Festool vacs

woodboy

Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2008
Messages
2
I have been using a shop vac for a few years. The time has come to replace it and I am wondering if the Festool vacs are worth the difference over shop vacs. Are there real advantages of the festool vacs over a shop vac? I have the Festool ts 55, domino, routers and sanders.
The shop vac works fine, theres just something about the festool vac that appeals to me.

Any thoughts would be appericated....
Thanks
 
i posted a while back about festool vacs i was in the process of buying one, after reading all reviews there were mixed feelings about them i wasnt expecting anything special from the but after using my ct22 it is amazing im so glad i added it to my arsenal of festools i dont know how i did without it

lee
 
You can use most any vacuum with the Festool tool lineup. The Festool hose can be purchased separately and it fits many vacuums with no adapters needed. There are some really nice features with the CT vacs - just costs more money to purchase them!!! The optional handle and boom arm are SO useful - and pricey. For me they were really worth the expense. The CT vacs have HEPA filtration and for me, it really helps as I don't cough while sanding any more. The variable speed is essential if using the Festool sanders as high speed tends to make the sanders "stick" to the wood. The flat top is a great tool tray or place to park a Systainer for a commonly used tool.

The only other vacs I like are the Feins and they are similar in price now with the HEPA filtration. I have the older series Fein Turbo II. They are a little quieter and more compact but the top is useless for storage and the boom arm will not work. I can't emphasize enough how nice it is to have the hose and cord hanging overhead on the arm. Allows it to swing and keeps it from snagging on edges and stuff.

Mine is a CT33 as I wanted the larger bag capacity. Have an Oneida Dust Deputy metal package coming to reduce my bag usage and with that, could easily use a CT22 or even smaller if they made it as the cyclone will handle the chips/dust so the bag is just for final filtration. Yea, where is the CT11??????  :)
Pete
 
woodboy said:
I have been using a shop vac for a few years. The time has come to replace it and I am wondering if the Festool vacs are worth the difference over shop vacs. Are there real advantages of the festool vacs over a shop vac? I have the Festool ts 55, domino, routers and sanders.
The shop vac works fine, theres just something about the festool vac that appeals to me.

Any thoughts would be appericated....
Thanks

My first purchase of Festool was the domino and the ct33e.  The suction is great.  I like the part that by plugging the tool in it turns on when you start your tool, and stays on for a few seconds after your cut your tool off.  Its so quiet at times I have to check to make sure its on (I still wear muffs).  Systainters ride on top.    Dislikes, would be cost (yea I know), and paper bag that you need to replace, but so what.  Anyway, great vac's!
 
With the DD, it will take forever to fill a bag.

One warning:  Even with the DD, I think some dust does get into the bags.  I have a cyclone lid that leaves all shavings and heavy particles in the bucket.  The fine dust still travels on into the CT bags (I do not have a Dust Deputy, but I am guessing the same thing happens there).  Some will swirl around until it gets into the folds of the HEPA filter.  The CT's have a little handle that you just have to shake periodically to clean out the filters.  I missed that little item with my CT 33 until Per Swensen mentioned how his filter clogged and he had to knock the dust out of it.  When my CT slowed down to the point it just was not doing much of anything in way of suction, I opened it up and removed those HEPA's.  I don't know how the machine could have picked anything up, those filters were packed like solid wood.  I think it took me a half hour to get all that packed material out.  The pile I made looked like it could fill a couple of quart jars.
Tinker
 
1st post, Glad to have found this forum. Lots of good info.
I've been using a Fein Turbo II for years and would recommend it to everyone. I need to add a 2nd vac and am considering a Festool. As someone else said the top of the Fein is useless, even with the basket I have attached. I like the idea of being able to attach my TS75 to the top of the vac.
I emailed Bobmarino and festool asking for Sale date on the new CT26, no answer from either. McFeeley's answered back saying they didn't know anything about it. I don't want to shell out for a CT22, if the new ones are coming out soon.
So Hello everyone.
 
Holzhacker said:
1st post, Glad to have found this forum. Lots of good info.
I've been using a Fein Turbo II for years and would recommend it to everyone. I need to add a 2nd vac and am considering a Festool. As someone else said the top of the Fein is useless, even with the basket I have attached. I like the idea of being able to attach my TS75 to the top of the vac.
I emailed Bobmarino and festool asking for Sale date on the new CT26, no answer from either. McFeeley's answered back saying they didn't know anything about it. I don't want to shell out for a CT22, if the new ones are coming out soon.
So Hello everyone.

My email responseto you (via Blackberry) got bounced back to me for some reason yesterday, but my response was "not this Spring". I am pretty positive we won't see them this year.
I wish I had better news.

Bob
 
Bob, sorry your email got kicked back. Don't know why I get emails everyday.
Sounds like I'll have to spring for a CT22. Waiting indefinitely isn't going to work for me.
 
Tinker said:
With the DD, it will take forever to fill a bag.

One warning:  Even with the DD, I think some dust does get into the bags.  I have a cyclone lid that leaves all shavings and heavy particles in the bucket.  The fine dust still travels on into the CT bags (I do not have a Dust Deputy, but I am guessing the same thing happens there). 
If the DD is half as good as the CV06 it does not.
Some will swirl around until it gets into the folds of the HEPA filter.  The CT's have a little handle that you just have to shake periodically to clean out the filters.  I missed that little item with my CT 33 until Per Swensen mentioned how his filter clogged and he had to knock the dust out of it.  When my CT slowed down to the point it just was not doing much of anything in way of suction, I opened it up and removed those HEPA's.  I don't know how the machine could have picked anything up, those filters were packed like solid wood.  I think it took me a half hour to get all that packed material out.  The pile I made looked like it could fill a couple of quart jars.
Tinker
from my experance with a Mini CV06 Cyclone and about 6 weeks of hard use I think you must have had a problem with the bag seal.

I had about 18 liters of dust and chips out of the Cyclone bucket one small handful of very fine dust in the CT22 bag, and the filters had no dust at all on them.

I would estimate that the CV06 gets better than 99% of all dust and the CT22's bag gets the rest so far.
 
just another note i used my ct22 again today i was cutting laminate worktop using my ts75 and of14oo the dust collection on the 1400 is amazing not what i was expecting routing masons mitres on worktop is messy business but there was little dust left on the floor im so impressed with my festool vac i would recomend it to anyone

lee
 
I know you  guys are going to scream when you hear this, but I bought a Festool vac to use for a job we did recently, and it performed better than I imagined was possible.  We had to cut approximately 200 lineal feet of concrete in a basement and I hooked the Festool vac to the saw and it turned out that  the respirators were really just a safety precaution.  The festool vac caught almost all the dust that the saw generated.  The HEPA filters still look great and we just changed the paper bags a few time for a cost of ~$20 (the bags are about $6 a piece when bought in bulk).

If you have never cut concrete in an enclosed space before,  let me put this in perspective so you can appreciate how well the vac worked:   if we cut only 1-2 lineal feet of concrete with no vac, the room we were in would have been virtually blacked out from the dust, not to mention the hazardous breathing conditions even with a respirator.

I know the vac  is expensive, but I am impressed at how well it works and the filters are quite reasonably priced IMO.
 
I wont scream, it is a good idea.  I do belive Hilti and someone else makes vacs just for concrete.

If you have it use it.  If I makes your job more pleasant who cares.

I dare not mention too many things I use my festool's for, most guys would have a heart attack.
 
I looked at some larger vacs with high suction and low micron filtration, and they were all more $$$$ than the Festool.  It is going to get a lot more use as soon as I buy the TS 55.
 
great idea using your vac for cutting concrete horrible job i know i bout a good quality respirator and rarely use it because my ct22 is so capable

lee
 
JeromeM said:
Tinker said:
With the DD, it will take forever to fill a bag.

One warning:  Even with the DD, I think some dust does get into the bags.  I have a cyclone lid that leaves all shavings and heavy particles in the bucket.  The fine dust still travels on into the CT bags (I do not have a Dust Deputy, but I am guessing the same thing happens there). 
If the DD is half as good as the CV06 it does not.
Some will swirl around until it gets into the folds of the HEPA filter.  The CT's have a little handle that you just have to shake periodically to clean out the filters.  I missed that little item with my CT 33 until Per Swensen mentioned how his filter clogged and he had to knock the dust out of it.  When my CT slowed down to the point it just was not doing much of anything in way of suction, I opened it up and removed those HEPA's.  I don't know how the machine could have picked anything up, those filters were packed like solid wood.  I think it took me a half hour to get all that packed material out.  The pile I made looked like it could fill a couple of quart jars.
Tinker
from my experance with a Mini CV06 Cyclone and about 6 weeks of hard use I think you must have had a problem with the bag seal.

I had about 18 liters of dust and chips out of the Cyclone bucket one small handful of very fine dust in the CT22 bag, and the filters had no dust at all on them.

I would estimate that the CV06 gets better than 99% of all dust and the CT22's bag gets the rest so far.

When I made that response, i was in sort of a hurry to get back to work, I think.  Anyhow, as i reread just now, i realized I had left out an important point aside from the fact that even with the cyclone lid, dust does reach the CT bags.  I have both a CT 33 and a 22.  both are hooked up so all particles go to a 5 gal bucket with cyclone lid.  Heavy particles do stay in the 5 gal buckets.  fine dust does manage to find its way to the CT bags.  those are the points that I did get across.  In my case, there was alarge % of the dust that got to the bags did find its way to the HEPA filters.  Those are facts that i think everybody who has used the CT with cyclone lids over buckets of whatever size that fits have experienced.  i do not have experience with the DD's or other cyclone aparatus that are available.  I also did not mention that when the buckets get full, heavier particles will go into the CT's.  Others have mentioned this.

The point I did not get across thru my oversight and/or rush was that when the dust managed tto pack my HEPA filters, I also discovered the bag had been torn and was not seated properly.  I think I did mention this within a previous discussion last year.  The point I was trying to convey with the most recent post, as Per Swensen had observed with his intro to that earlier discussion, was that should dust find its way to the HEPA filters, it could really pack in tight.  This was not presented by me as a complaint (nor was it presented as such by Per), but more as my observation marveling at the efficiency of the CT's right up until those HEPA's become so clogged they become practically solid wood.  My CT 33 was still working fine right up until only a few uses before I finally made my investigation.  The suction had slowwed somewhat, but that only started showing up at the time i first applied the cyclone lids.  When i went back to direct suction without going thru the cyclone lid/5 gal bucket, the suction seemed ok.  Because there seemed to be improved suction in eliminating the drp bucket system, i had blamed the loss of suction on the use of the lid and bucket.  It was not until i read Per's report that I decided to investigate my own HEPA filters. 

Point is: no matter how great the suction with the cyclone set ups, one should occasionally investigate inside the CT's.  for me, the fact that my HEPA filters became clogged was attributed, not to the quality of function of the CT 33, but more a function of my own rushed habits and lazyness towards responsible maintenance procedures. The suction with the CT's, both 33 and 22 is actually quite adequate for all i have used then for.  My CT 33 is set up at my MFT 1080 but with extra hose attached, i can reach my BS and other tools at various locations across (end to end) my shop.  The CT 22 is semi permanently hooked up to my woodrat, but within reach of my Hitachi SCMS.  Neither machine is the greayest for DC, so the fact that i am collecting any dust is a great victory for me. I do not see any difference in suction between the 33 or 22.  With the HEPA filters being more consistantly checked, there is not much difference in suction whether drwaing direct from toys or thru the cyclone lid.  I assume the design factor of the DD is better than the design of my cyclone lids for collecting dust with probably even less drop-off of suction.
Tinker
 
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