Piece of Junk

[BobbyG]

The guarantee does not guarantee it will not fail. It is the guarantee to replace it if it does fail.

I plan to get a new DA and still lean toward the Griot's because they do fail. 3D has a new polisher but their warranty is 3 years. If my work depended on a working DA, I would invest in a spare. All brands can fail.

Spot on Al! rops:

All mechanical devises will fail at one tome or another. None of us like it but we've all experienced it.

I'm not sure why the XP's fail in this area other than it appears that the wall thickness of the part looks exceptionally thin.

Some indicate that the 1st generation doesn't experience this type of failure. I wonder what changed, if anything, in the design making it the weakest link.

The XP is 4.5 amps vs. the 1st generation is 4.0 amps.

Many use this machines all day every day with out issue then there are situations like this where the tool has less than 10 hours of it and experiences a catastrophic failure.

I tried searching online for specifics regarding this failure but gained little insight. The only thing I did uncover was that some use a thicker wrench to hold the shaft in order for the backing plate to be removed. Wedging the backing plate "can" apply angular forces to this area and could possibly be behind some of the failures.

Has anyone contacted Porter Cable to gain some insight to what's going on here?

 

[RTexasF]

I have a PC 7336 that has been used hundreds of times for hours on end and still works just fine. Don't judge an entire brand of products from one that was defective. I also have the Griots machine and prefer it over the PC.

 

[tuscarora dave]

I tried searching online for specifics regarding this failure but gained little insight. The only thing I did uncover was that some use a thicker wrench to hold the shaft in order for the backing plate to be removed. Wedging the backing plate "can" apply angular forces to this area and could possibly be behind some of the failures.

Has anyone contacted Porter Cable to gain some insight to what's going on here?

My guess would be that most of the problems occur on models built after 2005.

In 2005, the Pentair Tools Group—comprising Porter-Cable, Delta Machinery, DeVilbiss Air Power, and others—was purchased by Black & Decker, now Stanley Black & Decker.

Just as DeVilbiss was once one of the highest quality compressor manufacturers, now DeVilbiss tools are side by side with Campbell Hausfeld tools. A classic example of how B&D has taken a great tool and turned it into a piece of junk.

 

[BobbyG]

My guess would be that most of the problems occur on models built after 2005.

In 2005, the Pentair Tools Group—comprising Porter-Cable, Delta Machinery, DeVilbiss Air Power, and others—was purchased by Black & Decker, now Stanley Black & Decker.

Just as DeVilbiss was once one of the highest quality compressor manufacturers, now DeVilbiss tools are side by side with Campbell Hausfeld tools. A classic example of how B&D has taken a great tool and turned it into a piece of junk.

Good point Dave!

With the buying and selling of companies and brands I've never seen the quality of a product line improve, only degrade. When Black & Decker bought DeWalt I found a noticeable decline in both performance and reliability on 3 different tools purchased within 18 months.....:nomore:

 

[master detailer]

pc for me any way is to slow and it gets way to hot and the pads cant take it. the glue on the pads comes off and the pad is done. they are making the pads to cheap these days

 

[PeTrol42]

Hey guys, thanks for all the comments. This thread is informative and entertaining for me.

I do want to say something about reliability and brand loyalty.

I myself have no brand loyalty anymore if the product I'm going to buy from them isn't engineered to take the abuse of what they're supposed to go through.

I use to work in the Audio/Visuals industry. This isn't the same A/V that you use in your home. I'm talking about the A/V at Shows and Conferences where there are $20,0000 to $100,000 dollar projectors and other expensive stuff. A lot of A/V gear gets banged up pretty good since the gear gets transported from venue to venue and also, you have a lot of different laborers not being careful with the equipment. Amazingly, a lot of this equipment endures the beatings that they incur. It's because these companies know what their equipment has to endure and they engineer it to survive. If a piece of A/V gear didn't survive the abuse of being on the road, then guess what? The A/V company doesn't buy that gear anymore and unless that company wants to spend the money on R&D to make their products better, they're going to die.

Elation Lighting is a good example of this. They use to sell cheap rebranded A/V lighting gear that's made in China and tried to hock it to the American Public. Usually DJs are the ones who would buy Elation equipment but A/V companies are where the money is at and Elation knew this so they hired a lead guy from Martin Lighting, a well established lighting company from Europe to run Elation. He turned Elation around and made it into a reputable company. Their gear now lasts the abuses of being on the road and Elation fully stands behind their products. Now A/V companies consider purchasing Elation stuff.

Hyundai is another example of a company putting their money where their mouth is. These cars were crap a long time ago and the company knew it so they had to do a few things to get people to buy their cars. First is to engineer their cars not to be crap anymore and then offer the public a 100,000 mile warranty. When a company does something like this, then you know that they're fully behind their products.

Let's say the Griot's DA didn't have a Lifetime Warranty and I bought it. If it broke down on me, I wouldn't buy it again. I'd move onto the next brand and see how that does.

I've mentioned it before but I'll mention it again. I was shocked to see how thin that spindle is, considering it's only job is to spin in a concentric circle. I'd expect that spindle to be at least 3/8th of an inch. Man, it should actually be 1/4 inch, not the 1/8th inch that spindle looked like.

Also, I charged my friend $225 bucks to do this polishing job so now I'm only going to make around $100 bucks. Also, I spent the first 3 hours on his car washing it, clay bar and the tape job so I'm out of luck as far as time goes as well.

feslope mentioned that he had a warranty exchange on his 3" Griot's DA and they wanted to broken one back. I'm assuming they wanted it back so they could study it and see where it broke. Then they could tell the Chinese company who makes their DA to beef up the part that broke or Griot's will go to a different Chinese manufacturer to get their stuff made. If the Griot's DA was engineered like crap and they kept breaking down, two things would happen. Their reputation would turn to crap and people would stop buying their DA, Lifetime Warranty or not.

 

[tuscarora dave]

This is why I own a Cyclo, a Makita, 2 Flex 3401 VRG polishers. These are the professional worthy tools in my arsenal that can take a serious beating. Having said that, I paid a lot more for them than $130.

If you're going to need a reliable tool even if just from time to time, get one of these tools and be done with it. As with any industry, you get what you pay for.

 

[Flannigan]

This is why I own a Cyclo, a Makita, 2 Flex 3401 VRG polishers. These are the professional worthy tools in my arsenal that can take a serious beating. Having said that, I paid a lot more for them than $130.

If you're going to need a reliable tool even if just from time to time, get one of these tools and be done with it. As with any industry, you get what you pay for.

I beat the crap out of my pc's all the time and they work great. There are going to be faulty products no matter what you pay. Just because something is more expensive doesn't mean it's better.

 

[mg6045]

Griots does warrantee their DA for life, but its not like they just send you a new one when it breaks. The turnaround time could be weeks from what I have heard.
.

Thats definitely not true. Griots replaces the polisher with no questions asked and the turnaround time is very fast.

I called for a replacement and had it at my door in 3 days. They picked up the broken polisher and the new one came 2 days later.

 

[PeTrol42]

This is why I own a Cyclo, a Makita, 2 Flex 3401 VRG polishers. These are the professional worthy tools in my arsenal that can take a serious beating. Having said that, I paid a lot more for them than $130.

If you're going to need a reliable tool even if just from time to time, get one of these tools and be done with it. As with any industry, you get what you pay for.

Well, if a machines sole job is to spin in a concentric circle then I'd expect it to last. Especially if its a Porter Cable. Just like I'd expect a Craftsman socket wrench not to strip when I'm cranking down on something hard even though they're not meant to torque anything down real tight. I don't do this as I have a breaker bar but if I had used a Craftsman socket wrench improperly, guess what? Sears will replace it, no questions asked. You see, the guys at Craftsman know people do this kind of crap so they engineer their sockets to take the abuse so they last a long time and then they stand behind their product when it was the consumer's fault that it broke. Also, $130 bucks is still a lot money, again for a thing that just spins in a concentric circle.

I'm the kind of guy that likes to use the proper tool for the proper job. My auto shop teacher in high school always brought that point home. He use to say things like "Don't use a wrench to hammer in a nail!". I feel I was using the 7424 properly.

If anything, I'd expect the Griot's DA to break on me because they're relatively new to the DA thing and they don't have a long line of tools that are used widely in the Construction industry. The fact that Griot's knows what a DA goes through and then backs up their product tells me a lot.

If I recall, Porter Cable actually never intended the 7424 to be a polisher. Just a thing to apply wax. I remember Porter Cable saying that the 7424 IS NOT intended as a polisher. They don't even tell you what OPMs the thing spins at using the different settings. I think they said not to use it above speed 3.

So now that I think about it, the 7424 was actually a random orbital sander used in woodworking that Porter Cable decided they could make some extra scratch on if they slapped on a foam polishing pad and sell it as just a wax applier even though it has settings that make the thing spin super fast. Now that I really think about it, I just got taken for a ride from Porter Cable. Those Scumbags!

 

[PeTrol42]

Thats definitely not true. Griots replaces the polisher with no questions asked and the turnaround time is very fast.

I called for a replacement and had it at my door in 3 days. They picked up the broken polisher and the new one came 2 days later.

Yes!!! More Confirmation of Griot's solid Warranty!

I'm so there!

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I would try the Meguiars G110 if you want to give up on the PC. They offer a Lifetime warranty, and are more heavy duty than the GG.

As others have stated, I thought only the G100 had the lifetime warranty, and that the G110 was a year; I don't see anything on the AG page stating what the warranty is.

My guess would be that most of the problems occur on models built after 2005.

In 2005, the Pentair Tools Group—comprising Porter-Cable, Delta Machinery, DeVilbiss Air Power, and others—was purchased by Black & Decker, now Stanley Black & Decker.

Just as DeVilbiss was once one of the highest quality compressor manufacturers, now DeVilbiss tools are side by side with Campbell Hausfeld tools. A classic example of how B&D has taken a great tool and turned it into a piece of junk.

Good point Dave!

With the buying and selling of companies and brands I've never seen the quality of a product line improve, only degrade. When Black & Decker bought DeWalt I found a noticeable decline in both performance and reliability on 3 different tools purchased within 18 months.....:nomore:

That's because the bean counters are in charge, that's the way it is these days.

 

[CaptJon]

I just purchased a Griots mainly because of the warranty but also because it just looks to be more user friendly. I'm just in it for my stuff so I don't want to spend more than I did. Not looking to make money or do this as a hobby or living. If I tried to make a dime doing this I certainly would have a back up machine. Hard to beat a lifetime warranty.

 

[Rsurfer]

Show me anywhere on the box or a written warranty that says that the polisher has a lifetime warranty.

Well, 3 owners of the Griot's on this thread say theirs come with a Lifetime Warranty and feslope said this:

"I had a Griot 3" go bad. Griots just sent me a new one within a couple of days along with a return label for the defective one. "

Sounds like affirmation for me.

Did you guys read the whole thread?

 

[DaveT435]

Well, if a machines sole job is to spin in a concentric circle then I'd expect it to last. Especially if its a Porter Cable. Just like I'd expect a Craftsman socket wrench not to strip when I'm cranking down on something hard even though they're not meant to torque anything down real tight. I don't do this as I have a breaker bar but if I had used a Craftsman socket wrench improperly, guess what? Sears will replace it, no questions asked. You see, the guys at Craftsman know people do this kind of crap so they engineer their sockets to take the abuse so they last a long time and then they stand behind their product when it was the consumer's fault that it broke. Also, $130 bucks is still a lot money, again for a thing that just spins in a concentric circle.

I'm the kind of guy that likes to use the proper tool for the proper job. My auto shop teacher in high school always brought that point home. He use to say things like "Don't use a wrench to hammer in a nail!". I feel I was using the 7424 properly.

If anything, I'd expect the Griot's DA to break on me because they're relatively new to the DA thing and they don't have a long line of tools that are used widely in the Construction industry. The fact that Griot's knows what a DA goes through and then backs up their product tells me a lot.

If I recall, Porter Cable actually never intended the 7424 to be a polisher. Just a thing to apply wax. I remember Porter Cable saying that the 7424 IS NOT intended as a polisher. They don't even tell you what OPMs the thing spins at using the different settings. I think they said not to use it above speed 3.

So now that I think about it, the 7424 was actually a random orbital sander used in woodworking that Porter Cable decided they could make some extra scratch on if they slapped on a foam polishing pad and sell it as just a wax applier even though it has settings that make the thing spin super fast. Now that I really think about it, I just got taken for a ride from Porter Cable. Those Scumbags!

I understand you not wanting another Porter Cable. Kind of a burn me once shame on you...burn me twice shame on me situation. I had the same thing with the Meguires. That machine was built especially for automotive polishing. There were a couple problems with that machine. They showed up when I was half way through the second job the machine was used on. There was a part used on that machine that I could not believe they used.
I don't know much about the Griots...I've heard it has more power than the PC...I have read about more problems with the Griots. As far as warranty goes it is great to have the coverage if something goes wrong...and it sounds like they are great about taking care of customers.
I was looking at the PC schematic on the 7424XP. I don't know if you have the XP or just the 7424 but it looked like the part that broke on yours was a 9.00 part. Granted there would be some work involved but it might be worth looking into. If you can repair it for 10-15.00 and a little labor it would give you a backup machine to use while waiting for a new Griots if that breaks.
Everything said about these machines and quality, warranty, etc. There is a lot to be said about a company that lets people in their factory to watch the machine being built. I would have to say Flex is the best. I like the direct drive also so the machine keeps turning regardless of pressure. There is a pretty substantial price difference but the next machine i will buy will be a Flex.

 

[CaptJon]

Show me anywhere on the box or a written warranty that says that the polisher has a lifetime warranty.

Customers For Life - 100% Guarantee
At Griot's Garage, we want you as a customer for life. Everything you purchase from us comes with a lifetime guarantee against defect. We want you to enjoy our quality products for 180 days and have fun with them! If you don't like it for any reason during this time, return it for a full refund or credit. After that, you're covered with our lifetime guarantee against defect, in which we will either repair it, replace it, or credit your purchase price if we are able to do neither. Some items have a life span during normal use and they wear out. Our warranty does not include replacement of such items after normal use. Of course our guarantee doesn't cover abuse... But you already knew that.
Customers for life. That's our guarantee.

Good enough for me.

 

[CaptJon]

Show me anywhere on the box or a written warranty that says that the polisher has a lifetime warranty.

Customers For Life - 100% Guarantee
At Griot's Garage, we want you as a customer for life. Everything you purchase from us comes with a lifetime guarantee against defect. We want you to enjoy our quality products for 180 days and have fun with them! If you don't like it for any reason during this time, return it for a full refund or credit. After that, you're covered with our lifetime guarantee against defect, in which we will either repair it, replace it, or credit your purchase price if we are able to do neither. Some items have a life span during normal use and they wear out. Our warranty does not include replacement of such items after normal use. Of course our guarantee doesn't cover abuse... But you already knew that.
Customers for life. That's our guarantee.

Good enough for me.

 

[Rsurfer]

Where did you get that quote, from their web-site? That Lifetime Guarantee should read Conditional Guarantee. I know you didn't write it..just saying.

Customers For Life - 100% Guarantee
At Griot's Garage, we want you as a customer for life. Everything you purchase from us comes with a lifetime guarantee against defect. We want you to enjoy our quality products for 180 days and have fun with them! If you don't like it for any reason during this time, return it for a full refund or credit. After that, you're covered with our lifetime guarantee against defect, in which we will either repair it, replace it, or credit your purchase price if we are able to do neither. Some items have a life span during normal use and they wear out. Our warranty does not include replacement of such items after normal use. Of course our guarantee doesn't cover abuse... But you already knew that.
Customers for life. That's our guarantee.

Good enough for me.

 

[CaptJon]

Where did you get that quote, from their web-site? That Lifetime Guarantee should read Conditional Guarantee. I know you didn't write it..just saying.

Copy and paste from their website. Every warranty is conditional and I don't expect miracles from any warranty but theirs is better than the rest of the tools mentioned here.

 

[Rsurfer]

You mean you never heard of a unconditional warranty? I have bought many power tools in my long lifetime and there is always a warranty card with the product. Hell even a cheap $10.00 clock has a warranty card. This is the only time that I have to go to a website and print out a warranty.

Copy and paste from their website. Every warranty is conditional and I don't expect miracles from any warranty but theirs is better than the rest of the tools mentioned here.