# Planex v/s PC 7800



## Jmayspaint (Apr 20, 2014)

We've been using the Porter Cable 7800 for a few years for general drywall sanding, as well as wall prep sanding during re paints. The PC has seen a lot of use, and is getting close to needing replaced. 

I've been checking out the Planex, but haven't been able to convince myself it's worth the extra expense over the PC, though that very well may be the case. 

Any of you guys used both? I would be interested to hear a direct comparison. Seems like the harness, and perhaps better ability to sand ceilings are a couple advantages to the Planex. But at more than twice the price, I'm wondering if it's really worth it. 

We don't do a lot of new drywall. Mostly skim coating and repairs on existing board.


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## CarpenterSFO (Dec 12, 2012)

I can't compare the two, but about the harness - I didn't get it. I probably would get it if I had a job removing popcorn, but for normal finishing I haven't missed it.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

The papers cheaper so the extra cost of the planex levels out after a few years use. I never used the PC one but I have heard from people who used the PC on a daily basis said the Festool was way nicer in almost every respect. I bet there's a lot of guys on here who have used both who can explain better the advantages.


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## tjbnwi (Feb 24, 2009)

The Planex harness has a steep learning curve. Once you figure it out it is easy to use.

Tom


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## CarpenterSFO (Dec 12, 2012)

tjbnwi said:


> The Planex harness has a steep learning curve. Once you figure it out it is easy to use.
> 
> Tom


I'm sure I'll purchase it if I get a popcorn job - on finishing work it has seemed to me that the vac keeps it on the ceiling very nicely. Even without the harness it does take a little time to adjust things so that it glides and handles nicely. I imagine that the PC is the same.


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## overanalyze (Dec 28, 2010)

I have used both and own the Planex. The Planex has a learning curve just like the PC. I feel the head moves much nicer on the Planex...as it should. Dust collection is better on the Planex. They are both heavy. 

When you get the soft interface and dial in the suction the Planex just glides over the wall and ceiling. I just was using it today to sand my basement. 180g brilliant works excellent for new drywall. Last week I was removing popcorn and 40g granat was the trick followed by 80g granat before skimming the ceiling. 

Buy it...Try it for 29 days...if you hate it return it.


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## Big Shoe (Jun 16, 2008)

Never had the pleasure to see or try a Planex..........That being said. The PC is a workhorse.........That is all I know.


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## Jmayspaint (Apr 20, 2014)

Thanks all for the thoughts. Actually, the pivoting action of the head on the PC could be better. It can be a little awkward for ceilings sometimes. 

Another attractive feature on the Planex is the ability to shorten the wand for hallways and other tight spaces. 

I think our PC is an older model too, type 3 I believe. I imagine they have improved the newer models some. 

Do some of you guys prefer to use these type sanders for popcorn removal over wet scraping? I guess one main advantage would be not getting the rock wet, thus doing away with the necessity of stain blocking primers every time. Haven't tried the PC for popcorn yet, we always do it wet.


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## Big Shoe (Jun 16, 2008)

I still wet and scrape. Still can't wrap my head around sanding a whole popcorn ceiling. I'll believe it when I see it.


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## EricBrancard (Jun 8, 2012)

BCConstruction said:


> The papers cheaper so the extra cost of the planex levels out after a few years use. I never used the PC one but I have heard from people who used the PC on a daily basis said the Festool was way nicer in almost every respect. I bet there's a lot of guys on here who have used both who can explain better the advantages.


That's only if you compare it against the actual PC discs with the backing pad in one. There's plenty of aftermarket pad and disc options that are cheaper than the Festool paper. 

That said, a $450 tool isn't going to be at the same level as a $1k plus tool. For the amount of sanding I need to do, the PC is fine. If it was a tool I used on a very regular basis, the Planex seems like it would be the better investment.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

EricBrancard said:


> That's only if you compare it against the actual PC discs with the backing pad in one. There's plenty of aftermarket pad and disc options that are cheaper than the Festool paper.
> 
> 
> 
> That said, a $450 tool isn't going to be at the same level as a $1k plus tool. For the amount of sanding I need to do, the PC is fine. If it was a tool I used on a very regular basis, the Planex seems like it would be the better investment.



They the only PC pads our dealer has. They sell Festool and PC. They said people are slow to buy the planex as they so used to PC and they never heard of Festool.


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## Home wood (Mar 8, 2014)

I can't speak to the PC but I bought the planex almost a year ago and it was one of my best purchases. 
Just this week I removed a water stained heavily painted popcorn ceiling. This thing had many many coats of paint and was hard as rock.
I slapped on the 20 grit and the planex chewed right through. Stop just shy of the paper, then gave it a light skim of Sheetrock 20.
Next day oil prime and re spray new texture.

The planex is a beast and the CT36AC keeps 90% of the mess contained
That said I need to go clean it out. It's very full at the moment.


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## Ohio painter (Dec 4, 2011)

I have been renting the PC for too long and finally broke down and bought the Planex a few weeks ago. I too use it like the OP says, not too much new drywall work. Mostly wall prep and skim and repairs etc. 
The Planex is a much more refined and more balanced than the PC. I really like the idea that it's length is adjustable. 
I didn't buy the harness but probably would if I had to strip a textured ceiling.


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## Jmayspaint (Apr 20, 2014)

Big Shoe said:


> I still wet and scrape. Still can't wrap my head around sanding a whole popcorn ceiling. I'll believe it when I see it.



Well, I finally tried the PC for popcorn removal this week and it was awesome. 

We have a whole house to do and while the guys were setting up the bedrooms for our normal wet removal, I tried the PC in the living room. It was too awkward off the ground so I stood on a ladder. 






As I went on across the room I figured out to rest the the wand on my shoulder making it easier. Edged it out with a dustless screen sander. 









The big advantage, in addition to keeping it dry, was that there was almost no Sheetrock repair necessary. Rather than remove all the mud like happens in wet removal, it left the base mud of the popcorn and sanded it smooth. The end result was an almost perfect lvl5. 

275 sqft removed and coated in less than 8 hrs including set up and take down. And it looks perfect. At $3.85 a foot that's pretty sweet. Way faster than wet removal overall. 

Definitely getting a Planex now. Wish I had tried this sooner.


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## Robinasu (Nov 25, 2015)

I have an older type 2 PC. Once you have one there is no going back. The dust control alone is worth the cost. The PC is pretty sensitive to the balance of the foam pad and paper positioning. Not a big deal because it's easy to sense and reposition the paper a bit. There are tons of parts available for the PC.


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## Home wood (Mar 8, 2014)

For sanding drywall I use 150 grit
For sanding painted popcorn I use 25 grit
What paper would you guys use for removing never painted popcorn texture?
I have the planex sander


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## overanalyze (Dec 28, 2010)

I have 40g Granat and 80g Granat I have used a few times for unpainted popcorn removal.


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## Jmayspaint (Apr 20, 2014)

Home wood said:


> For sanding drywall I use 150 grit
> 
> For sanding painted popcorn I use 25 grit
> 
> ...



100 grit is working well for me. Could probably go to 120 without slowing in down much.


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## shelwyn (Jan 2, 2016)

Dang it's hard to put this into perspective since everyone doesn't do the same type of work. Porter cable wins out in price and weight for me. My crews know how to work every tool reasonably well so I can have at least two guys on sanders per job. That means the very minimum amount of working sanders I need in stock are 8 sanders at any time. I've bought the planex and have my best worker use it for two and a half months to get know the tool. Fact is the planex takes more energy to use. You end up fatigued faster than using a porter cable. The parts to repair the planex are much more expensive. I didn't look for alternative disks and pads so from what I've seen of the planex website the sanding disks are much more expensive. 

So I need a minimum of 8 working sanders.

Festool PLANEX Drywall Sander and Extractor Combo 
$1,925.00 X8 = $15,400.00


Porter Cable Drywall Sander Model 7800
$479.00 X8 = $3832.00
Rigid 12 Gal. 5 PHP Wet/Dry Vacume
$79.97 X8 = $639.76
$3,832.00 + $639.76 = $4,471.76 

That's a difference of $10,928.24.

I can buy another Graco pump to spray on level 5 with that money or buy most of a continuous flow drywall tool set.

Fact is it's not worth it for my company. Now is it worth it for others? Yes it can be. If your a one team crew or mostly do repairs by yourself I can see the planex working out for you.

If you only need one sander the wow factor from the planex can definitely come into this. It looks impressive. Taking it out of the box can definitely impress customers. One of the biggest things I've seen that draws out small one time customers is how impressed they are at tools. They see super specialized tools they have a good recommendation for you. If you have a porter cable and it's the first time a customer sees one they'll be impressed sure. Oh neat what a good tool never seen that. Take out the Planex and holy crap are they impressed. It looks like a specialized advanced tool and you can take advantage of that to get more customers. Not only that but if you do mostly small repairs it can get the job done better than having to modify your porter cable to fit in small places. 

Overall the planex is a better tool that costs much more over time. If your not doing a lot of large jobs repairs aren't going to be much of an issue. I've taken a look at the costs for parts on the planex diagram and it is much more than a porter cable to fix simple issues. If your heavily and frequently going to use a sander say 6 hours a day for 3 days a few times a month then it is better to get a porter cable mostly due to how cheap it is and how little it costs to repair comapred to planex. Even then it's hard to say guys the tool is nice and if you think you want it go for it. It wasn't to be for me but I can see others using it well. The thing is just too heavy, and you end up tired from using it much faster then with the alternative. Planex is much cleaner and for small patch jobs, repairs where there is furniture it's better and it can impress customers.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

shelwyn said:


> Dang it's hard to put this into perspective since everyone doesn't do the same type of work. Porter cable wins out in price and weight for me. My crews know how to work every tool reasonably well so I can have at least two guys on sanders per job. That means the very minimum amount of working sanders I need in stock are 8 sanders at any time. I've bought the planex and have my best worker use it for two and a half months to get know the tool. Fact is the planex takes more energy to use. You end up fatigued faster than using a porter cable. The parts to repair the planex are much more expensive. I didn't look for alternative disks and pads so from what I've seen of the planex website the sanding disks are much more expensive.
> 
> So I need a minimum of 8 working sanders.
> 
> ...



Does the cost of the pads not mean the Festool ends up cheaper for someone like you who has 8 sanders. Last time checked I pay $1ea for the Festool sheets and the 5pack of PC when I looked into a drywall sander were $30 a pack so prob more than that now so about $6ea. That could be a massive cost saving based on how much paper I use and I don't do a massive amount of work with it. 

How many sheets do you use a week on average?


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## TimelessQuality (Sep 23, 2007)

BCConstruction said:


> Does the cost of the pads not mean the Festool ends up cheaper for someone like you who has 8 sanders. Last time checked I pay $1ea for the Festool sheets and the 5pack of PC when I looked into a drywall sander were $30 a pack so prob more than that now so about $6ea. That could be a massive cost saving based on how much paper I use and I don't do a massive amount of work with it.
> 
> How many sheets do you use a week on average?


I believe the paper is the same


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## EricBrancard (Jun 8, 2012)

BCConstruction said:


> Does the cost of the pads not mean the Festool ends up cheaper for someone like you who has 8 sanders. Last time checked I pay $1ea for the Festool sheets and the 5pack of PC when I looked into a drywall sander were $30 a pack so prob more than that now so about $6ea. That could be a massive cost saving based on how much paper I use and I don't do a massive amount of work with it.
> 
> How many sheets do you use a week on average?


I pay a little more than $1/sheet for paper on my PC sander. The PC brand replacement stuff is paper and pad in one so its expensive. You can buy pads that accept hook and loop instead.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

EricBrancard said:


> I pay a little more than $1/sheet for paper on my PC sander. The PC brand replacement stuff is paper and pad in one so its expensive. You can buy pads that accept hook and loop instead.



Oh right that's why they are $6 a piece then. Thought that was crazy for sanding pads.


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## shelwyn (Jan 2, 2016)

I buy sanding disks in bulk so I get a minor discount. They end up at around 92 cents each. The Festool sanding discs come out at 86 cents each. I haven't found a bulk discount for Festool sanding disks yet. Unfortunately the Festool Interface Pad costs $49.00 and also does not come in a bulk discount, the porter cable backing pad I buy costs $6.00. Even if the Festoo interface pad did last eight times longer than the Norton backing pads I usually buy they would still cost more over time.

I actually have an interesting story about ordering sanding disks. Each packs of 15 comes with its own box that is at least 3 times larger than necessary. So I order 15 boxes of sanding disks online and had them shipped to my house, they were shipped in a disproportionately long box. This very long box had little weight to it and apparently my order of sanding disks trigger some weight to size ratios and the fbi (or whoever is in charge of inspecting suspicious deliveries) was forced to open the box, found more small boxes inside and opened each one then individually repackage each item and sent it on it's way again. So my shipment is very late and no one knows why. When it finally get's delivered what I see at my door is a very stupidly long, torn up box with chunks missing and have been poorly patched up with clear tape so items don't fall out. It was a huge surprise.


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## EricBrancard (Jun 8, 2012)

shelwyn said:


> I buy sanding disks in bulk so I get a minor discount. They end up at around 92 cents each. The Festool sanding discs come out at 86 cents each. I haven't found a bulk discount for Festool sanding disks yet. Unfortunately the Festool Interface Pad costs $22.00 and also does not come in a bulk discount, the porter cable backing pad I buy costs $6.00. Even if the Festoo backing pad did last 3 times longer than the Norton backing pads i usually buy they would still cost more over time.
> 
> I actually have an interesting story about ordering sanding disks. Each packs of 15 comes with its own box that is at least 3 times larger than necessary. So I order 15 boxes of sanding disks online and had them shipped to my house, they were shipped in a disproportionately long box. This very long box had little weight to it and apparently my order of sanding disks trigger some weight to size ratios and the fbi (or whoever is in charge of inspecting suspicious deliveries) was forced to open the box, found more small boxes inside and opened each one then individually repackage each item and sent it on it's way again. So my shipment is very late and no one knows why. When it finally get's delivered what I see at my door is a very stupidly long, torn up box with chunks missing and have been poorly patched up with clear tape so items don't fall out. It was a huge surprise.


Even the FBI knows you drywall guys are up to no good :laughing:


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## TurnkeyConst (Feb 14, 2007)

What paper did you use for the popcorn removal? We use Norton pads and paper but have never tried it for the initial removal. However you have sold me to give it a shot.

We also just upgraded to a festool vac to hopefully cut down on residual dust.



Jmayspaint said:


> Well, I finally tried the PC for popcorn removal this week and it was awesome.
> 
> We have a whole house to do and while the guys were setting up the bedrooms for our normal wet removal, I tried the PC in the living room. It was too awkward off the ground so I stood on a ladder.
> 
> ...


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