Festool Hepa Shop Vac??????

[pirinst]

After perusing the Bills Cyclone Dust Collection Research site I've come to the conclusion that anything less than True Hepa rated filter isn't going to
trap the smallest airborne particles that can cause lung damage. It seems there is no agency responsible for home air filtering product reliability as opposed to commercial air filtration systems.

With that in mind I've noticed almost all articles in mags and ads never mention this with any real emphasis, if at all. They seem instead to push the
fact that shop vacs can't keep up with planer chip volume and compare the current technology and ignore the micron size filtration.

With that in mind, I noticed in one ad a Festool True Hepa shop vac with up to 8 gallon bags for around $500. Wondering if anyone has had any exprerience with this unit and how long it will last?

The local Starks vacuum has a super Hepa shop vac that is supposedly commercially rated and approved to remove asbestos for around $600 but it is pretty small.

I'm thinking of somehow using the Festool to filter out the airborne exhaust of my PulmanHolt shop vacuum which has a pretty large container but a filterless bag system which must be throwing microscopic wood dust all over the place. The idea would be to make some sort of cardboard or non collapsing hood over the top of the shop vac with a connection to the Festool hose. Then, hope the Festool can keep up with the shopvac output.

Just in the beginning thought stages. Any ideas??

[pirinst]

BTW, I replaced my bedroom clearbreeze air cleaner

with a Kenmore TrueHepa air cleaner with the $100 replaceable filters which
moves so much air we keep it on low speed to stay warm at night. Wife has much less nasal congestion after sleeping with the air cleaner being used recently.

My goal is to put together some sort of true dust collection system downstream of the wood chip collector (large shop vac) without getting some huge cyclone unit. Looks like current models out there can't get both the chip volume and also the true hepa rating at the same time in the same unit. Wish me luck. I usually try the difficult problems first.

[JimD]

I am sure that Festool equipment is good but $500 for a shop vacumn because it has a HEPA filter is way too much. You can buy a HEPA filter for Rigid shop vacumn you can buy for a net of $20 right now (after getting the $20 gift card) for about $25. Your total expense would be $65 before the gift card arrives and $45 net with the card. I just did a google search to verify my hunch. I just got one of these 6 gallon rigids and the stock filter seems to do a decent job. My old shop vacumn has a noticable dust cloud but not the Rigid. Anyway, see if you can get a HEPA filter for your current shop vacumn or buy a new Rigid and a HEPA filter if all you want is a good shop vacumn that will not recirculate fine dust that is a health hazard.

If you have several Festool tools, however, their shop vacumn seems to work well with them. I have the CD they were including with FWW a few months ago and they seem like really nice tools - but very expensive.

Jim

[pirinst]

Thanks Jim D.

I didn't know Ridgid had that setup. Was under the impression that if you put a Hepa into a shop vac that wasn't designed for one that it would blow up the motor. Maybe I could get one with one of those extended replacement agreements to be on the safe side. Will look into that. The Borg I assume?

[onedash]

Craftsman has HEPA filters. About double the price as the normal ones.. Not sure what it does to the capabilty of the Vac but I'd guess it reduces it a little.

[LCHIEN]

After perusing the Bills Cyclone Dust Collection Research site I've come to the conclusion that anything less than True Hepa rated filter isn't going to
trap the smallest airborne particles that can cause lung damage. It seems there is no agency responsible for home air filtering product reliability as opposed to commercial air filtration systems.

With that in mind I've noticed almost all articles in mags and ads never mention this with any real emphasis, if at all. They seem instead to push the
fact that shop vacs can't keep up with planer chip volume and compare the current technology and ignore the micron size filtration.

With that in mind, I noticed in one ad a Festool True Hepa shop vac with up to 8 gallon bags for around $500. Wondering if anyone has had any exprerience with this unit and how long it will last?

The local Starks vacuum has a super Hepa shop vac that is supposedly commercially rated and approved to remove asbestos for around $600 but it is pretty small.

I'm thinking of somehow using the Festool to filter out the airborne exhaust of my PulmanHolt shop vacuum which has a pretty large container but a filterless bag system which must be throwing microscopic wood dust all over the place. The idea would be to make some sort of cardboard or non collapsing hood over the top of the shop vac with a connection to the Festool hose. Then, hope the Festool can keep up with the shopvac output.

Just in the beginning thought stages. Any ideas??

I would strongly recommend against placing two vacuums in series.
each machine will attempt to move some amount of flow (CFM), since they are one after the other the one with the worst performance will limit the other. In that case, may as well just use the one.

[cgallery]

I have a Shop-Vac brand that I use with the Shop-Vac brand bags. The bags serve two functions: (1) They make clean-up a snap, (2) The provide much additional filtering. In the second regard, they really improve the efficiency of the unit dramatically, because they prevent the filter from getting clogged. I kinda imagine the bag as a giant pre-filter that catches most everything before it gets to the filter. I've heard they make drywall bags and filters for these, too. I don't know how close the bag brings the unit to HEPA standards, but it may be work a look.

Thanks,
Phil

[maxparot]

The bags for the Shop-Vac brand vacuums is for there older model wetdry vacs. (I have an old 5 gallon that uses them for dry vacuuming)
The newer models have pleated filters cartridges and are available as HEPA filtering (Cleanstream) Using the bags as a prefilter may be a good idea but it won't stop the smallest particles that a HEPA cartridge will.

[lkazista]

If micron size and air quality is really a passion for you, then I would recommend an Air Cleaner in addition to whatever set up you go with. I added a Delta Industrial Air cleaner to my shop a couple of months ago and it makes ALL the difference in the world. My vac has been out at my folks house for a couple of weeks now, and I can still use the saw as long as the air cleaner is on.

The air cleaner traps 99.9% of all particles bigger than 1 micron.

Breathe easy,

Lee Kazista