Durability of Shop Vacs

[Jim Behning]

Isn't that kind of a duh? It costs money to use a quiet brushless motor My Craftsman16 gallon that is nearly 20 years old is noisy as can be. I replaced the bearings once. It actually uses sealed roller bearings. My little Dirt Devil with a 6 inch beater bar is loud as can be. It has a brush type motor spinning some fast speed. If it had a universal brushless motor it would be much quieter. They can also knock down the noise by using more solid materials that have some mass, using foam like they do in the modern diesel cars and tractors and other acoustic tricks. That would take a little more money that joe blow tight wad wants to spend. Joe blow not such a tightwad buys a Fein.

I bet the Sh>For as long as these Shop Vacs have been around, I would have thought that

[Joel Corwith]

HomeDepo had one of those merchandise turnover clearances and I bought 4-6 pairs of earmuff/safety glasses combo thingies at $5 each. I have glasses and putting safety glasses (with side shields) and then ear muffs just hurt too much. I store them on my Ridged roll-around vac, so I always have them at hand, though my wife has noticed a somewhat diminished hearing on my part,..."what? Were you talking to me"??

Joel. phx

[Joe Nation]

I have a Sears vaccum that is very noisy. I built a box in the shape of a cube out of plywood, put a door on the cube and put the vaccum inside the cube. The noise went away! I can talk or listen to the radio while the vaccum is on. I suggest you try this. It works remarkeably well.

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 17:44:46 -0500, "Matthew" scribbled:

In 14 years, I am on my third shop vac. The first was a small model (3-4 gallons?). It was too small and not very useful. Then a 13 gallon model that was excessively noisy. Uses: cleaning up the shop & sucking up water when the greenhouse watering tanks overflowed. I also use a Lee Valley cyclone lid garbage can cover

most off the time, as well as a filter bag inside and the corrugated cartridge filters. The smoke that keeps the motor running escaped about a year ago. I was not unhappy about that. I now have Shop-Vac Ultra 18-gallon Wet/Dry Vac from Canadian Tire. It's a lot more quiet, but earmuffs are still indicated. Don't know how durable it will be, but it does suck.

However, the durability of ShopVacs does not seem to be all that great, judging by the number of replacements. So the more expensive, bigger shopvacs prolly aren't that more durable.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

[Wally]

I didn't read all the other posts but I also had 2 shop vacs and they both died very fast. I just sucked up regular garage dust with it and some other crap like construction stuff. Nothing special but they both died after a long squeal.

Got fed up and decided I was too poor to afford some crappy shop vacs. So I got the smaller FEIN unit. Can't love it more. Very quiet, sucks up like hell and very easy to maintain. Fortunately, I know the sales representative so I got it for the same price that the tool stores are paying.

Hope this helps,

Wally

[Bob Peterson]

I have an old shop vac that has been in regular (but not extensive use for at least 15 years). I find it a bit noisy, but it has sucked just about everything including water, grass, dirt, cement dust, saw dust, etc.

Recently I noticed that dust was coming out the exhaust. Taking it apart revealed the foam filter had failed. I got a new hard plastic filter instead of the foam filter with the nag around it since I rarely such water with it anymore, and then bought the bags that fit inside. It seems to work better this way. Its noisy but I think I paid like $50 for it new. I got my money's worth out of it.

One of the hold down clamps broke off years ago, but it seems to be fine with just the two left.

[Bob Peterson]

Not a bad idea. I seem to recall a guy who had his under a cardboard box, probably for the same reason.

[Tom Watson]

I have a theory about this, Weegie.

I've owned two Craftsman shop vacs and one "Shop Vac" shop vac in thirty some years.

I still have one Craftsman and the "Shop Vac".

The "Shop Vac" shop vac will live forever because I bought it to take to customer's houses (because it was quiet and the nice metal canister cleaned up so purty), and I don't got no more customers, and the Craftsman shop vac will live forever because...

Here's where the theory comes in:

"Because it's so damned noisy that nobody can stand to have the sumbitch on for longer than is absolutely necessary, so the actual runtime on a twelve year old vac is about two hours."

This leaves the original Craftsman shop vac...

Which died one cold morning when I was working under the extra burden of a particulary bad hangover (hell, I was still in my twenties).

The helper claims that I was aiming at him...

But all the buckshot went straight into the Craftsman.

Nice tight pattern.

No pain.

(Note: This may only have been a dream, because most of the seventies was passed in that sorta state, don'tchaknow.)

(btw - where the hell you been, dood?)

Regards, Tom.

Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.) tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[Jim Behning]

[mac davis]

I'm still using a 15 year old sears shop vac.. unless they got worse, I'd recommend them in a minute!

My wife was trying to get me to replace it for a newer one a few months ago, because I needed a new hose and it was $20... said I'd be better off applying the money towards a new vac that had a new hose... changed her mind the following weekend when she was helping me clean my bench and sucked 2 3/4" bench dogs up and had to open the vac and dig them out of the sawdust.. lmao

never used it outdoors.. interesting idea, though..

I have one of those craftsman leaf blowers with the vac bag and all.. damn thing will sick the bowling ball out of your closet... well, maybe not, but it's like 200 mph or something and mulches what it vacs.. (already replaced mulcher blade, they have trouble mulching sheet rock screws from the shop floor) Mac

03 Tahoe Widelite 26GT Travel Trailer replaced 1958 Hilite tent trailer 99 Dodge Ram QQ 2wd - 5.9L, auto, 3:55 gears

[Dave Balderstone]

I use mine to blow out my sprinkler lines each fall.

djb

[Tim Douglass]

Good idea! Too bad my ShopVac doesn't blow, it only sucks.

Tim Douglass

[Dave Balderstone]

That air has to come out somewhere...

[Dan Cullimore]

(snip sad story of demisal)

I'm a pretty cheap old fart, so when I found the shiny silver contractor's vac I wanted in a dumpster I couldn't resist. That was a few years ago, and it wasn't too new even then. The motor worked, but it sounded like a cat caught under a rocking chair. When I took the thing apart I found the fan blade had parted company with the shaft. I taught myself to braze on that thing. For about three years it's worked great suckin' dust from the TS and etc.(right now it's catchin' lead-paint chips from a second story gable while sittin' on the ground attached to about 30' of hose and pipe), it's quieter than I ever expected, AND I have a cool metalworking skill ta' boot.

Welding's next, but I don't think I'll find that utility trailer I need in a dumpster. :)

Dan

[Lew Hodgett]

RE: The Subject

The life of my Shop vac is absolutely brutal.

Fiberglass dust and fairing compound dust are both VERY abrasive.

Such is the life of the boat builder.

If I get a year of service, I consider it a winner.

My current choice is the $40, Ridgid unit simply because of the filter design.

HTH

Lew

[Tim Douglass]

A series of vents all around the motor. It actually helps keep it a bit quieter, but you can't put a hose on it.

Tim Douglass