Considering Festool Vac with Dust Deputy

[Michael Koons]

I'm thinking about getting either a small Festool Dust Extractor (Mini or Midi) with the Oneida Ultimate Dust Deputy or just going with a larger Festool and foregoing the DD. I've seen feedback from the group of people who use both. I like the idea of not changing and buying new bags after each fill. For those of you with a CT36 or 46, how often do you find yourself tossing your bags? I'm a hobbyist woodworker who usually has a few projects going at any time. So not super heavy usage. Right now, I empty my 11 gallon Shop Vac about once a month.

** I should add... It's not always full when I empty it but it is to the point where the filter needs cleaning.

[Julie Moriarty]

I have a CT 26. I also have the ETS 125, RO 125 and RO 90 and have been using all of them to an almost production-shop level. The CT was purchased in January and still has the original bag in it. It's about 1/4 full. The bags are $7. The the Ultimate Dust Deputy is $199. Festool says the bag can be filled to capacity. Replacing the bag is easy and releases almost no dust into the air.

Many CT owners who have the UDD installed say they get static shocks at the tool. Oneida recently offered a static upgrade kit but I have no idea if that solves the problem.

One of the things I love about the CT is I can stack systainers on top of it and move them around with the vac. Good mobility is needed in tight areas. And with the T-lock I can access any of the 3 sanders I have pretty easily without taking top boxes off. Once you mount the UDD to the CT, you lose all that. You also lose the hose garage, which can be easily accessed with systainers on top by engaging the T-lock and removing the stack all at once. And of course, on top of the UDD you have the plastic cone and the hoses coming off it that can be easily snagged, straining the cyclone mounting plate. As a unit, it's not easy to move up and down stairs. I can take the CT by the handle and move it anywhere.

There is one other thing - the Festool warranty. Festool says you may void your warranty by using third party accessories. Some CT owners believe the failure of the PC board in their CT was caused by static buildup created by the UDD. I have yet to see anything proof-positive to support that but Festool is aware of the possibility and there seems to be a consensus if you use the DD in conjunction with a CT and your PC board fails, you will be paying the $150 to replace it, even if it's under warranty.

FWIW, I own the Deluxe DD and use it on my Craftsman shop vac. I bought it to eliminate the constant clogging of the $35 "HEPA" filter I put on there. The filter seemed to collect more debris than what fell into the bottom of the canister. And the DDD has worked well in keeping the filter clean and the vac working to capacity. However, the intake hose on the cyclone keeps coming off. The hose ports are tapered and therefore you get a small point of contact for the hose connectors. I'm also thinking there's air leakage because the suction doesn't seem to be as powerful as it was before the DDD. But I haven't hunted that problem down so I can't say for sure it's a design flaw on the part of the DDD.

[Peter Kuhlman]

Oneida offers several variations of the Dust Deputy. I very highly recommend the all-metal cyclone with the metal bucket that they sell as it allows your anti-static hoses to still work properly. Only downside is you can't see how full the bucket is without opening it up. You may have to call Oneida to get the metal version as they really started pushing the plastic models. I love mine and it works extremely well. Have not had to change a bag since installing it.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I attached my dust deputy to a large shop vac that I have (not Festool). I use this for my Router fence, kreg jig, sucking things off the floor, etc.

I have not bothered to connect it to my Festool vac, which I use with sanders, a track saw, and my Kapex. For my hobby uses, I am using the same bag for over a year.

In this time, I have emptied my dust deputy a few times and my regular dust collector (connected to my table saw and surface planer) about 10 times (just to get a feel for my usage).

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I use a CT26 at work with a DD and it works great.

At home I have a Midi, which is only used for sanding dust collection.......Rod.

[Chris Padilla]

I have had a CT-11 Festool vacuum for almost 10 years (yeah, they no longer make this model but it is the size of the Midi or Mini...whatever it is called) and I bought a package of 5 bags at the time I picked up the vacuum. I have one bag left or I might be on my last bag as I did just change it about a month ago. For a hobbyist, I think it takes a while to fill it up. I don't see a need for the DD on the vacuum and Julie makes some excellent points why it isn't needed either. Now I *might* get one for my Rigid shop vac...the filter on it clogs if you look at it funny.

[Michael Koons]

Thanks to all for the advice. It was VERY helpful.

I think I'm going to go with one of the larger Festools (CT 36 or 48) and try it first. If I end up filling the bags too frequently, I may consider the DD. But I'll hold off on that until I get some experience. If I only go through a few bags a year, then it doesn't seem to be worth getting the DD. I use the floor sweep connected to my CV for most shop debris anyway. So I expect the Festool to be used primarily for connecting to tools. Maybe a little workbench cleanup.

I have another added benefit that the Festool fits perfectly under the overhang on my workbench. So it will be stored in the perfect spot. If I had the DD, it wouldn't fit there.

[johnny means]

I just recently bought a DD for my CT33. After seven years of buying bags, I could kick myself for not doing it sooner. I figure I could have bought two more CTs with what I've spent on bags. With $3 worth of plumbing fixtures and a shopmade box, I can now use 4 cent waste basket bags and not feel like I have to be careful about what I use my CT for. I hear a lot of these guys saying they only use their DEs for sanding and that one bag last them years, but I use mine with my tracksaw, Domino, routing, pockethole drilling, cleaning the car, power planer, beltsanding, linebore jig as well as general shop cleanup and bags don't last me very long at all. As far as I'm concerned every vac I buy from here on out will come with a DD as standard equipment. Do you really want to have a $500 vacuum that you're afraid to use because of the cost of bags? I feel sick every time I think about how many $7 bags I tossed in the garbage.

[james maichel]

I have a CT26 and I hooked up a Rockler Dust Right Vortex that I had for a shop vac just to see the results that I got. It did the job but it seemed to lose some suction when I had it hooked up and that I did not like. I decided it's easier just to replace that bag when it gets full. Like Julie said they are only about $7 a bag, basically the price of a couple Latte's . One thing that I don't like about the DD is that you sacrifice the ability to stack a couple systainers on the CT, something I do often.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

As far as I'm concerned every vac I buy from here on out will come with a DD as standard equipment. Do you really want to have a $500 vacuum that you're afraid to use because of the cost of bags? I feel sick every time I think about how many $7 bags I tossed in the garbage.

I had intended to put one on my Festool vac, but opted against it since the DD takes space (one which I am tight) and my uses do not warrant it. I have two vacs in the shop and the one with more power is connected to the larger devices through the dust deputy.

Consider your usage and choose an appropriate DD (if you choose one). The unit on top is the easier to then roll the vac around, but probably more of a problem if you want to carry it on stairs or shove it under someplace small. If you have the one that does not attach to the top of the vac (as I have), then you have an extra DD sitting out in the way and it sometimes knocks over without much provocation. Even with that complaint, I would not get rid of it because it saves me so much money on filters for the vac to which it is attached.

[Julie Moriarty]

I got the CT in January. Since that time I've done more sanding than I would normally do in a year and the bag is only 1/4 full. For sanding applications I'd be surprised if the average home user goes through more than one bag a year. On the other end, if you're planing, the bags will fill up fast. When I compare the $199 cost of the UDD to the $7 bag, and if a bag last me a year, it will take me over 28 years to break even. I'll be dead before that. If you go through one bag a month, then it takes over 28 months to break even, a bag a week = 28 weeks, etc. So it all depends on your particular situation.

[Michael Dunn]

I got the CT in January. Since that time I've done more sanding than I would normally do in a year and the bag is only 1/4 full. For sanding applications I'd be surprised if the average home user goes through more than one bag a year. On the other end, if you're planing, the bags will fill up fast. When I compare the $199 cost of the UDD to the $7 bag, and if a bag last me a year, it will take me over 28 years to break even. I'll be dead before that. If you go through one bag a month, then it takes over 28 months to break even, a bag a week = 28 weeks, etc. So it all depends on your particular situation.

I bought my CT-22E used about 2 years ago. I bought a 5 pack of bags and I have one left now. I changed the bag for the first time 2 months ago. I've since used three bags. I realize this is a smaller vac, but ultimately it all depends on usage.

For mostly sanding the bags will surely last a looooong time. However, I use mine mostly with my OF1400, Trion, and TS-75. I do some sanding as well. Now more than ever. I use the ETS-125, and the DTS-125 sanders.

Since I lost my job and started woodworking professionally I've gone through bags pretty quickly. I try to avoid using he CT for general shop cleanup. Except for maybe the bench every once in a while. For the shop floor I use my DC cyclone system with the Rockler Dust Right 4" handle and extension wands.

I'd consider the UDD, but I'll admit, I'm scared to due to the other thread regarding the PCB failure. Although, I'm also an Electronics Engineer and could probably fix it myself. I doubt I'd had the time though.

[Todd Brewer]

I have 3 dust deputies, 2 Ultimates and 1 with the buckets. I love them! I am one of those that reported static shocks, but it was only on my newer UDD. I ran a piece of aluminum metal tape on the DD cyclone and it solved the problem. My first DD was for my Midi. There is no need to pay for a bigger DE unless you want bigger wheels and the ability to add a boom arm or other DE accessory that is not applicable to the Mini or Midi. Midi and CT26 will both hold systainers. My second DE was the CT 26, one reason was the wheels on the Midi are so small they always got hung up on cords. The CT26 now has a boon arm but only because I got tired of the hose hanging up the edge of my work table. The bucket version is on a Ridgid vac. I am extremely happy with all 3 setups. I would never consider any long term use o a vac without a dust deputy.

With regards to warranty. Any manufacturer of any product will not guarantee their product with a second party accessory. Doesn't mean the aftermarket product is harmful.

I love my dust deputies. I have never ever changed a filter, but I have emptied the DD containers many times.

[John Piwaron]

First, regarding the DE used with a DD, someone at Festool responsible for such things should do a root cause failure analysis. Until that's done, whatever it is that's causing board failures is all conjecture.

Second, voiding the warranty because of the use of an accessory made by someone else only seems prudent on the part of Festool. There's no way for them to know what happens when some hooziewhatzit is attached to their machine. In other words, when they designed and tested their machine, they did it with their accessories. They know what happens when those are used but can't know what happens when someone else's are attached.

If it happened to me, I'd simply not say I was using a DD when it happened. FWIW, I don't have a DD.

Regarding bags, I'm on my second bag after 3 years of owning my CT22 E. I use the DE for sanding (it's made that tolerable if not a pleasure), a Domino 500 and a OF 2200. Sanding is by far the main use but the relatively infrequent use for the other 2 things is still enough to account for most of the bag fill. General shop clean up is done with an ordinary shop vac. I must say there's a lot less general cleanup since I started using the DE and a dust collector.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

voiding the warranty because of the use of an accessory made by someone else only seems prudent on the part of Festool.

So I should probably NOT connect my Festool vac to my non Festool sander, only my Festool sander then...

If use of the DD fries the vacuum, I consider that a design flaw in the Festool. Does not make it true or false, just an opinion of mine. If It cannot handle that, then I expect that there may be some issues with using the vacuum in any way.... I mean, what if there happens to be some static on my wooden work bench (ok, perhaps a bad analogy) and then I choose to vacuum it off? You get the idea.