Hey all! My wife is over the cordless Dyson we have (battery life is terrible) and was looking at canister vacs, and then asked me what I thought about getting a Festool CT for dedicated home use instead. I thought about it, and now with all the cordless options and new cleaning kits, there’s a lot of directions we could go.

Anybody else use one for home use, i.e. vacuuming deeper carpets, dusting blinds and surfaces, quick spill clean ups, etc? We have a Roomba for general floor cleaning.

First thought was a CT 15, but I think having the systainer dock on top would be nice, as well as the Bluetooth to make it all that much easier for her. So I’m thinking corded CT Mini? The cordless one looks enticing too, but I think we’re looking for maybe the sustained power of corded? IDK. Open to opinions on this.

For cleaning attachments, has anyone used that turbo brush attachment for carpets? Any good?

For context, I already have a couple CT26s, a 15, and a CT SYS, and the workshop cleaning kit. She’s used them before in a pinch and loved how powerful they were. The variable suction was a cool feature for her too for dusting and all.

Anyway, enough rambling. Thoughts and opinions?

I only have one dust extractor, the CT 15 but upgraded with a braided hose and hose garage, and the cheaper cleaning kit.  I use it all the time as my primary vacuum for the house, it's just so good at picking up all the small particles and pet hair.

We're a household of way too many vacuums.

Festool: CT 48 AC, CT MIDI I
Miele C2 Electro+ with SEB 228 power head
Riccar 1500p
Kirby G5 with carpet shampooing kit

Roborock S7MaxV Ultra

I've been toying with the idea of selling the Miele, Riccar and Kirby and replacing them with a CT MIDI I for the house. I find that the canister vacs do the job well enough, but the short hoses on them are a pain when doing any cleanup/dusting at height. Plus, that shorter hose makes it bang into my heels way more than I like.

I already have the cleaning kit with metal wands, plus the turbine powered brush. We don't have much in the way of carpets and with the robot vac, the Miele and Riccar barely see any use. The Kirby is kept because the shampooing attachment works well, but again we don't have many carpets. Lots of hard wood and some linoleum, with area rugs for covering. I'd rather have all Festool and be done with it.

I got my wife a midi back in 2010 as she was destroying a vacuum roughly every 12-14 months Among others over the years we went through Godfrey uprights, Hoover upright, a reasonably expensive Miele which lasted 13 months, and finally a top of the line Bosch which also lasted barely more than a year. She used my old SR5E dusty initially and didn't mind it so the midi was perfect for her.

Apart from the common mains cable clamp problem with these units, it has been working flawlessly the last 13 years. I ended up buying the long life bag for it when the bags ran out.

This is literally the first vacuum she hasn't been able to destroy, so we've been very happy with it! I hate to think how much I've spent on other vacs that died over the years, always that little bit out of warranty!

If your wife is anything like mine the corded version would be best.

Another CT-MIDI user for my house vacuum. Prior to the midi, I have a small rigid rolling shop vac that we were using with a 1 piece aluminum wand from Amazon. Once I got the midi, I purchased a cleaning set with the new 36mm braided hose and use the hose with the midi and the wand from Amazon. The rest of the cleaning set stays in the shop. I recently purchased the turbo head and it works well on hard floors. I have used it on some commercial style carpet with no pile and it works OK but the turbo gets bogged down quickly when using it on the carpet. The turno head doesn’t work on the 1 piece wand, I use the steel tubes from my cleaning set for the turbo head and as mentioned it doesn’t maneuver as well as some other wands and heads out there.

But absolutely no qualms about the CT for household use.

@squall_line Yep, the CT MINI I is already gone.

I was looking at my local dealer which had one a month or so ago, and it either sold or went back to Festool. Thinking about it, it'd have probably been silly to get it since there's barely any height difference AND it uses the same bags.

My CT-26 is a useful tool in the shop but I would not want to drag that heavy, bulky boat anchor around the house and particularly up and down stairs.

Contemplating this myself. Our old hoover is on its last leg and if I were to get another midi I for the house it wouldn't be a huge investment since I already have the cleaning set and a bunch of bags.

Oh boy...oranges & apples. 

We have an older Miele Capricorn for upstairs and a newer Miele C3 for downstairs. Both are HEPA, both have Electro brushes and both have the controls built into the handle. There's nothing easier to use on rugs, carpet or wooden floors as the Electro brushes are height adjustable and incorporate LED lighting for use under a couch or a table. Each vacuum also has a "bag full" indicator which is really a nice touch. The automatic cord (25') rewind works flawlessly for the life of the vacuum. They're quiet and have adjustable suction and come with a telescopic wand. They also come with an upholstery nozzle, crevice nozzle & a dusting brush that all store on the vac under a cover. Nice stuff...

Now for the not so nice stuff...the hose on the Miele is about 5' long so to reach anything higher, the entire vacuum must be elevated. In a sunroom, we have a G-scale train that runs at the 9' level and the blades of a ceiling fan are at the 10' level. So to clean either of these items, the Miele has to be hauled up a 6 foot step ladder and perched precariously on the top step...not fun.

That's the reason you really need both a Miele and a Festool vac.    The Festool Mini sits on the floor while I crawl up the ladder with the 15' hose in my hand. For cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling the Festool long wand with a brush takes care of that easily. The Festool Turbo Suction head works well on smooth floors or short napped throw rugs. As the nap becomes longer, the turbo brush starts to bog down and the air inlet on the handle piece needs to be opened up to allow more air to pass through and thus spin the turbo brush. However, as more air is bypassed, the suction is also reduced. That's the reason the Miele Electro brush is height adjustable and works so well because the amount of vacuum is constant at every height.

Here's an example of how well the Festool Turbo Suction head works on smooth floors, this is a single, normal speed pass through the cat litter. I keep this in the basement all of the time attached to a 36 mm hose while the Mini lives between the 1st floor & the 2nd floor.

I really like the suction available from my Mini for doing household cleaning, as well as the additional hose length.  The large bags are wonderful, especially when one has large, hairy, shedding dogs.  The one part I have come to detest is the air-turbine brush head.  First, it jams up with dog hair and is a royal PITA to tear down for cleaning.  On loose fabric, like dog beds, the air-turbine brush stops on a dime and refuses to turn until the fabric is pulled taut.  All that said, the vac itself does a wonderful job of cleaning, until the bag gets full of dog hair. 

I built a small screened in room about 4’ x 4’ using two storm doors (one fixed, the second operable) tucked in the corner against the house.  I added a kitty pass through form the sun room to that screened room.

I put the kitty litter box in that screened in room.  After that, I got no more kitty litter indoors and no kitty litter fragrance.

I changed the litter while out on the deck, so none of the clay was ever brought int the house.

There were a couple of shelves for the cat to lounge on when the temperature was comfortable.

In the winter I put in the glass inserts.

Both cats are gone now.  I removed the storm door enclosure.  All that remains is the kitty door.

I will cover the door with wainscoting soon.  I will have to figure out a patch for the siding I cut.

Better than cleaning litter is never to have indoors at all.

Note:  My property backs up against a nature preserve.  One entire summer a pair of red tailed hawks nested in my backyard.  Outdoor cats disappear in my neighborhood so letting the out means feeding the wildlife.

@Cheese

That Wessel-Werk TK286 will not go directly on the Festool 36mm hose nor on the cleaning wands. There's a pretty cheap Bosch adapter that works perfectly. How well it stays in while doing the cleaning, I don't know.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AV77S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1

You can also use a 1-1/4" flexible coupling (plumbing), but will need to stretch it a bit to fit. 

That Wessel-Werk TK286 will not go directly on the Festool 36mm hose nor on the cleaning wands. There's a pretty cheap Bosch adapter that works perfectly. How well it stays in while doing the cleaning, I don't know.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AV77S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1

I tried this Bosch adapter and the bottom line is, don’t do it.

An Amazon search for a better alternative turned up this one, which actually works very well!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096L2FJJV?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_2J3ZFTXXD77BW5NW8AF7

If the link doesn’t work, search for this “Wessel-Werk Vacuum Hose Adapter 1 3/8-inch to 1 ¼ inch”