WEN Woodworking Dust Collector, 5.7-Amp Motor with 12-Gallon Bag, Mobile Base, and Optional Wall Mount (DC3401)

I’ve used this dust collector for just over 3 years now. I’ve put hundreds of hours use on it and just today I had to replace the carbon brushes because they had finally worn out. The brushes only cost $5.85 for a set of 2 and the replacement was easy and only took 5 minutes to get it back up and running.

i purchased this unit as pre-boost for a large 8x76 jointer on green/wet lumber about 4ft past the machine and 15 ft from the shop intake port that keeps clogging up on my 1700cfm vacuum system. No more clog's .i did remove the intake screen since that problem showed up at the intake port of the shop system. i was concerned it wouldn't work in this application. it works great got to remember to turn it on!

Seems to work well so far, hooked up to a router table and dust bin

I purchased after getting tired of sweeping up dust and wood shavings as part of my various woodworking product. While not wanting to spend several hundred dollars on a much larger system, I found this one reasonable priced and meets the job for my needs. After a couple of months of ongoing use, the system continues to operate well. Time will tell if the cloth collection bag holds up. One recommendation would be to purchase a spring type clamp for both the hose intake and bag attachment pipes as wire clips that was part of the package, while they work are somewhat cumbersome to use. Spring clamps make it much easier to remove and reinstall.

This is a pretty good budget collector, an I was expecting budget quality going into it, but in the end there are some issues that the manufacturer needs to address to make it competitive and more worthwhile. First, the protective screen between the intake and impeller clogged constantly when using a jointer or planer. One would assume this likely also applies to handheld power planets and other power tools that produce larger chips and shavings, which are primarily what you’d be buying a collector for in the first place. The waste material collects on the rough expanded metal screen because of its texture and shape. This could easily be fixed by using a different material for the screen that goes ant effectively coated with sandpaper.The second issue of a the collector bag. The zipper on the bottom of the bag is plastic and has trouble zipping from the factory. This difficulty zipping only compounds when unavoidable dust and chips after emptying gets caught in them. Mine took about two weeks before it just stopped zipping entirely. Collector bags, however, are pretty cheap, so o just bought a new one which was also able to filter down to 5 microns. I shouldn’t have had to do this though and the bag should have been engineered better to be more durable.Given the chance, I would not buy again and just went for the mid to high end brands from the start. I would say this is more suited for hobby woodworker who are really only building personal projects from time to time, as opposed to a hobby or professional woodworker who does any sort of production work or heavy milling of materials; the quality and durability just isn’t there for production work.Finally, repair parts seem to be a crapshoot. I was able to get a replacement impeller when mine broke (as noted above, the screen clogs easily, so I had to remove it) directly from Wen. However, Wen seems to be the only source for repair parts—they don’t seem to sell parts to retailers—so when it came time to replace it a second time because of the same root cause (poor quality screen that clogs too easily) and the part was out of stock, I couldn’t fix the collector. This was the point I decided to just buy a completely new unit and transition this one to a backup or just dedicate it to my table saw.

The media could not be loaded. Summary: Not too loud, suctions well when used with one tool and no splitter (watch out for long shaving from a planer - it will clog), but I would replace the bag with a higher quality one.Full review: I purchased this dust collector for my small planer. The shavings that come out of the planer, even such a small unit, is no match for my small shop vac. I was only interested in the models with an induction motor (quieter and more power), but a smaller unit (wall mount/4 in inlet) since the outlets in my garage won't handle a larger unit.The Wen dust collector is well packaged with strategically placed Styrofoams. It's not loud but sounds similar to my small shop vac, and quieter than the planer - see decibel readings for relative comparison. I was able to run my planer and Wen dust collector together from the extension reel (rated 13A), most of the time, so 7.4A rating must be the maximum amp of this motor. The Wen dust collector keeps up with the planer - no clogging, though I only run hardwoods that produce smaller chips than softwoods. Originally, I put the unit on the wall, but I built a mobile base that holds both the planer and Wen dust collector. Also, be careful with the handle - it attaches to the sheet metal which flexes a lot.The only concern is that the dust bag - which puffs out the dust that visible under the flashlight. I thought the bag will eventually accumulate enough fine saw dust inside to "clog" the pores ("seasoned") to minimize the dust release. But, so far - the bag is at least 1/3 filled, I still see dust is coming out from the bag. As the dust fills up the bag, the filter area decreases so it may be forcing the air out of top section of the bag and may be contributing to some dust release. This is the major limitation of this style of dust collector with a collection bag that also acts as a air filter - more dust accumulates in the bag, less filtration/air flow. While some dust escaping is ok as long as I can open the garage door, but I plan to replace the dust bag with a filter. This is my initial impression of this unit, and overall, I am happy that I don't have to sweep the piles of shavings any more.Update (Oct 2023): I purchased a canister filter for my Wen dust collector. With a MDF adapter, the filter fits ok onto the outlet of Wen unit. I also tried the Wen unit with a DustRight 5 micron bag, and I could not see any fine dust coming out, unlike the Wen bag. While both bags are rated at 5 micron filtration, the DustRight bag has thicker bag material compare to the Wen bag. I compared the db level with the DustRight dust collector (rated also at 650CFM), and the Wen unit is quieter (72 db vs 77 db for the DustRight dust collector).

This dust collector is amazing. Super quiet and amazingly powerful. The price is very reasonable for its quiet performance. Perfect for single performance requirements or get a spit adapter with separate hoses. Unlike the other dust collectors that sound like freight train in your garage, this little guy out performs collectors twice it size.