I've got a 24v Erbauer combi drill, bought for £47 on Ebay brand new. It’s fantastic, comfortable to hold an abundance of power. I’m not a professional user but I do some serious DIY and refurbs.
I replaced my old cheap and cheerful angle grinder with the Erbauer 115mm again it just feels quality, has sliced through my slate tiles, and at only £30 it’s got to be worth it.
I’d like to know what other Erbauer tool anyone is using.

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The light at the end of the tunnel is only a maniac with a flame thrower.

I've got an erbauer router, this one:-

see here

which seems fine for occasional use. Not got much experience of routers but I did a set of kitchen worktops with 3 mitres involved with it and am pretty proud of the results. Also routed out a pine table top to inset some tiles and it did that with no problem.

I've also got an erbauer tile cutter:-



and here

which I've given some hammer over the past couple of months. No complaints there.

Generally, I'd say it's not pro tooling - but it's halfway decent and it's not pro money.

My dads a kitchen fitter and swears by the erbauer combi drills he has the 18volt and 24volt and 6kg sds hammerdrill also brought the router and mitre saw but found them to be on the big/heavy side compared to his makita router and mitre saw but thats to be expected as the erbauer were a quarter of the price overall he's over the moon with them especially with the 2 year guarantee

Just a note. I've purchased a couple of Erbauer Tools. They work fine for the average DIYer - not really trade grade.

But be warned.

Few, if any, of the tools are supported or offer a stock of spares. Erbauer is a carefully marketed Screwfix 'own brand' (google Erbauer and you get Screwfix). It holds a price position of second from the bottom of Screwfix's range of power tools. Basically, when trade-focused Screwfix was sold to Kingfisher (owns B&Q), they started targeting the DIYer. Brand names tools were/are very expensie to the average weekend warrior, so they introduced a couple of lines to make up the low-end price points (Titan & Erbauer, now, Ferm and Power Devil in the past). In fact, a number of branded suppliers make the tools for them (with the exception of Power Devil).

I'm not 100% sure, but I believed the tools are marketed under 'planned obsolescence' - in other words, you use them for a while, the warranty runs out, and when the tool breaks down, you throw it out and buy a new one. This keeps the market moving by turning over tools regularly (every 2 years or so), rather than offering quality tools that last a relative lifetime.

The folks at Kingfisher are no dopes. They know the DIY market is shrinking so they've introduced pricing strategies like this to keep products (and profits) rolling along. They've done the same thing at B&Q by offering the PowerPro brand of tools.

It's important to keep in mind THERE IS NOTHING ILLEGAL IN THIS. But, from my point of view, it is a bit deceptive. For instance, I suspect they've chosen the name Erbauer because it sounds/looks German (German make = Quality in the average Brit's eyes). Also, they often offer two year warranties on some products, betting that the average DIYer won't use it that often and it will last 2 years - after that, you're on your own matey. The Erbauer price point and "quality features" you find on more upmarket brands make the tools look very attractive. But in fact, their life is short, which means very soon you'll be buying their replacement.

[u]To be fair, Screwfix will replace Erbauer tools during the warranty period with no quibbles[/u]. But nowhere in the advertising do they state that the tools are unsupported or that they are only for "occasional use" and not suited for the Trade.

The buyer beware!

I've got only one Erbauer tool & for what I paid and the moderate use it gets ,who cares in two years if i bin it. Even thought it was cheap I look after it

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Knock Knock Knock........ Stevies home!!!!



nil illegitimus carborundum

You're the perfect customer for Screwfix and Erbauer tools, then Steve. As I mentioned, I have a couple of Erbauer cordless drills and they work fine for light (and likely, moderate) use.

Me, I'm just not a "throw it away" kind of guy.

By the way, I also have a Bosch planer, drill and jig saw, Skill circular saw and Dewalt 12v cordless drill all between 8 and 12 years old (and many other power hand and bench tools less than 8 years old). All are in good working order and well looked after.

A while back, I was taken in by the features and price point (£140) of a 250mm/30 bore Erbauer power mitre. It worked brilliantly right up until it was 2 years and 4 months old, when it broke down due to a suspected motor fault. It's now sharing space at one of our shrinking land fill sites with other 'disposable' power tools. No repairman would or could look at it. I was told that even if they found the fault, they would be unlikely to find spares. Screwfix wouldn't help because it was past its 2 year warranty. Expensive lesson.

Perhaps its Bosch replacement will fare better - even if it does breakdown, at least I know it can be fixed.

do they sell fishing gear to?

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Knock Knock Knock........ Stevies home!!!!



nil illegitimus carborundum

I have an Erbauer SDS plus drill and it is monsterously powerful, and I got it for £63! If it busts within a year screwfix will give a a no quibbles replacement, no sending it off to greenland to be repaired. Excellent! If you aint got hundreds of pounds these type of brands save your life.

since I have had such good service from my erbauer tools I would like to add my experience to this debate. Myself and my colleague have both had the erbauer drill driver with the 14.4v x 1.5ah batteries for some time and had very good service from them.

I work as a fitter and use a drill driver on a daily basis cycling the two batteries round as I recharge them - one battery typically last me about a day and a half.

the erbauer 14.4v drill has been ideal as a drill driver being light enough to be comfortable to handle but plenty of torque and staying power for fixing screws all day.

Using them on a trade basis I have got through a few drills of various makes (I always buy the better ones and the normal pattern is that the batteries last a year or two and then I pass them on to someone to use on a DIY basis)

When my collegue bought the erbauer I was sceptical as I never buy cheap tools - I cant afford them as being let down costs me time and money.

However after he had used his for a while I thought I would give it a go as it seemed cheap and cheerful - but it has surprised me buy outperforming several drills I have had in the past - notably Bosch who I think have produced some crap lately, after several rubbish ones I have given up with them.

I only found this thread as its now come to the end of its professional life (and will be passed on to a diyer who does not mind a shortened battery life) and I was looking up a replacement on the internet.

I have had it so long I cant remember (and cant be bothered to look it up in my accounts) but it has been more than adequate with an exemplary battery life (I think I have been using it on a daily basis for 2 or 3 years, but I honestly cant remember).

My only quibble is with the screwfix catalogue, which illustrate the model I have been using, with its 2 x 14.4v 1.5ah batteries with a different model to the spec. In the illustration it is shown with a 14.4v 2.0ah battery which can be bought seperately and is not compatible.

I am hoping the quality is same as it was a few years ago when I bought my first erbauer. I am now getting a 14.4v erbauer drill driver with li ion batteries, lets hope its ok!

ps the other battery power tool I use daily is a 24v or 36v sds drill, as far as I can remember I have so far been through two or three bosch, a makita and currently a hitachi, they usually last a couple of years until the batteries give up. In my opinion the design of the bosch has gone backwards and although they manufacture what I want, they wont sell it in one package. I need 2 decent batteries, which they make, but they wont sell in a pack with a drill, they only sell them with one good battery and a crap one. Whats the point of that? Also various other design gripes, too numerous to list here. The Makita battery charger packed up long before the batteries, but luckily there was one I could borrow. The Hitachi 36v li ion is doing ok so far touch wood.

my dad has the erbauer circular saw and reckons it's great. having said that, his last circ saw was a black and decker "attachment" for an electric drill, about 30 years old, so i'm not sure if it's a fair comparison

ok, cheap tools are designed to be replaced in a few years, but in my experience pro tools are no different. I am on my third set of bosch professional batteries in 4 years - it costs more to buy the batteries than it does a new tool with batteries included, so you may as well just buy a new drill.

Also, i had a bosch cordless drill that needed a new motor - cost £75. You can buy the whole tool naked for about £100

spare parts, and especially batteries, are extortionately expensive for pro tools, often making repair not worthwhile.

I do buy mostly quality tools and have the likes of Makita, De Walt, Elu and the like but have to admit that the price of cheap tools nowadays it is sometimes worth buying a few compared to one to quality one. Lets face it we live in a throw away society and nothing is made to last any more. I have a Makita drill driver I have had for almost fifteen years now and it does get used a lot and one of the original batteries has just given up the ghost! I have no doubt that the new tools will not last that long and I have also just bought another Makita driver and don't expect the same service from this one. To quality is a thing of the past I am sorry to say and everything is made to a price. You just have to choose how much you want to pay for how long it will last. Yes there is the backup with more expensive tools but at a price! It is not just tools but everything you buy today just look at the latest cars on the road lots of goodies with them but no real build quality...unless you are willing to sell your soul to the devil of course.

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Never enough hours in the day!
http://www.alanwilley.co.uk/

Shareholders are the root cause of the poor quality of goods these days!

Shareholders simply want the biggest dividens they can get, which means businesses have to show increasing profit by any means they can.

There is no direct short-term profit in producing quality goods that last a lifetime.

The succesfull business today builds just enough qaulity into an item that when it fails the consumer does not feel so cheater they feel the need to stop buying that brand.

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Don't buy a dwarf with learning difficulties,
It's not big and it's not clever.

I have just bought an Erbauer random orbit sander:

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/25038/Power-Tools/Grinders/Erbauer-ERB108SDR-300W-Random-Orbit-Sander-230V

to replace the even cheaper Titan random orbit sander:

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/19999/Power-Tools/Sanders/Titan-SF430B-430W-Random-Orbit-Sander

I bought the Titan in June '08 and it started making a high pitch whining noise the last couple of weeks. It died last week and I got a no quibble refund from screwfix as it had a one year guarantee. The Erbauer has two years - and I'm happy with it so far (lighter and quieter too). I'd love to buy a top notch brand, but occasional DIY use can't justify the expense. These cheaper tools make DIY affordable despite the compromise on quality and longevity.

LB.