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  1. #1
    Mike Phillips
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    How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST


    I averaged 40 minutes battery run-time when compounding hard -Mike Phillips




    The Cordless FLEX XC 3401 - I call it the CBEAST, was introduced at SEMA in 2018, as I type this, that would be less than 5 months ago. There's been a LOT of buzz about and I'd have to say the MOST common question I get is,


    How long does the battery last?


    So I tested the gear-driven, cordless XC 3401 on what I consider a LARGE car with documented swirled-out paint for the sole purpose of PUNISHING the tool and therefor testing the battery life by pushing the tool to it's max buffing time. For those of you that simply want to know how long the battery lasts, here's my answer based upon my results and the way I used this tool. I'll get to exactly how I used the tool later.


    Question: How long does the battery last?

    Answer: 40 minutes



    That's mostly constant running time while compounding hard on a 1971 Dodge Charger R/T.


    Steps for paint correction

    1. Wash car- BLACKFIRE Ceramic Coating Wash
    2. Chemically decontaminate vinyl top and paint - SONAX Fallout Remover
    3. Mechanically decontaminate - Nanoskin Towel - Yellow Medium Grade
    4. Dry Car - Griot's Garage PFM Terry Weave Drying Towel & FLEX Cordless Car Blower
    5. Compound paint - FLEX CBEAST with Pinnacle Advanced Compound using Lake Country 6.5" Force Hybrid Orange Foam Cutting pads
    6. Polish and wax paint - FLEX CBEAST with Pinnacle Jeweling Wax using Lake Country 6.5" Force Hybrid Black Foam Finishing pads




    If you look at step 6 - I used an aggressive compound with an aggressive foam cutting pad, (large thick pad too), and as I compounded the paint I pushed at about 10 pounds of pressure against the head of the CBEAST.

    If you don't know, this would be considered HEAVY COMPOUNDING. In other words, I was pressing hard. I was doing this to push the tool to its limits and thus find out how long a 5 AMP batter would last for the Caveman Detailers among us.



    How I did the test
    First I did a Test Spot to see what it would take to remove the swirls and scratches to my satisfaction. Once I established it would require compounding with a compound and foam cutting pad, I started at the back of the passenger side of the car and compounded the body panels section by section.

    After compounding a section I would turn the polisher off just long enough to place fresh compound on the face of the pad or to switch to a clean, dry pad. Then I would turn the polisher on and continue compounding the car. I did not take the time to wipe-off compound splatter as I wanted the battery to be under "close-to" continual use.



    In the real world
    The above was an extreme use of the tool. In the real world, normally after compounding a section of a large body panel I would then wipe the compound residue off before moving onto a new section or a new panel. This time-lag combined with the time to apply fresh product, clean the face of the pad with a brush or replace the pad with a clean, dry pad plus move on down the car, (move myself or my roll-around-stool, towels and compound), would normally take a few minutes and during this time the battery would cool, the tool would cool and there would be some level of recovery taking place in this dynamic.

    My guess is, if a person buffed a car out AS NORMAL - this means not trying to punish the tool but following normal protocols, the battery may last longer. The job would take longer for sure. When you buff out a car without taking any breaks, the job takes a lot less time overall. Most people I know take plenty of breaks when buffing out a car. The stop to text or make a phone call. They stop to read a text, make a phone call or post to Instagram or Facebook, etc. Most people I know don't buff out cars as though they are a MACHINE and thus they tend to take longer than I take for the same job as I am a machine when it comes to detailing.



    Total battery time
    I used 3 fully charged batteries to do the compounding step and 2-3 bars of a 4th battery to machine apply the Pinnacle Jeweling Wax. So overall, about 3.5 batteries from start to finish to buff out a 20' long 1971 Dodge Charger R/T.

    The FLEX XC 3401 will come with two 5 AMP batteries. When fully discharged, (like I ran them down to zero charge), it takes approximately 47 minutes to recharge to full capacity. This means, for the average person, before you run one battery all the way down the other battery will be re-charged and ready to go.


    Like to be prepared for anything?
    If you're the kind of person that doesn't want to take any chances because you buff like a madman, then simply purchase one extra 5 AMP battery and you're good to go.



    Here's the good news!
    Because the FLEX XC 3401 is a gear-driven orbital polisher - there is ZERO PAD STALLING!

    So you get the safety of the dual-action movement of the pad against the paint, that is rotation and oscillation and no matter what the shape of the panel you're buffing the pad is going to rotate and oscillate NO MATTER WHAT. In other words - no pad stalling. This means you can power through a detail incredibly fast while maintaining pro quality results and no swirls.



    Review
    In my opinion.... the battery longevity was more than acceptable to do away with the hassle of dealing with an extension cord AND enjoy the freedom of cordless machine polishing. The cordless version of the FLEX 3401 has a max RPM of 380 while the corded version has a max RPM of 480 and if you use the corded version a lot then you'll key right in on the speed difference.

    Why the lower speed limit? The reason why is the battery will last longer running at a slower speed while still providing plenty of power and run time to do correction work.

    If I really need to plow through the heavy correction or compounding step on a car as fast as I can then I'm going to grab the time-tested FLEX 3401 aka the BEAST. But if I don't have work as fast as humanly possible then 100% for sure I'm grabbing my now trusty and dusty CBEAST.

    In fact, the last 3 cars I've detailed I've chosen the CBEAST.

    2011 Corvette
    2016 Camaro
    1971 Charger R/T

    And I've been completely happy with the performance of the tool and the battery life of the batteries. But what I like the most is no messing around with a cord. No dragging one around the car as I work around the car and I never have to remember to place the cord over my shoulder to prevent it from marring or scratching the side of the car.

    Very cool and my new favorite tool.






    For those that are interested, I'll post my full write-up for how I tackled the 1971 Dodge Charger R/T below....



    On Autogeek.com



    FLEX XCE 8-125 18.0 Polisher - Includes Tool -2 5amp Batteries - Battery Charger $579.99


    If you already own other FLEX Cordless Tools and don't need a battery charger or batteries.

    FLEX XCE 8-125 18.0 Polisher - Tool ONLY - $499.99







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  3. #2
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    Continued.....


    When a company asks me to test out a tool, be it a prototype or production unit, I tend to like to use a car in horrible condition but also a car that would classify as eye candy, at least eye candy to a car guy. All you have to do is watch ANY of the car guy TV shows and you know what I mean. 99.9% of the TV shows about cars the hosts and crew, like Dave Kindig, etc. are working on cool cars, not new cars and I'm the same way.

    So I reached out to my buddy Dave to see if his orange 1969 GTO is back on the road yet and sorry to say, it's still in the shop. So I called my buddy Luc to see what he has that could use an extreme makeover and as luck would have it he has a very cool Mopar, the kind Chris Jacobs from Overhaulin and Mark Worman from Graveyard Carz love. And better yet, it needs help.


    Here's the car outside in the sun....



















    And here she is inside Autogeek's Show Car Garage...

    Note how the paint in the background actually looks pretty good with just the overhead florescent lights shining on it? Just goes to show how important having a GREAT handheld light sources is when it comes to inspecting paint but also documenting your work for posterity.













    TEST SPOT
    I always do a test spot, sometimes a few test spots for any car I've never worked on in the past. It's by doing a test spot, (or 2 or 3), that you find out if the paint is hard or soft or somewhere in the middle. It's also the Test Spot that will help you dial-in the process to buff out the entire car. I did a Test Spot using some foam polishing pads and a swirl remover but there were still too many deeper swirls and scratches in the paint so I then tested a true compound and a foam cutting pad and this worked to create a finish that met my expectations for this car. I will say however, there are still deeper scratches, at least in the hood that I didn't feel comfortable trying to sand or compound out knowing the hood is going to be repainted. So I chose to compound the entire car and then to ensure maximum gloss, clarity and shine and while leaving the paint protected at the same time I machine polished the paint after the compounding step using Pinnacle Jeweling Wax. The jeweling was will ensure there's no pad haze left by the heavy compounding step and also leave behind a layer of wax protection.









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  5. #3
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    More....


    Next, I removed the wall clock from my office and placed it on a table with all my pads, products and supplies for this project. I moved the hands of the clock to straight-up midnight, (or noon), and then before I started buffing I took a pictures showing the clock and a fully charged battery in place and ready to go. After the battery would die I walked back over to the table and took a pictures to show the time on the clock.


    All set-up and ready to go....





    Battery 1
    This is the first picture I took showing the time for the test....
    The clock is ready and a fully charged battery installed in the CBEAST








    Here's how I prefer to hold the cordless FLEX tools
    Gripping the end of the battery, not the handle and then placing my hand on the rubber overmold on the head of the tool. You'll find this makes holding, using and balancing the tool the easiest.






    36 minutes of run time
    The battery is completely drained and the passenger side of the car is about 90% compounded. This is when I punished the battery the hardest. No stopping except to add more compound to the face of the pad and swap to a fresh pad. After buffing out the passenger side of the car I went into my normal style for buffing.




    I placed the battery into the charger....




    And here you can see she's fully drained and it's going to take 47 minutes to re-charger the battery so I can use it again.





    Battery 2
    Before each battery test I simply held my fingers in front of the camera to mark where I was at via picture.





    Fully charged and ready to go....





    42 minutes of run time
    For the hood and most of the driver's side of the car I buffed solid but not like a mad man.




    Battery 3
    At this point all I have to do is finish compounding the rest of the driver's side vertical panels and the paint on the back of the car and then all the glass.








    39 minutes of run time
    After compounding the entire car on the third battery, I still had some power left.





    Completely compound
    Here's the car completely compounded. Normally I wipe compound off as I go, but for this test I wanted to really work the tool and test the battery run time so I didn't wipe off any compound residue until the entire car was compounded.




    If you look closely, you can see compound not only on all the body panels but also the glass.















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  7. #4
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    Continued.....


    Here's the final results....

    Sorry no other pictures of the machine waxing step, just use your imagination ----> Me running the polisher over all the body panels a second time only with a foam polishing pad and Pinnacle Jeweling Wax.


























    Truly a cool tool!









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  9. #5
    Super Member Aaryn NZ's Avatar
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    Re: How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    First things first - Outstanding review Mike, thank you very much.

    Damn! I already wanted one before & I can’t say that feeling has diminished at all. I am surprised at 40 minutes though. I guessed around 25-30 minutes of good hard use & reading your process buffing this gorgeous Mopar out Mike, I can say that this is more ‘hard’ use than most of us will put this tool through.

    Impressive figures indeed. Off topic a little But the XFE & PE in their cordless variants have proven to me time & time again that having a cord is fairly taxing on the body simply by keeping in away from the paintwork. I love my cordless Flex tools, I have the only cordless PE in the whole country & can not understand why. It’s a serious performer & an absolute pleasure to work with.

    Awesome review Mike, you put it through a serious test & I must say - I’m impressed!

    Now I just have to be patient until the release down here . . . .


    Aaryn NZ.
    a DETAILS Blenheim New Zealand - IDA Member - C.Quartz Finest Authorized Installer

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  11. #6
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    Continued....


    How to clean and protect a vinyl top
    I have video showing how I machine cleaned the driver's side of this vinyl top starting with SONAX Fallout Remover and followed by 303 Multi Surface Cleaner. I have to add voice-over to the video as it was too noisy outside when I did the work to use the audio. If you look at one of the background pictures you'll see a lift being used for a painter to do touch-up paint on the new building in front of the Autogeek building. Suffice to say, it's been a tick noisy out front.

    At the time I was also using a RODE mic on my camera jig, I'm working on adding a wireless mic to my iPhone and this will help improve audio but probably still not in the environment that's out front.


    Note: Was cloudy outside when I washed the 1971 Charger R/T so these outside pictures are a tick dark but they do show the true dingy dirt-stained color of the vinyl top.



























    Here's what I used....






    On Autogeek.com


    303 Multi-Surface Cleaner 16 ounce

    303 Automotive Protectant

    FLEX PE-150 Cordless Rotary Polisher

    Heavy-Duty DA Carpet Brush – Long Bristles




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  13. #7
    Super Member theamcguy's Avatar
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    Re: How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    Anxiously waiting to get this tool on order.
    Bill Strobel
    Owner Independent Towing & Repair
    Fayetteville, NC
    Do It Right or Don't Do It At All

  14. #8
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    More....


    How to machine scrub tires using the Cordless FLEX PE14

    When I teach my car and boat detailing classes, I do my best to include comedy. One of the long-time jokes I use is that I try to show as many things as possible by MACHINE and the reason why is....

    Here at Autogeek... we don't sell hands...


    But seriously, I am part machine and I work like a machine and I try to do everything by machine. Love the Cordless FLEX PE14 because it does a dramatically better job of cleaning tires than a human could ever do working by hand. And because it's cordless there is no SHOCK risk and I've been shocked before, so speaking from first hand experience, I prefer cordless over plug-in when working in a wet environment.


    Wheels and tires first

    Ever since I started detailing cars, that would be before the Internet, I figured out right away the correct order to do clean and wash each area of a car. For me, after doing the 3 messy things, (I teach this in my car classes), the next thing is to do the OPPOSITE of what the major car wax companies tell you to do and instead, I start at the bottom not the top. That is, start with wheel and tires. The order you wash a car is relative - that is it doesn't really matter to the car what you do first, so work smarter instead of harder and after the 3 things that get a car messy start with wheels and tires.





    Iconic tires on a classic muscle car but they look kind of dull and boring.





    The cordless FLEX PE15 with a 5 AMP battery fully charged and ready to tear into the tires.





    Wheel Woolies Black Boar's Hair Wheel Face Brush - if you don't have one, get one and thank me later. Coolest, handiest brush for all kinds of job.





    The art of photography....
    Holding the camera in one hand while squeezing the spray with the other hand and timing the exact moment to get this type of "action shot".






    Yeah buddy....





    Have to admit, normally I would hold the FLEX with both hands but in this moment the other hand was manning the camera.







    The most awesome wheel face brush...
    I teach a lot of classes and one of the things I remind people of is out of all the "things" you do to your car... washing is the most common and most repeated thing you do. So it only makes sense to have GREAT car washing tools and products to make a job I really don't like doing as fast as possible while keeping my results professional quality consistently. Make sense?




    Ready to rinse...







    Now that's a clean tire.







    Final results...
















    Here's everything I used....





    Sorry - no pictures of me machine applying the SONAX Polymer Net Shield but this is what I applied to the tires after machine scrubbing.






    On Autogeek.com

    Heavy-Duty DA Carpet Brush – Long Bristles <-- For tire scrubbing this works best

    Heavy-Duty DA Carpet Brush – Short Bristles

    Wheel Woolies Boar’s Hair Wheel Brush

    TUF SHINE Tire Cleaner 22 ounce

    SONAX Wheel Cleaner Full Effect

    FLEX PE-150 Cordless Rotary Polisher

    SONAX Polymer Net Shield 340 ml

    Mighty Mini Cordless Polisher

    2 Pack Cyclo Polisher Grey Ultra Soft Upholstery Brush




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  16. #9
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    Last post....

    Before




    During



    After





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  18. #10
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST

    Quote Originally Posted by theamcguy View Post

    Anxiously waiting to get this tool on order.

    Copy that.

    My first run production unit is supposed to be here this week. Will update if it gets here.



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