Renting tools kind of stinks. I get reminded of this from time to time and I wanted to share some of the reasons why. I’ll use hardwood floor sanding machines as my example because that’s what I’ve had most experience with. I’ve been installing and finishing/refinishing hardwood floors for about 6 years now and have just recently purchased my own Lagler Trio sanding machine. Prior to that purchase I had been renting machines from our local big box stores.
My biggest problem with the rented equipment would be the lack of maintenance performed on them. It’s basically a crapshoot when you are picking up a piece of equipment from one of these places. You don’t know how the last person treated it but you’ve got a feeling it wasn’t that great. And the rental departments don’t do much more than blowing them off with compressed air between uses.
Another issue I discovered with the machines available for rent is the lack of power they offer. I didn’t realize this until traveling to Denver, CO last year where I visited Lagler North American headquarters and tried their machines while taking the Premium Sanding Training course. I’ll attach the spec sheets side by side at the bottom of this post so you can see what I mean. The major difference with the 110V rental units vs. 220V professional machines.
There are a lot of other issues with rented tools that I’ll touch upon on it later post. These were the major two for me that I thought were worth sharing. Take a minute to check out these specs and let me know in the comments what you think. Thanks for taking the time to read.
Lagler Trio:
Verathane ezV Sander:
American Sanders Random Orbit Sander: