The big three names in dust free wall sanders are the Indasa e-series, Festool 150/5 Plus, and the Mirka Deros. As you can tell from the title, I’m going to use this blog to give you my honest Mirka Deros review. I hope you find it useful.
About the Mirka Deros
The Mirka Deros is a lightweight, high-end, heavy duty sander with a circular head. It’s designed to sand large areas such as ceilings, walls and doors. If you’re a decorator looking to buy a sander like this for the first time, let me tell you, it’s a game changer!! You can sand the ceiling and all the walls to a good standard in an average sized room in about 10 minutes flat.
This sander is nice to use too!! It has a flappy paddle switch that fits into your palm as you’re using it. When you come away from whatever you’re sanding, your palm comes off the switch and the sander stops.
The best thing about this sander is; with the correct extractor, it’s nearly 100% dust free!! You should wear safety goggles as the pad savers have been known to fly off and Mirka are the last people you want to be turning to for support, but wearing a mask is a thing of the past!! Decorating can be messy and eliminating dust from your projects is a massive step in the right direction.
If you’re using a Mirka extractor you’ll be able to set it to “auto” so the extractor comes on at the same time as the sander, then turns itself off when you turn the sander off. Your power lead and extraction hose both run from extractor to sander, so a few strips of Velcro to hold them together will stop tangles.
The Drawbacks
The only real issue with the Mirka Deros is the build quality. Some decorators will disagree with me, but they don’t seem to last more than a few years. You do get a 2-year warranty when you buy a new Deros and you can register it for an extra year (make sure you do). But you very rarely hear of a decorator using one for 5 years or more. In fact, you see posts on social media from decorators experiencing problems, which isn’t what you need when you’re paying over £350 for a sander!!
They also use a third-party company to deal with repairs. You need to go through them whenever an issue comes up, and the experience I had with them wasn’t the best. They seemed very unorganised, and I never actually managed to get my Mirka Deros fixed.
The other gripe I have with Mirka is they seem to be the bully boys of the industry. They’d rather spend big money sending solicitors’ letters out to decorators who say something negative about them on Facebook, rather than reaching out and dealing with the problem directly. It’s pathetic really, and just shows how defensive they are of problems at the company.
How does the Deros Compare with its Competitors?
Well, a Mirka Deros is cheaper than the Festool 150/5 plus, lighter, more comfortable to use and a lot more dust-free!! The only thing Festool have over Mirka is the build quality. I know individual cases are different, but Festool seem to go on and on forever from what I’ve seen.
The Indasa e-series sander is also a contender and is a lot like the Mirka Deros. It’s light, powerful, around 90% dust-free, roughly the same price and has the flappy paddle thing.
Mirka and Festool sanders and extractors are compatible with each other, meaning you can use the Mirka Deros with a Festool extractor if you wish, or vice versa. However, the Indasa works to a different size. The Indasa E-Series sander will fit a Festool or Mirka extractor, but the Indasa extractor is not compatible with Mirka and Festool sanders. Other than that, I’d say the E-Series is on par. The build quality of the E-series seems better too.
Review Summary
Mirka Deros review, written by a decorator - Decorator's forum UK
A high-end sander, mostly used by professional tradesmen to sand walls and other large flat surfaces.
Product Brand: Mirka
2.8
Pros
- Comfortable.
- Light.
- Powerful.
- Responsive.
- Variable speed.
- Almost completely dust free.
Cons
- They don’t seem to last as long as other brands.
- They’re the bully boys of the decorating industry.
FAQs
Is a Mirka worth the money?
Mirka make high-end sanders and if you buy one, you’re probably going to love it. However, I would just mention that they are not exactly the most pleasant of people to deal with. If you’re going to spend a lot of money on a sander, then it might be worth looking at Festool instead.
Where is Mirka Deros made?
Most Mirka products, including the Deros are made on the west coast of Finland.
How long is Mirka warranty?
You get a two-year warranty as standard with Mirka, but you can register for an extra year within 30 days of purchase. Make sure you do apply for that third year because you may well need it.
Who are the competitors of Mirka?
Festool is the biggest competitor to Mirka in the UK.
Where to Buy?
Well, you can go online, but I’m a decorator with several trade accounts. I always feel safer making a big purchase like this from somewhere I deal with day-to-day. That way if (when) an issue comes up, the merchant will help you get it sorted. Johnstone’s Decorating Centre have started stocking Mirka sanders and can offer extremely competitive prices, but check with whoever you usually deal with.
I agree with the article. I have owned both Mirka and Festool. Both are excellent machines, but the Mirka is let down by its build quality. For the money it should last a lot longer. Shame on Mirka for behaving badly towards genuine feedback. As for the Festool customer service I can’t complain.
I agree as well. My Mirka Deros lasted just past the warranty. I paid $250+ to ship it to Montreal and get it fixed. It lasted approximately 8 hours after it was fixed and stopped working again. I’ve since purchased a Makita 6” and it is doing the job and feels like a sturdier product. I won’t buy Mirka again.
I have just purchased a new Mirka Deros sanding kit. The vacuum is of ridiculously poor build quality. Don’t waste your money on this rubbish, buy the festool kit !
The good: The Mirka Deros 650 is a very nice sander. It is low profile and fits my hand perfectly and produces a great finish.
The bad. The Mirka Deros 650 has a short life span. After about 40 hours of sanding it stopped working. It was past the warrentry period 9i use it infrequently) so I was charged $500 to repair it. The repaired unit lasted about 10 hours. Dealing with Mirka Canada Service was very frustrating. They do not return calls or messages in a timely manner. It took about 3 months to get my sander repaired. That’s not acceptable to me.
I love the surface sanding quality of the Mirka, I love the ergonomics but in my experience it is not durable. I will not buy another Mirka. Festool now has my business.