I too am interested in the Kronotex Swiftlock laminate flooring at Lowe's. When looking at possibilities for our dining room we fell in love with the Charleston Pine. I read on an older thread that Kronotex is a major European floor manufacturer and the thread made them sound like a good company...anyone have experience with this brand?

supposed to be.. I had a nightmare experience trying to install although I had prepped the floor to perfection, it was a new home flat concrete subfloor anyways. But I bought ALL the supplies and really did my homework. The pieces would not lay down right together.. the easy lock was NOT easy, the product was slivering off at the sides where they connect if you even barely moved a board. After working ALL day and getting about 2 feet of the room done all the way across .. my dh convinced me to throw in the towel LOL.
I took it all back (minus the stuff I couldn't) and got the carpet tiles.
I am not sure if All the stuff is like this, as you said .. it should have and was supposed to go together. I have always wondered if another brand would have worked out for me but my days of trying to DIY laminate are over.

Buyer Beware.

We were told by a flooring manager from Lowes to be careful not to buy packages that had been torn open, saying that these laminates will not acclimate properly if they are opened before they sit in the installation room for several days. Rep also said they shouldn't be selling those broken open boxes on the shelves with a long explanation about why, what happens to the product.

Well, have you looked through the product available at the stores? Out of 30 boxes available here, six were fit to purchase. We went to five other Lowes and, after looking carefully discovered that most Lowes were re-shrink wrapping the boxes! If what we were told is true, these will not acclimate properly. Also, were these returns? The final straw for us was that at the last Lowes we tried, the "Armstrong Swiftlock Plus" we were looking at was also right there, packaged as Armstrong Swiftlock, and ALSO packaged as Kronotex. When asked for an explanation as to WHY they were selling the same product as two different names, and seemingly two different brands, the salesman said that Armstrong "lost" it's right to use the Swiftlock name. Whatever is going on, something is not right.

We are starting over with our decision on what flooring to put in a sewing room.

All the kronotex boxes I purchases were sealed, in their original packages.
STILL .. they were a Mess!

A mess how?

They looked fine at first. With very careful handling.. if you tried to work with the planks.. the softer particle board (pressed sawdust) was chipping off, coming off in slivers etc.
some were showing scratches before we even got it down.
Not to mention easy lock would not go together easy at all!

There are a few tricks of the trade, that paid contractors know about, that the DIY'er have no clue.

If you use a wedge, and a block, it goes together like a breeze, all rotating in.

I just bought Swift Lock Plus. Does anyone have anything to say about it?