Using AutoClean with coarse dust.

[canassa]

Hello everyone,

I am working on some home renovation projects that involve a lot of plaster sanding, so I got myself a CTL 26 E AC and I plan on running it with the plastic liners and AutoClean for sanding the plaster.

I use the cleaning kit attachments to clean the floor once I am finished with the sanding. This means that the vacuum will be sucking not only fine dust but also small stones, coarse dust, nails, etc.

My question is if it's fine to use the vacuum in AutoClean mode (with plastic liners instead of the bag) for that general cleanup or if it will destroy the filter. Do I need to install a bag for this cleanup?

Thanks!

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

My experience with the Festool AutoClean (a CT-36AC roughly 6 or 7 years ago) was that it worked great for heavy cementitious dust and fine for drywall and fine wood dust.

Where it runs into problems is relatively "large", but relatively "light" debris like wood shavings which get packed into the filter pleats, but don't have the mass to release when the filter pulses. This was several years ago, not sure if Festool has revised the design of their filter pleats.

I doubt you'd "ruin" a filter, but you may run into some frustrations where you're removing a filter to clean larger particles out. Ultimately, this will be a Trial-and-Error exercise for you.

If you decide to run fleece bags, you may want a separate filter set aside for this task, otherwise the AC filter will contaminate the outside of your fleece bag and make a mess.