I'm about to buy a shop vac. I do a little woodworking, but I do not foresee
a time when I'd need a serious dust control system, which I understand some
vacs can become a part of. Mostly just basement dust, cobwebs, cleaning the
car & garage. The ex-wife got my 10 year old Sears 12-gallon unit, which
served me quite well. Are these still any good, or is there another brand
worth considering?

Most importantly: If you've owned one that you hated, I'd like to know about
it. :-)

I've had wonderful results from a Ridgid 16 gal wet/dry vac, great
volume/suction.

I will second the Rigid suggestion. On top of its good performance, it
is pretty quiet.

Dick Durbin

"Olebiker" wrote in message
oups.com...
I will second the Rigid suggestion. On top of its good performance, it
is pretty quiet.

Dick Durbin


Does it allow you to attach a hose to the exhaust, in case you don't want
the outbound air blowing around the dust you haven't gotten to yet?

Doug Kanter wrote:
I'm about to buy a shop vac. I do a little woodworking, but I do not foresee
a time when I'd need a serious dust control system, which I understand some
vacs can become a part of. Mostly just basement dust, cobwebs, cleaning the
car & garage. The ex-wife got my 10 year old Sears 12-gallon unit, which
served me quite well. Are these still any good, or is there another brand
worth considering?

Most importantly: If you've owned one that you hated, I'd like to know about
it. :-)

Many things to consider with canister vac I have learned two things.
1) Upgrade to best filter available (pleated Gor-Tex type) they filter
smaller and are easier to clean. 2) Always use disposable filter bag
for dry pickup. Vac will operate at higher efficiency for longer
period of time.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
I'm about to buy a shop vac. I do a little woodworking, but I do not
foresee a time when I'd need a serious dust control system, which I
understand some vacs can become a part of. Mostly just basement dust,
cobwebs, cleaning the car & garage. The ex-wife got my 10 year old Sears
12-gallon unit, which served me quite well. Are these still any good, or
is there another brand worth considering?

Most importantly: If you've owned one that you hated, I'd like to know
about it. :-)


Well I hate my Craftsman and most shop vacs of this type because of the
absurdly loud noise. If you can afford to want to spend a little more money
for a much better unit and MUCH QUIETER, 72 db, consider a FESTOOL vac.
They start out at $275 and go up to $480. 3 year warranty and 30 day money
back guarantee.

"Leon" wrote in message
om...

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
I'm about to buy a shop vac. I do a little woodworking, but I do not
foresee a time when I'd need a serious dust control system, which I
understand some vacs can become a part of. Mostly just basement dust,
cobwebs, cleaning the car & garage. The ex-wife got my 10 year old Sears
12-gallon unit, which served me quite well. Are these still any good, or
is there another brand worth considering?

Most importantly: If you've owned one that you hated, I'd like to know
about it. :-)


Well I hate my Craftsman and most shop vacs of this type because of the
absurdly loud noise. If you can afford to want to spend a little more
money for a much better unit and MUCH QUIETER, 72 db, consider a FESTOOL
vac. They start out at $275 and go up to $480. 3 year warranty and 30 day
money back guarantee.


Noted, but that's a bit much for my budget. I can use hearing protection
instead.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
I'm about to buy a shop vac. I do a little woodworking, but I do not
foresee a time when I'd need a serious dust control system, which I
understand some vacs can become a part of. Mostly just basement dust,
cobwebs, cleaning the car & garage. The ex-wife got my 10 year old Sears
12-gallon unit, which served me quite well. Are these still any good, or
is there another brand worth considering?

Most importantly: If you've owned one that you hated, I'd like to know
about it. :-)
If you don't need wet/dry, that is easy. The GUV. It is reasonably quiet,
very powerful, and easy to clean.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
I'm about to buy a shop vac. I do a little woodworking, but I do not
foresee a time when I'd need a serious dust control system, which I
understand some vacs can become a part of. Mostly just basement dust,
cobwebs, cleaning the car & garage. The ex-wife got my 10 year old Sears
12-gallon unit, which served me quite well. Are these still any good, or
is there another brand worth considering?

Most importantly: If you've owned one that you hated, I'd like to know
about it. :-)


So I had a Craftsman for quite a long time. It worked but certainly wasn't
great. Noisy and didn't filter worth a crap.
I just finished chipping out a bunch of concrete floor and needless to say,
there's dust everywhere. I broke down and bought a
new Vac. I ended up at Home Depot and was pretty impressed with the Ridgid
line so I got their 2 in 1 Wet/Dry (16 gal?)....basically
you can detach the motor and use it as a leaf blower hence the 2 in 1. My
initial impressions are that it's a fine vacuum and honestly isn't very loud
at all. Certainly not like my old screaming one. I still wear hearing
protection but probably wouldn't need to. It sucks like there's no
tomorrow
and cleaned up my concrete chippings and dust with no issues. Time will
tell if it's a quality tool but it seems to be one at the moment.
Cheers,
cc

ps. Lifetime warranty.....but you know how that goes!

I have the 9-gal Ridgid, and it works well with the nice (HEPA) filter,
but it is definitely loud, and there is not a way to redirect the
exhaust so it's not blowing straight up at you. The "muffler" helps a
little but not much. I'm thinking of building a 1/4" hardboard or
plywood box around it to tame the noise, but for now, I just use
hearing protection. The Ridgid 12-gal model advertises it's 20%
quieter than the 9-gal - I might go with this one if I were doing it
again. The whine really penetrates.
I did quite a bit of looking before I bought this one last year, and as
I understand it, the Ridgid and Craftsman vacs are all made be the same
company now. Shop-vac is the other big brand for consumer-grade vacs,
and they advertise some of their line as "quiet" models, and though I
haven't used one, I've heard (maybe from Amazon.com reviews?) that
they're actually better in terms of noise.
Hope this helps,
Andy

Doug Kanter wrote:
I'm about to buy a shop vac. I do a little woodworking, but I do not foresee
a time when I'd need a serious dust control system, which I understand some
vacs can become a part of. Mostly just basement dust, cobwebs, cleaning the
car & garage. The ex-wife got my 10 year old Sears 12-gallon unit, which
served me quite well. Are these still any good, or is there another brand
worth considering?

Most importantly: If you've owned one that you hated, I'd like to know about
it. :-)


Doug:

Here's what I wrote about the Fein Turbo III I purchased on Amazon.
Price has gone up about $50 since I bought it, but still no regrets.

~Mark.

After reading the review of shop vacuums in Fine Woodworking, I narrowed
my search down to the Fein and Porter Cable. After checking them out at
a local woodworker's shop, the decision was easy.

The Fein is far and away the quietest shop vac available. Its 2.25"
diameter hose makes it far less likely to clog with large shavings from
your planer or jointer. This coupled with its 15 gallon capacity and
auto-on feature make it a great addition to my shop. I get absolutely
*no* dust when using a 4" ROS.

A number of people have complained about the expensive attachments, but
I found inexpensive ones at Home Depot, targeted for their line of
Ridgid vacuums.

It's expensive, but if you buy the best, you only cry once.

Related to all this, I see that LV sells a 'kit' for using a shop-vac as
a (small) shop DC system. Anyone have any experience with such a setup?

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...t=1,42401&ap=1

In article ,
Woody wrote:

It's expensive, but if you buy the best, you only cry once.

I agree. I have the TURBO II.

One that accomodates the larger hose size (~2") and can use Gore-Tex
filter.

Among Shop-Vacs of recent years, some are very well silenced at the
exhaust, whereas some simply have a discharge hole that you can put a
~2" hose into, to use as a blower.

The latter are noisy, untill you pop in one of the simple plastic
silencers available.

I've both the above, and they suck great. Sometimes I use both
simultaneously with router-table. One on the DW621 router, and one
connected behind the fence.

J

Recently bought an 18 gallon Shop Vac, Thought my LOUD Craftsman was
on it's last legs. The Shop Vac is soooo quiet, takes a bag insert if
you wish for a neater clean up. Shop Vac gets my recommendation way
over another Craftsman. Costs a bit more, still less then the Fein and
worth every extra penny. YMMV.

David

Doug Kanter wrote:
I'm about to buy a shop vac.

I buy the smallest Rigid unit when they have a special sale.

Usually get about 18-24 months life since fiberglass dust is very abrasive.

Lew

Yep.

I'll add my nod to the litany of Ridgid recommendations. Cleans the
heck out of a rug in my basement that gets lots of dog hair and dirt.

Good luck!

I have the Fein Mini Turbo (their smallest model) and I am very happy with
it. It is extremely quiet and works great. One thing it doesn't have is a
feature that the larger Fein models have: an electrical outlet you plug a
tool into that will detect when you power up the tool and turn on the vac.
However, I understand Fein is discontinuing the current Mini Turbo models in
order to replace them with ones that do have this feature.

Lee

--
To e-mail, replace "bucketofspam" with "dleegordon"

_________________________________
Lee Gordon
http://www.leegordonproductions.com

I have a slightly older Rigid (16 gal) and can not recommend. They do
not have a paper filter bag so performance rapidly drops off with use.
You have to continually stop to bang the side of the vac to dislodge
some of the crud. Rigid used to market poly drum liner bags which made
disposal a breeze but they have discontinued these. I have tried other
bags but they need to be an exact fit or else they get sucked onto the
filter. For filter replacements and accessories you are stuck with what
HD has on offer at whatever price HD wants for them.

If I were to buy again I think I would go with a Shop Vac brand. At
least parts and accessories are widely available from multiple sources.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a slightly older Rigid (16 gal) and can not recommend. They do
not have a paper filter bag so performance rapidly drops off with use.
You have to continually stop to bang the side of the vac to dislodge
some of the crud. Rigid used to market poly drum liner bags which made
disposal a breeze but they have discontinued these. I have tried other
bags but they need to be an exact fit or else they get sucked onto the
filter. For filter replacements and accessories you are stuck with what
HD has on offer at whatever price HD wants for them.

If I were to buy again I think I would go with a Shop Vac brand. At
least parts and accessories are widely available from multiple sources.


Hmmm. See...that's why I liked the Sears unit. The plastic liners fit
perfectly. And, the filter was tough enough that I could use my other vacuum
to clean the lint out of the folds. The filters lasted quite a while. And,
the machine survived a lot of plaster dust while I worked on 4 rooms.

Keep in mind that a shop vac IS NOT MEANT TO REPLACE a real dust
collection system, and trying to use a shop vac as such is dangerous
healthwise.

There have been many detailed threads on the subject in this group,
Google and learn.

-Zz


On Mon, 21 Nov 2005 12:53:34 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

I'm about to buy a shop vac. I do a little woodworking, but I do not foresee
a time when I'd need a serious dust control system, which I understand some
vacs can become a part of. Mostly just basement dust, cobwebs, cleaning the
car & garage. The ex-wife got my 10 year old Sears 12-gallon unit, which
served me quite well. Are these still any good, or is there another brand
worth considering?

Most importantly: If you've owned one that you hated, I'd like to know about
it. :-)

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
I'm about to buy a shop vac. I do a little woodworking, but I do not
foresee
a time when I'd need a serious dust control system, which I understand
some
vacs can become a part of. Mostly just basement dust, cobwebs, cleaning
the
car & garage. The ex-wife got my 10 year old Sears 12-gallon unit, which
served me quite well. Are these still any good, or is there another brand
worth considering?

Most importantly: If you've owned one that you hated, I'd like to know
about
it. :-)

Last year, Home depot put their 16 gal "6.5 hp" model on sale and threw in
their little portable stinger vacuum for a package price of $69. Rather
than get a Fein, I put the savings toward a PC biscuit joiner. I was pretty
surprised at how well the Ridgid worked. I recall it comes with a lifetime
warranty. The little stinger turned out to be a real workhorse. I use it
with the biscuit joiner. The hoses on both vacuums are too short and stiff.
I bought some really good hoses that were long and supple for each vacuum.
That made all the difference in the world in their utility.

The Ridgid is not quiet like the Fein but its nowhere near as noisy as my
former craftsman. It doesn't have that shreeking type sound. I would buy
one again.

Bob

Doug Kanter wrote:
I'm about to buy a shop vac.

[tamped, and sucked into the disposable bag]

You can't do better than Fein for plain old sucking and doing it
quietly... reminds me of a girl I once dated, but let's not go there
just now. I'll line up with the rest of the Ridgid boyz on this one.
I have the new version of their 16 gallon model WD1850. The pleated
filter, in combination with the disposable filter bag was just the
ticket. I bent over and bought the extra HEPA filter as well, on
account of some godawful allergies, but so far in one massive weekend
of sucking broken plaster, termite dung, sawdust, nails, tacks, staples
and anything smaller than an Alaskan Husky, this device has served
well.

The first thing I noticed, other than the impressive sucking, was the
noise (or lack thereof). I have had some unbearable screamers in my
day (had loud vacuum cleaners as well), but this beast is no noisier
than your regular house vacuum. No, it's not nearly as quiet as a Fein
(I believe those purr at around 58/59dB, which is quieter than the
ghetto-mom next door when she screams at her kids or tries to sing
along to her old Madonna CDs), but then nothing is... unless it's a
Miele White Star house vacuum cleaner. I have one of those, and I'm
glad to be retiring it from shop/car cleanup duty.

I like the "homeless lady cart" set-up and the large rear wheels on the
WD1850. The long cord is handy too. In the course of vacuuming-up two
weeks' worth of demolition, framing and plastering detritus (remodeling
the nursery^H^H^H^H^H^H^H front bedroom), it also did a fine job of
clearing the room of airborne dust. They don't advertise it that way,
it just happened.

The 16 gallon model is a bit bulky (well duh, it's 16 gallons and I
could see by the size of the box that it wasn't the size of a
Dustbuster (TM B&D)), but it followed me around the room without
wanting to tip over. It's mostly plastic, so it's pretty lightweight.
For dry use, I wouldn't consider using it without the big filter bag.
The pleated filters are supposedly washable.

My only real gripe concerns the "utility" attachment, which is not
really a floor sweep. The "mouth" seems a bit big, and so the suction
is diffused. I hate it when the opening's too damned big and you feel
like you're tossing a hotdog down a hallway. I couldn't suck nails and
plaster chips offa the floor the way I was when sucking 'em out of
cracks and crevices like with the crevice tool or car attachment. I
didn't get the floor sweep attachment yet, and that will be the first
thing I get next time I visit the BORG. The tool bag that hangs on the
handle is useful for holding stuff you're not using, but the sleeves
(intended to hold the wand extentions) are a bit snug and make it
difficult getting the wands in/out of there. I mean snug is good, but I
felt like I was gonna have to part with the price of two margaritas and
dinner, before I could fiddle those tubes in their respective slots.
No big deal. The hose stowage thingies work fine, as does wrapping the
cord around the top handle (I actually just wind it up and dump it into
the tool bag). It's nice to be able to roll it into a corner and have
everything stay put, unlike the typical situation with cannister-style
vacuums, where your wand/floor-sweep ends up leaning against a wall and
then sliding down it later in the middle of the night, with that
unmistakable "screeeeeeeeeeeeee... thump!" sound, causing your
slightly incontinent old Westie to get spooked and have an accident on
your 80-year old oak strip flooring. DAMHIKT.

Anyways, hope this review helped. I normally don't trust these
'lectrical devices, and this one seems to be working as advertised.
Imagine that.

O'Deen

On 29 Nov 2005 15:13:33 -0800, "Odeen" wrote:

Doug Kanter wrote:
I'm about to buy a shop vac.

[tamped, and sucked into the disposable bag]

You can't do better than Fein for plain old sucking and doing it
quietly... reminds me of a girl I once dated, but let's not go there
just now. I'll line up with the rest of the Ridgid boyz on this one.
I have the new version of their 16 gallon model WD1850. The pleated
filter, in combination with the disposable filter bag was just the
ticket. I bent over and bought the extra HEPA filter as well, on
account of some godawful allergies, but so far in one massive weekend
of sucking broken plaster, termite dung, sawdust, nails, tacks, staples
and anything smaller than an Alaskan Husky, this device has served
well.

The first thing I noticed, other than the impressive sucking, was the
noise (or lack thereof). I have had some unbearable screamers in my
day (had loud vacuum cleaners as well), but this beast is no noisier
than your regular house vacuum. No, it's not nearly as quiet as a Fein
(I believe those purr at around 58/59dB, which is quieter than the
ghetto-mom next door when she screams at her kids or tries to sing
along to her old Madonna CDs), but then nothing is... unless it's a
Miele White Star house vacuum cleaner. I have one of those, and I'm
glad to be retiring it from shop/car cleanup duty.

I like the "homeless lady cart" set-up and the large rear wheels on the
WD1850. The long cord is handy too. In the course of vacuuming-up two
weeks' worth of demolition, framing and plastering detritus (remodeling
the nursery^H^H^H^H^H^H^H front bedroom), it also did a fine job of
clearing the room of airborne dust. They don't advertise it that way,
it just happened.

The 16 gallon model is a bit bulky (well duh, it's 16 gallons and I
could see by the size of the box that it wasn't the size of a
Dustbuster (TM B&D)), but it followed me around the room without
wanting to tip over. It's mostly plastic, so it's pretty lightweight.
For dry use, I wouldn't consider using it without the big filter bag.
The pleated filters are supposedly washable.

My only real gripe concerns the "utility" attachment, which is not
really a floor sweep. The "mouth" seems a bit big, and so the suction
is diffused. I hate it when the opening's too damned big and you feel
like you're tossing a hotdog down a hallway. I couldn't suck nails and
plaster chips offa the floor the way I was when sucking 'em out of
cracks and crevices like with the crevice tool or car attachment. I
didn't get the floor sweep attachment yet, and that will be the first
thing I get next time I visit the BORG. The tool bag that hangs on the
handle is useful for holding stuff you're not using, but the sleeves
(intended to hold the wand extentions) are a bit snug and make it
difficult getting the wands in/out of there. I mean snug is good, but I
felt like I was gonna have to part with the price of two margaritas and
dinner, before I could fiddle those tubes in their respective slots.
No big deal. The hose stowage thingies work fine, as does wrapping the
cord around the top handle (I actually just wind it up and dump it into
the tool bag). It's nice to be able to roll it into a corner and have
everything stay put, unlike the typical situation with cannister-style
vacuums, where your wand/floor-sweep ends up leaning against a wall and
then sliding down it later in the middle of the night, with that
unmistakable "screeeeeeeeeeeeee... thump!" sound, causing your
slightly incontinent old Westie to get spooked and have an accident on
your 80-year old oak strip flooring. DAMHIKT.

Anyways, hope this review helped. I normally don't trust these
'lectrical devices, and this one seems to be working as advertised.
Imagine that.

O'Deen


Dude, that was so bonerific a testimonial dat I almost wanted to run
to the Borg and buy two.

Y'all should really get a gig on QVC.

"The Galoot Hour.

The Power of the Powerless.

Brought To You By Deltoid.

Hosted by that ol' galootasaurus, O'Deen"


Hell yes - and I'd be watchin' fo' sho'.




Tom Watson - WoodDorker
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/ (website)

In article .com,
"Odeen" wrote:

Doug Kanter wrote:
I'm about to buy a shop vac.

[tamped, and sucked into the disposable bag]

[snipped for brevity, but saved due to an abundance of hilarity, thanks
for that... I needed a few good laughs]

Anyways, hope this review helped. I normally don't trust these
'lectrical devices, and this one seems to be working as advertised.
Imagine that.

I need an additional big ugly sucker, I'll give it a look.

I ended up with the 9 gallon Ridgid. My only beef with the thing is that the
swivel for the hose is at the end where it attaches to the vacuum. That's
dumb. My old Sears unit had it the other way around. But, for $30 (on sale),
I'll live with it.