Flex DA

[Carfire]

Unfortunately while I was detailing a atrocious looking black Honda Civic one day, my Meguiar's Dual Action Polisher broke. The polisher only would do one speed, and then ended up just dying completely. I did email Meguiar's on the issue and they told me to send in it. I have thought for a couple of months about sending it in, but however I decided not to. Do not get me wrong I really liked the polisher and had countless details, and made it more than worth it to own. Either I will go with out an polisher or buy a new one. Recently I have thought about buying the Flex DA. I have read, and seen many great posts on this polisher. However I do have one question: For those who have the polisher; Is it really worth the extra money? And also if you have used another polisher how does it compare? Thanks in advance for any input, feedback and suggestions.

[HCAD]

Re: Flex DA

Go ahead and send in the Meg's DA, it's likely just in need of new brushes on the motor. These machines are pretty simple and can last for many years with the occassional cleaning and replacing the brushes. It's always worth having as a second tool even if you decide to buy the Flex.

As for the Flex, I have the 3401 and love it. It's quite a bit beefier and longer than the Meg's, so it will take a little getting used to. Also, the forced rotation will demand that you hold on to it a bit more cautiously than your Meg's. But in the end, once you do a couple of jobs with it, it will just give you that feeling of confidence to get the job done without having to go to a rotary.

[Carfire]

Re: Flex DA

Thanks for the advice. I think my machine may be out of warranty due to timing, while having another machine would be nice. I am not sure if getting it fixed would be necessary, or needed. But I really do appreciate what you said about the Flex. I have heard great things about it, and thinking of getting that over another Meguiar's DA. The sad thing is people want me to polish their car and I don't have a polisher that works which such. And the vehicles are a little too big and messed up to do it by hand.

[greg0303]

Re: Flex DA

Flex XC 3401 VRG is often called a D/A polisher on steroids. Let's say - if your regular D/A needs 6 passes to remove all defects Flex can do it with 3-4 passes. Its forced rotation makes it much more powerful.

As mentioned above Flex will walk away/ toward you if you don't keep it flat on paint surface (it's less sensitive to flat keeping than rotary buffers though) and it offers about 80% of rotary buffer cutting power.

It's smart to have regular D/A as well when gentle approach is needed - like waxing for example. I like my Flex 3401 very much and it's a very well built machine. I recently used it with 6" DA Microfiber System on 2000 Ford Mustang and I've got absolutely great results.


In many cases Flex will save you time or complete tasks which regular D/A either needed much more work or couldn't successfully deal with.

[CieraSL]

Re: Flex DA

If you can afford it, spring for the Flex. I just got one myself and love it! I have used it one time so far to remove a bunch of waterspots from a 2011 black Honda CR-V and probably shaved a couple hours off of polishing. Only took 3-4 passes what would take my G110v2 5-6 passes. I will still hang onto my G110v2 though for polishing glass and for use with 4 inch pads. Definitely worth the money though, IMO.

Here's a couple of pics of the Flex 3401 next to my G110v2:





so you can see it is definitely bigger than a regular DA. Surprisingly though, the weight difference is negligible: 5.73 pounds for the Flex versus 5.5 pounds for the G110v2. I held one in each hand and then switched hands and could not tell a discernable difference weight-wise between the two.

[Carfire]

Re: Flex DA

Thanks for the excellent advice Shane. I do have the money for the Flex and I am willing to spend it on it if I know it will be a good purchase. Just waiting for a little extra cash before I go ahead and make my purchase.I actually am thinking a little bit about sending in my Meguiar's DA, just not sure when I will do that. I am pretty excited to get back to polishing again. Also because my order from ADS is going to be a nice big one full of towels, and some new products such as the Microfiber DA system. Once again I'd like to thank everyone for the input.