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View Full Version : Shopvac (Festool or Fein) for cleaning the house?



Dan Friedrichs
12-07-2014, 5:33 PM
In the midst of a good housecleaning, it occurred to me that my shop vac is a MUCH superior tool than the old Hoover. We have all hardwood floors (no carpet), so using a standard upright vacuum cleaner is somewhat silly - I really just need a good hose-based suction tool. My shop vac moves MUCH more air than the Hoover, and has an aftermarket HEPA filter. The hose is longer, the form factor more convenient, more useful accessories, etc. I'm wondering if I'd be totally crazy to buy a Festool or Fein "premium"-type shop vac with the intent of using it only around the house for dusting, vacuuming floors, etc.

Generally, I've been really annoyed with the poor quality of "consumer grade" ANYTHING, and have been on a quest to replace appliances in my life with more industrial/professional versions. I thought the very expensive Dyson stick vacuum I bought would be nice, but it's just a shiny piece of junk (IMHO).

What do you guys think? Would keeping a Festool dust extractor around the house to vacuum up dust bunnies be practical?

Jim Becker
12-07-2014, 5:45 PM
No question, it would certainly work for the job. They even sell a very nice "accessory kit" that has various nozzles and other things that can be helpful for home cleanup.

Wade Lippman
12-07-2014, 6:06 PM
Hmmm... dragging a Festool around or using a Dyson 35?
We have the 59, but if you have nothing but hardwood it might be overkill.

Brian Elfert
12-07-2014, 6:11 PM
You might want to look into canister vacuums instead. Shop vacs are not designed with any consideration towards not damaging furniture and walls and such. They also don't have the greatest attachments. Most of the time you really don't need the extra suction of a shop vac.

I just bought an upright vacuum and ended up with a new commercial model for $400. While it is still plastic, it has metal too and the plastic is very heavy. I think it is way better than most of the upright vacuums sold for consumer use. (I bought a Century 400 U-Vac.) I really wanted to go with a central vacuum, but it would have cost twice as much and been a major project to install.

Myk Rian
12-07-2014, 6:13 PM
I don't think my Wife would like dragging a shop vac around the house. I know I wouldn't.

Matt Meiser
12-07-2014, 7:46 PM
I picked up a used CT22 and ordered a cleaning kit with the non-anti static hose for less than the price of a new Dyson for the wood and tile floors in the house as well as the cars.. No joke, my wife said one day "I love this vacuum!"

Dan Friedrichs
12-07-2014, 9:18 PM
That's the feedback I was hoping to hear, Matt. My feeling is that one of the smaller Festools might be nice for the cars and the house.

Wade, I actually have the Dyson 35, and just haven't been impressed. I think what I really want is a good brush attachment on a hose with like 10x the suction of the dyson.

Brian Elfert
12-07-2014, 10:22 PM
Wade, I actually have the Dyson 35, and just haven't been impressed. I think what I really want is a good brush attachment on a hose with like 10x the suction of the dyson.

I'm wondering why you think you need so much suction for cleaning hard surface floors? Normal loose household dirt doesn't require that much to pick it up off a hard surface floor. If it is stuck on then it is likely no amount of suction will loosen it up.

Wade Lippman
12-07-2014, 10:53 PM
That's the feedback I was hoping to hear, Matt. My feeling is that one of the smaller Festools might be nice for the cars and the house.

Wade, I actually have the Dyson 35, and just haven't been impressed. I think what I really want is a good brush attachment on a hose with like 10x the suction of the dyson.

The 59motorhead gets the dog fur out of the rug much better than the 35, but on bare wood the 35 is more than adequate. You must have much heavier dirt than we do. (you have cleaned the filters haven't you?)

Tom M King
12-08-2014, 9:38 AM
We have a high cathedral ceiling. I use a ShopVac with a bunch of wands stuck together to reach up there. It does a really good job. I use the backpack vacuum that we use to vacuum floors after sanding, before finishing, on the wood floors in our house. Both make quick, and thorough work out of those jobs. My Wife will only use the Miele, but the commercial vacs make much faster work out of it.

http://www.amazon.com/Oreck-Commercial-OR1001-Backpack-Capacity/dp/B008BPF8G2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1418049495&sr=8-3&keywords=oreck+backpack+vacuum#customerReviews

David Weaver
12-08-2014, 10:15 AM
I'll echo what Brian said (thought I lobbied for him to buy one of the SEBO vacs with a different brand on it when he asked about it). I think what you need is a genuine western-world made vacuum with a good track record.

Century 400, Windsor Sensor, Prochem PV12.....those are all SEBO vacuums, identical down to the part (and the parts schematic proves it) to SEBO vacs but without a vac store price.

I'd buy whatever is the cheapest. It was the prochem branded one when I got mine, but now that one doesn't appear to be the cheapest.

I have a fein turbo II also, and I wouldn't feel the need to bring it in the house, but when I was buying vacs that were china origin (last one was about 10 years ago, and it barely made it two years), I could've been convinced to do it. I believe the Century 400, windsor sensor, etc, are now about the same price as a fein turbo II, and they are not awkward, etc, like a lot of the thick rounded plastic china-made vacuums. Because there are about a dozen brands of the same vac sold around the world in huge numbers, the parts for them are out there in droves, and many options for them, too (german, american made aftermarket, third world made aftermarket).

Brian Tymchak
12-08-2014, 12:41 PM
I bought a little 3HP Ridgid shop vac to sweep the hardwood floors when we moved into to our current house 10 yrs ago. Does a fine job and is still going strong. It was only $50 or so. Not sure what they are now. Way better than several hundred for some fancy deal that would do the same thing. My wife however doesn't like using it as the hose couplings to the accessories are friction fit and she doesn't do a good job of holding them together while using it. Not as big a problem for me. maybe bigger hands. A festool vac to sweep floors seems to me to be overkill.

David Weaver
12-08-2014, 12:45 PM
Ooop....I missed that this is an all hardwood floor deal. SEBOs do OK with that, but a hard floor attachment on a vacuum with a two stage motor and good air flow is better. who said canister? We had a cheap dirt devil canister that was underpowered for everything except​ hardwood floors, and it did those quite well. It was only about $125.

Since it's your money we're spending and not mine, I'd want a two-stage backpack vacuum with a 40 foot cord and variable speed.

Matt Meiser
12-08-2014, 4:06 PM
Well except the Festool (and other high end) have:

- Lower noise level
- Design that keeps the vac from "tripping" over the cord, thresholds, etc.
- Mess-free bag changes (which are much less frequent in the house than the shop by the way so bag cost isn't a big issue)
- Better filtration than a classic shop vac and the bag helps a lot there.
- A lot nicer accessories, especially the floor nozzle. You could of course use a high end accessory kit with a BORG vac. Ours are smaller diameter too, somewhere between that of a household vac and a shop vac which probably is easier for my wife.
- Features like onboard storage of the cord and accessories more like a house vac.

David Weaver
12-08-2014, 4:34 PM
Well except the Festool (and other high end) have:

- Lower noise level
- Design that keeps the vac from "tripping" over the cord, thresholds, etc.
- Mess-free bag changes (which are much less frequent in the house than the shop by the way so bag cost isn't a big issue)
- Better filtration than a classic shop vac and the bag helps a lot there.
- A lot nicer accessories, especially the floor nozzle. You could of course use a high end accessory kit with a BORG vac. Ours are smaller diameter too, somewhere between that of a household vac and a shop vac which probably is easier for my wife.
- Features like onboard storage of the cord and accessories more like a house vac.

And they're two stage - much much higher air flow whenever flow is restricted some. The velocity of the air under a hard floor attachment would be much higher.

Tom M King
12-08-2014, 4:36 PM
Most of the floor finishing guys I've seen use the Oreck backpack. After trying one on a jobsite, courtesy of a floor sanding contractor. I had to have one. Global Industrial has the best selection I've seen, as well as good prices. The Oreck has the highest amperage of the lot. It will suck any left over sanding dust off of a just sanded floor in one pass, making it ready for finish. No matter how sophisticated the sanding machine, there is always some fine dust left behind.

Our house is on a farm, and we have 14 dogs living in the house with us. The dogs are odorless, and non-shedding, but they still make good mops for dragging leaves and stuff out of the yard. When it's my job to vacuum the house, I go get the backpack Oreck.

http://www.globalindustrial.com/c/janitorial/floor-care/vacuums-backpack?infoParam.campaignId=T9A&gclid=Cj0KEQiAtZWkBRC9ibSfhoKEyLYBEiQA5fDxkRQRyumI IWk1ot6aoj9gbFfjlNo7epIDNf2JYw_tRNMaAhpF8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

I buy all sorts of stuff from Global-from work gloves, to cut lengths of linear bearing rod.

Brian Elfert
12-08-2014, 6:58 PM
While I was renovating my house I used a shop vac with an adapter to use floor tools intended for a central vac. This worked well to clean the floors before and vinyl and so on.

Dan Friedrichs
01-02-2015, 7:43 PM
Update: I bought the Festool CT mini and the small accessory kit and have been trying it for a few days. I think I'm going to take advantage of Festool's 30-day return policy, though, as it isn't working the way I imagined.

I was surprised how "cheap" and poorly-designed the accessories were. Thin, flexible plastic bits that don't feel anywhere near comparable quality to the vac, itself (which is a fantastic machine, by the way...). Storage of the accessories is a bit of a pain, too, because you can't access the "hose garage" while the accessory kit systainer is atop the vac, and it's a REALLY tight squeeze to get the hose AND cord into the "hose garage". Carrying the whole kit (vac and accessories) by the systainer handle is also a bit awkward.

If I was using this vac the way Festool intended (haul it to a job site, use it all day, pack it up neatly and haul it back home), it would be perfect (provided I got some better accessories for it). For around the house or garage, I don't think it's going to be a big help. The cord is actually too heavy and too long, the hose is too long, it doesn't "follow" you well (because the rear wheels only move in 1 direction), no on-board accessory storage, etc, etc.

Just to be clear: It's a great vac and looks perfect for what it's intended for.

But I think I'm going to look into the backpack-style vacuums for around the house.

Rod Sheridan
01-03-2015, 10:28 AM
We have a Kirby for the carpets and a Festool CT26 for the remainder...................Rod.

Curt Harms
01-04-2015, 7:28 AM
I had thought idly about Fein's 6 gal. Turbo 1 plus their power floor brush. $417 for the vac plus $187 for the floor brush? Mmmm maybe not.

Rod Sheridan
01-04-2015, 11:42 AM
I don't think my Wife would like dragging a shop vac around the house. I know I wouldn't.

What's the difference between dragging a Festool or Nilfisk around instead of a domestic vacuum aside from the fact the Festool and Nilfisk have better wheels and are quieter?

Regards, Rod.

Brian Elfert
01-04-2015, 11:54 AM
What's the difference between dragging a Festool or Nilfisk around instead of a domestic vacuum aside from the fact the Festool and Nilfisk have better wheels and are quieter?


It probably depends if the shop vac is dedicated to home use or not. If it was used in the shop too the wife probably wouldn't be too happy with dirt on the wheels and such. Domestic vacuums are often designed not to damage walls and furniture while shop vacs generally have no such design considerations.