aeg tools diy only.

[boilerman]

poor quality aeg tools

i am heating engineer with over 50 years experience , and obviously over the years have discovered wonderfull tools and some not worth the wrapping that holds them.
my grouse this time is about aeg multi tools.
i purchased the 12 volt version bat 2 years ago. and found the batteries continually failing. then the sintered bearings on the motor failed making it necessary to buy another multitool.
as i still had all the attachments i decided to buy the 18 volt version multitool. this worked for a period of about 6 months before packing up completely we were on holiday so i wasn't able to return unit straight away and it took me 2 months to discover who the uk repair agents were. upon return of unit i was told it was outside the one year guarantee period (i wasn't aware about registering for the 3 year guarantee..) iv been charged over 100.00 to get this tool repaired.
therefore i will no longer purchase any aeg tools (or ridged as they r aparantly from same manufacturer) and warn other prospective buyers that these tools are of diy quality only.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Five years three months you've waited for a whinge. Worth it, was it?

 

[boilerman]

didn't know i was a member lol just tried to join and was told my email already listed. sorry if this offends you.
and its not a whinge just a warning to anyone proposing to buy this type of tool.

 

[boilerman]

if i was going to whinge id talk about a machete jigsaw with a badly designed sole plate locking device/lever that loosens as you use the saw and ends up with the sole plate flopping around like a p in a bucket. .. (now thats a whinge)

 

[boilerman]

*makita

 

[boilerman]

didn't realise this was just a woodworking site so i may be on the wrong website?

 

[graduate_owner]

I always thought AEG was a quality brand. I have a few AEG drills (4 in fact, all bought second hand) and they seem pretty well built, although they don't get trade use with me so, as you say, diy only perhaps.
Or it may be that they are made to a price these days and the quality has gone down, like with some other well known brands.

K

 

[No skills]

Techtronic Industries own Milwaukee - ryobi - rigid - aeg - as far as I know only Milwaukee are rated for heavy trade use.

 

[Alexfn]

all brands are hit and miss in my opinion, some tools come to market by the likes of makita and only then are critical design faults found, i have some tools by ridgid and aeg, im a trade user and ive found the aeg drills and the jigsaw built proof. had some trouble with a ridgid drill and the recip saw. in my opinion the multi-tool is weak and the 18v version looks to have the same motor in it as the 12v

while im on the subject, the ridgid oil impulse driver is the mutts nuts, some of the best money ive ever spent

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I suspect they all cut corners and costs until it affects sales, then back to square one and repeat. I've ancient blue Bosch that's bullet proof, but a few years after them people advised not to touch them with a barge pole - a few years after that they were fine again. The only issue I had with Makita was a couple of instances of very poor design and the total inability of their customer service to give any customer service.

 

[AES]

I MAY be wrong, but from info I've got here (Switzerland) AEG is no longer German, but their tools part of the company (separate from the domestic appliances side) was bought by a Chinese company. I THINK that also applies to the Rigid brand tools too, but I don't know about Milwaukee.

Years ago, when AEG was a German-owned brand, the tools were often laughing referred to as "Auspacken, Einschalten, Gehtnichts" (i.e. unpack it, plug it in, it don't go!) but I've heard that was really only a joke and back "in the good old days" AEG were pretty good.

But the general consensus this side of the Channel now is that if you get a decent one, great, but chances are low 'cos build quality is reduced and they're now aimed mainly as the "serious DIY market".

No personal experience, I don't own any AEG - just what I've heard.

Any help?

AES

 

[Terry - Somerset]

For the last 25 years, previously quality UK and European brands have been under pressure from cheaper China (mainly) sourced imports. The manufacturing cost differences are still massive although China labour rates have increased at a faster rate than UK. They also seem less burdened by regulation.

For traditional manufacturing companies it was change or die. They either believed, or managed to convince themselves that sourcing overseas would solve their problems by reducing costs whilst maintaining quality. Badge engineered woodworking machines were cheaper still as the manufacturing volumes were higher. Companies thought they were selling a brand not a machine. Finally the relatively low volume of machinery sold may simply not be enough to support the number of separate manufacturers in the market so more consolidation is possible.

I think there is some light at the end of the tunnel for a number of reasons - although the UK will never employ the number of people in manufacturing and engineering that it did 30 years ago:

- labour costs are increasing in far east economies eroding their advantage
- manufacturing and engineering is increasingly automated and requires less labour per unit of output
- the costs of materials and production machinery are fairly insensitive to location
- current supply chains are inflexible particularly for heavy goods and spares back up

 

[Rhyolith]

I don't like the idea of DIY powertools. They are made for those who expect to get one for less than £100 and the fact is you cannot make a powertool for that little, so corners have to be cut and the tool won't hold up to anything resembling "proper" use. To me they are just a waste of resources financial, physical and environmental.

As an example of just how expensive well built powertools are: the 1920s the black decker half inch special cost £520 in todays money (take exact value with a pinch of salt) and this is a one speed corded drill that weighs as much as small moon, but still works 100 years later. One can assume a lighter cordless drill with multiple gears should cost at least that much, though modern techologies may offset this a bit (not sure by how much).

 

[Phil Pascoe]

There was an article in the woodworking press the better part of thirty years ago on B&D drills which maintained that the cheapest at the time (about £16.99, iirc) was designed perfectly on a diy cost/use basis. It was thought that the average expected use in a household environment would be five minutes a month - enough perhaps to put a shelf up or hang a couple of pictures, so they were designed to last three years - three hours work. It was thought that if you paid this amount for a tool that did what you wanted for three years you would be quite happy to buy the same brand again, and if it lasted longer it was a bonus.
There's nothing wrong with sub £100 18v drills so long as you don't expect the performance a £350 one, indeed there are good reasons for choosing them - specially if you work in an environment where they are likely to dropped from a height or stolen before they ever wear out.
Similarly I know of mechanics who wouldn't dream of using Snap on - not because it isn't good but because where they work it would disappear before it was a week old.

 

[deema]

China is no longer cheap compared to manufacturing in the U.K. In fact I would go so far as to say it's actually far more expensive for an awful lot of things. A UK company, with the right level of investment in both equipment and the workforce can and will outperform any other country in the world, producing cheaper, higher quality better built products. A bold statement I know!

Well, I can at least back this up. The last two groups I worked for I was responsible for plants around the world, including China, Romania, South Africa, Brazil, Thailand etc. The last group (mechanical automotive fabricated items) were the world leaders in what they did, over 60% market share world wide. The company in the U.K. Was the most efficient, lowest cost, highest quality, most innovative in the group. The technology developed in the U.K. Was exported to the other facilities, however the Great British innovation and desire to be the best prevailed and kept it at least 10% better on all performance criteria.

The group before that, I moved a lot of product back from China to the high performing U.K. Facility for the reason that is was cheaper and higher quality. (Electronic instrumentation)

If you take into account, transport cost, import duty, cost of capital for the lead time (typically 12 weeks) cost to ensure the quality is correct....usually having your own people on the ground, the U.K. Wins hands down. The cost of an operator running for instance a CNC machine tool has negligible cost difference.....usually they are only required for a few minutes every hour to tend the machine as they run automatically.

It's time to kill the myth that the UK is an expensive place to manufacture, it's actually one of the cheapest. If you also take into account labour laws in the rest of Europe, the U.K. Is highly attractive to businesses, we have less restrictive regulation when it comes to dealing with issues (H&S is as good if not better than most countries)

It also costs very little difference to make a good quality tool than a cheap tool, however, and my personal view is rather controversial......but I have worked for American PLC's......that a lot of stuff is produced for the American market, where profit is king and the American public have a very low expectation of quality. It took me a long time to get my head round being for instance a supplier for a large American retail store group that they were perfectoy happy for stuff to fail after 3~6 months if it was the 'right price' after all, the American public expect to replace stuff quickly and as long it lasted for a few uses happy days, if it broke they would buy another.....in that time a few tweaks to the thing to bling it up change the packaging so it was new and improved and everyone wasa winner!

If you look at American manufacturing PLC companies (excluding Silicon Valley technology stuff) I find they are looking to generate EBIT of c10~15%, which is startling compared to say a European company expecting to make roughly half of that. The general reason is that Europe if about innovation, quality and longevity. It was explained to me that America is about profit and Europe is about technology.

 

[Rhyolith]

China is no longer cheap compared to manufacturing in the U.K. In fact I would go so far as to say it's actually far more expensive for an awful lot of things. A UK company, with the right level of investment in both equipment and the workforce can and will outperform any other country in the world, producing cheaper, higher quality better built products. A bold statement I know!

.................

It's time to kill the myth that the UK is an expensive place to manufacture, it's actually one of the cheapest. If you also take into account labour laws in the rest of Europe, the U.K. Is highly attractive to businesses, we have less restrictive regulation when it comes to dealing with issues (H&S is as good if not better than most countries)

This I find very hard to believe. If it was cheaper to manufacture stuff in the UK why don't more companies do it?

It also costs very little difference to make a good quality tool than a cheap tool....

I seriosuly beg to differ. There is definatly a difference between expensive tools and cheap ones (assuming your looking at the best available in each category), just try comparing Lie Nielsen to an Record or a Record to a Modern Stanley.

I think its also a massive generalisation to assume UK manufacturing is always better quality, indeed I would have thought this is nearly entirely down to the indivdaul plants not the nation they are in. A example can be seen in hand drills during the first half of the 20th century, American eggbeaters wipe the floor with British ones in terms of build quality and innovation for that matter.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Current labour costs in china are approx 25 percent of U.K. (On average) For high labour element products this can make a great difference to the total product cost.

Whether this is sufficient to offset the disadvantages of a remote location - shipping, quality control, inflexible supply chain etc depends on the company.

But the direction of travel is clear- as labour costs in India and China increase, and the labour component of of products is reduced through automation, the pressure to repatriate production will increase.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The pressures not to export our pollution may have an influence, as well.

 

[deema]

The philosophy for off shoring has been for sometime to manufacture in China or similar low labour cost countries for domestic demand in China / India.

Movement of production to the former Eastern block countries has been far more prevalent. However, wage inflation in these countries, transport costs etc place payback or IRR calculations as being borderline except when large EU grants are taken into consideration. Even with these it's still realistic to only think of a plant being more cost effective compared with a like for like plant in the UK using modern processes for two or three years and that was before sterling devalued against the Euro.

Taking personal views out of it and looking at the numbers the UK is in a perfect position for a massive revival in manufacturing

 

[Phil Pascoe]

There isn't much ungooglable - but twivtobtgreecteats is.