I posted this in Tool Talk, but i thought i might get more responses in this forum:
I’m looking to spend about $150 cdn on a new wet/dry vac, and i’ve heard that the ‘shop vac’ brand isn’t neccesarily the way to go. I’m more interested in power/suction than capacity – i’d rather have a powerful vac that i have to empty often than a great big beast that underperforms. Any brilliant reccomendations or else brands to beware of?
Jesse David
“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before,” Bokonon tells us. “He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.”
Edited 5/27/2005 5:24 pm ET by JesseDavid
Edited 5/27/2005 5:24 pm ET by JesseDavid
Replies
I have a Sears shop vac for 6 years that is loud as hell but will suck up anything. I think I paid a hundred bucks for it.
Coming to you from beautiful Richmond, Va.
I agree. There's few things Craftsman that I'd even consider owning, but their vacs are good. They are loud, but they have plenty of suction, and I've abused the daylights out of the 2 I have and just bought a 3rd. One finally started grinding after 12 years of sucking water, rocks, drywall, plaster, dirt, nails, . . .
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
I have a Craftsman 16 gallon, bought in 1983, on sale for $75. It has inhaled tons of broken plaster, drywall dust, nails, saw dust, planer shavings, cobwebs, and mud from the bottom of post holes.
The older it gets the noisier it gets ( never was quiet), you need to always wear ear plugs when you run it especially indoors, but it still sucks up everything in it's path. Have replaced the hose a few times, the extensions a few times ( doggone things wear down when you run them over concrete), but it's still going.
Jim
The old Craftsman shop vac was build by Emerson, who now sells it though Home Desperate as the Ridgid. Still loud, though you can get a muffler that really helps. Also has filter options now - up to HEPA, though they clog really fast if you are vacuuming a lot of fine stuff like sheet rock dust of have it hooked to a sander. I've been happy with mine.
Ditto on the Craftsman recommendation. While my shop is full of Milwaukee, Bosch and the like, when it comes to sucking up crap, its Crapsman for me. They should sell them with an attachment point for the ear muffs, because these things tend to give you that "inside a jet engine" feeling.
IMO the HEPA filters are an absolute must for shop and/or jobsite work. Without a HEPA filter the vacuum becomes a device for separating large particles from small, keeping the big ones, and diffusing the smallest -- and, from your lungs' point of view, most dangerous -- particles back into the air for further filtration by your lungs. If you're going to pull up saw dust, or dry wall dust, etc., you simply must use these filters, or wear a respirator.
I keep a Lowes whatever they're called, solely for non-wet pickup. Never using it to suck up wet or water. The Sears gets the water.
You start running wet thru the hose and it'll gather mud in the crevices of the hose unless you rinse after every use and who wants that hassel.
be hosed
Go with the Ridgid. The main difference between them and Craftsman is warranty, Ridgid is lifetime. Pretty sure Emerson still make them both. The muffler thing that craftsman has can be enhanced by putting an old athletic sock over it. There two sources of noise on most shop vacs, discharge and motor. Not much you can do about motor part but just putting an extra hose on the blow side will muffle it a good bit. You can find a piece of pipe abs or pvc if you do not have any attachments that will fit and put the sock on it.
I have four or five Craftsman vacs and like my Ridgid best. Have used several Shop-vac brand ones and do not like them at all.
Yes, Emerson still makes the Craftsman vac. Saw a recall notice the other day that said Emerson is recalling Craftsmans modle xxx vac.And AFAIK they still make the Ridgit ones also.
Ridgid 16 gallon, with the big rear wheels to help roll it around.
Sears brand is no slouch either except they're godawful loud. Had a sears brand for about 12 yrs, finally stb and got the ridgid. With the bigger rear wheels it is so much easier to move around.
And it sucks big time!
Rod
I am a huge fan of my crapsman shop vac too, and it has the detachable blower feature.
The clean stream filters are really great too....
A word of advice though, if you vacuum up water and then plaster dust, you will get concrete on the filter...
I do wish they made a prefilter for them , it is a pain in the butt to constantly dissasemble and shake out filters.
If you buy a Sears (my 1989 200 cfm is still running strong and loudly), have the patience to wait for it to go on sale, and they alway have one or two models on sale. Strangely, the clerks in our local store will tell you, up to a month in advence, which models will go on sale next. I actually use ours with a power-head attachment for carpets.
I guess nearly everyone who uses either the Rigid or the Sears buy the Clear Stream filters. By observation, once you've tried a high-quality set of ear-muff style hearing protectors, that's all you'll use - this is the time to go out and buy the good ones you a;ways wanted.
A friend just bought a Lee Valley hose and nozzle for his fairly new Rigid - pretty good stuff, as is the Rigid vac.
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Get a Cleanstream filter for your vacuum. They're HEPA and they don't clog easily. They're made from Goretex so when they're full of dust you can tap them and the dust slides off. You can wash them too.
Expensive but much cheaper than buying lots of filters. Your motor will last longer when it's not trying to pull air through a clogged filter.
http://www.cleanstream.com/
http://www.cleanstream.com/filters_wetdry.html
Billy
Thanks for your recommendations. Seem like people are pretty pleased with their craftsman and ridgid vacs. Are the ridgids any quiter than the craftsman? Is there much difference in quality/suction between the regular craftman and the craftsman 'professional' models?
Jesse David
"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before," Bokonon tells us. "He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way."
Just wanted to add that I have had good luck using a bag rather than letting the dust go into the body of the vac. It seems to hold more material and is much easier to empty. also I have a shop vac brand, I have no problems with it and it makes much less noise than my dads craftsman and my neigbors rigid, all three machines mentioned about a year old so I can't speak of durability, but they all seem to suck equally.
I was happy with my Crapsman, right up until the day it made a really horrible noise that could be heard over its normal above-the-threshold-of-pain howl, and subsequently died. Because my shop at the time was small, I decided to replace it with something quieter, so I went with the 16 gal ShopVac. I've been very happy with it over the past 5 years, and when it buys it, I think I'll continue with the ShopVac.
One other thing...filters. One of the big turn-offs (other than noise) with the Crapsman was those &%$*! expensive pleated paper filters that I had to replace on a regular basis. The ShopVac has the large round fabric filter the wraps over the foam covering the motor suction inlet on the inside. I've found this filter to be very effective in keeping the small stuff out of the engine. Heck, even when I forgot to put in my HEPA bag and sucked up drywall dust, this filter fabric seems to have stopped that fine drywall dust from going into the engine...although the suction power drops off pretty fast as it clogs. But taking the top off, sliding off the holding ring and taking the filter fabric outside and shaking it out is a whole lot cheaper than buying another paper filter cartridge.
BruceM
JesseDavid - I just went through this search (3 time loser on shop vacs) and bought the Fein (looks like R2 D2) for 230$ (websearch, free shipping 25$ promotion) and I couldn't be happier with it. It is head and shoulders above any vac I have owned. You can suck dust "on and on and on" without putting dust in the air or needing to clean out the filter often.
I am telling you that if you spend 80 more you will forget how much more it was the first week. (that automatic on trigger switch is handy too)
The guys on BT generally steered toward this one and they were right!
I had one of those Crapsman twin engine screamers. Bought it new in 1975, couldn't kill the damn thing.
Hated the noise so much I gave it away-wish I had it back.
Joe H