I can't believe how good the CT26 is.

[bwehman]

Seriously, the title says it all. I replaced a Ridgid 14 gallon with the CT a couple months ago and OH MY GAWD. I'm astonished at how incredible it is. I have a Dust Deputy on it too. Wow. With that purchase I think I have pretty much every Festool category represented in my shop, but I wish this was the first purchase instead of the last.

 

[ben_r_]

Yep. The CT vacs really are awesome units. Now you can see why many consider them the heart of the Festool system. Since pretty much every Festool tool is designed to have the best dust collection offered by it's tool type, it makes sense that the dust collector should be such a quality central piece to the system.

 

[andy5405]

I felt exactly the same way when I bought my CT26. I still appreciate good tools to this day but I get less excited by them nowadays. It's just a fancy hoover!

 

[kevinculle]

The CT26 is indeed a fine shop vac...until you need to pick it up and carry it up a flight or two of steps where you'll find it's heavy, bulky and awkward.  I have a compact Nilfisk HEPA that vacs about as well, is equally quiet, lacks the automatic tool start, but is much friendlier to lift and carry around.

I suppose the bulkiness is an offshoot of its function as a Systainer rollabout but since my only other Festool is a Kapex 120 I don't really benefit from that.  It's still a well made machine, just a boat anchor.

 

[semenza]

Mini or Midi for stair navigation. They too will hold Systainers  [smile]

Seth

 

[Vondawg]

Attaching  systainers can't be forgotten and adding the maxsys@rts-engineering.com remote switch, puts the icing on the cake !

 

[live4ever]

Boy I miss the old Feins...

When my Feins die I suppose I'll end up with a Festool DE.  Actually I'll probably try to replace the motor in the Fein first, lol.  For now, it's the one class of Festool I don't own in addition to the drill/drivers and jigsaws.

 

[rst]

Feeling you live4ever, I have three of the older Feins with suction control...two IIs and a III.  That being said I also have a Midi, 26, and a CTL SYS.  My Midi resides under an Oneida, my 26 has a WCR on top and the CTL rides in my van.  Two of three Feins are pulling at stationary tools and thru Oneidas.  The one thing about Feins that I changed is that I converted all my tool ends to Festool ends.

 

[Naildrivingman]

[member=25351]rst[/member] is Fein not making quality vacuums anymore?  Just went to the web and there are a bunch of different models. The specs look same/similar to the FT extractors. Can someone enlighten me to the difference?

 

[Vondawg]

Not sure on the latest Fein models but my old one is only lacking speed control other than that it's still one I'd hate to see be without

 

[rst]

The three models that I own all have suction adjustment just like the Festools...the new ones are adjusted at the nozzle with a slider.  The only reasons I bought the Festool vacs was the ability to attach systainers and the WCR.

 

[glass1]

I do like my ct26 especially the design and shape. I thought it was the greatest til I recently bought an unused of the floor ct33. I love the ct33.  I do not now the specs but the reusable paper bags rock and it's got more suck in my mind. Plus it supplies full power out the outlet plug.

 

[Cheese]

Mini or Midi for stair navigation.

+1 on that statement...I keep a Midi by the door for an outdoor vac in the summer. I've "permanently" attached a SYS-MFT to the top and filled it with pencils, misc sandpaper, tape measure and a couple of vac brushes. When I haul it outside I just grab the SYS-MFT by the long center cutout and haul it around.

 

[live4ever]

Feeling you live4ever, I have three of the older Feins with suction control...two IIs and a III.  That being said I also have a Midi, 26, and a CTL SYS.  My Midi resides under an Oneida, my 26 has a WCR on top and the CTL rides in my van.  Two of three Feins are pulling at stationary tools and thru Oneidas.  The one thing about Feins that I changed is that I converted all my tool ends to Festool ends.

Yeah, I have two Feins pulling at stationary tools as well with cyclones.  I'm actually an idiot though, because I completely forgot I got a CT SYS recently, which I use as my portable cleanup vac so the Feins can stay where they are.  So technically I do own a Festool DE. 

There used to be a rubber step adaptor that Fein sold for $5 which made it easy to adapt to Festools, and no need to change ends on Fein or Bosch hoses.  For some reason, that very handy part was discontinued around the same time Fein switched their vacs to the new square shape without variable speed. 

The [older] round Feins made a lot more sense financially over the Festool DEs, especially from a shop or hobbyist perspective.  They had the variable speed, low noise, and tool-triggered start, same as Festool.  You could easily upgrade the 5 or 1 micron models to HEPA since they took the very cheap $30 round 3rd party filters for Craftsman/Ridgid vacs (though it wouldn't be certified for those needing that).  So for about $200-300 cheaper, the only downside was you couldn't stack systainers on 'em.  I'm glad I got two of them for basically the price of a 26 while they were still available...hopefully they give me another 5-10 years.

 

[Holmz]

[member=25351]rst[/member] is Fein not making quality vacuums anymore?  Just went to the web and there are a bunch of different models. The specs look same/similar to the FT extractors. Can someone enlighten me to the difference?

If one is color blind they look the same.
I went from a Karcher to a CT26 and was impressed.

If one went from a Fein, Nilfisk, Metabo, Starmix, Bosch, etc I doubt one would be impressed at all.

It is like saying, the Honda 250 is better than a scooter... And all those vacuums are in the same general class.

 

[SonOfMI]

I can't believe how good the CT26 is. Yeah. I was just going to post the same thing. I started switching my tooling to Festool after deciding to change my main product focus from small storage to custom cabinetry and built ins. I got the Domino 500 first, then the 1400 Router to replace a couple of Bosch 1617, then the TS55 to replace my in inconsistent Makita and its crappy guide rails.

I used the 10% discount on the last one to get a CT26 which came in yesterday. Until now I've used my dust collector and a variety of shop vacs on my handheld power tools. I spent the weekend catching up on some stuff for my house, building some cabinets for the unfinished portion of my basement. I had grown accustomed to turning pieces over after cutting a mortise with the domino to tap out the dust that wasn't sucked up. I was shocked when I started tapping the first piece I dominoed and nothing came out. I checked the mortises. Nothing in them. I checked the CT26 and it was all in there. I cut more mortises and checked again. Nothing left in them. Awesome.