Festool vs Hepa shop vac cartridge

[Ben Cadotte]

Just wondering I recently purchased a hepa cartridge filter for my shop vac. It does 10x better with the fine dust than the old paper filter. So I feel it does not pollute the air with fine dust (held a tack cloth near the exhaust).
But I still have the noise of the shop vac. My 2 hp DC is much quieter than the shop vac it also has a cartridge filter.

Having never heard the Festool vac / dust extractor, is it worth the purchase price just for the noise reduction??

Another point is I just bought a new shop vac for the house (house use only by the wife). And it is at least 1/3 more quiet than my older vac. Another one would be $100 for the size I want. But considering the Festool. I have no Festool tools though, just my other brands that I connect a hose too. Plus since the old shop vac works just fine for general cleaning really don't need another big shop vac.

So based on noise level is it worth the extra money - just work in shop for fun.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Ben, Fein are an alternative to Festool vacuums.

I think noise is a major problem with shop vacuums, and wouldn't hesitate to purchase a fein or Festool.....Rod.

[William Nimmo]

be very careful here
this is how it starts
All I did, was do research on the web for a quieter better quality shop vac. Found one.. a little more than I thought I should spend but what the heck
Now , a few years later, I have 3 festool dust collectors and
almost all my tools are green and black and more are on the way.

[Warren Clemans]

You should also consider the Attix (Alto/Wap) vacs. I have the 8SE and have been more than happy with it. It's quiet, powerful, and rugged. It comes with a decent selection of tools (unlike Fein, if I recall correctly) and fits directly on all of my tools. It has an auto-on feature. Nice tool, if a bit pricey (but not much more than the Fein when you add in the cost of tools). http://www.ultimategarage.com/WAP.html I use shop-vac bags from the borg--they're a little tight, but they fit fine.

[Ben Cadotte]

You should also consider the Attix (Alto/Wap) vacs. I have the 8SE and have been more than happy with it. It's quiet, powerful, and rugged. It comes with a decent selection of tools (unlike Fein, if I recall correctly) and fits directly on all of my tools. It has an auto-on feature. Nice tool, if a bit pricey (but not much more than the Fein when you add in the cost of tools). http://www.ultimategarage.com/WAP.html I use shop-vac bags from the borg--they're a little tight, but they fit fine.

The literature says 61 db at peak for the Attix 12. Thats 11 db lower than Festool. Which is quite a difference. Wonder what the new shop vacs are in relation. Tried their site but doesn't list db even for their "quiet" models.

[Bill Bezilla]

While the Festool, Fein, etc are great vacs they are quite expensive.
Another you may want to look at is the Porter Cable Drywall vac.
It has a tool activated switch, a good filtration system and in signifcantly quiter than the typical shop vacs. i purchased one about 5 years ago after renting one from Home Depot for some drywall sanding.

[jason lambert]

I have both for noise it goes in this order.

Fine
Festool mini vacs
Festool ct22 and 33.

With that being said I perfer the festool vacs they are smaller roll better and pack dirt to the last piece of saw dust at full suction. Also for sanding they have speed control and anti static hoses. Never though I needed speed control for sanding but slowing it down prevents suck down which produces a better finish and makes the tools work better.

Fine and festool are the main vacs that most people use. On that note the fine and the bigger festool have hepa filters the smaller ones do not but I have not noticed any dust out of them at all. I ahve tried severl others and broke many vacs these so far I have only broke one fine (the motor went) so far all teh festool are standing strong.

[Peter Quadarella]

I doubt that Fein and Festool are the vacs that most people use. I would be willing to bet dollars to donuts that there are more people with the Ridgid/ShopVac class of vacuum. By the way, the new Ridgid vacs come iwth a muffler that does seem to make a difference. The Fein and Festool vacs are nicer and I would love one, but in terms of suction power/flow and capacity I think the Ridgid W1850 stacks up well, at less than half the price. Loudness is the only downfall I can find so far.

[Michael Wildt]

Very interesting with the Attix. From looking at the link provided it appears a lot of the pieces are Festool. I wonder if this is Festool's garage model.

Michael