- Thread starter NeilH
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msmbus2000
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i have one of there compressors and a few air tools, ok for light work load...had them for around 2-3 yrs now and no complaints. But would spend the extra ££££ for a better name
Ragnarok
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i've got a die grinder and compressor 100l 3hp one, had the compresser about 5 years+ die grinder a bit less, and they've been fine, the compresser has had a lot of use, not so much the die grinder, the die grinder isn't the nicest around, but does the job, the only aldi tool i ever got was a saw and it went wrong with in a couple of hours of getting home, took it back the same day, got a refund, never got any aldi tools again, the proper brands are worth it, even if its just sealey or something.
blenkie1
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Got a SIP metal bandsaw (made in taiwan) and its great. Picked it up for £200. We have about 5 SIP 350 amp mig welders at work and had no major problems. One even survived being dragged into a wagon pit! Aldi tools are hit and miss got a 9" grinder a couple of years ago for about £20(?) and use it daily with no problems.
i found a local tool shop selling this stuff. the prices are unbelievable...you know when something is just too good to be true???
i was going to buy machine mart stuff, purely for the aftersales...ie national company/warrenty/parts availability..
im not stupid with money, but at the same time i dont want to spend a lot of money on stuff thats crap. "do it nice or do it twice" is the saying innit
a hydraulic press is just one of the things i want to buy, so ill use that as an example:
30ton hydraulic press from SIP £660
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SIP-30-TON-PNEUMATIC-FLOOR-PRESS-HYDRAULIC-SHOP-PRESS-/150497090835?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item230a535d13
25ton machine mart press £860
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CLARKE-25-TON-H-DUTY-HYDRAULIC-FLOOR-PRESS-V-BLOCKS-/400156876089?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5d2b355d39
£200 less for more pressure, go figure....
i was going to buy machine mart stuff, purely for the aftersales...ie national company/warrenty/parts availability..
im not stupid with money, but at the same time i dont want to spend a lot of money on stuff thats crap. "do it nice or do it twice" is the saying innit
a hydraulic press is just one of the things i want to buy, so ill use that as an example:
30ton hydraulic press from SIP £660
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SIP-30-TON-PNEUMATIC-FLOOR-PRESS-HYDRAULIC-SHOP-PRESS-/150497090835?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item230a535d13
25ton machine mart press £860
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CLARKE-25-TON-H-DUTY-HYDRAULIC-FLOOR-PRESS-V-BLOCKS-/400156876089?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5d2b355d39
£200 less for more pressure, go figure....
I've got a SIP inverter which I got because it had been used for factory maintenance for a couple of years until it died and it was too expensive to get fixed, so got skipped.
SIP were no help at all in getting it fixed, no reply to an email asking for technical details.
It turns out that this one was made by Deca in Italy. I suspect that SIP don't have the technical details, they just order them, with their printing on, and sell them.
They used to make a thing of some of their inverters being made in Italy, and they weren't particularly cheap. They're marketing a couple of new inverter ranges, with apparently a better spec, but they don't claim they are made in Italy.
The inverter I've got looks as if it had a hard life with holes burned in the case and a crease in the case where something had dropped on it. It now works pretty well.
However, looking at the spec for the inverter, I feel a bit uneasy, they quote a duty cycle, but don't say which temperature it's at. They quote a number of rods you can burn per hour, which fits with the duty cycle, but don't say at what temperature. It all suggests hinting at something customers would like to believe or might assume, without actually fibbing, like duty cycles quoted for 10 minutes and 40C, which is a bit different from duty cycles at 20C.
If I was buying a new inverter, I don't think I'd be looking at SIP. RTech, Tech-ARC or IFL would be my inclination.
i've also got a SIP auto-darkening helmet. It's probably the same as most of the others for around £50-£60. I haven't have any problems in the six months I've had it and it works very well. The reason I bought it was because it was a local across the counter sale and it would be easy to take back if it went wrong.
I can't comment on the other stuff they sell, woodworking machinery and so on. I suppose it would depend on the price. I've got a general idea that SIP stuff isn't premium grade, but isn't rubbish either. They try to make something of the SIP brand but don't have the back up you'd expect from a top name.
SIP were no help at all in getting it fixed, no reply to an email asking for technical details.
It turns out that this one was made by Deca in Italy. I suspect that SIP don't have the technical details, they just order them, with their printing on, and sell them.
They used to make a thing of some of their inverters being made in Italy, and they weren't particularly cheap. They're marketing a couple of new inverter ranges, with apparently a better spec, but they don't claim they are made in Italy.
The inverter I've got looks as if it had a hard life with holes burned in the case and a crease in the case where something had dropped on it. It now works pretty well.
However, looking at the spec for the inverter, I feel a bit uneasy, they quote a duty cycle, but don't say which temperature it's at. They quote a number of rods you can burn per hour, which fits with the duty cycle, but don't say at what temperature. It all suggests hinting at something customers would like to believe or might assume, without actually fibbing, like duty cycles quoted for 10 minutes and 40C, which is a bit different from duty cycles at 20C.
If I was buying a new inverter, I don't think I'd be looking at SIP. RTech, Tech-ARC or IFL would be my inclination.
i've also got a SIP auto-darkening helmet. It's probably the same as most of the others for around £50-£60. I haven't have any problems in the six months I've had it and it works very well. The reason I bought it was because it was a local across the counter sale and it would be easy to take back if it went wrong.
I can't comment on the other stuff they sell, woodworking machinery and so on. I suppose it would depend on the price. I've got a general idea that SIP stuff isn't premium grade, but isn't rubbish either. They try to make something of the SIP brand but don't have the back up you'd expect from a top name.
I've got an Aldi angle grinder which I only use with a wire brush. I'd guess it's got about an hour's running time on it and it seems OK. It's not a nice angle grinder, it's 4.5" but it's a bit like a miniature 9". I was really curious about how easier life would be with individual angle grinders for cutting, grind and brushing, and it's very much more convenient. As for the quality, I'd say it's a cut above the £12 grinders, but you don't pick it up and think, "This feels as if it's the business", which you do with Makita etc.
The only other tools I've bought from there were 3 1metre SDS drills for a tenner and five 60cm SDS drills for a tenner. These have been used to make holes for 12cm ventilation pipes in 2' 6" thick limestone walls. Each 12cm hole involves drilling about 25 holes with an SDS drill and chiselling out. I thought the ALDI drills would do a couple 12cm holes before they were all knackered. As it tums out, we've made five of these 12cm holes, using two of the drills and the drills are still fine. Looking at the prices of 60cm and 1 metre SDS drills elsewhere, these were a steal.
However, I don't doubt what you say about the saw and I suspect the quality of the ALDI tools is very variable.
Ragnarok
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yeah, i guess some could be ok, but when the saw i had went wrong it was actually in quite a dangerous way, the trigger jammed on, so i had to pull the hose of with it still running, and also the sides of the slid where really rough and had grated about half way through the alloy piston, all in all a really badly made zero quality controle item, at least i got my £20 back, got a sealey one right after cause i hadn't finished the job, cost twice as much but that was over a year ago the sealey one is totally fine runs well and just works better, even if you ignore the fact that the aldi went wrong and was wearing out very fast.
all my electric power tools are bosch, and i think that £45 is worth it for a bosch grinder over the cheapo ones, you'll get a lot of use out of it and in it's life you'll get through a lot more in discs than the tool it self is worth, in the long run it'll be cheaper more than likely, my last one lasted 7 years i think, got the same one now.
all my electric power tools are bosch, and i think that £45 is worth it for a bosch grinder over the cheapo ones, you'll get a lot of use out of it and in it's life you'll get through a lot more in discs than the tool it self is worth, in the long run it'll be cheaper more than likely, my last one lasted 7 years i think, got the same one now.
I have friend who buys power tools for a small factory, angle grinders, drills and jigsaws. He estimates they run them for half an hour a day. Sometimes they are given things by reps and sometimes he decides to experiment.
Cheap 12 quid jigsaws last about a week, Ryobi (£50) a couple of months, Blue Bosch (£125) have too many stupid faults such as internal connections coming undone, and Bosch don't want to know. They used to always buy Green Bosch but these days they are rubbish. B&D and DeWalt are worth spit on the floor. Makita (£125) last about a year and are eventually thrown away because they've been dropped and knocked about so much that they become hopeless. AEG and Metabo are no better than Makita are dearer, and spares support isn't as good.
Drills; Makita with a keyed chuck and they last about a year until the bearings go. Other stuff lasts a few weeks at best and some of the cheap rubbish is surprisingly good, but doesn't work out as well as Makita. B&D are worth spit on the floor.
Angle grinders: Blue Bosch or Makita, but usually Makita. The Blue Bosch angle grinders don't seem to have the silly problems the drills and jigsaws have but Makita are slightly preferred. They've had Metabo and AEG, but they settled on Blue Bosch or Makita. Blue Bosh and Makita angle grinders last about a year until the gears strip. Cheapies last about a week.
Cheap 12 quid jigsaws last about a week, Ryobi (£50) a couple of months, Blue Bosch (£125) have too many stupid faults such as internal connections coming undone, and Bosch don't want to know. They used to always buy Green Bosch but these days they are rubbish. B&D and DeWalt are worth spit on the floor. Makita (£125) last about a year and are eventually thrown away because they've been dropped and knocked about so much that they become hopeless. AEG and Metabo are no better than Makita are dearer, and spares support isn't as good.
Drills; Makita with a keyed chuck and they last about a year until the bearings go. Other stuff lasts a few weeks at best and some of the cheap rubbish is surprisingly good, but doesn't work out as well as Makita. B&D are worth spit on the floor.
Angle grinders: Blue Bosch or Makita, but usually Makita. The Blue Bosch angle grinders don't seem to have the silly problems the drills and jigsaws have but Makita are slightly preferred. They've had Metabo and AEG, but they settled on Blue Bosch or Makita. Blue Bosh and Makita angle grinders last about a year until the gears strip. Cheapies last about a week.
Ragnarok
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i've got a blue bosch sds drill, and a blue bosch angle grinder, had a couple other things to and they have been excellent, my first bosch grinder got loads of use 100s of discs loads of sanding used it most days including a lot of cutting 16mm steel at one point (with a 4.5" as i didn't have a 9") that grinder lasted 7 years until i got damp and a couple of wires in the motor shorted out and blew, got pretty much the same grinder right after and it's still going strong, the SDS has been perfect too drilled 18mm holes in 16mm steel chiselled and drilled loads of concrete, in my experience the bosch stuff is excellent, i don't much like the makita stuff, have a sander by them actually forgot about that haha it's been ok got it cause it was on offer.
i like bosch and metabo nice and tough and long lasting, out of all the stuff i've used and had (AEG, Dewalt, makita, metabo, bosch, B&D, atlas copco are they still around?) metabo and bosch seem best to me, probably metabo abit better than bosch, i'm planning on getting a metabo cordless soon, so I'll see how well that lasts.
I do look after my stuff though, don't drop them drop stuff on them, wack them about or anything like that, so i'm not the best person to test toughness i guess haha tests the machinery well for what it's made to do though
i like bosch and metabo nice and tough and long lasting, out of all the stuff i've used and had (AEG, Dewalt, makita, metabo, bosch, B&D, atlas copco are they still around?) metabo and bosch seem best to me, probably metabo abit better than bosch, i'm planning on getting a metabo cordless soon, so I'll see how well that lasts.
I do look after my stuff though, don't drop them drop stuff on them, wack them about or anything like that, so i'm not the best person to test toughness i guess haha tests the machinery well for what it's made to do though
The boyz 'n' girlz in that place treat the power tools like rubbish. The jigsaws get perched on a fence 5ft high and pulled off by the leads and are caught - or not, and hit the concrete. Leads are cut through routinely. Even if they were used carefully, it would be a hard life.
Some of those people can do in a cheap jigsaw in a morning, usually, they last a week. Makita seems to put up with the abuse the best.
I suppose there's abuse and abuse.
Some of those people can do in a cheap jigsaw in a morning, usually, they last a week. Makita seems to put up with the abuse the best.
I suppose there's abuse and abuse.
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We have a 3l SIP compressor, and although i was sceptical about how good it would be (bought in an emergency), it is ok. Run sometimes 4-5 hours a day some days on spraying duties with no problems. Not sure about other SIP stuff, can't really comment.
Grinders - now all ours are either blue Bosch or Makita. I prefer the Bosch for balance and comfort of use, although Makita seem to have the edge on reliability. Couple of the Bosch ones have now had new armatures and bits of repairs done to them. Makitas seem to just keep on going.
Grinders - now all ours are either blue Bosch or Makita. I prefer the Bosch for balance and comfort of use, although Makita seem to have the edge on reliability. Couple of the Bosch ones have now had new armatures and bits of repairs done to them. Makitas seem to just keep on going.
