Dust Deputy review after 6 months of renos

[Benjamin]

I have spent the last 6 months using the dust deputy in the field and here is my views on it.

It's absolutely essential for drywall work, it handles 99.percent of the drywall dust and is a absolute life saver for that.

For everything else it's incredibly bulky and a real chore to move around and set up. Don't get me wrong it's a incredible device but the fun thing about festool is just bringing the vac with you and attaching your sortainers to it and everything else super fast and easy , but wheeling around the dust deputy on the vac feels very bulky and is seriously heavy to walk up and down stairs and it's very awkward to carry, as I might be spoiled now but when you get used to the convenience of the festool line it's hard to take a step back.

If you had a shop and it's in a stationary spot it would be a different story but I think you should just bite the bullet and buy both the dust deputy for drywall work and long lasting bags for everything else.

Don't forget you need to get there kit as well to make it anti static which is also a choir to set up , but in all honesty it really beats the ct 36 any day as I dry walled a entire house and zero dust made its way to the filter.... ZERO
I showed a picture to a local festool merchant and he was pretty surprised about its efficacy .

Anyways if you have a shop or do drywall work definitely grab one , if not I would look into purchasing bags . Hope this helps

( UPDATE ) since this post I have recently bought a midi and the dust deputy is a little easier to move around with it instead of the 26 that I had.

 

[va2bmg]

Just a note that Oneida also sells a kit to be able to stack the setup the dust deputy on top of the CT VAC in the systainer place, which should help to address to some degree the mobility concerns.  The down side is if you use this place to stack systainers, you may loose the possibility as just the dus deputy makes it somewhat tall already. 

I currently have the bucket version and looking into buying the version to top on the CT vac and use the bucket version on a second vac.  I have some occasion that I need to move the bucket and I agree that it is a "pain" to move back and forth.

 

[CoStruct]

What do you use to sand drywall with?  Do you use the Planex or one of the other sanders, or both?  I usually contract out seam filling but no one uses any dust control systems around here and I'd like to have that option.

 

[Benjamin]

I use the Planex and DTS sander and with the dust deputy it is god like for collecting the drywall dust

(attached is a photo I remember taking after sanding the entire first floor of a house, if you have any concerns on dust effecting the filter this will probably sell you)

PS : I swear I did not wipe down the vacuum , I just took my phone out and took a picture in shock with how no drywall dust made it to the filter . I must admit I had a festool bag attached , but when you add the dust deputy and a festool vacuum bag you can be very confident that you won't be damaging your vacuum filter with the dust)

Also I actually have the ultimate dust deputy that connects to the top of the vac , as when you have it all hooked up to a 26 vac , with all the hoses and setting up the deputy to be anti static every time it because not as luxurious as Festool. For instance I do roofing as a profession ( so I'm used to lifting large items all day ) and its pretty heavy to move up and down a set a stairs when its together , and very tall from the ground ,(which makes it difficult to wield), so you need to disconnect it and then re connect it. But all and all its something every one should have if your producing a lot of drywall dust or in a shop use, but for general construction where you want to bring your vac every where , and really quickly in and out I would recommend the long life bag or the standard one. I hope this doesn't sound too critical , it is something to think about before grabbing one.

 

[jonathan-m]

Didn't want to create another thread about the dust deputy, so I decided to just drop it in this similar thread.

I've been cutting and routing A LOT of MDF lately and the bag in my dust deputy was almost full so I decided to try my hand at a quick video to show how it performed.

There's about 24L of dust in there, of which I'd say 75% MDF.
This thing really works well and would recommend it to anyone who's on the fence.

I also haven't experienced any static electricity issues.



(My apologies for the bad narration, I'm not really good at this type of thing, but hopefully I got the point across)

 

[Paul G]

IMO it's a pain to have the DD rolling around on its own separate from the shop vac so I combined them onto a furniture dolly

[attachthumb=1][Inline mode=1]

 

[Fury5]

Thanks for the video, Jonathan. I found it very helpful.

Cheers.

 

[Jaybolishes]

Benjamin it's funny to see another roofer on here who has that UDD and is also festool junkie. I do only standing seam and you're right, carrying the AC 36 and the UDD together is not hard at all.  The UDD and AC 36 shop vac along with the planex is just an amazing combination when you empty out the UDD and there's nothing in the festool vac.  It really is amazing.  Now that I just bought the festival minivac I think I'm going to get another UDD because it's just so impressive.  Never had any static issues, I actually had the circuit board fry without The UDD before I purchased it.

 

[Just F Me]

Didn't want to create another thread about the dust deputy, so I decided to just drop it in this similar thread.

I've been cutting and routing A LOT of MDF lately and the bag in my dust deputy was almost full so I decided to try my hand at a quick video to show how it performed.

There's about 24L of dust in there, of which I'd say 75% MDF.
This thing really works well and would recommend it to anyone who's on the fence.

I also haven't experienced any static electricity issues.



(My apologies for the bad narration, I'm not really good at this type of thing, but hopefully I got the point across)

Cool video...what's Protool and why does it look like a Festool vac but in black and orange?

 

[#Tee]

i agree it kicks arse and would be a pain to lug it around to sites. luckily i dont as it sits in the garage.

 

[jonathan-m]

Cool video...what's Protool and why does it look like a Festool vac but in black and orange?

Thanks. Protool was the sister company of Festool with heavier duty tools for construction over here in Europe (NAINA)
But Protool was rebranded to Festool earlier this year.

A lot of the "new" Festools introduced this year are Protools with the green color. They're essentially the same tools made from the same components in the same factories. That's why they look so familiar

 

[neeleman]

For all the others who don't about Protool. They are/were both part of TTS.
Protool is no longer sold in Europe and some of the machines went to the Festool stable, others went to Narex, also part of TTS.[attachimg=1][attachimg=2]

 

[Ivanhoe]

Good video Jonathan!

 

[FinishingCanuck]

I bought my dust deputy with my ct 26. The ct has never been used without it and the original ct bag is only a quarter full. It's been 2 years! I absolutely love that the dd ultimate takes plastic garbage bags. It really makes clean up a breeze.

 

[Thebesciak]

Pic #1 This is my old setup, kind of diy  [cool]
Craftsman vacuum two buckets, cyclone and dewalt sander.
[attachimg=1]
Pic #2 upgraded festool version... Ct26, ro150 and cyclone
I am very happy about that setup...
[attachimg=2]
Pic#3
Two days sanding dust, from the Oneida bag only...
[attachimg=3]