Best vacuum cleaner for DIY?

[Lurch]

On Sun, 20 May 2007 15:45:29 +0100, John Rumm mused:

I've just built a proof of concept, hence all the tape holding this one together. ;)

(Due to the unique way in which Imageshack works, you start at the end and work backwards)

Quick tests seem to work, the vacuum cleaner was emptied and various dusts\chippings etc... were cleaned up and all of them ended up in the bucket. If I manage to regain some space in the garage for some tools then I'll be building a larger one. This would be worth experimenting with a bit more I believe.

[Andy Hall]

The small one on the left next to the Shop Vac

[John Stumbles]

Where do you get filters (I assume you mean the corrugated wet&dry ones) for a fiver? I've not done better than £10 in Wickes.

[John Stumbles]

• blows as well as sucks (useful sometimes)

• wet and dry CONS:

- you do need the wet+dry filter (£10 from Wickes)

- you do need to clean the filter, and sometimes that means washing it and drying it, especially if you've been sucking up lots of fine dust

- mixing wet with fine dust blocks the filter double-quick fast: I usually take the filter out for sucking up water (flooded floors etc) and empty out & put the dry filter back for dust

- when sucking up lots of water it can spit out (often filthy) water from around the motor housing as well as the blow orifice: if I'm working in someone's house with it I station it outdoors, or put a dustsheet over it to catch the spray

- the filter just pushes onto its housing and can slide down, especially if the cleaner is bumped on the floor, and then you can get clouds of dust blown out of it

- no handle, short mains cable, no cable, hose or tool storage

[Lobster]

It's got tool storage though (sort-of) - they slot on to those little bumps on the lid (which is more than the Great God Henry has!)

David

[John Stumbles]

Which is so pants I CBA to even mention it ;-)

My Henry came with a draw-string bag to keep small tools in, which you can loop round the handle so it gets in the way in a really annoying way. Until SWMBO takes it off to avoid the annoyance and loses it which is even more of a wind-up :-(

[NoSpam]

I just had a look at the 1200 (the one with the power socket) but it seems to be quite small with a huge filter so not much space for "suckings". Don't you find that it fills-up fast?

Dave

[Dave Liquorice]

Not that fast, by the time it's getting full it's also getting quite heavy. Particulary if you are are sucking up dust/rubble.