CT Midi performance

[LB Floors]

I have had a CT 36 for 4 years, and never had a problem with it.  The issue I was having, is that I vacuum timber floors with it ready to coat, and it is cumbersome to drag around, being so big.
I looked at the specs of the CT Midi when it came out & noticed that the claimed air flow was only 200 L/min less than the CT36, which represents a 5% decrease. (The 36 is 3900 L/min).
However I quickly learned that the Midi has nowhere near the suction or air flow of the 36 in the real world. It's not even close.  So I contacted the Festool rep in my area (Queensland, Australia).  Well, that was about a year ago now.
I spoke with a big wig at Festool Australia about this, and he referred it back to the store I purchased it from & told me they would deal with it.
5 weeks later, they sent a rep to pick the vacuum up, and then 3 weeks after that, and after hounding them to come to a conclusion, I have been offered $150 trade in for it.  And they hope this will fix the problem.

Needless to say I am very frustrated.  I feel that if Festool are making unfair claims about air flow of this vacuum they need to back it up & come to the party.  I offered to buy a CT36 if they offered a decent solution to the problem.  They have not.

DO NOT purchase anything from C&L Tools in North Brisbane. I'm sure you will get better service everywhere else.  I spoke with the manager about this directly, and they have basically spat in my face. Festool Australia has not helped in the slightest & now I want to warn other people about this.  I own $20,000 + of Festool gear, and this is how I'm treated.  I'm considering selling all of my Festool gear and buying DeWalt. I'm disgusted that it has come to this.

You ought to be ashamed Festool Australia.

 

[LB Floors]

So question, is no one appalled by this?

 

[PreferrablyWood]

So question, is no one appalled by this?

If you are using it for floors cleaning could you try it with a non antistatic 36mm hose and see if that improves things? I have a Midi and have been pleased with it's performance, and like it's size. In my opinion its the hose diameter that limits it's effectiveness when vacuum larger amounts of dust and chips..

 

[LB Floors]

I have a 36mm hose on it & bored out the elbow wider so as to not restrict air flow.  Still nothing on the 36 unfortunately.

 

[Woodwork Wizard]

A 36mm hose is definitely a big improvement over the 27 to vacuum floors etc. and the Tradesman cleaning set turns a CT in to a brilliant vacuum cleaner, while the cheap cleaning set in a SYS-1 really isn't worthy of the Festool brand.

I have a CT-Midi for portable use and a CT-36 in the workshop and I really can't see any difference in how they perform even though the stats say the 36 does more CFM. They are both great.

 

[RKA]

I'm confused, in the US the 36mm hoses have no elbows (which adds restriction).  I have a few year old mini with a 27mm hose and elbow and I don't see how you could bore out the elbow to remove the restriction without ending up with huge holes in the elbow.

 

[PreferrablyWood]

I have a 36mm hose on it & bored out the elbow wider so as to not restrict air flow.  Still nothing on the 36 unfortunately.

You can forgo the elbow completely and go straight into the vacuum from above, though it's unhandy for storage.. I'm just not seeing it being that inferior to other vacs, but again I've no experience with the CTL's..It strikes me though that another limiting factor is the size of the bags if your doing a lot vacuuming of sawdust and chips, but for flooring that should not be the case, Id guess.