Dare I post more comments about a Festool product

[DiscoStu]

Following on from my Rotex post (who knew that would cause debate!) I thought I'd risk posting some comments on the Festool CTL Midi that I bought at the same time as the Rotex.

I'm sure you guys know the basics:

Vac with a built in hose, power socket so that the vac can fire up when a tool is used.

So my thoughts are:

I like the build and the big wheels make it manoeuvrable. Plenty of power and the connectivity of others tools works well. I've used it on water and dust and it works well. I've mainly used it as a dust extractor when connected to my Rotex and Domino and I can't fault it.

What I would say is that it doesn't offer much over my £50 Karcher so I would be cautious when buying as £300 is quite a lot for a hoover!


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[Roughcut]

Yeah i'd been thinking about getting one for a while and the recent Festool voucher pushed me into purchasing a midi and an RTS 400 sander.
Is handy being able to neatly stow away the hose and cable within the extractor and the cable is a decent length too.

 

[shed9]

The Festool will keep suction well past the point where you need to clean your Karcher filter. That said, I'm not sure the Festool vacs warrant their price range.

 

[RossJarvis]

Sorry, double post.

 

[RossJarvis]

I've got one, the pluses are that it's not noisy at all in comparison with other vacs I've had, it keeps sucking until the bag is full, it sucks with variable suckness on the variable suckness knob. You can clip boxes to its top, it works well with the power take-off including my Mirka sander so overall it's really good all round. It is expensive but so is a Dyson and they're not particularly good. If you do jobs with a lot of chips and dust it will fill up too quickly, but it's a good size if you move around site to site a lot. The bags are good but stupidly expensive. Why can't it have a whizz-in-sprung-chord?

If you use one a lot it's worth the money, if you don't it probably isn't.

 

[No skills]

Wot he said, midi is the vacuum cleaner of choice for Mrs skills.

 

[RossJarvis]

On a bit of a tangent, up until recently if you wanted a "cross-cut railed hand circular saw" The only option was Mafell. One of which I've got. Now that Festool have brought one out we're now in the odd position that you can look at a Festool product and think "My, that looks cheap!".

 

[MattRoberts]

I've got one, the pluses are that it's not noisy at all in comparison with other vacs I've had, it keeps sucking until the bag is full, it sucks with variable suckness on the variable suckness knob. You can clip boxes to its top, it works well with the power take-off including my Mirka sander so overall it's really good all round. It is expensive but so is a Dyson and they're not particularly good. If you do jobs with a lot of chips and dust it will fill up too quickly, but it's a good size if you move around site to site a lot. The bags are good but stupidly expensive. Why can't it have a whizz-in-sprung-chord?

If you use one a lot it's worth the money, if you don't it probably isn't.

Aside from perhaps the noise, I can't see much more benefit over my £54 titan vac

 

[Wuffles]

I've got one, the pluses are that it's not noisy at all in comparison with other vacs I've had, it keeps sucking until the bag is full, it sucks with variable suckness on the variable suckness knob. You can clip boxes to its top, it works well with the power take-off including my Mirka sander so overall it's really good all round. It is expensive but so is a Dyson and they're not particularly good. If you do jobs with a lot of chips and dust it will fill up too quickly, but it's a good size if you move around site to site a lot. The bags are good but stupidly expensive. Why can't it have a whizz-in-sprung-chord?

If you use one a lot it's worth the money, if you don't it probably isn't.

Aside from perhaps the noise, I can't see much more benefit over my £54 titan vac

Can you turn down the suction on the Titan? Genuine question.

The added advantage is that you can (as someone said) attach systainers to it if, for example, you've agreed to fit some worktops for a "mate" for nothing in an area where parking is a joke and you are forced to roll a load of boxes down the pavement for half a mile.

 

[No skills]

I've got one, the pluses are that it's not noisy at all in comparison with other vacs I've had, it keeps sucking until the bag is full, it sucks with variable suckness on the variable suckness knob. You can clip boxes to its top, it works well with the power take-off including my Mirka sander so overall it's really good all round. It is expensive but so is a Dyson and they're not particularly good. If you do jobs with a lot of chips and dust it will fill up too quickly, but it's a good size if you move around site to site a lot. The bags are good but stupidly expensive. Why can't it have a whizz-in-sprung-chord?

If you use one a lot it's worth the money, if you don't it probably isn't.

Aside from perhaps the noise, I can't see much more benefit over my £54 titan vac

Having used a noisy titan vac and watched the wheels fall off for no reason I find that statement quite funny
The fessy don't do anything that some other vacs don't do, somethings it does very well - other things ok. You either buy into the system or you dont.

 

[AJB Temple]

I looked at the Festool vacs and decided that the price / value equation does not work. The trouble with vacuums is they get knocked around a lot. I can buy three Numisk vacs with power take off and more or less equivalent performance for the price of a single Festool. Some Festool consumables are stupidly expensive. Some of their gear is undoubtedly very good, but there is a big brand name premium to pay. I don't have any brand loyalty really, I just buy what seems to be the best tool at the time, so I have stuff from Mafell, Makita, Milwaukee, Hilti etc. I can see the sense in brand loyalty though if buying into a cordless system.

 

[DiscoStu]

I think it's a nice bit of kit but it's my one Festool bit of kit that I think isnt really very innovative. Not sure I get much more out of it than I do with my Karcher. I can't think of a time when I've ever wanted to turn the power down on any vac.


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[Wuffles]

I think it's a nice bit of kit but it's my one Festool bit of kit that I think isnt really very innovative. Not sure I get much more out of it than I do with my Karcher. I can't think of a time when I've ever wanted to turn the power down on any vac.


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For sanding.

 

[MattRoberts]

Can you turn down the suction on the Titan? Genuine question.

The added advantage is that you can (as someone said) attach systainers to it if, for example, you've agreed to fit some worktops for a "mate" for nothing in an area where parking is a joke and you are forced to roll a load of boxes down the pavement for half a mile.

Indirectly, yes. I have a variable speed router, and when connected I notice that the vac speed varies with it. However, I wish it didn't - not sure why you'd ever want less suction?

I get the systainer thing, but it's not a huge amount point for me personally, but then I'm not a tradesman

I'm not a hater - If money were no object, I'd probably have loads of festool (due to the interchangeable detachable power cords alone!) the

 

[MattRoberts]

For sanding.

How come? I get that you need to reduce the power of the sander, but not the suction from the vac?

 

[petermillard]

For sanding.

How come? I get that you need to reduce the power of the sander, but not the suction from the vac?

Too much suction and the sander gets sucked onto the workpiece making it harder to control, esp if you're doing fine finishing. That said, it's not something I use very often, and have been using the non-variable suction CTL Sys for the last year or so without any problems at all. Getting back to the Midi, I've had one since they were introduced in 2006 (my second festool purchase) and it's still going strong - despite being dropped down a flight of stairs more than once.

But sure, if you don't value the 'clip everything onto it and trundle it down the street' aspect, then there are cheaper options - and you can spend some of the savings on a pair of 3M Peltor 3s

Pete

 

[MattRoberts]

Too much suction and the sander gets sucked onto the workpiece making it harder to control, esp if you're doing fine finishing.

Crikey, you must have a good sander! My Makita ROS would never have enough suction to clamp to a workpiece

 

[custard]

Too much suction and the sander gets sucked onto the workpiece making it harder to control, esp if you're doing fine finishing.

Crikey, you must have a good sander! My Makita ROS would never have enough suction to clamp to a workpiece

I'm with Peter, with the Festool vacs I generally turn down the vac power control (the green tortoise/hare dial) for very fine grits and for the little triangular detail sander, and turn it up for coarse grits and the big square sander. It's not so much that it clamps to the surface but it certainly makes the sander glide easier and more smoothly. By the way, for almost all woodworking applications I find it best to replace the "medium" pad that comes with Festool sanders for the "Ultra Hard" pad, that means you can run over a corner or edge that bit further without risk of dubbing the arris.

 

[chippy1970]

For those trying to compare the Midi to cheaper vacs , could you do the following with your cheaper vacs ?

I first bought a midi back in 07 with a ts55 rail saw. Around 2013 there were £50 off vouchers floating around and I bought another vac at a roadshow for around £160 after discounts. I then cleaned up my 6 year old Midi and put it on ebay and I think I got around £170 for it.

So basically I got a new vac with another 3 year warranty for nothing. I don't know of any other brand that resells as well as Festool.

I've done the same with most of my older Festool tools, all of which were still working fine but if you can upgrade to newer versions for little or no cost who wouldn't do it.

Apart from the above the midi also has great suction as mentioned. Ability to attach systainers which is a big plus if you work mobile like i do. The antistatic hose is great and nice and light. Its pretty quiet too.

 

[Bodgers]

Can you turn down the suction on the Titan? Genuine question.

The added advantage is that you can (as someone said) attach systainers to it if, for example, you've agreed to fit some worktops for a "mate" for nothing in an area where parking is a joke and you are forced to roll a load of boxes down the pavement for half a mile.

Indirectly, yes. I have a variable speed router, and when connected I notice that the vac speed varies with it. However, I wish it didn't - not sure why you'd ever want less suction?

I get the systainer thing, but it's not a huge amount point for me personally, but then I'm not a tradesman

I'm not a hater - If money were no object, I'd probably have loads of festool (due to the interchangeable detachable power cords alone!) the

Lol, that's a case of the router drawing current away from the vac!



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