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Used it as a car vacuum and dust collection for my drywall and drum sanders, running it continuously for hours. The outlet started to pop out when unplugging after a couple of years though. I now need ear protection Have had this vacuum for about 12 years. The last two years it has gotten as loud as a $50 vac with the motor housing buzzing.
The best feature of this vacuum is how quiet it was. The filter is reusable and lasted about 10 years. The rubber tool adapter, chord and hose still look good and use it with 1-1/4 tools(could be tighter fit). The outlet and auto on/off feature is nice when using a sander.
Not a bit of foam or cardboard. I'm sure the return policy is great--blah blah blah. The hose intake plastic flange was shattered. I've had this model of vacuum for 8 or 9 years, and when I decided to purchase another for my business I ordered it through amazon.It arrived in a box with ZERO protective packing. Not a single bubble of bubble wrap.Guess what. But it's a hassle and I really needed the product when it arrived.So great vacuum, BUT I strongly advise against using Amazon to purchase it.-Steve It was damaged.
Again, too expensive to repair.I see the new ones are a lot more expensive, and require new filtration accessories. I took it in to a Fein service center, and they told me that it would be more expensive to repair the motor than to buy a new vaccuum. Until the most recent demise, there were no problems with using the standard filter. First off, I must say that while the product worked it was completely awesome. I gave mine a pretty good workout finish sanding bevelled siding after the siding had been stripped of paint. No complaints about it, the machine took the fine dust without a complaint.The first Turbo 2 fell to its death off my painter's plank. I never used any accessories, just the standard cloth filter bag. The filter bag would be caked in crap, but the motor would be clean.
Quiet, small, great suction, loved the power tool switch, and it would run for hours on end. OK, so now I have a parts supply for the replacement.The second Turbo 2 seems to have gagged itself on drywall dust. Now, I need to spend $[.]., AND buy extra filters.For the price, I'll be looking at Festool, Porter-Cable, or Wap's machines. As other reviewers mentioned, the motor started smelling hot and got a lot louder.
I bought this vacuum in conjunction with a Fein Multimaster but I also use it to vacuum my home. Yes, the attachments cost extra but they work well. version. I have utilized many shop vacs and home vacs over the years, just like most people, I'm sure. If I had a complaint it would be that the european version can be registered for the 3 year warranty but not the U.S.
And I have come to the conclusion that buying a home vacuum is foolish when a shop vac will work much better and is more versatile. It is very quite with none of the typical high-pitched whining we've all come to love about shop vacs. This vac has very strong suction and, for home use, works better than a dedicated $600 vacuum I once owned. For the shop, in dry work I use the HEPA filter with great results.
They are lightweight and shouldn't be abused. Unlike sanding dust, chips from a tool like the Festool Domino will fill a bag in a hurry. I just dump out the contents into a trash bag. These vacs do not have anything close to the level of suction developed by the cheaper and louder vacs. I found that quiet overwhelms every other consideration.
There is also one really good reason to prefer the Fein vac over Festool, and that's the exorbitant cost of Festool bags. There is plenty of suction for any reasonable use, though. A well-used filter with a reasonable amount of filter cake built up on it is very efficient, typically yielding much better filtration than the nominal micron rating listed. The Fein has several endearing features: it's light, it's quiet, it's relatively hard to tip over, it has a long cord, and the cord stores on the body (by wrapping it around the top groove). It is as flexible as the end of the Festool hose, so will adapt to either the round or oval dust outlets on Festool tools.
Moreover, I've never replaced the filter and am careful when cleaning it - I don't over-clean the filter, and I'm careful not to damage it. But that's because I have a Festool vac with a HEPA filter, and I do not have the HEPA filter for my Fein. (Don't try this with a new filter).I agree with other reviewers' comments on the hose and attachment parts. Instant improvement, with the first discovery being that you will actually use a vac all the time if it's not too loud.
Having a quiet vac turns it into something you use as you work instead of an end-of-day chore.Don't be oversold on the hyped superiority of Festool vacs for their tools. In fact, if they did, they would be a lot harder to use attached to tools like sanders. I bought the Fein to replace an old Craftsman shop-vac that was as loud as the deck of an aircraft carrier.
I've never bought the wet-vac parts for the Fein and never used the vac with a bag. The Fein stepped rubber adapter can be trimmed to fit any Festool power tool and will store nicely in the Systainer. Do yourself a favor and attach the Domino to your Fein instead.
While they are excellent vacs (I own one in addition to a Fein Turbo II) with tons of features, strictly from a vacuuming standpoint they don't offer any better performance than the Fein - and that includes any supposed advantage of the Festool vac's variable speed.The one use for which I prefer the Festool vac is for sanding. I don't understand some reviewers' comments on the strength of the suction. Among other things, I find I can use mine for drywall and for cleaning out my pellet stove without dust or soot escaping from the vac, though I'd buy a purpose-built vac if those were my primary uses.
You can get the adapter from Amazon or from Woodcraft. The bottom line on my review goes back to the starting comment.
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