Tried saving money on a power stretcher and it cost me double

Bought a cheap $60 power stretcher off Amazon instead of dropping $300 on a decent one. First big job in a rental house in Columbus the head snapped clean off after three stretches. Had to rent one from Sunbelt for $45 a day and finish the job late. Anyone else get burned trying to cheap out on tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_butler477d ago

Whoa, you're really defending the cheap tool here with that "max tension rating" thing? I get what you're saying but I gotta push back hard. The whole point of a power stretcher is to handle tension, that's literally what it does. If a tool can't handle three stretches on a rental house carpet without snapping, that's not user error that's just a garbage product waiting to break. You don't need a PhD in carpet tension to know a head snapping off is bad design. And about the glued carpet point, that actually makes the cheap tool look even worse because rental carpets are often glued and need more force sure, but even if it was loose stretched carpet the head should hold up longer than three pulls. A $60 tool should at least survive one room. Saving money is fine but when the tool breaks after almost zero use that's not on the buyer for "not checking ratings," that's on the company for selling a paperweight. It's like buying a cheap hammer and blaming yourself when the handle flies off after two hits.

nancy37d ago

Honestly, that sucks but I have to ask - did you actually check the max tension rating on that cheap one before you bought it? A lot of those budget stretchers are made for light residential carpet, not the heavy stuff you find in rentals. The head snapping off after three stretches sounds like a design flaw or maybe you were pulling way too hard. I'm not saying you did anything wrong, but sometimes people don't realize how much force is needed especially on a rental house carpet that's been glued down for years. Was the carpet glued or stretched loose? That makes a huge difference in what the tool can handle.