It seems like just yesterday. Our Just Add Paint Crew was spending countless hours at the end of every project, running from room to room with rags, glass cleaner, furniture polish, shop vacs, and Swiffers, trying to contain the dust that had somehow escaped our perfectly encapsulated work area. Yes we had a Zip Pole system in place to build a temporary wall and keep our work area separate, yes we had a drywall sander with a hose attached to a shop vac, but our system was flawed and we knew it. Finally after YEARS of this insanity, we broke down and decided to make the investment in a Festool Dust Extractor/Dustless Sanding System. Highly rated? Check. HEPA Certified for dealing with lead-based paint? Check. Expensive? Check! Manufacturer warranty? Check. Which brings me to my point…
It has now been just under 3 years since we made our original Festool Dust Extractor purchase, and after that many years of heavy use it was time for a tune up. And I use the term “tune up” loosely. This was definitely not going to be a standard oil change and tire rotation – we had beaten this thing up badly. So badly, in fact, that while I was packing it up to ship it to the Festool repair center in Indiana, I actually caught myself saying out loud “This thing looks like it fell off the back of a truck on the highway, there is no way they are going to fix it”. And by that I mean our Festool had seen pretty much daily use and abuse for its nearly 3 years of action, including but not limited to: Scratching on the outside of the unit, a missing prong from power cord, a missing cover and severely loosened onboard outlet (this is where the power cord from our sanders plugs into the machine for the Festool remote on/off feature), loose/damaged vacuum connector(s), and a cracked top housing (I am not saying Rich accidentally mistook our Festool for a ladder in a pinch, but… we will just leave it at that). As anyone who has ever tried to repair a power tool under warranty (Bosch and DeWalt in my case) will tell you, I was expecting a long battle over who was at fault for what, and hoped to have our Festool back in the fleet for operation in 4-6 weeks. Ours was a tall order by any stretch of the imagination, and I honesty would have been happy if they had fixed half of the problems with our much-abused machine and hit me up with a bill for the remainder. So would FESTOOL COME THROUGH WITH THEIR WARRANTY?
For starters, despite purchasing my Festool Dust Extractor at a time when their warranty covered substantially less, I learned quickly that our unit had been “grandfathered” in to the new and improved warranty. This meant that instead of paying 2-way shipping from Pennsylvania to Indiana, I had FREE shipping both ways. While I did not take the time to get an actual price on shipping, I feel certain I saved at least $50 before the Festool left the house. So we were off to a great start. And that start was followed by another pleasant surprise – my Festool arrived back at my shop in 5 business days. My initial thought was that the manufacturer took one look at our vacuum and marked it “return to sender” based on the above mentioned damage. However, the greatest surprise of all came when I took a look inside the box. What I found was our Festool Dust Extractor fully equipped with a brand new, freshly installed power cord, a new cover for the onboard outlet (which was tightened to factory specs), new and freshly installed vacuum connectors, and even a BRAND NEW TOP! The only damage they did not address was the scratches – which is probably a good thing because I would not have been able to identify this machine as OUR Festool otherwise. The repair job was so thorough that I considered leaving some of my story out (I did not want to thank Festool for going this far above and beyond expectations by flooding their shop with tools that people like me were not caring for properly), but in the long run I felt I had to share because this type of customer service is so incredibly rare. I remember my salesman Pat (from Middletown Lumber in Middletown, PA) telling me that Festool is “the type of company that likes to take things apart and see what isn’t working”. At the time I did not understand what he meant, but after getting my unit back his words sank in quickly.
Now that I have gone through the process of making a warranty claim with Festool, I have to say it is by far the easiest and best experience I have ever had with customer service relating to repair work. We already knew that the Festool was a great investment based on the time and money it has saved our company simply by being an incredible tool, but knowing that you can expect a hassle-free experience if issues arise is priceless. Check Festool out online at https://www.festoolusa.com , they have a wide variety of tool ranging from dust extractors and dustless sanding systems to table saws, routers, drills, and pretty much anything else you can think of. The tools are a little pricey when compared to the rest of what is out there, but the quality of workmanship behind these tools makes them a very smart purchase. We currently use both a Festool CT-26 HEPA Dust Extractor (for larger jobs), and a Festool MIDI Dust Extractor (for smaller jobs). We pair those units with an RTS400 (detail sander), DTS 400 (detail sander), and a Rotex RD125 (orbital-type sander) for jobs that require more aggressive sanding. As a house painting company, Just Add Paint originally purchased these units to help contain lead-based paint. Be we almost immediately discovered that they work wonders for dealing with drywall dust, preparation of any flat surface for painting (I’m thinking woodwork here), as well as for grinding wallpaper paste/residue. Here is an excerpt from our original review of the Festool CT-26 HEPA Vacuum Dust Extractor we wrote about 2 years ago. While it would be difficult to give a better review than this, the warranty work has managed to make our belief in Festool even stronger…
Festool CT-26 HEPA Vacuum – Simply put, the Festool CT-26 HEPA vacuum has two main qualities- it is expensive, and it is WORTH IT. I would call this one of very few items we actually find indispensable. The Festool vacuum and sander system is an industrial strength machine, made for heavy use under difficult conditions. While we purchased it as an extra safety guarantee for lead paint removal, we have found it to be far superior to any other vacuum systems we have used. We now use it on almost every job where dust containment is a concern (which of course, is all of them). For years we used standard power sanders attached to shop vac systems, and found that HUGE amounts of dust still found its way into hvac ducts, furniture, etc…(So bad, in fact, that we often had to use zip pole systems to isolate rooms where sanding took place.) Even when our old systems caught most dust, some fine particles always ran right through the system, and unfailingly found their way throughout the entire house. With the Festool system, we have found that such a high percentage of dust is captured, we are often able to sand even skim coated walls while leaving almost novisible residue either in the air, or on the floor. This seems to be the result of a higher power motor, coupled with perfectly designed companion sanders matched to the system. (The system even has the ability to run two sanders at once, without loss of suction on either.) Multiple holes in the sandpaper sheets allow almost all dust to be removed by the vacuum, and the built in HEPA filter removes even particles so small that they might go unseen. (This is of particular importance with lead based paint, or when we have allergy sensitive clients.) Add to our list of favorite qualities is that this system is far quieter than any ordinary shop vac we have used, and that its components are far more durable, and you have a nearly perfect tool. If I had to find complaints regarding the Festool, I can find only two. First, the system and refill items are more expensive than other manufacturers- but as stated, quality at this level comes at a price, AND the system pays for itself with both safety and increased productivity. Second, I would like the speed control dial on the RTS 400 EQ sander moved out from under my thumb, or provided with a lock so speed won’t be accidentally changed during use. And there you have it folks, out of 10 months of near daily use, those are the only complaints I could come up with. This tool is as good as it gets, and is worth the price of admission.**As is the smaller version – we have recently added a Festool “MIDI” to our growing fleet. This lighter, more compact unit has a little over half the capacity but the same suction power. It is ideal for ideal for smaller jobs, and we find the hose attachment (locating in the top, rather than on the front like the CT-26) to be an improvement.**
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