Dust extraction/ vacuum - what to choose!

[Jackel]

Hi, I'm after a bit of advice. Having searched through the forum on the subject of dust extraction and searching the internet I have come to an in pass with regard to 2 power tool extractors/ vacuums. The extractors in question are the Nilfisk Alto 360-21 and the festool CTL midi. The extractor would be used predominantly in connection with a circular saw, sanders, makita table saw etc and will be cutting MDF, oak etc. I know the Nilfisk offers a greater capacity but is the Festool that good? Your comments and recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[kmhphoto]

I have a Festool Midi and CT22. Other than the ability to clip systainers to them I would not rate them higher than a Nilfisk I recently tried.

 

[pooka]

On paper, at least, the specs of the Nilfisk Alto and the Festool are almost identical - the specs are available online or I briefly listed them on this comparison thread recently. So it is hard to imagine how the Festool could be any/significantly better (unless the exterior shape and size are important to the way that you plan to use it).

I haven't used the Festool, but although I haven't had my Nilfisk long enough to give very useful feedback on it yet I can say that so far I have no reason to regret my choice.

 

[George_N]

I have a cheap shop vac from Wickes (£30 I think) teamed with a Triton Dustbucket. Not very portable but it works well with my homemade router table and Triton Workcentre as well as hand-held CS and router. Certainly a lot cheaper than Festool and very effective.

 

[chippy1970]

I have the Festool midi but I only got it because I wanted it to go with my TS55 saw.

It is the best extractor I have had before I would use a Henry hoover taped to my Makita circ saw this is much better. It is very powerful but still quiet compared to most vacs. I have a record rsde2 for my tablesaw etc so I only use the midi for portable stuff.

The hose that comes with it is excellent too its very light and very flexible so you hardly know its there when its connected to the tools.

 

[Steve Maskery]

One good aspect of the Festool, if you do go down that route, is that the vac has a speed control, which is very useful when sanding. If you have it too high the sander gets sucked onto the workpiece too hard and it doesn't do its job properly. I guess the Nilfisk has the same.

The other one I would seriously recommend (although it doesn't have the speed control) is the Hitachi QB35. It is excellent, very powerful and easy to empty. I wouldn't be without mine.

Cheers
Steve

 

[andycktm]

Festool make tools not hoovers!
At work we have industrial floor srubber's,vac's e.t.c all made by nilfisk their your people.

 

[whoops!]

Just bought a nilfisk 5 for site use. Both me and the other joiners love it. quiet and powerful...and very well made. We are using alot of MDF at the moment, and the Nilfisk is far superior to the Ryobi we had.

ALTHOUGH.....due to the large number of tools we use, the hose doesn't have enough adapters. bit of a pain tapeing it up the whole time to the dust ports. other than that, bloody brilliant. ( and that's with site work.)

If I had the choice again though I would get the one with the filter cleaner and the larger holding capacity, That's the 7 I think.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Decklan

 

[pooka]

Just bought a nilfisk 5 for site use. Both me and the other joiners love it. quiet and powerful...and very well made. We are using alot of MDF at the moment, and the Nilfisk is far superior to the Ryobi we had.

ALTHOUGH.....due to the large number of tools we use, the hose doesn't have enough adapters. bit of a pain tapeing it up the whole time to the dust ports. other than that, bloody brilliant. ( and that's with site work.)

If I had the choice again though I would get the one with the filter cleaner and the larger holding capacity, That's the 7 I think.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Decklan

One thing about the Nilfisk Alto (and any vacuum/extractor in fact) and the filter cleaner is whether the cleaner system is suited to the use that a person may be putting the vacuum to. In order to handle dangerous dust such as MDF dust, I use my Nilfisk Alto vacuum with a filter bag, which should mean that the dust never reaches the filter in the first place. So, for my current use of the vacuum, the filter cleaner will likely remain redundant (although it is nice to have in case I choose to use the vacuum differently in the future).

I have the smaller Nilfisk Alto (360-21) and it has the Push'n'Clean system where you block the end of the hose and push a button on the vacuum a few times to reverse the air flow and blow the dust off the filters (takes only a few seconds to do). The larger, and pricier, models with the eXtreme Clean (XC) feature do this process automatically and regularly, with no effort required on the part of the user. The Push'n'Clean system obviously requires you to interrupt what you are doing to clean the filter whereas the XC system doesn't.

 

[whoops!]

Good point Pooka, we are using the collection bags at the moment whilst were using MDF, those bags are expensive though aren't they?

Are there any other manufacturers that make a copy but cheaper??

Decklan

 

[big soft moose]

i dont know a whole lot about dust extractors (having only use the axminster ones up to now) but i like the look of the camvac systems sold by tool post - one is order as we speak

 

[whoops!]

Don't mean to rain on your parade, they are good machines but by christ they are noisy. Worked with one bloke who had one on his site saw,some time ago now, did the job well but you couldn't wait for the thing to switch off. I'm sure they have sound insulated them more now.

Decklan

 

[pooka]

Good point Pooka, we are using the collection bags at the moment whilst were using MDF, those bags are expensive though aren't they?

Are there any other manufacturers that make a copy but cheaper??

Decklan

I haven't actually checked the price of the bags anywhere else other than D&M Tools - they sell 5 bags for £12.95, so they certainly are not cheap as you say. I don't if any other company produces copies of them, but the concern that I'd have would be whether alternatives bags would be as effective at holding hazardous dust as Nilfisk claim their own bags to be.

Actually, something that I don't know the answer to is whether the Nilfisk Alto's can actually safely contain hazardous dust without using a filter bag. They do have models specifically rated for use with hazardous dust, but perhaps those models have a different/better filter for this purpose?

Also, if the filter bags themselves don't capture 100% of the dust, and rely upon the filter to catch the rest, then a filter cleaner is still useful even when using bags. When I posted above about the filter cleaner being redundant when using a bag I hadn't considered that the bags might let some dust through, so my view in that post might be wrong. You'd think that collecting dust would be a simple enough area/task, but it is anything but

 

[whoops!]

It's so tricky !! I would love to work in a completely dust free envoirament, but it ain't ever going to happen, We can have loads of extractors and vacuum,s but as soon as the plumbers come in that's it. Chasing out walls, knocking through grinding out....it never ends!! It would be great to work separatly from the other trades but that requires a different sky to the one I work under.

Oh, did I mention the plasterer's when they're mixing, or the dry waller's when they're sanding ? :twisted: Blinkin' Heathen's the lot of them. Just get me back in to my workshop with a nice cuppa rosie!! O

Dust. Hate the stuff!

Decklan