What is the Best Shop Vac to get?

[Michael]

Hello,

I am in the market for a new shop vac type vacuum. Does anyone have any recommendations or advise?

Thanks in advance, Mike :)

[CBHvac]

You will get 20 different answers on this one, since we all have our prefs...

I have 4 of the Rigid vacs, similar to the ones at Home Depot, with the Emerson motors. Bit noisy, but get the job done, and lifetime warranty on the motors. We also have a couple of Milwaukee metal vacs, pricy, and well worth every dollar spent. They all get abused, dropped off the vans, vac everything from drywall dust to furnace soot, and so far, all work like a champ.

[Joe Bobst]

I have a 7 year old Sears "5 HP" used in our auto sevice shop and a 3 year old "6 HP" in the home workshop. Never had any others work as well or last so long. Highly recommended. Used the top off the home unit for blowing leaves around the yard in fall until this year when we got a Toro elecric mulcher-vac. If you have a good air compressor you can clean out those expensive filters very nicely with a blow gun. That's essential if you're doing drywall sanding with a screentype abrasive pad hooked up to the vac. Nice thing about the screen sander is that the vac sucks it right to the wall and cuts way down on the work needed for a smooth joint. HTH

Joe

[mark Ransley]

Rigid from HD lifetime warranty

[mike korenchuk]

new Shop Vac sold thru lowe's uses a paper bag in addition/optional to the cartridge filter. Always felt cleaning the cartridge was a pain. Bought one of the contractor's models and like it.

[Rob]

Do you know if those drywall bags they sell for the Shop Vac brand at Lowes can be used in other brands of shop vacs?

[Jim Elbrecht]

My 12 yr old Sears 5 HP is slowly biting the dust. I think it's brushes because a 'slap aside the head' cures it for a bit, but I can't find a model number to order new ones. I originally bought this vac to suck cellulose insulation from about 60 linear feet of wall cavity. Once that was accomplished I bought a power sander for the drywall & hooked the vac up to that. We sucked all the cellulose and all the drywall dust from 5 rooms through the original filter.

I bought 5 filters when I bought the vac because I was sure the cellulose would be clogging them up. One got wet, and I've changed them once in a while 'just because'. I still have one. I just bang them out against the side of the drum. .

After careful consideration I just decided that I needed a new vac anyway so I got the one with the detachable head that doubles as a leaf/debris blower.

Wow! This thing is twice as powerful as my old one, and about 1/3 the noise. The detachable blower is a handy gadget & I already tend to grab it instead of my electric blower.

I'll second the vote for the Craftsman.

Jim

[Charlie Bress]

Look for the features. Wet as well as dry pickup. Detachable head that turns it into a leaf blower, driveway sweeper etc.

Charlie

[davefr]

Look for a Shop Vac QSP.

Avoid Rigid and Crapsman. (too noisy)

Fein is supposed to be good but they aren't cheap.

[Phisherman]

Fein. They are not inexpensive.

[mike korenchuk]

would not bet my life on it but believe no. because of the suction intake fitting. I actually threw away a 2 year old shop vac and swore I would never buy one again until i saw this feature. glad I forgave them. have been using it on a big remodel job now for a month and have given it the customary abuse. my only crab is about the wheels which I could probably fix with a little wd40.

[TOM KAN PA]

Fein is probably the best. And the most expensive. My neighbor just bought one when he sanded his hardwood floors. He attached the dust pickup for the belt sander to the Fein vacuum and plugged the belt sanders power cord into an outlet on the vacuum. When you turn the sander on, the vacuum turns on. The same with off. And the palm sander worked the same way. He said it did a great job of collecting the dust. For over $200, it should.

[user]

Hands down, WAP is the elite.

By comparison the rest are either mediocre or junk, regardless of the brand, incl. Fein.

[TOM KAN PA]

____Reply Separator_____ How can you say this? Did you go to the site that you told us to go to that is supposed to state the WAP is elite and the Fein is either mediocre or junk? I quote from the web site:

There is another notable competitor which I have not tested....the Fein wet/dry vacuum which sells in the $210-275 range depending upon features. Fein is already well established in the US market whereas Ghibli is a newcomer. I will hopefully add the Fein shop vacuum to this comparison sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, in my opinion, the best shop vacuum is still the WAP (Alto) SQ10 unit.

The site and you both state that the WAP is betther than a Fein even though you know nothing about them.