  The heat I am talking about is the kind of heat that you know something is wrong.  It's as hot as sticking your hand on a electric stove eye about 5 mins after turning the eye off.  If the plastic was low quality it would have melted. 

Here is a link to the video I sent to festool so that you can see exactly what is happening with the sander.

 

[Laminator]

I must add that my rotexes have only been used in well air conditioned spaces.  They have never gotten "hot".  Warm maybe but never even close to being uncomfortable to operate bare handed.  Once you get this sorted out, you will probably love it.

 

[slimm]

when the heat build up occurred were you using the handle attachment?

 

[nickao]

I must add that my rotexes have only been used in well air conditioned spaces.  They have never gotten "hot".  Warm maybe but never even close to being uncomfortable to operate bare handed.  Once you get this sorted out, you will probably love it.

Seems pretty impossible to me,. You must not use them much maybe better wording is in a heavy duty manner. I have three RO 150 total(one older style) and they all get hot. So hot I wouldn't touch them. I use them in an open space, but 8 hours sanding at a 36 to 80 grit doing  rough work get them hot, heck an hour of heavy work gets that what I call really really warm.  Believe me the Rotex sanders can get hot.

BUT, the heat is not an issue and hasn't effected the longevity of the sanders.  I have one near 8 years old at all.

The sanding pads gumming up is different then the sander getting hot. I have gummed up a paper using the sander for 2 minutes and obviously the paper and definitely the sander are not hot at 2 minutes. Though heat can surly create a gummed paper situation the material, paper grit, paper type, whether the sander is in rotary mode, sanding technique, etc can also be huge contributing factors. Heat is not always the cause of the paper gum up.

 

[zapdafish]

I had issues like that with my router, 0f1400.  It would start up then almost die and cycle like that. I changed out the plugit and the problem went away.

 

[Laminator]

Definitely not "riding" the sander, buut steady pressure, and certainly not 8 hours continuously, but long enough to sand 50 years worth of varnish off of 4 to 8  4' x 7' doors at a time both sides.  About 200 of these doors in a 68 degree room and can't recall the Sanders getting more than warm, definitely not close to being uncomfortable.    As a side note, I have run the RAS115 on a project or two where it got very hot but never shut down.

 

[aaronholv]

Were you successful in finding a resolution for the issue?  I just bought a brand new RO 125 and used it for less than a minute and it lost a significant amount of RPMs and won't go any higher.  It seems that it's similar to the issue you had.  Thanks!

 

[semenza]

Were you successful in finding a resolution for the issue?  I just bought a brand new RO 125 and used it for less than a minute and it lost a significant amount of RPMs and won't go any higher.  It seems that it's similar to the issue you had.  Thanks!

Hi,

  Welcome to the forum!

          I suggest that you call Festool or return for an exchange with your dealer.

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Seth