Festool Jigsaw 2 weeks old needs repair already

[markymark12]

Hi All

Festool Tools, it has been done to death i know, but i thought i would add my pennies worth in as someone who has used them most of my working life.

A very long time ago i was using their very nice compact cordless screwdrivers, back in a time when everyone said to me, festool who the hell are they. At that time they were still expensive tools which i did not mind paying for, it was well designed and was very good at what it did.

However as someone who has used their tools since a time when you had to tell the dealer about the company so he could find a supplier. I can say that in my experience the tools have become unreliable and way way overpriced.

I still have the cordless drills from back at the start and they have been out in all weathers and they still work. the latest model i have is already making some very strange noises, and two weeks ago i brought one of their jigsaws for a roof i was cutting. All i was doing with it is cutting the birdsmouths, in 2" softwood with brand new blades, and after a few days{it was a very large roof} it gave up the ghost. :x :x The whole of the shaft, for what of a bit name, feel to pieces and had to be replaced.

So with this being the final straw i will not be buying anymore. A lot of professional trades people i know, have had problems with all sorts of tools from them, saws, jigsaws, one guy had one of their compact planers, his words i would not repeat, but he could not plane a straight edge with it, the front toe racked as it was adjusted up and down so at times it would be in twist with the back sole, backward and forward it went, :roll: as it does, all sorted they said, his words bloody rubbish just before he threw it in the van. :evil: :evil:

Due to their huge marketing and advertising schemes people keep paying theses silly prices for what have become unreliable tools in mine and others minds. Don't get sucked in there is a lot of other tools on the market at far lower prices.

Moan over, just wanted to add my pennies worth in.

 

[mister henderson]

Due to their huge marketing and advertising schemes people keep paying theses silly prices for what have become unreliable tools in mine and others minds. Don't get sucked in there is a lot of other tools on the market at far lower prices.

We must all speak as we find. My findings have been the opposite. As for their huge marketing and advertising schemes? Are you sure? I think their advertising budget must be a small fraction of other firms.

The reason why I bought Festool tools was first of all recommendations from other users, especially on forums, and secondly because having bought one, and liking it, I went on to buy more. I can't actually remember seeing a Festool advert, although I haven't looked at a woodworking magazine for years so I could well be wrong about that.

As an example, I had a Metabo 450 sander. Very popular and very good. I really liked it and used it a lot. Eventually part of the mechanism went wrong, basically it wore out. Having had good results with other Festool tools I thought I would try the RO150 sander. At first I was very disappointed as I found it difficult to hold due to it's unusual (for a sander) shape. Eventually I got used to it and have given it far more use than I ever did the Metabo, but the Festool is still working perfectly. Absolutley prefectly. Also, I love the way it stops almost right away, I found it tedious waiting for the Metabo to slow down so I could put it down safely.

 

[Anonymous]

Not every tool from a quality manufacturer will be perfect or even as good as the opposition. How defects are dealt with is important.

We had a member on here a few years ago who purchased a TS55 and sold his tablesaw (made kitchen cabinets for a living). After a very short time, the TS55 became unusable and he bought a second one whilst the first was repaired.

Just before he stopped visiting the forum, he asked if anyone had a tablesaw for sale.........

Also, I was interested to see that the 'clones' beat Festool TS55 in a recent magazine review (GWW)

I have a Festool tool and am very happy with it, but then it gets little use in reality

 

[markymark12]

Perhaps i got carried away with regards to the advertising budget. But is is the only company that sends me lots of promotional paperwork and catalogues through the door every few months, no one else does? And i buy my fair share of kit from different companies. i had one recently telling me how wonderful their new router was. It should be at the price they are asking.

My point was the fact that when i was first buying their tools, which at the time was a large number i had no problems with them at all.
Now almost every item i have brought in the last two years has gone back for some reason or another. And i am not alone in that from tradespeople i have spoken to. Some may say that due to the high volume of use now more problems are picked up. But why are they there in the first place. I can accept the odd thing going wrong but i have had problems with the plunge saw, cordless drill, jigsaw, and bench saw losing power under load, which happens to have gone back twice and they tell me they is nothing wrong with it. Which they clearly is if you stand and use it for more than a hour.

You may think christ what does he do to his tools but i treat them no differently to all the other makes i use which touch wood are still going strong.

For me they are a little too sensitive for me liking, great tools when working however, it is just that i believe that the quality of the build is not what it was a few years back when i first started using them.

 

[Oryxdesign]

In a previous job I used to use a jigsaw pretty much all day, I went through loads of different makes, Bosch, Makita, Hitachi, Metabo and Dewalt. The best lasted 6 months and the worst 2 weeks until I bought a Festool which I am still using 6 years later, it the nicest to use of the bunch to use too. Either I have been ultra lucky or you have been unlucky.
I did get a faulty Domino jointer which went wrong in about a fortnight but my dealer swapped it for a new one immediately without any argument. I hope yours will do the same for you.

 

[markymark12]

Bloody unlucky i guess, but the fact another new item, your jointer went wrong in under two weeks, is the kind of problems i hear of all the time with their kit, from people who use their tools on a daily basies for long periods of time.

Why is it going wrong in the first place do they not have Quality Control?

I have nothing to complain about regards the issue with service back up, apart from this saw bench of theirs, but i for one, want tools which are not going to break down half way through a job, when i am miles from anywhere, with another job to start elsewhere the following day.

Everyone can accept things go wrong, just they go wrong a lot with festool tools in my opinion of late.

For what they charge they should be looking to sort out the reliability, and then i would be more than happy to buy their kit.

 

[chippy1970]

I spoke to a kitchen fitter a few years ago , he had the jigsaw and he wasn't impressed with it either. I think I will stick with my Bosch one for now.

I do have the TS55 and a few other Festool tools and I think so far that they are great. I was cutting up some melamine panels to make up a tray space on a kitchen last week and all I had to do was mark it slap the rail down and wizz the saw across, perfect cut no chips and no dust. Much quicker than how I used to do it with a normal circ saw and no need to router the edge or plane it to get it chip free.

 

[mailee]

Just to throw m two penneth in here although I have never owned a Festool I do use a lot of power tools and own a lot. I have always gone by the assumption that if the trades use a certain tool it must be good for a DIY'er even one as fanatical as me! But, having said that it is a sad fact of life that in todays market place of cut price marketing everything seems to suffer from cost cutting excercises. A lot of parts are made in the Far East and then assembled in the factories bearing the famous names. This is not just a case of tools of course as just one look at the motor trade will show that most cars now are built from cheaper materials and more like a pop together kit to speed up production and keep costs down, of course this is never passed on to the customer as they are there to make a profit in a high taxed country. Unfortunitely this is the future which is becoming more and more disposable every year.

 

[BradNaylor]

I've got a few Festo tools (that shows how long I've had some of them!) and generally am very happy with them.

However, I don't think they quite deserve their iconic status.

My jigsaw has been excellent for the 4 or 5 years I've had it and I have consistantly described it as 'the best on the market'. Recently however, a customer insisted I try his Bosch jigsaw for cutting his oak worktop. It was much better than my Festo!

Similarly, I bought a Bosch ROS to keep me going while my Festo was in for repair for the second time. No appreciable difference in performance.

These tools are much cheaper and just as good if not better. If Festo tools really were as good as some people seem to think then all tradesmen would use them - regardless of cost.

And they don't!

Cheers
Dan