Spent $400 on a power trowel blade pack that barely lasted a season

I bought a set of expensive aftermarket blades from a rep at a Texas job site thinking they'd outlast my usual cheap ones, but they chipped bad by month three on a warehouse floor pour. Meanwhile, my buddy swears by the same blades and says I must have gotten a bad batch or hit something wrong. You guys think brand name blades are worth the cash or is it all luck of the draw?

2 comments

2 Comments

jennys721d ago

Roll your eyes all you want but a bad batch of concrete can mess up any blade even the expensive ones. I had a set of cheap ones from Home Depot last two full seasons on simple sidewalk pours so I'm not convinced brand name is ever the answer. That rep probably sold you hype not quality. Unless you're doing polished floors every single day I doubt you need to spend that kind of cash. Your buddy might just have gotten lucky or his concrete mix was softer. Either way $400 for a season is ridiculous no matter what you're pouring.

simons281d ago

Yeah actually that's a fair point about the concrete mix, but I gotta push back a little on the Home Depot blades lasting two full seasons on sidewalk pours. That sounds like you're working with pretty soft mud or maybe just lucky with the rebar placement. I've seen cheap blades from big box stores go dull fast on any mix with decent aggregate. The real trick with those $400 packs is how the heat treating and metal composition holds up under high RPMs. It's not just about the cost, it's about whether the blade can take a beating without chipping out at the edges. A bad batch can definitely happen, but so can a bad concrete crew that leaves hard spots in the pour.