leemarvin said:
Hi everyone
I have been using my ctl sys for more than a year now and i m thinking of selling it
it s running with the long life bag
the problem is that the security valve is always on (the one when the vacuum is clogged or when the bag is full) which reduce the aspiration
let me explain. I empty the bag, i start using the ctl sys, with less than few minutes of using it the valve is on. i check to see if the bag is full, but no. i tap on the bag and it will work for few minutes and the valve will go on again.
you will say bag problem and i will say festool France send me another bag for free. but it s the same
i feel more of a faulty conception as the security valve is to sensible soon the dust is tiny
Have anyone had the same problem?
Thanks
It must be extremely frustrating that your vac isn't working properly. It may very well be that the blowby valve is actually faulty, or maybe not. The concept of a tiny "vac in a box" is extremely appealing. The reality, however, is much more prosaic, and more than a mite disappointing.
I have had a somewhat similar experience with an earlier version of this type of vac made by Bosch. One of the major problems with these micro extractors is a direct result of their supersmall size. Virtually all commercial vacs & extractors are cooled with an air supply completely independent of the tool's actual suction (bypass cooling). However, these tiny vacs, jammed as they are into minuscule plastic boxes lack this essential additional cooling supply, & instead are dependent on the often resticted "dirty" air intake/exhaust through the tool's hoses, bags, filters, motor & exhaust.
To maintain an adequate supply, the vac therefore must constantly run flat out, a most inefficient & pretty stupid necessity in my opinion. The Bosch is a much more powerful tool than the Festo (1400, not 1000w) whilst in a similarly sized package. It interestingly used this high velocity, low volume airflow to drive a dedicated air turbine driven delta sander of the interchangeable tipped "maxi" type in common to many Euro manufacturers. As a motorless delta sander it is easily the lightest and most easily handled example made, but as an overall package severely compromised.
Absolutely fantastic whilst using fresh new bags, but the dust fines generated soon clog the pores in the bags, severely restricting airflow and rendering the air turbine progressively less effective (& the sander correspondingly less powerful) as sanding progresses, up to the point of uselessness when the bag is only fractionally filled. Useless. In both these tools, what amounts to little more than a small, cheaply constructed domestic vacuum is expected to do the job of a proper professional/commercial dust extractor, a task at which they both fail miserably. Rapid suction falloff, low onboard dust capacity, short hose lengths, intolerance to fines, and inefficient, poorly designed cooling abilities, leading to possible excessive wear and premature failure.
I suspect the same thing may be happening to your own rather dinky vac/sander setup too, except that those longlife bags tend to keep their micropores permanently clogged with fines even after emptying. This is certainly my experience with longlife bags in my own CT22 vac, which requires a yearly machine wash with a tennis shoe for agitation to maintain peak airflow efficiency. The tiny size of the Festo CTL-SYS bags will only exacerbate this situation.
I also note that Festo recognise the poor cooling and airflow characteristics of this vac setup too, with a supplied accessory air bypass hose leakage attachment to hopefully supply a sufficient cooling airflow to prevent premature demise. According to some users, this is only partially effective, in that some new vacs have suffered premature motor burnouts already, despite being so young. It seems a bit of an afterthought solution to a ridiculous problem that shouldn't really exist in the first place. A bit more thought, careful design and a modicum of R&D expenditure could've eliminated the need for this altogether.
Personally, I find the whole noise, dust & disturbance of a vac. screaming away on full throttle a mere few feet away a pretty awful alternative to the comparative serenity of a throttled down version working at a much more acoustically inert distance through longer hoses, physical distance, reflective shielding and absorbtive covering/concealment. The god-awful noise of my Bosch, combined with the frustratingly short hose length and the inefficiency of the abovementioned interstitial airflow restriction & power diminution became too much to bear. It had to go.
You have my sympathy. It isn't a very good setup at all is it? I wouldn't encourage you to sell it, however. I think that'd be a bit mean for the next unwitting victim. I couldn't bring myself to sell mine anyway: I can do without that kind of bad Karma. Instead I gave mine away to a friend who had the need but lacked the financial wherewithal to buy his own setup, so we both ended up happy. It's better to have two winners than one loser isn't it?
