Festool CT MINI I HEPA Dust Extractor Review
The smallest CLEANTEC is not the one with the most suction. It is the one you actually carry to the job, which is why it gets used.
Disclosure:As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This costs you nothing and never changes which tools we recommend. Read more.
Festool’s CT range is priced like a statement, so it is worth being precise about what the MINI is and is not. It is not the most powerful extractor in the class. At 130 CFM of suction volume and a 2.6 gallon container, a $150 shop vac will move more air and hold more debris.
What the MINI has is everything around the airflow. The whole unit is HEPA certified rather than just the filter cartridge, which means the seals and the path through the machine are part of the rating — the practical version of this is that fine dust that gets picked up does not come back out of the exhaust into the room. If you sand MDF, or work on pre-1980s painted timber, that is the difference that matters.
It runs at 62 dB on low. That figure does more work than any other on the spec sheet. A shop vac at full noise is a thing you avoid switching on for a two-minute job; a machine you can talk over gets used for every job, and dust you never lifted into the air is the dust you never breathe.
The tool outlet on the front starts the extractor when the connected tool starts, and the Bluetooth version adds remote start from a receiver or a compatible cordless tool. The effect is the same: the extractor is on exactly while you are cutting and off the rest of the time, without a switch to think about.
Where the size bites
2.6 gallons is genuinely small. Run a belt sander or empty a thicknesser hood into it and you will be changing bags during the job. The MINI is sized for a random orbital sander, a router, a track saw and a jigsaw — tools that produce fine dust in small volumes — and it is excellent at exactly that.
Long hose runs and large extraction ports are the other limit. 130 CFM is enough for a 27 mm sander hose and no more; it is not a substitute for a dust collector on a machine with a 4 in port.
The honest cost
The machine is expensive and the consumables are too. Self-cleaning filter bags and replacement main filters are priced at Festool level, and you will replace both. Budget for them as part of the purchase, not as a surprise later. If the budget will not stretch, a mid-size extractor from another brand with a genuine HEPA filter and a tool-triggered outlet gets you most of the benefit; what you give up is the noise level and the certification on the whole unit.
What works
- Full-unit HEPA certification means the filtration is rated for the whole machine, not just the filter element — the distinction that matters when you are sanding old paint or MDF indoors
- At 62 dB on low it is quiet enough to hold a conversation over, so it gets switched on for small jobs instead of being left in the corner
- The tool-triggered outlet and Bluetooth remote start mean the extractor runs only while the sander does, which is the feature that changes how often you use it
What doesn't
- A 2.6 gallon container fills fast — this is a sander and router companion, not a machine for cleaning up after a thicknesser
- It costs several times what a decent shop vac does, and the consumables (bags, filters) are priced the same way
- 130 CFM is modest: it moves plenty of air for a 27 mm sander hose, but it will not keep up with a large-port tool or a long run of rigid ducting