I couldn’t imagine having 3 shop vacs running at once - well I can
Project Farm did a shop vac review. The Bauer from Harbor Freight overperformed. All my shop vacs are Rigid. The larger ones are not quite as noisy. The small Rigid one I collect my table saw guard with is a screaming banshee
.
You can split hairs on stats but for hand tools I think any decent dust extractor would be more than you need. My Festool works fine for everything I do with it. An extractor certainly makes the experience a lot nicer just for the noise reduction! I wish they weren’t so expensive I‘d have one dedicated to my 6/12 sander and my little 12” bandsaw.
Yes, noise is a game changer. That is why I love my Fein Turbo II. Using my 3M ROS, I don't need my muffs. And yes, of the quality extractors, ( Festool, Mirka, Makita, Bosch, Fein, 3M) there is not a huge amount of difference. The 3M does still top the list a little over the Festool, but the Fein is not far behind and less than half the price IF the specifications are not BS. So it really is more of which brand is your favorite. Festool has a lot of fanboys to their credit due to darn good tools. I tend to be a Makita fan but pick individual tools entirely on performance if I can pay the price.
I got a Centek kit so I have adapters for my Bosch, 3M, Makita, and mouse sanders with excellent results. Works OK on my Makita and Ridgid routers. I need to try it on my benchtop disk and belt sanders. They have 2 1/2 ports and restricted flow so it may work far better than running to the big CV. It would simplify my CV ducting, but maybe I should do a 3 inch PVC system for the vacuum. I much prefer a vacuum for cleaning the floor over a floor sweep. Floor sweeps can't get the dust that settled under machines on the other side of the shop!
Reviewing the FAQs on ClearVue, they mention with miter saws, the design is so terrible the only solution is both a high lift on the port and a hood going to a big high volume system. I was slowly coming to that conclusion.
We still come down to incompetent design in the first place. Fine for job-site carpentry as all you need to do is not make a mess, but the Kapex is marketed as a woodworking tool and not so much as a portable carpentry tool. When I say incompetent design, just run your finger inside the port and feel the sharp square edges. I smoothed mine out and it increased the flow. With molded parts, there is no excuse. The port should be more like 2 inches. 2 M/s is barely going to pick up dust that hits the rubber boot. There may be something to do inside the upper shell to pull more from the back half of the blade than the front. At the Festool price-point, I should not be having to rethink their design! The sealed trough below the ZCI is as stupid as it gets. It should either be open so you can clean below, ducted for collection. or at least latched in for no-tools. I have had thin slivers drop in already requiring tools to take the insert out and clean. Incompetent. The saw does cut netter than my Ridgid so I'll give it that. Otherwise, it would have gone back.
I tested the lift of the CV as installed, gates closed, lift is 4 inches of water. Seems low as I was expecting more like 8, so I'll tape up the blast gates and see if that is where the leaks are. Everything else is taped up. I knew it was low as with all ports closed, it does not collapse my 6 in inch corrugated duct section. I do need to get one of the relief valves from Stockroom Supply for my Fein/cyclone as I did collapse my bucket once.
When looking at shop vacs and some of the testing, you need to look at specific models. To say HF is better than Ridgid, OK, he does very good testing, but which HF, which Ridgid. There is a huge difference between models in a line. Bauer 2252E-B16 seems to be their biggest, current spec about the same as the Ridgid 1800 and $20 cheaper. Probably a decent deal IF you could get a HEPA filter and bag conversion. I did not see one. Bauer lists NO performance specifications. The Ridgid does have a 2 1/2 exit port so you could fit a WYNN canister on the exhaust. If you can't filter .5 or less microns, it is useless.
PS: If you think a modern Ridgid vac is noisy, give a 30 year old Craftsman a run!
It is better than the Ridgid I had. 
