Shop Vac's again

NEKS · Sep 14, 2016

Read on here before about what one is the best and it was all over the board. Have a 16 gallon Craftman and probably put lest then two hours on it in three years and it quite. Should I take another chance on the same brand or try another.

FBH44 · Sep 14, 2016

I hate the danged things. Seems like they are designed; "Let's see, how LOUD can we make this thing? Oh yeah, make it so it tips over just by looking at it! And put some sort of big ball valve in there so it quits working if you pick it up. And make the tube plug up if a feather goes thru it."

Leroy · Sep 14, 2016

Have a 15 gallon not sure of make and used very little, just way to big. Used to have a 5 gallon till gave out, still way to big. I curenyly have 2 Craftsman 2 gallon sizes and very well satified with them and now they are several years old. They are small enough to handle where ever I need them. One was bought for house and the other for outside.

Kansas4010 · Sep 14, 2016

I have a 5 gallon Ridgid that works fine but the nicest one I have is a Stihl 5 gallon. It is powerful and quiet, or at least as quiet as a vacuum cleaner can be. I bought it from a dealer that quit selling Stihl so they had it marked way down otherwise I never would have paid that much for a shop vac.

Mike M · Sep 14, 2016

I got a LARGE ridged for a gift. It has a removable motor to use as a blower too. Been a good machine. Only thing I don't like is it takes up a lot of floor space.

Bruce from Can. · Sep 14, 2016

Ok don't start to throw things at me . I have a Kubota shop vac, I won it in a door draw , at a Dairy meeting . Lord only knows who builds them but, it seems to work pretty good. Bruce

dcarp · Sep 14, 2016

I had a Craftsman for many years till I could no longer get filters for it. Now I have a Shop Vac, that seems to work well, had it about 5 yrs now.

SweetFeet · Sep 14, 2016

We've been pleased with Shop Vac.

Had a huge one... worked great, but a pain in the neck because it was so large and heavy. We gave it to our church during a construction project - not sure if they still have it or if they sold it.

Husband bought a small portable Shop Vac... works well and we use it more frequently because it's smaller and very light. Though this small size would not be good in all applications... probably want a big one for cleaning shop floors or if you do lots of woodworking. But the little one is great for cleaning out tractor cabs, vehicles, cleaning off your work bench, cleaning our gas grill, etc.

fixerupper · Sep 14, 2016

I have a 15 or 16 gallon 15 year old Craftsman. I too think they tried to win a noise contest with it. The base is light plastic and the top has a heavy motor on it so guess how many times it has tipped over! The hose is nothing to write home about either. But I didn't pay much for it either so this is another case of "you get what you pay for". Earlier this summer after I used it to suck out the planter boxes I was darned near deaf.

Donald Lehman · Sep 14, 2016

Have to agree with you on most points. I couldn't care less on how loud they are, but the stupid things are always tipping over about every time you tug on the hose, (or the danged hose pops out of the unit). As you say a feather or a couple of leaves will nearly always plug the stinking things. Doesn't take much of a piece of drywall paper to plug one either. Seems to me a smooth inner vacuum hose surface would work a lot better than the accordion type.

CGID · Sep 14, 2016

Since I've got tinnitus - my ears ring all the time - I'm hear to tell you to check the spec's and buy a quiet one. I wouldn't want anyone to put up with constant noise in their head. And buy one compatible with a HEPA filter. A vac with an ordinary filter exhausts air loaded with nothing but the tiniest, most harmful particles. And a quiet one will encourage you to use it more; your shop will stay cleaner. I've got a Fein. They are expensive and come with an industrial strength motor that turns on ball bearings. They are rated for continuous use. In terms of noise and filtering, they are safe to use.

rustyacres sd · Sep 14, 2016

I have 2 shop vacs. One really large one that I needed to suck corn through a corn cleaner/transfer unit and a smaller one. Both have worked good and still going strong. I think you should be able to get filters and parts for many years. As far as noise, I think they all seem loud to me

Dick2 · Sep 14, 2016

I used two Rigids in my workshop. They were noisy but worked great without any trouble. Mostly they were used for sawdust collection. I wanted those because the filters that they used were not banded; they were actually a little floppy, which made it easy to rock the filters back and forth to shake out the sawdust. Craftsmen have a banded filter that makes it a whole lot more difficult to shake out the sawdust.

Angle Iron · Sep 14, 2016

(quoted from post at 05:39:34 09/14/16) Read on here before about what one is the best and it was all over the board. Have a 16 gallon Craftman and probably put lest then two hours on it in three years and it quite. Should I take another chance on the same brand or try another.

f you have a Home Depot store near look at their Rigid line. I picked one up from them for several reasons. They have a primary and secondary filter system that works great for very fine dust. Ever try to vacuum up sheet rock dust power, for one it clogs most filters almost instantly. The next thing that happens is when you shake it to clear the filter and turn it on again it will put out a puff of very fine dust. The rigid depending on the model has a primary filter capability which is a bag that fits over the inlet opening in side the canister. This catches 99.9% of incoming material. I have been through 3 primary bags and never had any thing other than a slight dust in the bottom. Still on the main filter that fits like the normal filter, never had yo do anything with it. Very happy with its performance. It as many others is loud, I do not know how it compares to others in that respect. If it is bought through Home depot and registered with them after the sale it has a lifetime warranty. This is the same with all Rigid tools purchased through Home Depot. The registration was on line and pretty painless. Do not know how well they stand behind their warranty but have not seen any complaints either.

jeffcat · Sep 14, 2016

Just a short note. I have two ShopVac brand units. Both work very nicely for the cleaning I do. Here is what I have seen that people do to these machines and wonder why they blow up. The big round filter stuck on the bottom of the motor is to protect the motor! Not for cleaning! Check at your local box store and buy the throw away bags that go in the tank. The size I get is 15-20 gallon for my two big units. Saves the motors and they are happy. When you are done take out the bag and toss it. Put a new one in for next time.

Bill in IL · Sep 14, 2016

I don't think its much to do with the brand. None of them are really made to last. I would suggest to buy a 2 stage shop vac. They are about 150 on up on price but much quieter and have better static pressure (suction) but with lower volume of airflow. The lower volume of airflow they will not work as well if you need to use it as a mini dust collector but for cleaning the extra suction will make up for it.

I would second the filter bag idea. I used to fight the cartridge filters and the lack of suction from them constantly being plugged till I switched to bags. The bags last a long time and filter really well right up to the end when they are full.

Mike M · Sep 14, 2016

I did not know there was such a thing as a bag filter for shop vacs ? I'll have to check it out.

Case Nutty 1660 · Sep 14, 2016

I bought a RIGID works Great and I got it on a special sale at HomeDepot,, gave like 29 bucks for it 6.5 hp like all the other stuff this brand works great

Spook · Sep 14, 2016

I had a rigid that quit after a few weeks. I tried to get it serviced at the ridgid service guy, but he was not authorized to service shop vacs. He asked me to call corporate and get him certified, I tried, but I never got anywhere. After trying to fix a drill 3 times, I gave up on Ridgid anything. Their warranty is really worthless.

Case Nutty 1660 · Sep 14, 2016

Bummer sorry to hear that,, I have at least 10 Rigid items I use a lot and so far all good
cnt

Leroy · Sep 14, 2016

Use for dirt, without for water in wet or dry vac.

Ultradog MN · Sep 14, 2016

Shop vacs are an expendable tool - like cordless drills.
None of tbem last though I would expect to get better servive from one than that. I have had Craftsman, Genie, Tool Shop and Ridgid. None of them are inherently better than another. I've been buying Ridgid the last couple of times. Mainly because you can stop by any Home Depot and get a new filter for it.

gab · Sep 14, 2016

Twenty five years ago I drug a Craftsman 16 gallon 2 1/4 horse home from the dumpster at work. Somebody was sucking broken glass out of a door with no filter in it and seized up the plastic impeller. Took a few tries before I got things apart, cleaned up and shimmed but it still works like a new one. It's sucked up enough dry wall dust around here over the years to kill a half dozen new ones.

JD Seller · Sep 14, 2016

Check the switch. If it is one of those push button type I have had several of them quit working after a few uses. I replaced them with a toggle switch. I kept the rubber cover and just drilled a small hole for the toggle handle to stick up through.

jeffcat · Sep 14, 2016

Yes they are like $15.oo for three of them. Wet vac use is another story like others have said but for ordinary dirt you want one of the bags. Down at work they blow up a vac about every four months. NEVER do they order bags. Too much trouble.

Shop Vac's again

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