Makita has come out with a new cyclonic vacuum attachment (199553-5) that works with their cordless hand vacs, but it could also potentially be used with other vacuums.
They say that it captures up to 90% of dust particles, which helps to “reduce the need to empty vacuum main canister/filter by up to 84%.”
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It can be rotated or repositioned, in case you need to use the vacuum in tight spaces.
Here, it’s shown being used with the Makita 18V XLC02ZB cordless vacuum ($79 on Amazon), which has a 1.3 pint dust-holding capacity.
While the capacity of the cyclonic attachment is “only” 400ml, it is far easier and quicker to empty and clean than the main canister, which can be a longer process.
The new Makita cyclonic vacuum attachment seems to be a convenient add-on. It’s an inline unit, and from the looks of it, using it couldn’t be any simpler.
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Part of me is focused on its low capacity. But on the other hand, it’s going to be easier to clean than the main vacuum canister. In general, cleaning the filters of bagless hand vacuums can be tedious, and you often cannot find a replacement in a pinch, you have to order them online. This attachment, and others like it, help to reduce the wear on filters, and that’s a good thing.
Festool’s new large vac cyclonic seperator is available with additional containers and lids, with the idea that you can take multiple volumes of dust with you, to dispose of off-site. Maybe you can do the same here, if the batteries allow for it, and you find a way to cap the inlet and outlet. That might get costly, though. Or you can rinse one out, and have a clean and dry one for the next job. Just thinking aloud here.
At the very least, the cyclonic attachment gives you a quicker emptying process. At best, it could improve suction efficiency, by helping to prolong the quality and cleanliness of the main filter.
It seems like a good idea. Would you use it?
Price: $44
Jehremy
I have this vacuum and cleaning the dust out of the filters has always been a tedious chore so this attachment really appeals to me. However, that $55 price tag is definitely going to keep me from pulling the trigger. That’s 70% of the cost of the vacuum! I can’t justify spending that much even if it leads to a bit more convenience. I’d as soon buy another vacuum and have a second one handy.
chris
YOLO.
Burdsal
I completely agree. I have this vac in white cuz I bought it over eBay from England a year b4 it was available here – must be 9 years old now. I use it with a 4.0 or 5.0aH battery and (still) love it. When I need to empty it I just take it into the garage and suck it clean with my shop vac. Cleans the felt bag and everything perfectly, so for me it’s not a giant hassle to empty it. But like you said, $55 for this new attachment? No f’ing way. I’d buy a second hand vac before I’d do that….
Lance
Yep, that’s awful spendy for a couple pieces of plastic. Especially when it’s hooking into a $70 vacuum!
Jared
It seems pretty clever. Simple, easy way to reduce the frequency of cleaning/replacing the filter. It’s so small you could potentially just attach it to other vacuums – if you could find a way to secure it. Presuming I could hook it to my shop vac, I’d be interested. Filters can add up.
It was obviously designed for that particular vacuum, but still kind’ve odd they don’t have an adapter for a wall-mount or somesuch so it could be marketed for other applications.
Kent
I think you’d need a really small shop vac for this to work. However, check out the Onida Dust Deputy – it’s a bit larger (sized for the air volume of a shop vac, too) and less expensive.
Tim E.
One thing I don’t like about Makita’s hand vacs is their pipes are inverted, with which end is on which side. The attachments / pipe tops have the thinner or male end, while the pipe bottoms have the wider or female end. Normally you put the female end of a stiff pipe on the male hose end, then the brush or whatever is female to fit over the pipe, if that makes sense. Makita is the opposite, the attachment is male, and you put the female pipe on that, then the male end of the pipe on the vacuum. It makes it so none of my other pipes or attachments work with the makita because you wind up putting male to male or female to female. You’d have to use adapters I suppose to make the genders correct to work with standard vacuum methodology, or use wrong sizes to basically force inside/outside of the connector to fit.
Lance
I used to wonder why they did that, then I figured it out. The larger female end on the vacuum is tapered so the top is longer, which better resists downward force on the vacuum. They could have done this on the pipe, but that would rely on the user installing the pipe in the correct orientation.
The Japanese do strange things sometimes, but there’s usually a good reason for it.
Kenneth Stephens
I just recently looked at the “Ultimate Tool Gift and Upgrade Guide” and was disappointed. It is from 5 years ago and many of the links are no longer working. As well, many of the items are Sears Craftsman, which we all know are either no longer available or wont be soon. Is there any chance of a new Ultimate tool guide as a christmas present for ToolGuyd readers or for the new year?
glenn
I have two Makita stick vacs, one for the garage and one for the house for quick clean-ups. While the filter is easy to clean ( they are water washable) the canisters do fill up quickly.
My main issue is that they are just a little too short in overall length. This solves that as well as potentially offering a heap more capacity.
I will buy one at least, but not at that price. I would pay perhaps $20-$30 AUD though. I do believe however that price will not be the end price.
Makita tool accessory add ons are very reasonably priced in my experience. ie; rip fence I just bought for $7.00, and replacement stick vac filters are about the same price. So hopefully this will follow that and end up being well priced.
And aren’t Amazons pre release prices known for being very high?
jsbson
If you are the creative type you could adapt this to your any stick vac.
search for “32-35mm-Dust-Interceptor-Vacuum-Bag” on Google shopping.
$12.28 and up.
mattd
I just discovered this one that homedepot sells, and for the price it seems to be the best way to go as far as add on dust separators go.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dustopper-High-Efficiency-Dust-Separator-12-in-dia-with-2-5-in-hose-36-in-long-HD12/302643445
Tim
Not sure that would work effectively on a hand held vacuum.
Works great for shop vacs though.
evadman
It isn’t terrible, but it tips over extremely easily. I have one, and stopped using it due to that. I don’t know how to keep it up. Maybe a few inches of concrete in the bottom of the bucket?
John
I have one and it never tips over. It’s sits on a double bucket to prevent a single bucket from collapsing from the vac pressure. Does a great job for $40. As good as and less frustrating than the Rockler blue 10 gallon unit and lid.
Todd
I actually started drawing up a cyclone separator for my Makita handheld vac, as others said the filter clogs very quicky and is a pain in the ass to clean. I swear Makita has been producing everything I have been wishing they would make lately. Definitely going to pick one of these up. Thanks for the heads up.
I have a Dust Deputy, a couple Chinese clones (both of which had the lid separate from the cone) and the Dustopper. As far as function, the Dust Deputy and the China cloness work about the same and separate almost everything from the vacuum. The Dustopper works okay after I modified it. The way the baffle attaches to the lid creates leaks which really effect the amount of suction you get at the end of the hose. I had to adhere a strip of foam weatherstripping around the rim of the separator which improved its performance a good bit. Now the problem I have with it, which is a byproduct of its design, is it does not spin separate any kind of large volume, light weight objects including: hair, string, paper, plastic bags or sheets, most any organic “green waste” matter (grass, leaves, etc). They all bypass the baffle and end up getting sucked into the vacuum or they clog the port from the vacuum to the Dustopper, and there is no way to open it up to clear the stuff out. This results in spending 10 minutes with a stick or long screwdriver clearing a clog. This does not happen with the Dust Deputy, anything that will fit into the Dust Deputy gets spun out into a bucket, some of the lighter stuff just stays in the cone, spinning until something drags it down, or you can just plug the end of the hose for 1 second and it drops into the bucket.
I really wanted to like the Dustopper because it was cheaper than the DD and tips far less often due to being almost 16″ shorter but it is more trouble than its worth for me.
ktash
I saw the Dust Deputy, top part only, at Menard’s for $55 recently. Regular price, I think. You have to diy a lid and bucket for it.
Todd
I got the kit with Oneida bucket and lid. At first I thought $45 for a bucket and lid was a tad on the expensive side, but after using it for a while I feel… the same way. The Oneida buckets and lids are a much higher quality than your standard paint or Homer bucket, and much thicker walled plastic. Painters buckets will collapse under mild restriction (using a floor attachment for example) while the Oneida bucket, I can cap the hose off and it does not collapse.
You can get heavy duty buckets from Uline or Grainger and others I’m sure, but they are not cheap and shipping is expensive. In the end, even if it is $10-15 more for the kit, I think it’s worth the convenience.
Tim
I just threw a rock in the bottom of mine, seems to work well. I plan on building a cart that stacks it on top of the shop vac.
glenn
If it helps anyone that’s interested in adapting one of these to another brand I just made some measurements on one of my vacs.
The top of the tube where it fits into the vacuum is 30-32 mm over the taper outside diameter.
The bottom of extension tube is 32 mm inside diameter at the very inlet. I guess it tapers down to 30mm as well but I have no way of measuring it.
Tim E.
I could maybe see this pairing better with the XLC01Z, where it uses bags instead of a cloth filter combo. I have an XLC02ZB that I love, but debating getting the 01 for the bags, I would prefer that for the amount of hair I pick up, instead of having to pick it out of the cage mesh on the 02. My local HD does carry spare cloth filters for the 02 though, and almost nobody carries the 01 yet, let alone its filter bags.
John S
I’d be curious about a real test of this add on to see how effective it is. The whole point of the cyclone is for the heavy parts to drop down the center. However, this cyclone will always be on an angle when ideally this needs to be as perpendicular as possible.
Gordon
Capacity is probably small, but it still looks like it is going to double the capacity of the original canister. It’s going to extend the life of the Vac and filters. It’s not suddenly going to make it equal to a full size shop vac. But look at the other handheld cyclonic stick vac on the market. This is a cheaper solution.
Kent
I wonder if it will help with the suction power of the vac. I use this vac in my packout back for quick jobs but it has a hell of a time picking up metal shavings, so I usually end up picking them up by hand.
Koko the Talking Ape
It won’t help with the suction power if you have a fresh filter. But it will help keep that filter cleaner, so the vac will keep its suction longer. Most vacs lose power as their filters fill up with dust.
Koko the Talking Ape
But I forgot to say that it might also HURT suction power noticeably, if it isn’t designed well to minimize air friction. It almost certainly will add friction, but maybe not enough to notice.
NoDeuces
Absolutely. Even with the cyclone its cheaper than the Dyson. We love our makita vacs but hate the cleanup. In for a cyclone!
B Rad
Its listed at $45 over at Ohio Power Tool
https://www.ohiopowertool.com/p-20284-makita-cyclonic-vacuum-attachment-199553-5.aspx
Bob
I was very excited to see this product as I have owned the Makita hand vac for years. I would hesitantly pay $25 for it. $50 is utterly ridiculous. Please forward that to your Makita contacts. Keeping us happy with reasonably priced, well functioning attachments helps with brand loyalty and leads to continued and future purchases of higher margin (main) tools.
GSinMT
We have this vac, and I would say that emptying it takes about twenty seconds, standing over a trash can. I usually just brush the filter off with my hand, unless it’s really filthy. I buy replacement filters at HD for about $6 for a three-pack. Changing the filter takes under a minute. If I was using this vac for coarser sawdust, a cyclone canister might be worth it, but for a household auxiliary vac, I see no need to spend another $55.
Benjamen
When I was at Acme Tools Friday, I asked the Makita Rep what the volume was and he said he didn’t know, but he kept telling me that you could empty it 10 times before you’d have to empty the main canister.
It felt really obvious that that was the bullet point Makita wants their reps to repeat.
glenn
It has just become available in Australia at $44AUD, Still a bit pricey though but better than the initial $50USD whit would have been around $65AUD.
I think I may grab one as I use a Makita stick vac for quick clean-ups in the house and I figure if it saves me washing the filters out after every 2-3 uses it will prove to be a convenience.
Janis
I use small sticvac on construction site there its very useful actually i suck everything exept water
I buy this cyclon syatem for sure
Terence
I loved this vac so much that I bought two. I got this for $35 on Amazon and hooked it up to my newer vac. We have a dog that sheds, and that’s been the biggest improvement, but overall MUCH easier cleanup, holds bigger volume, same power, and makes a good vacuum great.