LAGUNA TOOLS P|Flux:3 Dust Collector

This unit is nice I would assume, but the filter will not go on and I have used a heat gun to slightly soften the rubber, a hydraulic jack to ease it in to position but not push it on so we don’t bend anything. I had a helper to line it all up and I have repaired jets and helicopters that have a lower level of difficulty then getting the filter on. The manual is not very intuitive either. The video on U tube is very helpful but when you get to the filter they just show it sliding on so that does not help. They did recommend bending it back and using a heat gun though to their credit. None of that works on my unit. When I get it on and can use this unit maybe I will be more impressed.Right now I would not recommend this unit though as the filter leaves a lot to be desired. The build quality over all is ok... but it looks really good. What pushed me towards Laguna as well was the innovative design of the bucket but apparently that stopped when it got to the filter LOL. All operatons in my shop have ceased due to this so I will try again tomorrow.My friend has the Oneida Gorilla Pro and was far easier to put together. I couldn’t afford that unit though and really was impressed with the stats for Laguna. Once I get the filter on and should it ever need to be changed or removed for anything I believe I will sell it and buy a different unit though before going through this again! LOL

I've been using this machine for a couple of years, now. It's overdue for a review. The first thing to know is that it pulls a lot of air. That's by far the best feature, especially since it has a HEPA filter! HEPA filters normally reduce CFM numbers by a large chunk, but this machine doesn't seem to notice the huge HEPA filter. How much air does it pull? I think the rating was 1600?CFM or something like that. You would need to look at the specs. It is strong enough to be the only dust collector in small to medium-sized shops, especially if you use normal blast-gated dust system plumbing. I'm using it to run a full-sized CNC machine w/CNC lathe, bandsaw, table saw, and other shop tools with no gates at all. Our space isn't even plumbed for dust control. Instead, I have big ugly flex hoses running around our shop under or over the various obstacles crammed into the small space. Having a total of 75 feet of spiral hoses that are "always-on" should also be reducing the airflow a lot. Amazingly, it doesn't.I can tell you this beast immediately helped my lungs and sinuses. I had trouble breathing by the end of the day before buying the P|Flux:3. Having a massive 3HP motor makes it "strong like a bull." However, be warned that it sucks a lot of electrical current during the initial startup. You may need to replace your breakers with some that are slower to trigger. I'll explain.The massive current pull is why I had the opportunity to utilize (and rate) their tech support. In our case, they went above and beyond reasonable assistance. They helped us out even though the machine had been sitting in the crate for over a year using up the warranty. (Our own fault for ordering before we had the space set up.) When we first set the P|Flux:3 up (nightmare manual - YouTube solved that) and turned it on, the 30A breaker popped after a short delay of about 15-20 sec. We did it several more times, to make sure it was consistent. Then, I put a high current meter on it. I found the motor was drawing about 120A for over 15 sec, which tripped the 30A breaker 99% of the time. When it finally got past the big current spike, the machine was still pulling a constant 27A. It's supposed to easily run on a 30A circuit. That 27A is too close to the breaker rating to be intentional. Even the internal wiring of the dust collector was only 10 AWG which told me they expected it to be running below 30A.FYI: Current always spikes on motors during the first seconds of startup. Engineers just use large capacitors to offset the spike for those few seconds. I had expected a spike, but not one that high or that long. The 15+ seconds, in particular, was far too long. The 10 AWG wiring even started to heat up.So, I emailed support (you can't re-read a phone call) explaining how I tested the current and giving them the current draw measurements + duration. Their engineer said the motor was definitely not working as designed and asked if I was comfortable replacing it if they sent me a new motor. I had no problem with that, so they shipped it that day. That saved a lot of time since it arrived in two days. Except for manipulating the bulk and weight of the motor (see TIP below), it was pretty simple to replace. Unscrew some screws, disconnect color-coded wires, swap motors, connect identical color-coded wires, and put the screws back in.If you ever need to replace the motor alone without laying the fully-assembled machine on its side, here is a helpful TIP:I recommend having a couple or three strong fishing magnets, with ropes, and pulleys. These magnets aren't meant to support the full weight of the motor (they might but are too dangerous to risk IMHO). The magnets on ropes can be attached to the opposite sides of the motor to help manipulate it during removal and replacement. (WARNING: The magnets themselves are very dangerous and should only be placed well apart from one another. Read up on powerful magnet safety or you may lose a finger.) Why go to all this trouble? There simply aren't any good places to grab this motor for muscling it into place safely. I'm lucky because I just raised myself and the new motor with a scissor lift platform to the top of the machine. But the magnets and pulleys helped with the positioning, once I was up there with the motor on top of the machine. I pulled on one rope or the other to pull the motor around on the top of the machine. I moved one rope at a time, then tied it off to move the other rope. It went quicker than it sounds and saved my back.When it was assembled, we turned it on. The new motor "only" pulled 100A during startup, but most importantly, it dropped down to 17A in under 2 seconds instead of the 15+ seconds at 120A dropping to 27A with the original motor. That's a huge difference! Best of all, it stayed on. No circuit breaker pop at all.So for us, the rating on support is that Laguna went above and beyond to help us with the bad motor even though we wasted the warranty before we opened the machine crate. Another company might not have been so kind, since the expired warranty was seriously our own fault.We've happily been using our P|Flux:3 with the new motor ever since. On really hot days (we live in the Nevada desert) it occasionally pops the circuit breaker, but we never replaced the breaker after the first motor kept blowing it. So, a new undamaged breaker would likely fix even that.As others have said, I did notice it getting more difficult to press the buttons on the remote, then I saw there was a plastic film of some sort over the whole face. As it aged, it yellowed and became harder. Peeling that off (carefully) made the remote easier to operate.Regarding the manual, the photos of parts are not all taken at the same scale. So, some parts seem to be smaller than they actually are and some seem bigger. Other parts were obviously replaced with newer versions without updating the photos. The photos don't help much at all. In some, the image is so distorted that you can't tell which part is shown. Somehow, it all looks very amateurish in addition to being very confusing. My suggestion is to view a couple of videos on YouTube then play/pause your way through the assembly process step-by-step. Just ignore the manual.Overall, I like this machine a lot. It's a serious and capable piece of shop equipment. It even looks sexy. I realize it's probably way overkill for our use, but I'm a big fan of overkill. It reduced the dust in the air a lot. Now, we mainly get a little dust on surfaces from using handheld power tools. I don't bother connecting those to the big dust collector. For the price and power plus the HEPA filter, this thing is a great value. It's a big machine, though. So learn from our mistakes and make space for this machine BEFORE you order it. I can recommend this machine based on the excellent air movement at a reasonable price. Think of the HEPA filter as a premium enhancement you get included for free. The remote switch is handier than I anticipated, too. More importantly, Laguna stood behind the product when we had a problem. Fantastic job, Laguna. Now, hire somebody to redo that assembly manual. Use a pro photographer and hire a technical writer, we beg you.-----Thanks for reading!-Bill-----* If you found any of this information helpful, please let me know by clicking "Helpful" below.-----

First off the assembly is a bear. Download and review the manual - the picture are not always clear - and right down to the collection - its a bunch of sheet metal, and a ton of screws.Second maintenance - the filter cylinder fills quickly - especially when it comes to drum sanding. If you clean the cylinder less than every time you empty the drum, your degrading your performance. And it is a a giant pain in the backside to hold a giant cylinder in place while you try and cinch the top clamp in place. Might be tolerable if you have a second person around, and an aggravating experience every time you have to do it.After a year of use - there is no single thing that dissuades me from putting time in the shop more than the looming consequence of cleaning this filter.The remote is not water proof, and you will surely leave it in your shorts for a laundry run - that would be a good feature request.Overall the suction and performance has been good, generally I think laguna makes well engineered and attractive products, my shop is full of them - I just can't recommend this one.

The Harvey Gyro is $4K. That is my next one. However let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This Laguna P3 Flux 3 HP 220v is an awesome “Live in the now” shop powered tool. It’s big, it’s a piece of “Pro-Shop Artwork” in what it does for the look of my shop. I loved the over-current protected motor allowing more flexible shop sharing of limited service panel expansion capability. The remote works from another room. The half moon room. Honestly I have not piped the shop system yet. My system is over sized for my temporary shop but every dust creating monster connected to it is super clean after use so it’s easy clean up.It’s a great investment with instant value recognition.06-13-20 update to prior review. I still enjoy this P Flux 3 a lot. I’m having an issue with the handheld remote as it only shuts off the machine. It does not start it all of a sudden. I will call Laguna. Also if you buy one the initial install of the large heppa filter is not easy. I opened the lip on the top, added a bit of lube to the machine lip and used a small floor jack and some plywood to press it on. That was unexpectedly hard but it won’t fall off at highway speeds.