DFB
Well-known member
- Aug 12, 2019
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ShineMate EB212 3-inch Polisher Overview & Review
At the end of 2020, I made the move to battery powered polishers. Previous to this, I had been using a single dual action polisher kit that was purchased from Waxit back in 2010. This was essentially an entry level 12mm dual action polisher fitted with a 6-inch backing plate and came with an assortment of Menzerna compounds and Lake Country CSS Flat foam pads.
Waxit still offer these kits via the ShineMate brand, which are an excellent starting point as they include everything you need to get up and running. Being a smaller machine, they are more approachable for the beginner.
To coincide with the Black Friday sales in 2020, Waxit launched the all-new ShineMate EB351 range of cordless battery powered polishers. This included a 12mm 3-inch, 12mm 5-inch, 15mm 5-inch and a 21mm 6-inch machines. There was also a 5- and 6-inch rotary. Each could be purchased as a skin, or via a machine/battery/charger kit. Batteries and chargers could also be purchased separately.
What sold me on these battery powered ShineMate’s was the price and availability. Back then, Rupes had only the one battery polisher, the micro iBrid Nano. The major tool brands only sold large rotary polishers. Flex was the only brand to offer a full suite of battery powered polishers in micro, mini and full size machines. But the price of those Flex polishers was astronomically high in Australia. For perspective, a single Flex 5-inch machine with a charger and battery would buy you two ShineMate’s, 4-batteries, a two-bay charger, and enough change left over to buy a carry case. As the years went on and more and more competitors joined the battery powered scene, Flex have be forced to lower their prices……………………which to me is too little, too late.
Being a Chinese manufactured brand, the big gamble for the early adopters was how these ShineMates would fair against a German made Flex, or even the Italian/American made Rupes. Frankly, the ShineMate brand has enough runs on the board now that I don’t think there is even a question that these machines have the ability to go head-to-head with the establish pro-level brands. In fact, with what I have been told and seen, Rupes has fallen behind on technology, quality and reliability. They were once the leaders, now they are simply the followers. ShineMate on the other hand are faster to market, are innovating and producing highly reliable polishers that are proving themselves within the professional market. It’s telling when a life-long Rupes user says he’s lost faith in the brand, be that from a quality/reliability standpoint, but also the high asking prices.
So, back to 2020. I was wanting to add a smaller 3-inch machine to my artillery and determined I wanted to go battery powered. Rupes were nowhere in this space, and the Flex offering outrageously priced. Then the ShineMate EB351’s hit the market and immediately became my target. Once the Black Friday sales kicked in, I ended up not only buying the EB351 3-inch kit, but I also added the larger EB351 15mm 5-inch to the order. When the package turned up, for some reason I managed to score two additional batteries, something I was not going to complain about!
On first impression, the machines looked good and felt well made. In use, I quickly fell in love with the lack of a cord to manage. I also found them more ergonomic compared to the corded machine I was using, steering the unit with my right hand around the head, then supporting the base with my left hand. Battery life was excellent, weight balance superb. And having access to a 3-inch unit took my machine polishing to the next level. Operationally, the ShineMate’s do have quite a bit of chatter when winding down, but that’s relatively common with dual action machines anyway.
Over time though, I found there were some limitations to the 3-inch version of the EB351. For starters, it seemed to lack the torque and top speed potential of the 5-inch machine. But it’s the physical size of the machine that counts against it most. In this instance, both 3- and 5-inch EB351’s share the same body, which means the size of the 3-inch is too big, and therefore cumbersome for dealing with more intricate areas. In fact, ShineMate addressed this issue by releasing a smaller bodied EB350 3-inch with a different battery orientation slimmer 2.5ah battery.
I did toy with the idea of replacing the EB351 for the EB350, but hesitated. I also looked at the Rupes HLR-75, which has become known as the “stiletto” due to its unique shape. In fact, I almost ordered one but again hesitated. Late last year I had the chance to sample the Rupes and was left disappointed, it was way too noisy and very grindy. On that same day, I was made aware that ShineMate had something new in the pipeline, and reading between the lines, I suspected it would be a more compact 3-inch along the same lines of what they did with the micro EB210. A few months later, the EB212 hit the market…………………………….
Fast forward to this week and the Waxit EOFY sale, I took the plunge..............
At the end of 2020, I made the move to battery powered polishers. Previous to this, I had been using a single dual action polisher kit that was purchased from Waxit back in 2010. This was essentially an entry level 12mm dual action polisher fitted with a 6-inch backing plate and came with an assortment of Menzerna compounds and Lake Country CSS Flat foam pads.
Waxit still offer these kits via the ShineMate brand, which are an excellent starting point as they include everything you need to get up and running. Being a smaller machine, they are more approachable for the beginner.
To coincide with the Black Friday sales in 2020, Waxit launched the all-new ShineMate EB351 range of cordless battery powered polishers. This included a 12mm 3-inch, 12mm 5-inch, 15mm 5-inch and a 21mm 6-inch machines. There was also a 5- and 6-inch rotary. Each could be purchased as a skin, or via a machine/battery/charger kit. Batteries and chargers could also be purchased separately.
What sold me on these battery powered ShineMate’s was the price and availability. Back then, Rupes had only the one battery polisher, the micro iBrid Nano. The major tool brands only sold large rotary polishers. Flex was the only brand to offer a full suite of battery powered polishers in micro, mini and full size machines. But the price of those Flex polishers was astronomically high in Australia. For perspective, a single Flex 5-inch machine with a charger and battery would buy you two ShineMate’s, 4-batteries, a two-bay charger, and enough change left over to buy a carry case. As the years went on and more and more competitors joined the battery powered scene, Flex have be forced to lower their prices……………………which to me is too little, too late.
Being a Chinese manufactured brand, the big gamble for the early adopters was how these ShineMates would fair against a German made Flex, or even the Italian/American made Rupes. Frankly, the ShineMate brand has enough runs on the board now that I don’t think there is even a question that these machines have the ability to go head-to-head with the establish pro-level brands. In fact, with what I have been told and seen, Rupes has fallen behind on technology, quality and reliability. They were once the leaders, now they are simply the followers. ShineMate on the other hand are faster to market, are innovating and producing highly reliable polishers that are proving themselves within the professional market. It’s telling when a life-long Rupes user says he’s lost faith in the brand, be that from a quality/reliability standpoint, but also the high asking prices.
So, back to 2020. I was wanting to add a smaller 3-inch machine to my artillery and determined I wanted to go battery powered. Rupes were nowhere in this space, and the Flex offering outrageously priced. Then the ShineMate EB351’s hit the market and immediately became my target. Once the Black Friday sales kicked in, I ended up not only buying the EB351 3-inch kit, but I also added the larger EB351 15mm 5-inch to the order. When the package turned up, for some reason I managed to score two additional batteries, something I was not going to complain about!
On first impression, the machines looked good and felt well made. In use, I quickly fell in love with the lack of a cord to manage. I also found them more ergonomic compared to the corded machine I was using, steering the unit with my right hand around the head, then supporting the base with my left hand. Battery life was excellent, weight balance superb. And having access to a 3-inch unit took my machine polishing to the next level. Operationally, the ShineMate’s do have quite a bit of chatter when winding down, but that’s relatively common with dual action machines anyway.
Over time though, I found there were some limitations to the 3-inch version of the EB351. For starters, it seemed to lack the torque and top speed potential of the 5-inch machine. But it’s the physical size of the machine that counts against it most. In this instance, both 3- and 5-inch EB351’s share the same body, which means the size of the 3-inch is too big, and therefore cumbersome for dealing with more intricate areas. In fact, ShineMate addressed this issue by releasing a smaller bodied EB350 3-inch with a different battery orientation slimmer 2.5ah battery.
I did toy with the idea of replacing the EB351 for the EB350, but hesitated. I also looked at the Rupes HLR-75, which has become known as the “stiletto” due to its unique shape. In fact, I almost ordered one but again hesitated. Late last year I had the chance to sample the Rupes and was left disappointed, it was way too noisy and very grindy. On that same day, I was made aware that ShineMate had something new in the pipeline, and reading between the lines, I suspected it would be a more compact 3-inch along the same lines of what they did with the micro EB210. A few months later, the EB212 hit the market…………………………….
Fast forward to this week and the Waxit EOFY sale, I took the plunge..............
