Chips, fines & air · review
The M-class machine on this page — ten times less fine dust returned to the room, which for hardwood is the whole argument.
The bottom line The machine this site would buy. The class letter is the specification, and this is the one that has it.
Hands-on testing pending. Nothing below is presented as our own measurement. Every figure is a manufacturer specification, read off the listing itself, and the judgements are ours — drawn from how the specification behaves in this class of machine and from what long-term owners consistently report. Where a figure is missing, we say so rather than fill it in.
Dust class M, wet and dry, ACP automatic filter cleaning, part number 602058000.
European workshop vacuums carry a dust class. L lets through up to 1 % of the dust it collects; M lets through up to 0.1 %, ten times less. Both look identical and both say “dust extraction” on the box.
Wood dust is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the IARC, and the harmful fraction is the fine one that a filter either holds or does not. For hardwood in an enclosed workshop, M is the class to look for. An L-class machine is not useless — it collects chips perfectly well — but it returns ten times more of the fraction you cannot see to the room you are standing in.
This is the machine that sits on the right side of that paragraph, and it is the reason it leads the extraction hub rather than the cheaper Bosch.
No. We searched for the L-class version and the listing that came back is the M-class ASR 35 M ACP, part number 602058000. Given that the letter is the entire specification, that is a difference worth being precise about — and it happens to be the better machine.
A chip collector moves a large volume of air at low pressure. It suits a 100 mm port on a planer, a table saw or a band saw, where the waste is bulky and the duct is wide.
A workshop vacuum moves a small volume at high pressure. It suits a 32 or 35 mm hose on a sander, a router or a track saw, where the waste is fine and the port is narrow.
Swap them and each collects almost nothing, while sounding exactly as though it is working. It is the most expensive misunderstanding in the category, and no listing explains it.
€575 in Germany, €605 in France, €619 in Britain, €991 in Italy, €1 181 in Spain. Same reference, same barcode. On this machine, checking your own store is worth €600.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 2026-08-12. The live price is at the top of the page.
| Dust class | M |
|---|---|
| Type | Wet and dry, all-purpose |
| Filter cleaning | ACP automatic |
| Part number | 602058000 |
| Amazon reference | B00U92WPAM (identical on 6 markets) |
| EAN | 4007430250124 |
On the German prices, we think so for anyone sanding or sawing hardwood indoors. M lets through a tenth of what L does, and the difference is entirely in the fraction that stays airborne for hours and reaches the deepest part of the lung. It is the cheapest tenfold improvement available anywhere in a workshop.
No. It reduces what reaches the room, it does not eliminate it, and it does nothing about the dust a machine throws before the hose catches it. FFP3 while machining, M-class extraction at the port, and an ambient filter for what escapes both — they solve different parts of the same problem.
1 200 W · dust class L · semi-automatic filter clean
The professional L-class vacuum with semi-automatic filter cleaning — the feature that stops suction fading halfway through a job.
Best for: Site and workshop extraction where suction has to stay constant all day
≈ £840 / 480 €
Wet and dry · automatic start
A wet-and-dry workshop vacuum with tool-triggered start, at a third of the price of the professional machines here.
Best for: General workshop cleanup and light sanding extraction on a budget
≈ $450 / £255 / 155 €
2 × 18 V · 30 L stainless · Ø 36 mm hose · bare tool
A cordless wet and dry vacuum with a 30 litre stainless drum — the machine that goes to the dust rather than waiting for it.
Best for: Site and garage clean-up, and extraction at small tool ports away from a socket
≈ $490 / £155 / 165 €
