vacuums - festool vs fein

[Michael Cole]

Selling a rifle so I can buy a Festool track saw. Recently bought a Domino. As of now and probably for awhile I will be using my shop vac for dust collection, but looking ahead what do you recommend? Are there any others I should be looking at? Are these expensive vacuums worth the extra cost or will something else work reasonably well?

[roger wiegand]

Think about the Bosch VAC090 as well. I haven't used all three to compare but like the Bosch. Added a HEPA filter and we still a lot less than the Festool. works well.

[Rich Enders]

I have had a Fein for 15 years, and used it probably 50% of the days. Sometimes very little, sometimes for an hour, and sometimes for several hours. I bought it for its quiet reputation, and it is relatively quiet. Even more, it is a mellow sound.

2 months ago it started throwing foam, and getting louder. I ordered a $15 replacement kit from eReplacements, and installed the new foam. Now it is mellow again.

I think it was $ 225 back then which works out to be about $16 per year. It works, it is relatively quiet, and it is well built.

[Greg R Bradley]

Any shopvac works pretty well for a tracksaw.

A tracksaw doesn't need the variable suction of the Festool/Fein/etc. Having the vac come on with the saw is nice but you can do that with a $30 iVac controller on a regular shopvac.

A regular filter on a cheap shopvac seems to stop the typical dust from a tracksaw fine. It might be worth upgrading the filter if you are sawing lots of MDF since the dust is very fine.

I'm not saying the better vacs aren't worth the money, just that it's not real important for this use. I have 3 Feins, one 20 years old. I also have a newer Festool where the small footprint and systainers mounting on top are worthwhile since they store and tie down in the engine compartment of a yacht.

[Jim German]

I've got a plethora of Festools however I can't bring myself to buy their vac. My $30 shop-vac has always worked great with my sanders, domino, track saw and Kapex.

I don't get the HEPA filtration, nor the auto-start, but I've always perfered another tool to a slighty better vac.

[David Hawxhurst]

i got the festool vac. at the time to buy a comparable vac from fein or bosch then add then add the cost of the hepa filters it was cheaper to buy the festool. that was 4-5 yrs ago things have undoubtedly changed.

[Victor Robinson]

Are they worth the money? That question is answered by deciding if any/all of these features are important to you:
1) variable suction
2) auto-start - plug in tool to vac, vac turns on when tool turns on/off
3) bypass cooling - the motor is cooled by separate air, so if you plug up your hose, you won't burn out your motor as you would in a cheaper vac
4) noise - 65-75db depending on the setting

The Feins recently changed their design. The suction used to be adjusted by adjusting motor speed (and therefore noise level), but this is no longer the case. Now the adjustable suction is controlled by varying an opening in the hose. Also, the Feins used to be able to take a cheap 3rd party HEPA filter easily, but now you must purchase the $100 Fein version due to the new design. I love my [old] Feins, but if I wanted to buy today it would be Festool.

[Allan Speers]

The Feins recently changed their design. The suction used to be adjusted by adjusting motor speed (and therefore noise level), but this is no longer the case. Now the adjustable suction is controlled by varying an opening in the hose.

Good info ! This is a very big deal in some situations. If you are using a good circular saw, with the vac, and only have outlets connected to a single 15a circuit, you cannot run both the vac & the saw together, unless you lower the suction of the vac, or the speed of the saw.


Anyway, I have the CT36, purchased after buying and selling the Bosch. Both are excellent machines, but I prefer the festool for three big reasons:

The design of the filters (The Bosch auto clean is a joke, so the filter ergonomics are important)

The design on the disposable bags. - The Bosch bad is ridiculously small. I don't know what they were thinking.

The ergonomics: The Festool is exactly "just big enough" that you can easily carry it up stairs, through small doorways, etc. Also, the CT36 (without any systainers on top) is the perfect height for easily being rolled around, or picked up. I would only get a CT26 if I knew I was keeping a systainer on top, and then of course you lose the hose compartment.



Having the hose storage-area is nice, too, though that only works with the stock (narrow) hose. Bosch offers a rear-basket for this, which is a much better idea. I wish Festool offered this.

[Davis Young]

If you package the Festool track saw with a dust extractor, then you save a little bit over the individual price. Your Domino and TS Systainers will clip onto it which I find handy. The flex rubber nozzle on the hose fits on a wide variety of tool ports. If you foresee taking the vacuum inside your house or on job sites, then the CT-Midi is nice and portable. Otherwise I recommend the CT-26 or larger, as budget allows.

[Mike Cutler]

I have the Fein turbo II. I bought it for it's filtration and decibel level. Personally, I cannot stand the cheap shop vac's, and I've used a lot of them through the years. The noise level can be ridiculous.:eek:
One thought is that Festool vac hoses and fittings are sized to fit their products. The Fein is a different sized hose. It works with my TS75, and OF 2200, but not exactly correct. There are probably adapters, but I've never looked for them.

[Greg R Bradley]

I have been a big Fein fan with the price/performance level. I've bought the last 2 Feins at significant discounts making them nearly half the price of the Festool vacs. If the new Fein series run the vacuum full speed and varies suction by leaking vacuum, I won't buy another. That's just silly and I could do that with other much cheaper vacs.

However, suggesting that you need to run a vac at lower speed or slow down the saw running through the vac is just wrong, at least in practice. No problems running even the TS75 saw through a Fein Turbo III on a circuit. All outlet circuits are 20a breakers with a single plug being limited to 15a. Its been many decades since an outlet circuit was limited to 15a for the whole circuit. Maybe, if you are working in a house from the 1950s.
I was just using my TS55 plugged into my Turbo III, which was plugged into an outlet in a 15a LIGHTING circuit to break down 2 thicknesses of phenolic faced 18mm Baltic Birch at once with zero problems, while the lights were running.

The Fein Vac fits the tracksaw directly although most of the sanders are better served by a Festool non static hose or the very reasonably priced Bosch VAC005 35mm hose that plugs into Fein and Festool vacs along with almost any other and has a Festool compatable end that is the same size as the standard Festool 27mm end.

[Allan Speers]

However, suggesting that you need to run a vac at lower speed or slow down the saw running through the vac is just wrong, at least in practice. No problems running even the TS75 saw through a Fein Turbo III on a circuit. All outlet circuits are 20a breakers with a single plug being limited to 15a. .


Well, no. Most older residential house use 15a breakers at the service entrance. (I have no idea about modern houses.)
- And I cannot run either my 7 1/4" Hilti or my 10 1/4 Makita together with the CT36 when it's running at full power, on such a circuit.

Even on 20a, it's marginal at best: The CT36 pulls 8.3 amps at full power. My Hilti pulls 15a. My Makita pulls 14a. That's sustained current draw. I HAVE run both on a 20a circuit with success, for 1-2 cuts, but even that seems like a bad idea. I always use 2 circuits, unless I have no choice. On location, if just one 15a circuit, I slow both the vac & the saw a little bit.

## Also note: The CT36 is only rated for having a 12a device plugged into it. I'm not sure why there is that limit, though. I figure Festool must have a good reason for this, so I plug routers & sanders directly into the vac, but never a circular saw.


Maybe one of our resident electricians could comment on all of this?

[Lee Schierer]

After years of putting up with a screaming shop vac, it died and I went looking for a good replacement. I was at a home show where they were demonstrating a Fein Turbo II. You could actually have a conversation next to it while it was running and the suction was great. In addition, it had the self start feature for when you wanted to connect it to a power tool like a sander. It also is variable speed which comes in handy when cleaning up around something that is delicate. It has continue to work well. I would buy another if this one dies.

[Bernie Kopfer]

I can use generic bags in my Fein Turbo, not sure if same can be said abuot the Festool. But the best time and back saver investment I ever made was to buy the remote control by Fastcap! Made to fit on the hose so I never have to walk over and fumble with the switch on the vac. Why vac manufacturers don't build it in is beyond me.

[Jim Dwight]

I use a Rigid shop vac with an add-on HEPA filter and an Oneida Dust Deputy cyclone on a little cart. I also got a Bosch 5M hose that interfaces well with the small tools and I use the original 2.5 inch hose some too. My track saw is a DeWalt and the Bosch hose interfaces find. I read that it works on a Festool too. I use an adapter on my DeWalt sander. A great thing about this setup is no bags, and essentially no cleaning of the filter. The cyclone gets almost everything so I just dump the drywall bucket it dumps into occasionally. I also added an automatic outlet so the vac triggers when I turn on the attached tool.

I haven't used a Fein or Festool and I'm sure they are nicer than my Rigid setup but I think the cyclone and a HEPA filter are more important than a nicer vacuum. Noise is one factor the Fein in particular is known for. I wear hearing protection in the shop anyway, however, and even the Rigid is quieter than most of my tools.

[Jason White]

Get the Festool vac. I've had my CT22 for years and use it with all of my Festool and non-Festool portable tools with dust ports. Worth every penny!



Selling a rifle so I can buy a Festool track saw. Recently bought a Domino. As of now and probably for awhile I will be using my shop vac for dust collection, but looking ahead what do you recommend? Are there any others I should be looking at? Are these expensive vacuums worth the extra cost or will something else work reasonably well?

[Michael Cole]

I ended up buying a CT26 and am pleased with my purchase. I used it today with my miter saw which throws sawdust everywhere and lots of it. I still had some sawdust left over but it was significantly less and I made many cuts today. It seems like I ended up with less left over sawdust than I would have with just a few cuts.

[Jim German]

Not sure which miter saw you're using, but at least with the Kapex it works significantly better with the 36mm hose than the one that comes with the CT, might be worth picking up the bigger hose even if you don't have a Kapex.

[Michael Cole]

Not sure which miter saw you're using, but at least with the Kapex it works significantly better with the 36mm hose than the one that comes with the CT, might be worth picking up the bigger hose even if you don't have a Kapex.

I am using a Hitachi 12" sliding compound miter saw. When I bought the CT26 I also bought a "tool" kit and included in it was a bigger hose. That is the one I used. The end of it fit in the port on the saw okay. It could have been a tighter fit I think, but seemed to work.