Thread: Heads-Up: $99 Aldi Auto-Start Power-Tool Dust Extractor

Hi, I have a few questions about this product. I have one and it works well.

Can I rinse out the pleated filter with water to clean it?

Can I have water already in the tank to absorb the dust, or will this damage the pleated filter?

How often should the pleated filter be changed?

Is the foam filter good for dry vacuuming?

I appreciate your responses

See below

Originally Posted by salccc

Hi, I have a few questions about this product. I have one and it works well.

Can I rinse out the pleated filter with water to clean it?

Yes, but not recommended. Use a brush or compressed air (wear a mask, the wind WILL change DAMHIKT)

Can I have water already in the tank to absorb the dust, or will this damage the pleated filter?

The water doesn't help much, if at all. I tried it with my other shop vac ages ago.

How often should the pleated filter be changed?

I go by eye. When I can see a tear or it is clearly stuffed then I get a new one.

Is the foam filter good for dry vacuuming?

No. It gets full of dog hair and dust, choking the filter. Again, DAMHIKT.

I appreciate your responses

Many thanks for the heads-up, Batpig.

I went into my local Aldi today and they had three left so I bought one. After that I went to Bunnings and found that they had a table of heavily discounted GMC products and I bought a palm belt sander for $39 (marked down from $79)

Went home and unwrapped my new toys and hooked one into the other and sanded a scrap of plywood still in my good clothes without a speck of dust landing on me from sanding the plywood on my knee.

Awesome!!!

Very pleased with both products, especially that huge vacuum cleaner. It does everything that you said it would.


Once again, many thanks - that is quite a find.

Dear Guys,

Just one last thing about these particular Vacs that makes them really good for the price...

The exhaust port at the rear of the unit just happens to be a perfect match in diameter for those cartridge filters that you buy from UniSafe and Protector for your Dust-Mask. In the first photo below, I'm holding one such cartridge near the said exhaust port of the Vac, and in the second photo I'm holding the cartridge hard up against the port (with the Vac going, though, you'll need a better grip than I have in the photo!)

Three good things about this:

1) You could with some justification say that you could just suck the dust in the cartridge out with the suction hose of any old Vac, but the problem is that those little ribs that keep the "Cotton Wool" in place in the cartridge, act like spacers that prevent the concentration of suction being forced to all come through the Cotton Wool - with the result being that air is also sucked in from around the nozzle rather than solely through the Cotton Wool. The sheer spot-on fit of the Vac's outlet port around the back of the whole cartridge (as opposed to the slightly smaller diameter front of the cartridge) means that all available pressure is forced to flow through the cartridge.

2) Blowing through the things to clean them - as opposed to sucking through them - will eliminate the risk of tearing out the cartridge's Cotton Wool that could occur if using suction.

3) Using the exhaust end of the Vac means that you're not pulling all of those Super-Fines back into the Vac's own filters...

Make sure you hold the correct end of the cartridge to the exhaust port, and make sure you do it outside too, because a fair little cloud of dust comes out of them, and it's all very fine stuff.

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

Oh crap ... I've gone blind ... I can't see any photo's ...

I think you forgot something Batpig

Oops!
Sorry Vernon... I'm just having one of those years at the moment...

Best Wishes again,
Batpig.

great tip batpig.... im on that one

km

Saw this thread the other day and thought, nnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh, 100 bucks for a wet and dry vac, yeah right.

Was using the old karcher wet and dry vac, poor old thing wont even suck the skin off a rice pudding now and the damn thing went pop, bang then smoke started poring out of it.

Damn,...........so, hhhhmmmmmmm, fire up the internet and see whats available. Yeah right, 4 5 6 800 dollars for a vac?

So, off to the big A with a green note to see if there were any vacs left. Great, 3 left, i'll have one, thinking it must be better than what I had.

Unpacked it, fired it up, plugged the sander in and whattya know, it works a treat.

So thanks Batpig, the money I saved can go to other new toys.

Cheers,

Ross.

I have got to give a bit of credit to the Aldi-vac. Mine has got a fair bit of use over the last week and is going like a train. One of the best things is it comes with an adaptor that actually fits everything I have. The standard nozzle fits the pipes from my old Karcher so I can re-use them (the plastic is better for running on concrete), the Makita SCMS is connected with the adaptor and the sanders also work well with the adaptor. I also have a 2.5" hose from an older shop-vac that I was using on a sander, now I find it is a perfect fit for the Aldi-vac.

Originally Posted by salccc

Can I have water already in the tank to absorb the dust, or will this damage the pleated filter?

Just a thought generated by this question, would a damp foam offcut sitting in the base of the unit hold the finer dust that entered the unit before it gets to the pleated filter? I don't have this vacuum YET, and will visit Aldi asap.

prozac

Many thanks Batpig,

Picked up a taurus today in Sunbury. Aldi is so cheap - did all our shopping there and ended up getting the vacuum and not spending a lot more than the normal shopping - Coles and Woolworths ARE ripping us off.

Originally Posted by prozac

Just a thought generated by this question, would a damp foam offcut sitting in the base of the unit hold the finer dust that entered the unit before it gets to the pleated filter? I don't have this vacuum YET, and will visit Aldi asap.

I would say no, Prozac, because I think that the fines are not actually making it down to the bottom of the tank. Rather, I think that they are going straight over - more or less - from the inlet into the tank, over to the filter.

About a year or so ago, I went through the whole process of trying to lengthen or replace the inlet elbow into the tank so that the air flow was both more directional along a tangent to the filter, and also outletting closer to the tank's inner wall, in order to get the incoming airflow to impact against the inner wall of the tank so as to develop a "Cyclonic" type separation of debris from the air - fines and all. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a PVC elbow arrangement that could be successfully grafted on to the inlet in the limited space between the side of the tank, and the side of the filter...

If anyone else (particularly a Plumber, or someone who works in plumbing supplies) can succeed in this endeavour, you will have done a great service to humanity. Naturally, photos will be expected...

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

G'day,

I'm in the planning stages of my assembly table, so I can make allowance for it to fit under inside the table, what's the height of the Aldi vacuum?

Not buying it just yet, but down the track.

With the wheels on or off Chris?