Rotex RO 125 Pad

[BruceC]

After many months of usage, I finally wore out the pad supplied with my sander. The good news is I had purchased a spare pad, which has been sitting untouched, waiting for the opportunity to take over. The bad news is I put the new pad on, and in less than 30 minutes, it disintegrated. I have no idea what caused this. I bought the pad back in March 2024, and it has just been sitting in the package. It appears to be a defective pad, but based on the purchase date, I'm not confident that Festool will believe it to be such. Suggestions?

See attached photos.

 

[guybo]

hi, this has been a problem in the past, i use the blue hard pads on both 125 and 150 neither has come apart in 10 plus years of moderate to heavy sanding. FWIW if a softer or for rounding over use the 15mm interface pad.

 

[squall_line]

You may have purchased it in February, 2024, but how long did the dealer have it in inventory?

Consumables and accessories don't have the same warranty as the tools themselves, but it would be worth bringing it up with your dealer and asking if they were selling old stock or had other storage issues.

 

[Cheese]

After many months of usage, I finally wore out the pad supplied with my sander. The good news is I had purchased a spare pad, which has been sitting untouched, waiting for the opportunity to take over. The bad news is I put the new pad on, and in less than 30 minutes, it disintegrated. I have no idea what caused this. I bought the pad back in March 2024, and it has just been sitting in the package. It appears to be a defective pad, but based on the purchase date, I'm not confident that Festool will believe it to be such. Suggestions?

If you purchased it from a local vendor, I'd bring the pad in along with the sales receipt and ask them for their opinion. There may be a manufacturing date molded into the backer plate on the pad and between that and the date on the receipt, it's pretty easy to establish a "use before date".  [big grin]

That's one of the nice facets about using a local vendor.  [big grin]

The Rotex pads are probably the shortest lived because of the beating they're subjected to. Still, Rotex pad life should be counted in years of service and not months of service. This last July my RO 125 pad went toes-up but the pad was 11 years old.

[attachimg=1]

 

[ShawnNYC]

I just threw out 3 RO pads that were only a bit over a year old. They certainly weren’t worked that hard and should not have disintegrated as they did. I understand consumable, but the fragility of these pads is absurd at $50+. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any aftermarket pads produced.
Has anyone found an alternative?

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I just threw out 3 RO pads that were only a bit over a year old. They certainly weren’t worked that hard and should not have disintegrated as they did. I understand consumable, but the fragility of these pads is absurd at $50+. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any aftermarket pads produced.
Has anyone found an alternative?

As, mentioned above, the foam has a "shelf-life." It is very possible that it was several years old, at time of purchase.
The foam dies from time (and probably storage temperature) The consumable part is really the hooks on the face, not the foam. In use, most people wear them out, before the foam separates. Exceptions are "old stock" and infrequent users. If you use it hard, the hooks wear out, if you don't use it much, time gets it anyway. That time should be years though.
I replaced the original pad on my RO125 with the hard version, when it was brand new. I use it almost exclusively. Both are at least 5 years old. I just used it yesterday with 40 grit, on an endgrain cutting board. It's still good as new. I would be disappointed, if the original came apart (if I put it back on) but not surprised.
It's entirely possible that Covid supply chain issues are somewhat involved too.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I just threw out 3 RO pads that were only a bit over a year old. They certainly weren’t worked that hard and should not have disintegrated as they did. I understand consumable, but the fragility of these pads is absurd at $50+. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any aftermarket pads produced.
Has anyone found an alternative?

There's plenty on Ebay for all the sanders, I bought some for around $25AUD each and they have been performing just fine!