Power Tools & General Tools Recommendations & Advice
- Thread starter Nightglow
- Start date
Soldato
This is what happens when you buy something that looks like BP, but ultimately is not Bosch Pro.
This. The Bosch version has a spring loaded button that locks the blades in place. No way those are falling out
Soldato
Yeah, they are crap, I have the older version of one and any serious work and the blades come loose.. also the number of times mines sprung open is not funny.
I'm going to get one of those bosch ones linked above, it seems to address all the issues I have with the FatMax Pro..
…and right on queue:
Ferocious blaze as e-bike explodes at Sutton railway station https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68744317
Purchased from an online marketplace, not even plugged in/charging and it still goes boom….
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Caporegime
Why do we put up with this from "online marketplaces"? Pass a law holding Amazon, AliExpress, eBay and everyone else directly responsible for ensuring that all goods sold through their store fronts meet relevant legislation. Shops are, why aren't these outfits?
Soldato
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I completely agree with this. Although how do you put that into place if the website is operated out of China?
People still use wish, temu etc price is still the most important thing even when there is a safety issue.
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Makita BL1850 18V LXT 5.0Ah Li-Ion Battery
Decent price.
Caporegime
It does become more difficult. But these outfits still need to take payment and deliver into the UK; if they do not comply with regulation then these are effective points with which to apply pressure.
These rules are already in place and the products anre required to be safely certified.
Ultimately, if it’s not sold by them (only Amazon does direct sales, the rest don’t), they can’t QC and lot of safety certificates are also faked. It’s not practical for them to review every product and every listing, particularly when things are being shipped in from overseas.
Ultimately, if it’s not sold by them (only Amazon does direct sales, the rest don’t), they can’t QC and lot of safety certificates are also faked. It’s not practical for them to review every product and every listing, particularly when things are being shipped in from overseas.
Caporegime
Clearly the current rules are wildly insufficient. What punishment do they receive for failures like this one?
They could if they wanted to. They choose not to because it's cheap for them.
Soldato
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It’s similar to fake product, they struggle/don’t do anything about that either. It’s super hard to police.
In this case though it’s not as if they’re trying to trick anyone. You know it’s a knock off, you know it won’t work as well or last as long before you even buy. So on the face of it there’s no real infringement taking place.
Caporegime
It's obviously impossible to reduce the problem to zero; but the absolutely casual attitude of online marketplaces has made things much worse over recent years. Or, at least, that's the impression I have. I suppose that might just be a case of media distortion.
Anyway, we've wondered off topic so I think I'll leave it here
The company whose goods it is can be fined and prosecuted. Good luck enforcing that overseas.
Practically no, they don’t handle the good directly. CE marking and certification can be faked/manipulated.
You only have to get your product certified once. The product may have a genuine safety certificate but that may have no bearing on what the customer actually gets. You’ve got no idea what cells they are using from one week to the next.
Mrs Sk8 ordered some phone chargers off Amazon and they didn’t even have the regulatory logos on them despite being advertised as such. Needless to say, they didn’t get plugged in.
These issues only ever come up after the fact and by this point the business is in the wind. Good luck enforcing anything in China.
If people didn’t buy it, the problem goes away.
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THere is a difference in something being asthetically poorer quality or not last as long, and something not being CE/UK approved for safety and merely having a CE sticker.
Amazon do "sold and fulfilled by", "fulfilled by" and then there are the all the other companies selling. The first one, Amazon has an obligation to check CE compliance. THe second one, I don't know as they are storing and shipping, but are not the importer. But for all of them Amazon makes a profit, and possibly makes more profit than the seller does. But it is practically not possible for amazon to check that everything that is sold to addresses within the UK from abroad via their platform are compliant with legislation, and still have the type of marketplace they currently have.
To bring the thread back on target, one assumes it is entirely possible to make compatible batteries that are every bit as safe as the makita ones, and sell them a lot cheaper. So there is a double whammy thing going on. A lot won't go near a 3rd party because it's impossible to make a determination as to the safety, and so there isn't really a market for a 3rd party that wants to make a good, safe CE/UK compliant non-oem product. And therefore Makita do not have a competitor in the battery business and can price the batteries accordingly high.
What it needs is someone like ASDA or Lidl to do it, someone with BIG selling power that has a good reputation that people will trust would't sell dangerous stuff. Although Lidl is a bad example as they have their own very successful brand of cordless powertools so they won't be doing it. Of course they'd need to figure out how to get around the problem of implementing a Makita proprietary plug-in standard.
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Agreed in principle but to build a comparable product, to the same standard/spec and paying for the use of the original manufacturers IP, there would be no profit in it. Hence you get dodgy knockoffs.
Not really no, they need to be competitive with Dewalt beside them, the likes of Festool and Hilti above them and Stanley, Ryobi etc. below them.
They can’t unless they licence the IP from Makita etc and that isn’t happening. Getting sued by a tool company for coping their patented product is not worth their time or the legal costs when they get sued. Why would they bother when they ah e their own line of good value tools.
The only reason these eBay/Amazon sellers get away with it is because they are small fly by night businesses based in China where they can’t be held to account.
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Soldato
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I’ve got loads of Hilti tools and their batteries are a complete joke. The price is insane.
There isn’t a 3rd party battery for them as they aren’t mainstream enough and in the UK at least have to be bought through an area manager or shop.
They take the absolute **** with their prices for them >£150 inc vat for their 2.6ah battery.
I don’t even think the others even make one that small.
A 3rd party battery flooding the market would make them drop the prices, which would benefit everyone on their rip off platform.
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Pretty sure they do, in 18V form I have 2x 2ah DeWalt and 2X of their brand new 1.7ah power stack batteries which use pouch cells rather then cylindrical.
Those prices are a pee take though. The most I paid for a single unit was £39 for the new power stack's.
EDIT: just found my receipt, I paid £20 for each of the 2ah packs from screw fix in 2020, that was a deal.
EDIT2: If anyone spots any Dewalt Flexvolt deals, do post them here I could do with picking one up.
Those prices are a pee take though. The most I paid for a single unit was £39 for the new power stack's.
EDIT: just found my receipt, I paid £20 for each of the 2ah packs from screw fix in 2020, that was a deal.
EDIT2: If anyone spots any Dewalt Flexvolt deals, do post them here I could do with picking one up.
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Soldato
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I just never see them on the deals, they’re normally 2 x 5ah kits, so just blindly assumed that that would be the smallest they do!
I periodically check powertoolmate they have flash deals on all the time most of the time they’re pretty good and you have to resit just buying things for the sake of it!
For example the 2ah dewalt is on a flash deal at the moment for £25 they sell 2 x 2ah packs for £55. That’s no bad considering you paid £20 for it 4 years ago in this current climate.
The little batteries get a lot of 'stick' for being not big enough but I really like them, they provide for a much better balanced tool than their larger cousins and they are more than big enough for DIY.
I only get the big ones out for the high draw tools like the circular saw, leaf blower, grinder etc.
I only get the big ones out for the high draw tools like the circular saw, leaf blower, grinder etc.