The Dust Cobra is a portable dust collector with good power and great filtration. The cyclone combines with a HEPA filter to contain at least 99.97% of the dust it collects down to 0.3 micron size. That’s what it takes to help keep the dust in your shop at a healthy low level.

It’s small (around 2 ft. square and 4 ft. tall) and quiet (measuring 75 db at 10 ft. away and a respectable 80 db at 5 ft.) but packs apunch. Its powerful 110-volt motor draws about 11 amps after startup and creates an average flow of about 170 cubic feet per minute (cfm) at the end of a 2-1/2-in.-dia., 25-ft.-long hose—that’s two to three times the flow of a standard shop vacuum. I was curious to see how the Dust Cobra would do when connected to a 4-in. port and a serious woodworking machine. It pulled 215 cfm, enough to clear chips effectively from a 13-in. benchtop planer.

The Cobra also features a pulse cleaner that removes fine dust from the filter, which helps to maintain efficiency. In our tests with a clogged filter, the pulse cleaner restored it to well above 90% of the original performance. The Dust Cobra was not designed to be the central collector at the heart of a large shop with stationary machines, like cabinet saws and large jointers. But it is a great performer for shops with smaller machines that can be hooked up individually, such as benchtop tablesaws, jointers, and sanders.

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