Anybody else who uses ALDI Ferrex tools?

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

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At the start of the year we needed a new lawn mower and saw a cordless Ferrex one in ALDI so bought it with a charger and battery. We were that impressed I drove back to ALDI and bought the hedge trimmers that use the same battery. Not as good as my Pro Bosch electric ones but not far off.
A couple of weeks later there appeared a power drill, impact driver and angle grinder so I bought them plus another spare battery and charger.
Over the last 8 months I stored my expensive tools away and used only these tools on many jobs - I have 4 houses to look after and I can honestly say they feel just as good as my Makita's etc so I think these tools are made by a big company who put the Ferrex name on them.
This morning I've bought an SDS Rotary Hammer drill with an addon normal twist chuck for £30. I got it home and it's brilliant, obviously not as good as my Kress I bought for nearly £300 in 1990 but good enough for small jobs around the house.
I've also bought a few more Ferrex bits & pieces plus the Workzone bag for £16.99 this morning.

I know a few of you will be smirking but from someone who has done a lot of DIY since 1980 I'm very impressed.

ferrex.jpg
 
What puts me off is the lack of permanent availablity. You have to wait for them to have them in and know telling when they'll have what you want.
I decided a while ago to stick to Dewalt.
 
robj20 said:
What puts me off is the lack of permanent availablity. You have to wait for them to have them in and know telling when they'll have what you want.
I decided a while ago to stick to Dewalt.
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That is the problem and also the reason why I bought two batteries and two chargers.
If anything fails then I have name backups until it can be replaced but they do seem like they are made by a named company.
Working at Creda we put the names of Hotpoint, Belling, Ariston, Indesit on our products.
When I bought my Kress drill in 1990 I was told that Kress made Makita but sold their own brand cheaper.
 
Not just the batteries, actual tools, for instance the other day I wanted to add a circular saw to my collection. You couldn't just go and get a Ferrex one, where you can with the big brands.
Shame really as for DIY they're plenty good enough I'd imagine.
 
Not Aldi but I have quite a few Parkside power and hand tools from Lidl and the quality is really good. The prices are excellent and the three year warranty is much better than most of the big names. I have had Black and Decker, Bosch and other big brand names in the past but the quality on those seem to be getting less and less while brands such as Parkside, Mac Allister and others have been getting better. Yes, it's a pain you have to wait until they have them in on certain weeks but when they do I usually buy something new as you can never have too many tools.
 
robj20 said:
Not just the batteries, actual tools, for instance the other day I wanted to add a circular saw to my collection. You couldn't just go and get a Ferrex one, where you can with the big brands.
Shame really as for DIY they're plenty good enough I'd imagine.
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They have got the cordless Ferrex circular saws at our ALDI but the last few wood cutting jobs have been done with my angle grinder with wood cutting disc so I haven't bothered.
I also have a wired Bosch Professional just in case.

I can see me just getting one now :)
They also have a cordless polisher but I can't think of one job for that.
 
I'm in the 'dangerously semi-confident' class of simple domestic DIYer, and I work on the principle that the less I spend on tools, the more money I'll have left to pay for someone to sort my messes out. However Aldi/Ferrex have allowed me to build up a collection of environmentally wasteful dust-gather... I mean, occasionally very useful tools, which are remarkably competent even in my hands, so -- touch wood -- there have been no major messes so far.

I don't have any of the Activ battery range, but I do have quite a few of the standard 18V bits of kit now and the batteries are all usefully interchangeable.

My only Ferrex embarrassment is a £17 mains jigsaw I bought three years ago. Despite many attempts and much staring at the manual, I've never been able to get the blades in/out properly, so they get tapped in with a hammer and pulled out with pliers and swearing. I do it in the garage, with the doors shut, in case a passer-by sees my shameful man-job incompetence. But it cuts like a charm, despite my attempts to ruin it.

I draw the line at circular saws though. I enjoy playing the guitar too much to risk my fingers. Besides, without a Dick Strawbridge/Escape to the Chateau type workshop to work in, there's only so much under-used kit you can squeeze into a single garage.

PapaLazaru said:
Not heard of them, but had started looking for a new multitool and will take a punt on theirs at £20 so cheers.
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I bought one quite recently, it's very solid, reassuringly heavy, and seems very capable. I haven't done more than a few tests with it, but it's one of those bits of kit which can really earn its keep when something awkward needs doing. I suspect mine will see most use as a sander though.
 
cant fault them .. aldi that is most of the stuff is cheap and lasts a while .. had a chainsaw from them .. chain jumped and damaged the unit after 4 weeks .. my fault really but took it back and they gave me a new one .. no questions asked .. :)
was looking at the drill press .. but wife said no as i would never use it .. :P
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I never realised how good an impact driver can be until I bought the Ferrex because it was cheap.
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Oh, indeed. Impact drivers kind of snuck up on me because they seemed like a tool for professional screwers. But this year I needed to build some planters in the garden to contain bamboo for screening (poxy neighbours and their new extension) and I used it as an excuse to get the Ferrex when it popped up in my 'available now' emails. Earned its keep in no time at all, using heavy duty screws! But now I'm the impact driver equivalent of 'if you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail'.

flea.rider said:
but wife said no as i would never use it .. :p
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She really hasn't got the hang of this DIY business, has she. It a third kind of domestic insurance... house, contents, and OMG I need to fix* this now! Having said that, if I got one I'd just end up doing what I did in woodwork at school... make endless neat rows of holes in a bit of waste wood. It's the woodwork equivalent of popping bubble wrap.

*make slightly less broken
 
Bought most of the 20v ecosystem from Lidl to do some projects during lockdown and seen to have held up well. They seem to pop up on two month rotations. 3 year warranty is also a bonus.
 
I’ve got a number of the Parkside tools from Lidl which I assume are the same brand (I read somewhere that there’s only 5-6 companies making all the tool brands between them).

Can’t fault them so far, but I’m only a light DIY user of such things.
 
I'm quite heavily invested in Dewalt 18v range for my everyday tools, but have several Aldi/Lidl range occasional use tools all 240v, the best being a Aldi powercraft 4" grinder which has had 12 years of abuse and only needed one change of brushes, the Lidl Parkside tools have been hit or miss with me though with a few being returned under warranty after failure.
 
I use DeWalt for all my main kit and Aldi/Macalister for tools that I will only use once in a blue moon.

Currently have the lawnmower, strimmer, grinder, jigsaw and SDS. They all do their bit for the chuckaway money that they cost. The biggest improvement is the SDS because you can now use the other batteries. The old one couldn't. It'll knock 6mm holes in stuff all day long, which is ideal for the weight of it.

Like everything with Aldi though, they could have a change of mind and scrap the activ battery system and move on to something else.

Is the quality of longevity there in the kit? No, not really, the brushes will go at some point and good luck finding any spare parts.
 
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