Chips, fines & air · review
The professional L-class vacuum with semi-automatic filter cleaning — the feature that stops suction fading halfway through a job.
The bottom line Excellent at what it is. Read the class letter before deciding it is what you need.
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.
1 200 W, dust class L, SFC+ semi-automatic filter cleaning, part number 06019C3000.
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.
Bosch states the class here, which is more than most listings do — and it is an L, which is the honest thing to know before spending €480.
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.
One reference and one EAN across all six markets: €480 in Germany, €518 in France, €525 in Spain, €539 in Italy, €839 in Britain. No current price on amazon.com.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 2026-08-12. The live price is at the top of the page.
| Motor | 1 200 W |
|---|---|
| Dust class | L |
| Filter cleaning | SFC+ semi-automatic |
| Part number | 06019C3000 |
| Amazon reference | B00D1ULH0I (identical on 6 markets) |
| EAN | 3165140705448 |
A pleated filter clogs as it works, and airflow falls steadily — often by half within an hour of sanding, without the noise changing at all. A cleaning mechanism knocks the cake off the pleats periodically, so the last cut extracts as well as the first. On a machine used daily it is the difference between a rated figure and a real one.
If you work hardwood in an enclosed space, seriously consider it — the Metabo on this page is the M-class equivalent. If your work is softwood, site work, and general cleanup, L is a reasonable class and this is an excellent machine within it.
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 €
Dust class M · automatic filter cleaning
The M-class machine on this page — ten times less fine dust returned to the room, which for hardwood is the whole argument.
Best for: Hardwood work in an enclosed workshop, where the fine fraction is the point
≈ £620 / 580 €
