Thread: Shop Vac quest

Can anyone recommend me a good reliable shop vac for my small workshop.

I have a huge Delta dust collector with a 4" hose and all kinds of attachments that fit my power tools and that works really great. But each time I'm done working and need to clean the place it's becoming a bit of a pain to do this with one of my dust-right accessories for my dust collector.

Lowes has a nice sale on a Shop-Vac contractor model in steel but have no clue if it's worth anything. It says 6.5 HP and has a 16 gallon tank but those HP numbers are usually the peak numbers. I don't really care so much for the blowing part and the wet won't really be used that often unless there's a huge water leak. It's purpose and use will be mostly to clean and suck all the dirt, dust and other debris in the workshop.

I was looking at Fein and Festool since those seem to be favored by many woodworkers. Unfortunately they don't come cheap. Home depot and Sears also have their brand, some rebranded I guess and there's several other branded shop vacs on the market.

Anyway, if anyone has a good or bad experience with his shop vac and can recommend one I'll be forever grateful

I have a large Fein. I have not tried fes'/

The best thing about them is the quiet run ; tool switch is pretty cool too. Their filters are a neat feature as well.

Though basically it works about the same as any other shop-vac

I own both a fein and a shopvac the fein is a great vacuum. I have used a festool vacuum at school and while working for other people. If you are going to use it is a vacuum only I would get either the fein or festool. If you are going to use one of the sander/vacuum combos I would go with the festool, it has a better sander. A collegue of mine has a dewalt vaccum that runs quietly and strong, it is nice for the money.

Charlie

I have a Hitachi vac that I have had for about 10 years. It is quiet, powerful and well made. As I recall, it was a bit less expensive than the comparable Fein but still not cheap. Compared to a couple of lower end shop vacs I have had, well, there's really no comparison. If nothing else the better vacs don't deafen you while they do their job.

Try a Ridgid! They make solid products!
Wet / Dry Vacs - RIDGID Professional Tools

I think Ridgid makes the best shop vacs.

Max- I used a shop vac that I hated for a while. THen when it came time for a new one I researched and finally bought this:

Craftsman Clean N Carry® 4 gal. Wet-Dry Vac, 5.0 Peak hp - Model 17776 at Sears.com

It's a sears model. Very small cause all I pick up really is dust, etc. The bigger they are, the more of a pain in the ass when you are moving it around the shop. The HP is great- lots of suction. I have also learned that there is no "suction" standard or rating that everyone uses. Some vacs with high HP will not have as great suction as others with low HP. I say forget the expensive ones in this case when you already have a dust collector hooked up to everything. I got mine for $60 on sale. It comes with a 1 7/8" hose which is odd, but I just use a 2.5" hose on it (works better I find).

I have a craftsman and it has served me well for over ten years. It is however noisey. But the filters are easy to get and not too $$.

Don

I agree on the ridgid . Have never had a problem with mine.
And sometimes you can find them onsale at the home depot
for like 29 dollers

Supposedly you can get a muffler to dampen the sound on at least Craftsman vacs (I assume all are compatible). I've just lived with the sound, I don't mind it that much especially since I have other, louder tools lol.