Festool Rotex 150 FE Users Beware

S

seng12

New member
I recently used it on my friend's 2006 BMW 335I and a malfunction( putting it lightly) occurred. While polishing the car, the backing plate came off and caused 2 dents in the paint. It was the first time I used this machine and was really impressed by the power,quietness, and the smoothness of the machine until the incident. Hopefully this was just an isolated incident because many users here have nothing but good things to say about this polisher. I'm gonna call the company and try to get the $440 back to help with the body shop bill.:mad:

In a ironic twist, i was 95% finished polishing when the backing plate came out. :wall
 
WOW!....I've used my Rotex for all of this year with no problems .... BUT .... you have to insure 100% that the backing plate is "locked" in the grooves. And, it's a very tight fit to lock it in. I'd guess maybe that wasn't the case if the backing plate was changed. I often change mine from the padded backing plate to the smaller solid polishing plate and I'm extra careful about locking it.



Toto
 
While there is always a chance of malfunction with anything mechanical I too own Rotex and it's design leaves me with an impression it would be very very hard for that backing plate to come off once it is properly locked in place. My personal experience is that first few times I was changing backing plates I did not do it properly. It is a tight fit and it requires strong hands and fingers. It would leave me with an impression of being done right while it actually was not. It is good I have a habit of manually double-checking everything is tight before turning on any machine. That's how I noticed I did it wrong. It is very important that release button is properly pressed in while tightening the plate. Otherwise you will not tighten it properly.
 
thanks to the response guys, i never changed the backing plate. i was using the original 6 inch backing plate that came with the polisher. guess i'll stick with my faithful PC until i find a replacement for the festool. might just give the new flex tool polisher a try. just gotta wait for some reviews on it before ordering.
 
seng12 said:
i never changed the backing plate. i was using the original 6 inch backing plate that came with the polisher. guess i'll stick with my faithful PC until i find a replacement for the festool. might just give the new flex tool polisher a try.
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I'm sorry but this makes no sense to me.
 
ZoranC said:
I'm sorry but this makes no sense to me.
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the polisher came in with the backing plate already attached to the machine. all i did was stick the white pad to the velcro and went on polishing the car.
 
seng12 said:
the polisher came in with the backing plate already attached to the machine. all i did was stick the white pad to the velcro and went on polishing the car.
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Seng: it may not have been properly seated when you got the machine. When I first tried to change backing plates, I called my distributor because I thought the original plate was welded to the spine....it was that tough to remove!



Let us know how you make out with Festool.



Totoland Mach
 
seng12 said:
thanks to the response guys, i never changed the backing plate. i was using the original 6 inch backing plate that came with the polisher. guess i'll stick with my faithful PC until i find a replacement for the festool. might just give the new flex tool polisher a try. just gotta wait for some reviews on it before ordering.
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Sorry to hear about this but with the above statement I am left asking myself how much you'll sell me your festool for?
 
seng12 said:
the polisher came in with the backing plate already attached to the machine. all i did was stick the white pad to the velcro and went on polishing the car.
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I understood that. What does not make sense to me is that you are writing off the tool without making sure whether that is necessary or not, whether it was really malfunctioning or not. Also, "going back to faithful PC until you find replacement for Festool" does not make sense to me either. First, it implies that Festool is not reliable so you need a replacement for it. Again, that can not be concluded from single alleged incident, especially not without knowing exact cause for it. Further more, I have re-read your post and now that I realize you were almost done with a car when it allegedly failed on you (few to several hours later?) I can not see how it could fail on you in a manner that was described. Two ways that I can see of that happening are:



a) Backing plate was not secured firmly enough.​



If that was the cause was the first option, like we were speculating, then it should have happened almost immediately. When I fail to properly secure BP it comes undone just by hand twisting. In other words it would not take hours.​



Or​



b) Backing plate and/or mounting mechanism suffered mechanical failure.​



As I am looking at backing plate and mounting mechanism of Festool in front of me I can not see how that could easily happen. Design seems to be such that even if one of teeth fails remaining two would take the load. All three would have to fail for bp to get free.​



However, what I can see maybe happening is user switching from one mode to other without shutting down tool first.



Again, all of that together does not add up and make sense to me. Unless your mind is set on replacing Festool with Flex now that Flex is available.



Therefore I would be very interested to see some pictures of bp and mounting plate and to hear what Festool has to say on it for educational purposes if you are willing to humor us.
 
^^^

right now my first priority is fixing the damage caused by the polisher. it's not a good feeling to know I damaged my friend's car. i need the $440 back to help with the body shop costs. am i ever buying another festool polisher? probably not. maybe it was an isolated malfunction, but i'm not gonna risk that happening again. as for you implying that the plate came out because i switched mode without turning off the machine first, i never switched mode. the polisher was always in the dual action mode. hopefully i will get all my money back. thank god i used the polisher before the 30 day return policy expired. i'm done with this discussion but will update if i get my money back.
 
seng12 said:
am i ever buying another festool polisher? probably not. maybe it was an isolated malfunction, but i'm not gonna risk that happening again.
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You are entitled to feel any way you want, I am just saying it is not logical. Same thing can happen with any tool out there, even with Flex you are setting your eyes on, and it wouldn't be anything new with "old faithful PC" (just search).



seng12 said:
as for you implying that the plate came out because i switched mode without turning off the machine first
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I did not imply anything. I said that is the only way I can see it maybe happening, that does mean I say that is what happened. Just because I can not see some other way that does not mean there is no other way.



seng12 said:
i need the $440 back to help with the body shop costs.
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BTW, I am curious how bp managed to cause dents and two of them? I have never had bp come off on me (I am not doing this 8+ hours a day 5+ days a week for years like others do) so I can not visualize it. I imagine if plate is held parallel to paint it would skip off the surface like a flat stone does over the water and end up somewhere away from the car being worked on.
 
Is there anything in the manual about checking the backing plate? I assume there is but just curious. I admit if the backing plate was attached and felt secure I may think it was ok to use. I'd read the manual first though and make sure and would hope it is mentioned.
 
PhaRO said:
Is there anything in the manual about checking the backing plate? I assume there is but just curious. I admit if the backing plate was attached and felt secure I may think it was ok to use. I'd read the manual first though and make sure and would hope it is mentioned.
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I did not read whole manual so I would not be able to say does it say "check backing plate before first use" or not. I too would have probably slaped on pad and went to town if it were not that I ordered few backing plates and changed one that was on it before first use. Let me tell you, that thing felt as if it is made from one solid piece and will never come off even though I was twisting very hard and I do not have exactly weak hands. If I have used that much torque on something else I would have probably snapped it by then. That, plus design, is why I have hard time seeing how it could have come off hours into the detail.
 
Update: I just spoke to Festool service department. Backing plate depends on friction between pad and surface to keep everything in place. Therefore not enough friction (like partial or too light contact between pad and surface would cause, something we would do when using low pressure or working around tight curves, where we also lighten pressure) might result in bp wiggling itself free.



I think I will be opting for return under warranty for full refund.
 
I had a 4 inch backing plate come off on me also so I know how that feels. Sucker just shredded itself half way through buffing out a roof. Such a horrible experience.
 
admac said:
but i thought the festool was obviously superior to the makita?
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And it still is when it comes to performing work thrown at it. It will work without any problems as long as one keeps in mind what is method used to keep bp in place. Makita's design is IMHO not any better.



Notice that design of PC and UDM also depend on friction to create torque that keeps bp in place. Those tools also depend on certain amount of torque created by friction to keep bp in place. I have not had Makita in hand but I have looked at it's parts schematics and Makita is too depending on same method. It uses single screw that will get loosened if subjected to similar conditions for long enough.



So, apples to apples, Festool remains superior.



Of course, if one is using tool like an old lady would for very short periods of time while working only on cars that are squarish and their sheetmetal is almost flat any tool will have no chance of bp flying off for many years. I could do that. But I do not want to. Plus cars I work on have very pronounced curves, are not squarish.
 
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