A 26 fits nice under the Precisio. I doubt a 36 would. A 48 will surely not.
A 26 fits under the parcel shelf of a VW Polo 2004. A 36 or 48 will not.
Alex said:
If you are a hobbyist I'd go for the 26. It is big enough for the amount of wood dust a hobbyist makes. I'm a hobbyist, I have a Mini and a 26, and I replace the bags on both only twice a year. If you compare the cost of bags between the 26 and the 48, it won't be much you save.
I mostly use my Mini, so most of the time the 26 is just sitting there looking pretty, doing nothing, and being a big lump that always seems to be in my way. A 48 would be even more in my way, so from my point of view, I would never opt for a 48. That big a vac is for somebody who makes a lot of dust, all the time. Not for somebody who uses it occasionally. But each to his own.
But you and I are both in the Netherlands. When I bought my CT 26 I did the math too on when it would become more economical, but the big difference is in initial costs: where we live it's €250, in the US it's apparently $100
With current "official" Festool NL prices, you would need to suck up 1719 Liters of dust before the CT 48 is saving you money over a CT 26. That would be 71 bag changes for the CT-26 or 37 for the CT-48. The CT-36 reaches that point at 1562 Liters.
If you change the delta Price for CT 26 > CT 48 to €100 in that same calculation, it will start saving at 697 Liters or 29 bagchanges (CT-26).
Not included in the calculation is the fact that you won't always get a full bag. Although the new Selfclean bags are a lot tougher than the old paper bags of the 22; if a bag burst or you clog one up with some fine dust; you don't get a full bag; increasing the amount you need to get economical.
So it's pretty much this:
Want mobile vac: Buy CT-26 (or smaller)
Want stationary vac, low volume use: Buy CT-26
Want stationary vac, high volume: buy stationary vac
Want Festool vac, weight not a problem: Buy CT-26 / 36 /48 depending on amount of use.