Hi,
I recently purchased a Festool CTL MIDI in Europe. This is marked as a "dust class L" dust extractor. I have a couple of questions regarding the filtration grade on the MIDI compared to the CTL and CTM 26 extractor.
So let’s start with some definitions that I have found regarding the dust class L, M and H (IEC 60335-2-69):
-L (light hazard) suitable for separating dust with a limit value of occupational exposure of greater than 1 mg/m3 ;
-M (medium hazard) for separating dust with a limit value of occupational exposure of greater than 0,1 mg/m3
(According to the international standard )
-H (high hazard) for separating all dusts with all limit values of occupational exposure, including carcinogenic and pathogenic dusts.
So the class L, M and H are then defined by the allowed concentration of dust in the air if I have got it right.
HEPA standard is defined as (wiki):
To qualify as HEPA by US government standards, an air filter must remove (from the air that passes through) 99.97% of particles that have a size of 0.3 µm.
The L/M dust classification and HEPA standard are not using the same parameters and are therefore difficult to compare directly.
How good filtering does class L or M provide compared to a HEPA extractor? As far as i know the MIDI sold in Europe are not fitted with HEPA-filters. How are the standard filters in Europe compared to the HEPA filters?
Festool (and other brands) recommend the following uses for L/M class:
Dust class L:
Simple, harmless dust such as house dust and materials such as soil.
Dust class M:
All wood dust and dust originating from repair compound, filler and clear coats, plaster, cement, concrete, tile cement and paints such as latex and oil paints or quartziferous materials such as sand and pebbles.
By these recommendations it can look like the class L dust extractors are not suitable for woodworking and other industrial uses.
I have learned through this forum that the CTL and CTM extractors use the same bag and filter and that the only difference is that the class M extractor has an alarm if the suction goes below a given threshold. This should then indicate that the CTL26 is as good as the CTM in terms of filtration grade. That would also mean that the CTL is suitable for woodworking and industrial use as long as you keep an eye on the bag/suction.
How is this for the MIDI extractor? Does anyone know if the filtration grade of the MIDI is also as good as the CTL/M26?
Would there be an advantage by changing the standard filter to a HEPA-filter?
I can see that they sell both HEPA and standard filters for the CTL26 in Europe, but for the MIDI it is only the non-HEPA filters. What is the reason for this?
Are there anyone with more insight in this topic?
I recently purchased a Festool CTL MIDI in Europe. This is marked as a "dust class L" dust extractor. I have a couple of questions regarding the filtration grade on the MIDI compared to the CTL and CTM 26 extractor.
So let’s start with some definitions that I have found regarding the dust class L, M and H (IEC 60335-2-69):
-L (light hazard) suitable for separating dust with a limit value of occupational exposure of greater than 1 mg/m3 ;
-M (medium hazard) for separating dust with a limit value of occupational exposure of greater than 0,1 mg/m3
(According to the international standard )
-H (high hazard) for separating all dusts with all limit values of occupational exposure, including carcinogenic and pathogenic dusts.
So the class L, M and H are then defined by the allowed concentration of dust in the air if I have got it right.
HEPA standard is defined as (wiki):
To qualify as HEPA by US government standards, an air filter must remove (from the air that passes through) 99.97% of particles that have a size of 0.3 µm.
The L/M dust classification and HEPA standard are not using the same parameters and are therefore difficult to compare directly.
How good filtering does class L or M provide compared to a HEPA extractor? As far as i know the MIDI sold in Europe are not fitted with HEPA-filters. How are the standard filters in Europe compared to the HEPA filters?
Festool (and other brands) recommend the following uses for L/M class:
Dust class L:
Simple, harmless dust such as house dust and materials such as soil.
Dust class M:
All wood dust and dust originating from repair compound, filler and clear coats, plaster, cement, concrete, tile cement and paints such as latex and oil paints or quartziferous materials such as sand and pebbles.
By these recommendations it can look like the class L dust extractors are not suitable for woodworking and other industrial uses.
I have learned through this forum that the CTL and CTM extractors use the same bag and filter and that the only difference is that the class M extractor has an alarm if the suction goes below a given threshold. This should then indicate that the CTL26 is as good as the CTM in terms of filtration grade. That would also mean that the CTL is suitable for woodworking and industrial use as long as you keep an eye on the bag/suction.
How is this for the MIDI extractor? Does anyone know if the filtration grade of the MIDI is also as good as the CTL/M26?
Would there be an advantage by changing the standard filter to a HEPA-filter?
I can see that they sell both HEPA and standard filters for the CTL26 in Europe, but for the MIDI it is only the non-HEPA filters. What is the reason for this?
Are there anyone with more insight in this topic?
Festool also states that the MIDI extractor is "Best suited to smaller sanding, routing, sawing and drilling tasks" on their international site. This is two somewhat conflicting statements.