Festool 576941 CTC SYS Cordless Dust Extractor

[woodbutcherbower]

I read 20 minutes on full power with 2x 4 Ah.

[eek] Wow. Is that really the case? That's not exactly real-world usable, is it?

If that figure's correct, it drops straight into the same category as the new 'hybrid' Transit Custom which Ford have released over here to jump on the e-vehicle bandwagon. It will only do 30 miles on a battery charge under 'ideal conditions' before a gutless little 1.0-litre petrol engine takes over. 'Ideal' = empty, and driving along a flat road with no gradients. In the real world, it will spend its life driving uphill with a ton in the back and two fat builders in the front. The actual range will be maybe half that at best. I'll personally stay with my 185-horsepower diesel version, thanks.

 

[Coen]

I read 20 minutes on full power with 2x 4 Ah.

[eek] Wow. Is that really the case? That's not exactly real-world usable, is it?

If that figure's correct, it drops straight into the same category as the new 'hybrid' Transit Custom which Ford have released over here to jump on the e-vehicle bandwagon. It will only do 30 miles on a battery charge under 'ideal conditions' before a gutless little 1.0-litre petrol engine takes over. 'Ideal' = empty, and driving along a flat road with no gradients. In the real world, it will spend its life driving uphill with a ton in the back and two fat builders in the front. The actual range will be maybe half that at best. I'll personally stay with my 185-horsepower diesel version, thanks.

The 20 minutes is from the recent GoTools TV episode. On the local Festool website it says 14-25 minutes for 2x4Ah.

What else you expect? The Festool has a longer hose than any of the other battery powered vacs and is supposed to perform better. That simply requires more power consumption.

The Bosch 18v lasts 14 minutes on a single 4 Ah. Bosch claims 4 minutes per Ah. The Festool has two modes.

Those hybrid cars are designed around tax breaks.

I used my 18v Bosch this week while replacing a fuse box. Removed old fuse box, removed old wood on the wall, clean up old drill holes etc, added new piece of pliewood, mounted new fusebox. On 8Ah battery is lasts ~28 minutes. That is long enough so clean up the work area.

 

[Jeff Zanin]

I have the M18 vacuum that I bought for a specific project involving removing the concrete dust from holes, it was perfect for that and allowed us to do everything without AC power.  I don't know how long it would last if I just let it run, but it can take a pretty big battery, and I don't use it continuously.  I have found it very handy for many small clean-up tasks, even though it has a very short hose that doesn't connect to anything but the two small attachements provided.  Of course it doesn't stack with other systainers either, so not as handy to bring especailly on a Sys-Roll.

The CTC is obviously much more expensive, with a longer hose, more attachments, probably more power and other features.  It looks lke there is a "Plus" version with two batteries and the dual charger coming later, so I will stick with the M18 for now but might get the CTC Plus when it becomes available.

 

[Samo]

Are any real-world reviews out yet?  If there is such a thing anymore.  [unsure]

Thanks, Sam

 

[Bencan]

Easy return for me

I bought one of these day 1 thinking it would be awesome-it is not. It has nearly as much suction as the corded ct sys and it solves the issues of packing up the cord and the hose into the garage unfortunately it only gets 9 minutes of suction on high and the suction drops at around 7 minutes. It’s not good and I returned it as with that little battery life it provides little to no value to me. I wanted it to bring it to jobs to make quick cuts with the osc and do cleanups but it proved to me twice it could not handle even the smallest jobs I would ever do without a battery change. Disappointing

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mino]

I think people are not yet sure of the use case for the CTC SYS and tend to make a mistake to see it as "a cordless CT-SYS". Which it is not.

The Great:
It has more power that ANY small cordless vac. /that I am aware/
It has better filtration than ANY small cordless vac.
Two above combined mean one can do "dirty" tasks in a living room/office of a customer cleanly. Without messing with power.

The Good:
It is SMALLER than any cordless vac which even approaches its power output.
It is on the Festool 18V platform, meaning reliable battery life /as they will be drained completely quite often/.

The Bad:
Size/Weight limitations mean the 8Ah bats will not fit.
With high power comes short run time.

In total, this is NO CT-SYS replacement in what it can do.
But. It is a quality replacement for the original task of a CT-SYS - to act as an ad-hoc "installers" vac.

There the 4Ah bats make sense - for an installer in a European setting one would be all-4Ah for his other tools as 8Ah is just too heavy. One would also not *need* more than 15min of run time for those /few/ dirty tasks. So the possible trade-off (reducing the 4.5 litre bin to say 4l) is not worth it. And would just carry a couple battery spares where needed.

Basically to me it seems Festool acknowledged that one has to pick 2 from 3:
Power
Runtime
Weight/Size

CTC-SYS goes for Power + Weight/Size, sacrificing Runtime.
CTC-Mini/Midi go for Power + Runtime, sacrifizing Weight/Size.

The last option - Runtime + Weight/Size - Festool happily leaves to the rest of the market where it is well-represented already.

Not saying this is the best, but those who do not need/care for the power or do not mind the (non-)filtration of the competition should just look elsewhere.

IMO this is another CXS of our time. Some will love it, some will consider it an overpriced garbage. And they BOTH would be right - for their use cases.

 

[FestitaMakool]

Good summary Mino  [smile]

Any first hand experience with the CTC Mini/Midi’s?
I have discarded (for my use anyway) the CTC SYS, but the others
are interesting. They have decent run time with the 5,2Ah, and there will be an (expensive)  option with the 8Ah, which so far is no particular interest to me, there’s a saw that will utilise and need higher output and runtime. TSC 60? - Needing only one battery?