On Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 9:43:51 AM UTC-4, notbob wrote:
On 2015-07-16, Hecho en China wrote:

Shop vacuum replacement filter prices might be a concern.

BINGO!! We have a winner.

Not necessarily.


Yes. Buy whichever vac is still around. Or, at least a vac that can
use parts of another brand that still exists.

I bought a cheapo vac a couple yrs back. That brand no longer
exists. Where can I find parts? IOW, I'm faced with buying a new vac
or finding parts from another brand that will fit.

Option 3: Make the other parts fit.

I ran into a similar issue with an old Craftsman W/D vac a few years ago. My local Sears didn't carry my filters in-store and I needed one that weekend. They had a few filters from another model on their clearance rack, but they were bigger than the ones for my model (more surface area is a good thing, right?) However, they were really cheap, like all 3 for less than the price of 1 of mine.

I bought all three, then went home and cut off the plastic threaded rod that the original filter screwed onto and screwed in a long piece of 1/4" threaded rod that I had in the shop. A few more minor modifications and the new filters fit just right. I used 2.5 of the 3 filters before my vac died so I definitely got my money (and efforts) worth out of the modification.


The vac I bought
still works fine, but I'd love to get new filters. The original is
becoming a tad worn. And, how much longer will that hose last? Get
my drift?


If filter availability (or pricing) is your only issue, a little bit of time in the shop might be a money saver in the long run.