Fein Turbo II vs CT 26 E

[EMWLou]

A few more questions if you guys don't mind. I've pretty much decided to go ahead and get the Festool CT 26 Vac. I'm going to buy the 3.5M sleeved hose too. Well, since the CT 26 already comes with a non-sleeved hose, I'm going to have a fairly expensive hose laying around that I will never use. Anyone know of a way to buy the Vac without the hose and save a little money?

Second question is in regards to bags. I'm leaning towards getting the long life bag instead of the disposables. Anyone else do this that would suggest otherwise? Has the long life bag been a good buy for those of you that went that route? Its not cheap, but if its worth it in the long run, I don't mind paying the extra for it.

The Rotex sander... Do any of you have issues with it creating too much dust for the CT vacs to collect? I have the older model Rotex that was closed out a little over ten years ago. I use it usually with 80 grit paper and the sander set to its highest speed. I do a LOT of glue-ups for deep (over 16 inches) window sills. I'm using pre-primed pine, which is very soft. Right now, I'm looking at well over 1,000 linear ft (300+ meters) of it to do in the next month. The sander removes so much material, that my Fein vac wasn't able to get it all. I don't know if that was just because the vac was so old, or its the older style sander. As a reference, when I used my ETS 150/3 sander, the Domino, and the TS55, my old vac collected almost everything. Anyone have some input on this?

 

[peter halle]

Lou,

Dealers will not be likely to make a swap for the included hose because it is not packed like a replacement hose.  The classifieds here might be a solution.

On the long life bag.  It was originally designed for high CHIP situations.  The pores over time might get clogged with dust.  That being said several members here use it for sanding.

I believe that the newer model of Rotex has a better dust evacuation process than your older model.  The new CT should help out also.

Peter

 

[Gregor]

On the long life bag.  It was originally designed for high CHIP situations.  The pores over time might get clogged with dust.  That being said several members here use it for sanding.

My suggestion would be to vacuum the inside of the longlife bag every some cleanings to pull the fine dust out of the pores.

 

[ben_r_]

A few more questions if you guys don't mind. I've pretty much decided to go ahead and get the Festool CT 26 Vac. I'm going to buy the 3.5M sleeved hose too. Well, since the CT 26 already comes with a non-sleeved hose, I'm going to have a fairly expensive hose laying around that I will never use. Anyone know of a way to buy the Vac without the hose and save a little money?

Just list it here in the Classifieds section, some one will buy it off you.

 

[antss]

How many disposable bags would you have to buy before you paid for the long life one ?

How many bags do you think you'll fill in a year ?

If you get the long lifer, you're essentially paying upfront for the xtra disposable bags. You can compute the TVM costs associated with that.

Now, how much do you value your time at for all the times you're gonna empty that bag ?  How much do you value your time at for the additional cleaning you're gonna have to do to get the bag's pores clean like Peter mentions ?

What price, if any , do you place on the added mess emptying and cleaning that long life bag is going to cause over the disposable ones ?

For me it only makes sense if you use it for high volume planing or ripping operations where you generate lots of large chips. If your primary use is sanding or routing , the long life bag is an expensive mess to deal with.

I'd call Bob or Shane and see if they can do anything on the hose for you.  I'm with Peter on this though - probably not practical.  Post it for sale at 10% off and you shouldn't have trouble moving it.

 

[EMWLou]

How many disposable bags would you have to buy before you paid for the long life one ?

How many bags do you think you'll fill in a year ?

If you get the long lifer, you're essentially paying upfront for the xtra disposable bags. You can compute the TVM costs associated with that.

Now, how much do you value your time at for all the times you're gonna empty that bag ?  How much do you value your time at for the additional cleaning you're gonna have to do to get the bag's pores clean like Peter mentions ?

What price, if any , do you place on the added mess emptying and cleaning that long life bag is going to cause over the disposable ones ?

For me it only makes sense if you use it for high volume planing or ripping operations where you generate lots of large chips. If your primary use is sanding or routing , the long life bag is an expensive mess to deal with.

I'd call Bob or Shane and see if they can do anything on the hose for you.  I'm with Peter on this though - probably not practical.  Post it for sale at 10% off and you shouldn't have trouble moving it.

I've spent enough money on disposable bags for the Fein over the years that I could have bought LOTS of long life bags. There are days that I will empty the bag 5 or 6 times. It depends on what I'm working on. I work on jobsites, but I pretty much bring a full workshop with me. Portable planer, router tables, numerous saws, lots of sanders, etc. Sanding is far from my only use for the CT. My vac typically runs for about 7 hours each day. I mentioned the sanding only because of the Rotex I have and the amount of dust left behind from it. I do get your point about emptying the bag and the cleaning involved. Something like the Dust Deputy from Oneida would make more sense if I had room on the truck for it. The bag appeals to me because it won't take up any additional space in my already jammed packed truck. If I get a Dust Deputy, that means something has to come off the truck to make room for it.

I already shot Bob an e-mail about the hose. Peter's suggestion about posting it for sale makes sense and probably is what I'll do. 

 

[pixelated]

There is a version of the dust deputy that parks on top of the vac, so they occupy the same foot print, if that helps.http://www.oneida-air.com/inventoryD.asp?item_no=AXD000009&CatId={6EE79B16-EB63-43E7-8F30-1E06240A24A4}

 

[EMWLou]

There is a version of the dust deputy that parks on top of the vac, so they occupy the same foot print, if that helps.http://www.oneida-air.com/inventoryD.asp?item_no=AXD000009&CatId={6EE79B16-EB63-43E7-8F30-1E06240A24A4}

That's the one I would want. I think it will make it too high to fit in the truck though. I ordered the CT this morning, but I didn't get the extra hose or the long life bag just yet. I want to see just how much room it takes up in the truck, then decide to go with the bag, or the Dust Deputy.

 

[antss]

"There are days that I will empty the bag 5 or 6 times. "

Good heavens , you make a mess .  [wink] [wink] [wink] [wink]

The long life prob. makes sense to for you then.  You have included the labor burden for cleaning the bags in your overhead , right ? 

 

[Tracky]

Before you buy a replacement vac be sure to check out Nilfisk. 

I use a Stihl vac which is basically a re-branded Nilfisk Aero. Great vac at an excellent price. The high-end model is a rebranded Attix.

You can by a rubber tool adapter for around $7 that fits my TS55 and many other tools. Parts are cheap (10ft 27mm hose is ~$15, 3 bags around $12) and available from my local Stihl dealer. Unfortunately the North American models don't have auto-start capability.

 

[EMWLou]

"There are days that I will empty the bag 5 or 6 times. "

Good heavens , you make a mess .  [wink] [wink] [wink] [wink]

The long life prob. makes sense to for you then.  You have included the labor burden for cleaning the bags in your overhead , right ?

I have a thorough clean up of the site included in all my quotes. That's where the vac makes money for me because the actual cleanup is substantially less involved than what I am getting paid to do. That will easily cover any burden for cleaning bags.

 

[bearpaw]

I opted for a new Fein turbo 2 today After looking how expensive the Festool has gotten. The Festool vacs are around 800.00 the fein turbo 2 heap vac is 449.00
I don't know why Festool thinks they have to raise their price by 10 % every year its made most of their outrageously priced tools out of reach for most tradesmen feeding a family.
do you really get that different of a sanding job from a 75.00 dollar rotary sander vs a 350.00 Festool?
Is the Kapex Really worth 4 times more than a Dewalt Milwaukee or Bosch?

I think a good job has more to do with skill than how expensive the tool. An expensive tool won't make a crappy carpenter a good one.
Glad I bought most of my Festool years ago before the 5 yearly 10% increases.

Track saw year 1 550.00 add 10% year 2 605.00 next year add 10 % year 3 665.00 next year add 10%year 4 732.00 next year 5 add 10%805.00 etc etc etc...

 

[Holzhacker]

Congratulations on the new Turbo II.
Just as a POI for others thinking about this. I have an older Gen Fein Turbo II and two CT22's. Had a 26 but that's another story.
For job site clean up, rough clean up, lots of volume I would get another Turbo II without another thought.
For working, doing service calls, sanding, etc. I'd buy another CT

 

[Shane Holland]

A little late, I suppose, but a good head to head comparison.

 

[Cheese]

I have an older Fein Turbo II, CT 22, MIDI and an old Milwaukee stainless R2D2 style. Nothing wrong with the Fein, it’s hooked up to the Kapex with a shorty 36 mm hose. Love them all, however when something gets stuck in the hose of the Fein or Festool vacs, I use the Milwaukee R2D2 to suck out the foreign object.

As they say, the Milwaukee will suck the chrome plating off of a bumper hitch!