Tradesman / Installer Cleaning Set - 497700 Beats Oreck and Dyson

JuliMor

Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2013
Messages
80
Today I worked on installing cabinet doors.  All were drilled for the cup hinges but I still had to drill for the mounting screws for the hinges and drill the holes for the bar handles.  All of the doors were marked for their specific locations, even though many were identical in size.  So, when prepping the doors, I had to pay close attention to book-matching and grain matching for all of the panels.  So in order to make sure everything went in the right place, I drilled for the hinges and door handles and installed the doors one by one.

Some time ago I had ordered the Tradesman / Installer Cleaning Set - 497700.  It arrived today just after I was done installing the cabinet doors.  BTW, they look awesome!  [big grin] 

I have an Oreck vacuum.  I think I paid around $500 for it.  I've never been really impressed.

Today I took out the Tradeswoman  ;) accessories and did the clean up.  WOW!  This should be marketed on the Lifetime Channel.  Women would love it!  Even those who are afraid to chip their nail polish would love it!  [big grin]  It works better than all that other [censored].
 
You said a mouthful.  I was installing some built in bookcases for a small library at a church.  Finished trimming them out and my wife happened to be there.  She wanted to help so she volunteered to vacuum.  I had been using my Kapex in the hall outside the library so there was that and the library which was about 500sf.  I have the Tradesman set as well and CT33.  She was impressed.  Something like, "Dang, I've never used a vac this good.  We should use this for the house!"  And she's a Family and Consumer Science teacher.
 
Same thing happened in my home recently. I keep the 33 out in the shop but carry the midi around to jobs. My wife wanted some duct grates cleaned and very quickly she decided she needs one of these for house cleaning....hmm...the price did help a bit but not much! Great tools!
 
If we were to look at something significantly more useful than the Dyson for the house, we'd need something capable of picking up dirty socks and pizza boxes ( ... my son's room and the surrounding fall out zone).
 
Kev said:
If we were to look at something significantly more useful than the Dyson for the house, we'd need something capable of picking up dirty socks and pizza boxes ( ... my son's room and the surrounding fall out zone).

It's called a shovel, lad...  [big grin]

 
Agree Julie.  I also have an Orek, that I bought about 8 years ago; I guess it's what's called the upright, rather than canister model. It has worked well, but nowhere nearly as well as the Festool CT's. The CT's are quieter, have more suction, have any attachments you would need and they filter way better; no clouds of fine dust leaking out of anywhere.  Now, around the house, I much prefer the MINI because of it's small size/light weight - and most of the time, use it with the either the Compact Cleaning Kit, or the Workshop Cleaning Kit. I don't have much carpeting or else I would get Festool's Turbo Suction Brush - http://www.festoolusa.com/search?q=450644.  I've see that brush  in action when I worked the Festool shows many moons ago, and does an incredible job on carpets.

While I'm not sure we will see Festool doing the Lifetime Channel or QVC, I think any Festool CT Owner - particularly those who own the MINI/MIDI, may just want to consider nixing getting an expensive house vac and let the CT have a go at it - I think they would be pleasantly surprised.

Bob
 
What a fascinating discussion. I completely agree about using Festool CTs with the Tradesperson/Installer Cleaning Set cat 497 700 especially with the addition of the Plastic Turbo Suction Brush cat 450 644.

Just after Christmas 2005 my previous home vac died. A block from my condo there was a shop specializing in home vacs, repairing and selling them. The owner, who I trusted, told me I needed a new one. He had several brands. I selected a Miele, because a friend owned one of their dishwashers. It was expensive and performed better than any vac I had owned before.

Then on the 3rd Friday of 2006 I started a 4 week vacation, planning to build two cabinet-related projects I had been designing all of 2005. My plan was to lease a shop. A trusted pal had sold me a lot of high-end woodworking equipment for my previous shop, so I drove to his new store, intending to buy a large slider-table saw. He talked to me about my plans for the shop. I explained I had two spare rooms in my condo and that I hoped to delay retirement as a movie studio executive until late 2007 but I was willing to least a shop as soon as my Realtor could find one. Before showing me slider saws, he told me that many of his clients were using Festool track saws instead of sliders to break down plywood sheets. The advantage was not just moving the saw instead of the sheet, but also the dust extraction. He had me try a TS55 with a CT22. I loved that idea and those tools. I immediately took the saw, CT22 and 3 rails home.

The next day was one of the Saturdays when he held open house at his store. A whole gaggle of top woodworkers gathered there. One told me that I would collect more dust from my TS55 if I used a 36mm AS hose, and the best way to buy that was to by the Tradesperson set, which included the 36mm x 3.5m AS hose. Another woodworker told me that he used the Turbo brush to clean his home carpets. I was happy with my Miele for cleaning my carpets, but I figured the CT would live in the leased shop so I should have the Turbo brush.

Finding a shop to lease was not as easy as I thought, so I had several sheets of plywood delivered to my condo. I used the TS55, the rails and the CT22 to break down the sheets and was pleased with the dust collection from the 36mm hose. But drilling holes and so on created some saw dust. I used the Miele to clean up that. Then before I finished the two projects my studio asked me to return to work a week early. The TS55 and CT22 were quiet enough I could use them after work in my condo, but the Miele made enough noise I could not use it either before or after work.

I knew I did not need to turn the suction up all the way with the 36mm hose with the saw. So I tried using the Turbo brush with the suction reduced. It was so quiet I could not hear it in the next room. It had more than enough power to remove the saw dust from my carpet. None of my neighbors noticed that sometimes I was cleaning my condo at 4 A.M. using the CT22 turned to minimum.

All these years later my Miele is still virtually brand new. I kept buying more CT22 and a couple of other Tradesperson kits because instead of leasing a shop I rented space in shops of pals, sometimes two shops at the same time. I keep a CT22 with the kit and Turbo brush at home, although since I retired in early 2007 I do not clean the place in the middle of the night.
 
If you're dead-set on having a canister-type vac, check out the Riccar Immaculate.  The suction leaves the Miele in its own dust.  My Miele power head died and I managed to get this Riccar for twice the price of just the replacement parts for the Miele.  Had I not found this, my CT Mini would have been re-purposed to the house with a turbo brush.  Another nice thing is that the Riccar is 100% made in the US. 

 
Oh boy! I can just imagine how this will go...

I show my friends how well the CT works, "And it cleans area rugs without curling up the edges!"  [drooling]

Then they go home and say, "Honey?  Can you buy me a Festool vacuum?"

"Sure but we could get a great deal if we buy a package!  They always have sales on packages."

"Okay, as long as it's on sale."

And that will be the start of Festool Fever, a highly contagious and incurable virus that hits you like a freight train and doesn't let go.  [scared]

Then my friends will come over complaining about all these green tools taking over the house.  I might not have any friends after that.  [big grin]
 
Julie Moriarty said:
Oh boy! I can just imagine how this will go...

I show my friends how well the CT works, "And it cleans area rugs without curling up the edges!"   [drooling]

Then they go home and say, "Honey?  Can you buy me a Festool vacuum?"

"Sure but we could get a great deal if we buy a package!  They always have sales on packages."

"Okay, as long as it's on sale."

And that will be the start of Festool Fever, a highly contagious and incurable virus that hits you like a freight train and doesn't let go.  [scared]

Then my friends will come over complaining about all these green tools taking over the house.  I might not have any friends after that.   [big grin]

Look at it as a different form of a "twit filter". 

[big grin]

 
I'm in the market for a new vacuum.  Does anyone have experience with a mini and the turbo brush on pet hair?  We have a golden retriever and a mix of wool carpet and hardwood floors.

Thanks in advance,
Fred
 
I can't give the advice that you are looking for, but the 36 MM hose really makes the turbo effective.

Peter
 
Phred said:
I'm in the market for a new vacuum.  Does anyone have experience with a mini and the turbo brush on pet hair?  We have a golden retriever and a mix of wool carpet and hardwood floors.

Thanks in advance,
Fred

We have been using a MINI and Universal Cleaning Set plus a Turbo Suction Brush to clean our house for a quite while now. Our former dog, Muddy, had a LOT OF HAIR all over (think black Benji), and my wife contributed mightily. The MINI and TSB worked great and still does. The only caveat is that if there is a lot of hair involved, the rotating brush of the TSB needs to be de-haired periodically. It's not a big deal but is required or its rotation bogs down and it's less effective.

Tom
 
Tom,  I was certain that I was going to see a link to your 36mm hose comparison.  Might be useful.

Peter
 
This one, Peter?

TurboSB.avi

Tom

EDIT:
For those that have never seen this before, that is a CT 22, which is about equivalent in suction to the current Festool Dust Extractors.

The first part is a Turbo Suction Brush connected to the CT 22 with a 27 mm hose (green). The second part is the same set up only using a 36 mm hose (gray or grey for our Brethren across the Pond). The Turbo Suction Brush has a "beater brush" that is driven strictly by the air flow. If you have audio, you will appreciate the dramatic difference in air flow using the 36 mm hose.

A 27 mm hose constricts the airflow of the current Festool CT's. That is good for sanding but not so good for some other tasks. This video indicates that there is a strong case for having a 36 mm hose, depending on what you do.

EDIT AGAIN:
Incidentally, when using that arrangement to clean, the TSB is not "face up" and really doesn't make much noise at all. The carpet muffles it.
 
Tom Bellemare said:
We have been using a MINI and Universal Cleaning Set plus a Turbo Suction Brush to clean our house for a quite while now. Our former dog, Muddy, had a LOT OF HAIR all over (think black Benji), and my wife contributed mightily. The MINI and TSB worked great and still does. The only caveat is that if there is a lot of hair involved, the rotating brush of the TSB needs to be de-haired periodically. It's not a big deal but is required or its rotation bogs down and it's less effective.

Tom

Something else the CT has over our Oreck - We had an Alaskan Malamute.  He died in 2007.  He constantly shed.  And we had that problem with the brush clogging too.  But more of a problem I see with any type of vacuum that has a bag holder made of a cloth-type material is it holds the smell, even after you change the bag.  Even now, six years later, I can still smell "dog" when I run the Oreck, and we've been through a lot of bags since our dog died.  You shouldn't have that problem with the CT because the bag is the only thing that would hold smells.
 


Something else the CT has over our Oreck - We had an Alaskan Malamute.  He died in 2007.  He constantly shed.  And we had that problem with the brush clogging too.  But more of a problem I see with any type of vacuum that has a bag holder made of a cloth-type material is it holds the smell, even after you change the bag.  Even now, six years later, I can still smell "dog" when I run the Oreck, and we've been through a lot of bags since our dog died.  You shouldn't have that problem with the CT because the bag is the only thing that would hold smells.


Agree with the smells that the Orek tends to hold and emit.
The CT's have way better filtration and sealing around the perimeter of
the vac's tank.

Bob
 
Julie:

You nailed it about the dog smell. When we still had Muddy, the dog smell would get unbearable when the MINI's bag was only about a third full. Changing the bag totally eliminated the smell, however.

It's been a couple of years since his demise and the bags can pretty well fill up now (maybe 3/4) without stinking too bad. It is nice that all the stink stays with the disposable bag.

Tom
 
Back
Top