Thread: Laguna Dust extractor

I own a 2022 PFlux-3 and I like it

Positives (for me anyway)
It is freestanding on wheels and can be moved easily if required.

The bin seal and release mechanism is really good and the bin itself is on wheels and easy to move around.

The quality and fit of the parts is very good, everything was well labelled which helped a lot in building it.

It comes with a remote control on/off button.

It comes with a HEPA pleated filter and a self cleaning motor and my particle counter suggests it is doing a good job. To pre-empt this forum's favourite suggestion - I live and work in a small unit and can't locate the machine outside my workshop because outside my workshop would be either in my kitchen or on the footpath

It's not too noisy. The soundproofing on the PFlux makes some difference, albeit not a profound reduction. If you open the soundproofing doors you can hear it get a little louder. I measured it with a decibel meter and compared it to an old Carbatec 2HP extractor (like a DC-1200P) and 1HP extractor (like a DC-500H) with each sitting in the same place in my workshop for the test. I know it's not super-scientific but the readings were around 1HP - 71dB, 2HP, 74dB, PFLux3 - 77dB measured a metre from each inlet with nothing attached. Opening the soundproofing doors added another couple of dB.

It sucks up dust and woodchips very well.

Negatives
The printed instruction manual is poor. It lacks detail and the photos are not very clear in some steps and a couple of steps are just left out. (I can't remember what they were now I'm afraid.) If you'd never built anything big and mechanical before the manual would be problematic. It also suggests you need a hoist to build the machine. However, there is a Laguna YouTube video of the construction process which shows how you can build it without a hoist, but you will need at least two (and preferably three) people at one point during the build to do so. Overall the video is much better than the manual, albeit the two conflict in a couple of minor details, such as which way around some nuts and bolts should face - not mission critical issues but annoying nonetheless.

Getting the machine wired up was a pain. I had conflicting advice about the electrical requirements from an electrician, Carbatec, and the instruction manual. It came fitted with a 15A plug and 1.8m lead. It still needs the small cleaner motor to be wired up which is easy to do and well documented but I believe technically requires an electrician. It draws over 100A on startup (as measured by my electrician) and 14.5A continuously and definitely requires the recommended 32A D-curve breaker. I ended up getting a single phase 32A plug and 5m cable installed on the machine and a corresponding 32A outlet with 32A D-curve breaker. Overkill perhaps, but having a 5m lead was important for me given my workshop layout.

If you turn the machine on and off for short periods the autoclean feature becomes a little annoying. Each time it starts and stops the cleaning paddles are rotated automatically for a few seconds in each direction. (They also do so every 10 minutes if the machine is running continuously.) It is probably more cleaning than they need if you only power it on for a couple of minutes at a time, and the paddles make an inherently irritating, albeit not particularly loud noise. I'm sure I could get a bypass switch installed but I just haven't gotten around to doing so yet.

Pulling the metal inner bin liner sleeve out from a filled bag makes a bit of a mess sometimes.

General observations
It took an entire day to build it by myself, with two extra people helping for about 10 minutes to flip the machine upright about halfway through the process. Having one extra person available for the whole time would make building it easier.

The very first I turned it on I thought there must be something lose and bouncing around inside it somewhere but it was just the sound of the autocleaning paddles doing their thing.

One thing missing from the 2022 Plux-3 model which was present on earlier versions is a built in vacuum pipe from the cyclone to the bin to keep the bin bag stuck to the walls of bin itself and not get sucked up into the cycline whilst the machine is running. I don't know what the downside of the vacuum pipe was that led them to remove it from this latest version and replace it with a metal bin liner sleeve but the sleeve doesn't seem nearly as elegant a solution to the problem.

Here endeth my thoughts