Festool ETS150 without a vac

[Jim German]

I'm finally convinced to buy my first Festool and am going to start small with an ETS 150/5 Sander. However there is no way a $500 vac is going to fit in the budget, and I have never been bothered sanding without a vac before. The question is, is using a Festool sander without a vac a waste and should I just stick with my trusty old Bosch?

[David Wong]

You don't need to use a Festool vac with their tools. You can use something like the Fein vacuum step adapter to connect the Festool to the hose of your existing shop vac. I can't really answer your other question, because I never use my ETS 150/3 without a vacuum.

[Jim Becker]

Honestly, almost any sander will benefit from dust extraction and the Festool units even more so due to their design. That said, you don't HAVE to use the Festool vac for this right now...you can use what you have available and just really need the hose adapter that's available from Festool. The Festool sanders work with bags, and one is available for the 150/5. I don't recommend you sand without something to catch the dust, however...it really spews out the port noticeably, again, due to the design of the sander.

[Tony Joyce]

The ETS150 comes with a filter bag to catch dust, but as others have stated it works optimally with a vacuum.

[Brad McDonell]

I think your going to find that is the best sander you will ever use. Hook up another vacuum hose to it and you will find that it is untouchable. I love mine and I did spend the extra for the vacuum. Yea, the price is steep but you will find over time how many more applications you can use it for. Brad

[Greg R Bradley]

I think that depends on which Bosch sander you have.........

I have an ETS150/5 and am extremely happy with it. I use it with a Fein vac.

The ETS150 is only OK with the included dust bag. With no vacuum I use my Bosch 3727DEVS instead. It is marginal compared to the Festool once you hook the vacuum up. Don't bother using a vac that doesn't have variable speed: Fein, Festool, Bosch, Dewalt/PC.

[Jim German]

Alright, well I bit the bullet and bought the Festool. I'm blaming all of you people when the wife yells at me :-P