Who is are the CTM-series DC's meant for?

[RC]

The H-class DC's are straight forwardly directed at asbestos & mold demo crews, the CTL for coarse wood dust at least, but who is the CTM-series meant for?

I'm work almost exclusively with wood (and occasionally plexiglass and aluminium) with my OF-router, TS-saw and various sanders. I work with soft and hard woods normally up to max. 320 grit and maybe if I get a Rotex in the future I might try polishing lacquer finishes, but don't do that at the moment.

I don't really understand the measuring unit of MAC, but it's clear that the filtering is for ten-fold finer dust with the M-class models.

So does any of my use-cases really require getting a M-class (MAC 0.1mg/m3) DC over the L-class (MAC 1mg/m3) ones?

And of course "bigger is better"  [tongue], but I'm debating here should I get the CTL auto-clean model or a CTM non-auto clean model for about the same price and not choose the wrong DC in the process because of "gadgetry influences". Opinions on the benefits of auto-cleaning are welcome as well - I won't be doing drywall sanding hopefully ever again so wood dust is what I'm trying to protect myself from.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Reiska, the Festool L vac is basically the same as the M vac.

There is only one difference, and that is the air flow detection unit of the M vac. All the other important things of the vac, like filter, seals and dust bags are exactly the same.

So what this means is that an L vac already filters the air like an M vac at MAC 0.1mg/m3, except when the air flow goes down. The air flow goes down in cases where the hose is clogged, the dust bag is full or the motor malfunctions.

All that the M vac adds is the detection unit, so when the air flow drops below a certain level, an alarm sounds so that the user becomes aware of the problem and can take steps to avoid this. Generally this means unclogging the hose or changing the bag. Nothing more. 

The M class was adopted by the European standards commission because they want it to become the standard for professional users, to give them a bit more extra health protection. As of 2012, the M class vacs are mandatory for professionals in at least The Netherlands and Germany. Not sure about the rest of Europe, but I thought they were meant to become mandatory there too at some point. 

What it boils down to for the average user, is that it hardly matters whether you have an L or an M class vac.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

That airflow detection unit would make a nice addition to an already good vacuum, here.  I know it would help me from filling up bags a little too much.

 

[harry_]

That airflow detection unit would make a nice addition to an already good vacuum, here.  I know it would help me from filling up bags a little too much.

You can't fill a bag too much, full is full.

Now if what you really meant filling the hose a little too much, I am with you on that as I have filled mine all the way to the saw/router/and biscuit joiner (sorry, no domino yet) [big grin]

 

[RC]

Thanks Alex for an excellently reply! Would have taken me a million years to land at that detailed a difference by seaching the Net [eek]

So I guess CTL is it for me - how about the AutoClean thing - is it beneficial to have the automatic mag-valve to fluff the bag with wood dust or is it a function that mostly benefits drywall sanders?

 

[semenza]

Yeah, I'd like to have that detection unit. It would give an indication when the bag was getting full. That way I wouldn't need to keep checking it.

Seth