Mafell UX 150 E

The Mafell UX150 is a massive pile of c**p. The UK importers were a couple of Northern wide boys who sounded like they operated out of a caravan in Sheffield.

I had to return mine twice as the gears went, in the end I got so fed up I threw it in the bin, second biggest tool buying mistake I ever made.

On the plus side, if you don't use it often and want to impress women and small children by being manly enough to actually hold onto it using a piece of P40 grit on an uneven surface... with one hand, well, go for it.

Someone had to do it, push the envelope I mean and produce a sander so stupidly powerful that it tears itself apart. There is a reason that the Festool RO150 (have two of), Bosch GEX150AC Turbo (had two of) and Makita BO6030 (had one of) are around 600 to 750W max, because they have worked out that any more power just eats the sander quicktime.

I have also had several Makita 6030's, Metabo SXE450 duos (original non turbo version) and use sanders for several hundred hours a year.

Mafell look like quality tools to me and my sample size is only one but I have an enormous amount of sanding experience (in the thousands of hours) using all the available alternatives and it would seem the Mafell is just stupid. No one can hold onto a Rotex or GEX150AC Turbo with P24 or P40 grit on an uneven surface for more than a couple of minutes or so without instantly getting joint damage. The 900W Mafell is simply a bridge too far.

I mean, what breaks on these forced rotation RO sanders? The gears. And the backing plate nut. Very occasionally the motor.

In order of power low to high:

Metabo SXE 450 (not a true forced rotation sander) undue backing pad nut regularly or will bind with resin in wood dust and heat and will not be removable , mine cost £100 to repair, had to replace backing pad, plate and bearing, never the same. (I had 2, one broke)

Makita BO6040 Almost as powerful as the Bosch and Festool, dust extraction noticeably worse. (I had one, never broke down, sold it, still going)

Bosch GEX150AC TURBO Virtually same power as Festool, before both of mine died within a month of each other I would of said go for the Bosch as it's almost the same as the Festool, in reality the dust extraction is slightly worse but apart from the lack of pad guard I prefer the ergonomics on the hand (had 2 of, both broke, one suspected gears, which is normal, the other unknown electrical, didn't check brushes, I ran out of confidence and sold both)

Festool RO150 Similar power to the Makita and Bosch, better dust extraction (MUCH better than the Makita and much better than the Bosch at edges and at angles but otherwise on flat surfaces not so much difference) The fast fix pad is genius and solves the seized on allen bolt which happened on 4 or 5 of my sanders (inc my Makita BO6030, BO6040, Metabo SXE450DUO and Bosch GEX150AC TURBO's) only down side is having to make extra holes in the pad to fit non Festool discs as they are idiot money for the same or worse performance compared to Mirka Silver, 3M 245 Hookit / 3M 255P+ / 3m Cubitron 334U / 734U. The only downside to the Festool is the higher initial cost, the need to get creative with abrasives (using 6 hole pattern means slightly more dust) and the poor ergonomics of the switch placement on top of the holding area! which hurts your hand after a few hours and the plug it lead which has it's uses, one of which is randomly coming lose annoying intervals. I know from colleagues that the gears eventually go on the Festool too and when they do it's cheaper to eBay it for spares and buy a new one but so far it seems like it will outlast the Bosch.

Mafell UX150 No one in their right mind would buy one if they knew the major cause of failure for these types of sanders was gear cannabalism. I have no idea why anyone would need a 900W sander and every idea why all sensible companies only make 750W max sanders of the forced rotation kind. I always tend to go for the most powerful tool, in this case I was wrong!

If you don't want to get ripped off with Festool abrasives (which you don't) and you don't sand for hours EVERY week, then go for the Bosch Turbo, it is, essentially a Rotex with half price backing pads and abrasives with only slightly worse dust extraction. Likewise the Makita but the dust extraction is really quite poor and its not much cheaper than the Bosch so I can't see the point unless you are poor. Only get the Rotex if you sand almost EVERY week, for hours on end, just be prepared to reverse engineer your backing pad / accept a little more dust or stump up for Festools blatant rip off abrasive prices, the protector guard IS useful, the backing pad IS the best the dust extraction (with the Festool pattern discs) IS the best and it probably IS better VFM in the longterm, when it goes pop in three or four years time just palm it off to a wannabe Festool fanboy on the eBay for £50quid the sustainer and plugin lead are worth that alone.

Mafell. I SO wanted to like it. Mafell on the surface appear to me to be like Fein, Festool and Hilti i.e. VERY good at specific things. I am sure there are things which Mafell make which crap over all others, forced rotation RO sanders, unfortunately are NOT one of them! You have been warned.