Bosch Professional GAS 35 L SFC+ review

Every figure is a manufacturer specification, read off the listing itself, and the judgments 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.

What the specification says

1,200 W, dust class L, SFC+ semi-automatic filter cleaning, part number 06019C3000.

Dust class L or M — the letter that matters

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.

Two machines, not one

A chip collector moves a large volume of air at low pressure. It suits a 100 mm (3.94 in) 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 (1.38 in) 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.

Availability

Catalogued and unsold: the American Amazon shop lists the reference with nobody behind it.

Read from Keepa on the day this page was last revised; stock and price both move without notice.