I bought mine about 3 years ago and have been very happy with it.
Assembly went well, except it was missing a square rubber gasket at the top of the blower housing. I called the distributor, and a new one arrived within a few days. I ran 6" duct work throughout my shop, with 4" drops to my tools. The blower provides plenty of suction for all my needs. I also installed a trash can pre-separator for my planer, since it would fill the bags really fast otherwise.
One problem, and the reason for only 4 stars, is that the inlet to the blower housing came installed with a sheet metal cross to (apparently) reinforce the opening. Larger shavings can easily get trapped there, and quickly plug the inlet. I took some tin snips and removed the sheet metal cross, and have not had it plug up since (in 3 years of use).
I highly recommend you also buy Grizzly's H5397 remote control at the same time. It's designed to work with 220, and comes with TWO remotes (not just one, like most other remote controls). I keep one on my bench, and other clipped to my shop apron. The remotes come with clip, for just that purpose. Shop Fox W1666 2 HP 1550 CFM Dust Collector
I picked up the Shop Fox dust collector for $199 on sale and it was a steal at that price. It is very powerful and meets all the needs of a small woodworking shop. I replaced the standard 30 micron bags with 2.5 micron bags and added a cyclonic trash collector before it hits the impeller. I also added a radio controlled switch so that I just press a button on a fob like you have for your car alarm. That starts and stops the system from across the shop.
There are other great collectors out there but you have to pay some big dinero for them. This machine reprresents the right combination of value, durability, reliability, and performance. With a little customization and tweaking, you won't find a better deal for a small shop.
This is my first dust collector and I did a lot of research before purchasing it. It has performed wonderfully thus far. It is fairly quiet and has an incredible amount of power. I have not hooked it up to multiple machines yet but I am confident that it will do a great job. The only flaw I see in it is that the lower dust collection bag is made of cloth and must be emptied rather than a disposable plastic bag on bottom like some of the more expensive Delta models. I can empty the bag for this price though. I recommend getting a remote start which is unbelievably useful when you are ready to go at the table saw and realize you didn't turn the dust collector on.
After 10 months the motor started making nose like a baring was going out. I called the number for warranty and low and behold an English speaking American answered the phone. I simply explained to him my problem and with no hassle he shipped me a new motor UPS in 2 days. You just don't get customer service like this every day. From now on all my shop tools will be Shop Fox.
I had initially intended to get the smaller W1685 model which uses a standard 110v connector but bought the W1666 not realizing it used a NEMA6-15 220V connector. So if you get the W1666, make sure you have the right power available for it.
It seems like a nice machine. Two concerns were that the holes did not lineup to fasten down the actual fan portion of the unit, so I had to drill new holes in the right spot. Also the six inch imput splits into two 4 inch imputs, one of which was cracked slightly when I unpacked it.
We ordered the Grizzly cyclone dust collector because the company promised delivery in time for a deadline we had. The unit arrived late and was missing vital components. Not that a box or two was not delivered but that boxes were packed missing components. i.e. All the gaskets were missing, some connectors and sheet metal components of the cyclone.
Customer service informed us that they only had some of the parts, not all, and that they would ship them to us and would charge us $160 for shipping.
I immediately asked for a supervisor! the Grizzly operators refused. It must be policy not to put on a supervisor? I tried to reach a supervisor on several more calls. Finally frustrated I left a message with an operator that Grizzly must ship the missing parts immediately free of additional charge or reverse the order and pick up their useless machine.
Five days later I received a call back from a Grizzly supervisor offering to ship some not all of the parts (they apparently do not have complete replacement parts, and for some reason beyond my comprehension did not think it was reasonable to send the part from another machine they have in inventory). The woman was extremely righteous and rude. Expecting us to pay for an incomplete machine and wait for an indeterminate time to get it working???
It is unfortunate but Grizzly's unethical behavior and utter lack of customer service left us no choice but to declare fraud and have our credit card company reverse the charges.
I would NEVER deal with this company again, and would strongly recommend to others not to as well. If you are going to sell cheap Asian equipment you had better have excellent customer service. - Dust - Dust Collectors - Dust Collection - Woodworking'
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