Originally Posted by
Jason Roehl
Christian, just based on what I read on the Festool website, I was concerned that the Festool hoses and accessories were entirely proprietary and not compatible with anything around. I think in this case it's different from the Metabo guide rail/Bosch router combo you mention. Pretty much all the locally available shop vacuums (I'm guessing this is true across the U.S., but I haven't been in all borgs) and their accessories are compatible within either the 1.25" or 2.5" domains. In other words, if I go buy a ShopVac brand vac with a 2.5" outlet, at any time if I need a particular hose or accessory for it, I could run to Sears and get a Craftsman 2.5" hose or accessory. Insert whatever brands you like for the ShopVac and Craftsman (those are two of the biggest sellers, I believe). I was just concerned because of the dimensions listed online (22mm, 27mm, etc.) for Festool, that they weren't playing the same game. Others have answered that question that Festool accessories are indeed compatible without a Rube Goldberg string of adapters.
As for the remark about the 120V/U.S. design, I was pointing out that where you are in Europe, 220V is the standard, no? So my though is that the U.S. market would get a different design from Festool anyway, why not tailor it a little more closely to the U.S. market? After all, Japanese automakers don't sell us very many right-hand drive cars (only in very rare exceptions), though that's the standard on their islands. In other words, they could have made the dust port on the tools themselves compatible with commonly available hoses in the U.S., without the need for their proprietary grommet.
Jason,
I can completely understand that you would appreciate more compatibility of Festool vacs with common US vac equipment. But IMO this aspect doesn’t affect whether a Festool vac is worth its money or not.
You might want to contact Festool on this one but I wonder if the Festool vacs were primarily designed as general purpose shop vacs or as dust extractor hooked up to power tools.
Anyway, the Festool vacs do an excellent job as shop vacs, yes, they might need (I haven’t tried to use other brands) Festool accessories.
The common US shop vacs are apparently not designed for usage combined with power tools, otherwise they’d provide the auto on/off feature, for example. Now some people might say that they can buy a MasterSlave device for a few bucks which does everything they want. Yep, it will work but would it be convenient for someone who does a lot of onsite work to carry this separate unit around with him?
Regarding dust extraction from power tools, can you hook up a Milwaukee circular saw, a PC sander, a Dewalt biscuit joiner and a Hitachi router to a PC shop vac without any problems (fitting) and additional accessories (adapters)?
I know that for example Bosch required adapters within its own line (Bosch vac + Bosch power tool).
As for our voltage, it was changed to 230 V years ago but this didn’t mean any differences in general usage at least I didn’t notice:-)
Festool could probably adapt their design to common US hoses, nozzles and other accessories but I guess that you miss one important point:
Festool has designed their hoses to fit Festool power tools (without any troubles and additional adapters) and I can’t imagine that the majority of Festool users would want to give up this advantage for the ability to use some basic accessories.
Regards,
Christian
"On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it's true
That who is what and what is who."
(A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh)
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but make sure that it's really cheaper here. 
