Stalling / Intermittent problem on ETS EC sanders

[mino]

Just wanted to add something to this. For some reason tonight I lowered the speed from 6 to 5 on my ETS EC 150/5, and the intermittent stopping issue seemed to go away. At 6, it was impossible to get any sanding done because it kept stalling and stopping. But on 5, I did quite a bit of sanding and it didn't stall or stop once. Is anybody else also experiencing that?

I would expect such behavior if the overcurrent or overheat protection was kicking in when it should not.

That would indicate an electronics or sensor issue. Best you can do is send it in for a repair.

Or if speed 5 is OK and still well in warranty, wait a couple months until Festool has it sorted so you can get your sander back quickly once sent in.

 

[binettea]

That's what I'm thinking, and I had never read that anywhere yet, so I thought I would share in case it can help others. I'm actually nearing the end of the 30 days return window, and debating if I should keep (and send for repairs) or just return and wait for a new one to be available months down the road. The other problem I face is the vibration (or wiggle/wobble) that is very present, and so bad with a protection pad that I just can't use it that way. I was planning to use the net abrasive, for which I believe a pad saver is recommended, but the vibration is way too severe that way.

 

[Wood_Slice]

Has anybody heard anything on this issue. I wanted to get the same sander again but I hear July is earliest for getting my hands on one again and that is an guesstimate by some of the dealers no concrete confirmation.

 

[binettea]

I was wondering the same thing. I'm currently using mine at speed 5 instead of 6, which makes it mostly usable, as I wait to hear that they are ready to perform the repair before I send it to them.

 

[Wood_Slice]

Saw a status update on a dealers website as of 2 days ago the expected shipping date got pushed to August this year.

 

[WastedP]

I received my sander this week, after sending it in at the end of March.  The documentation says they replaced a board.  Service swapped out the pad and plug-it cord for new ones.  They also sent a letter that says, "Please find the enclosed gift as a small gesture of our appreciation for your patience while we brought your sander up to Festool standards."  I like the box they delivered the letter in.

 

[Cheese]

That's nice on 2 levels, the first being that Festool feels confident that they've identified the problem and they have a solution.

And the 2nd being it was very nice to have them correspond with you at the VP level and send you a small gift...that's very thoughtful.  [big grin]

 

[mino]

This would indicate they decided to redesign the boards to make sure the "fixed" product is less sensitive to variability of the components.

Definitely was not a case of "we got a bad batch of XYZ" from the wording.

My guesstimate is that about a year ago, they switched some component supplier and the new supplier cannot meet the same parameters consistency the former did. Likely the original supplier was selling "above-spec" parts and when "at-spec" parts were reeled-in, suddenly the variance was to high. May even be the same supplier adjusting the manufacturing line they use to make certain parts etc. etc.

I would expect the fix to be permanent, in the sense that they sure made sure such a problem will not repeat with this tool /or other/ by designing-in a higher performance margin.
I would expect their engineering team got a proper slap for being too optimistic and it will show in follow-up designs being more conservative in optimization than would be otherwise.

 

[JonnyBBravo]

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For those asserting that "Festool should check/test their tools before release."

Things like this usually indicate a manufacturing issue which is not (yet) precisely understood.

E.g. a subcontractor component like a capacitor having a higher variance in its properties in turn causing a higher occurrence of unexpected behavior. E.g. way faster degradation of a random selection capacitor would not be detectable at manufacture time but be able to semi-randomly increase failure rates etc. etc.

The best thing is to send a matching mis-behaving tool to Festool to look into. The more affected tools they can identify, the easier/faster they can find or confirm root cause and come up with a remediation.

If you produce stuff things like this will happen, no matter how much quality control you do. What separates the companies is not if they have issues, but how they are handled vis-a-vis the customers.

Lets hope this gets a root cause soon. I am in line for an EC 150/5 too this year.
[smile]

Yea as a proud festool owner. My newly purchased CT 48 AC burned up. An the tool doesn’t have 24 hours of total run time. Truly I’m happy to be owning festool products…… An when it’s not in use I cover it with a moving blanket. But this is what you get when you spend over $1000.00 USD. No kidding. Clearly I’m a proud owner!!!! An not to mention going to take more than a week to get it back. As I shipped it out and won’t arrive to them till Friday. An not to mention the lack luster of anything type response when directly reaching out to Festool about the issue.

 

[YASMINSDAD]

UK here, I do a LOT of sanding, like 1500 discs in one job a lot...

The ETSEC is the most frustrating tool that I have bought from Festool.

I think it is the anti vibration system which is not required on any other of their sanders. One of two things is therefore true, either

1. Festool added the anti vibration feature (like the totally redundant auto no hose shut off which was solved shortly after with their clever bayonet hose end fitting) to show off what can be done with electrically commutated motors for no other reason or...

2. There is a fundamental design problem with such low profile sanders (the Deros and a Chinese copy I bought both are not the smoothest sanders) which necessitated the feature.

What I find is that the feature is worse than useless. Vibration is taken as a time weighted average, so, if you sand floors and the boards move a little the ETS will go down to speed 2, so you get slightly less vibration, but for several times as long meaning your weighted average exposure level isnt much better and your RSI risk is increased with the increased loading time in a prone position.

The sander going up and down in speed constantly is very wearing both physically and mentally.

I have over 10k hrs in hand sanders so I know how to use them. My ETS EC150/5 is very noisy and slow and will be sent back to TTS.

Apart from recent brushes in a 7 year old CTL36 and about a total of 9 sets of cables and a Working light that has probably blown a cap I have never had a Festool tool break, apart from the ETS. (In over 22 years of Festool tool use from the year they started selling tools in the UK)

Seems like a real issue, I wish they would make a way to switch off the anti vibration feature (this is what turns the machine off if the vibration goes over a certain level) a real shame too as ergonomically is is a magnificent sander, apart from the durability and anti vibe issues.

 

[Paul L]

I found this article to be very useful. I have owned my ETS EC 125 for almost a year and thought some how, its refusing to turn on and stalling once was user error. I have filled out the repair paperwork and printed the shipping label. It will be in the post tomorrow.