Looking for shopvac

Dave Black

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638
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Central PA
I need a new shopvac for work, we use them to suck resin out of large commercial water softeners. The resin is very small plastic beads (about the size of a ball on a ballpoint pen) When we do this the resin is usually wet or damp and so its very heavy. We have a 20gal shopvac brand vac that we have had for years but its time to replace it. I have heard that Ridgid vacs are good, not sure if they are or not. I think for this type of use the amount of vacuum pressure that is created is more important than CFM. Shopvac has specs for their vacs for cfm and inches of sealed pressure ( I'm assuming inches of water column) Rigid only has cfm listed that I could find. Any thoughts on which brand is better or other brands?
 
They aren't quiet and may not be $400 but I have been abusing a couple Ridgid vacs for years. If one died i would probably go grab another one without much thought about it.
 
if you go with ridgid and could wait another month or so, home dep will put one on sale sooner or later.
I got a new ridgid last year, the one for 79 bucks, but on July 4th, home dep had it for 29 dollars. I replaced the hose with a better flexible longer hose.
 
ShopVacs are everwhere, parts are readily available.
If your current SV has been satisfactory, I would say just check prices and compare. I'm (fairly) happy with my SV except the filter seems to clog up very quickly.
 
I'm on my third ShopVac brand machine in about 6 years. The switch disintegrated on the first two. The third one's only a year or so old, but I won't be surprised if the switch dies on it, too. The only reason I didn't get a Ridgid when I bought my current one is because I had a fairly new Cleanstream HEPA filter that I didn't want to throw away, and it wouldn't have fit a Ridgid vac. (The Cleanstream filter costs about 1/3 of the cost of a new vacuum, but it pays for itself over time. I won't own a shop vac without one anymore, but I couldn't afford to buy a new vac and filter the last time around.)

Frank, the best investment I've made for keeping my shop vac filters from clogging is the Dust Deputy from Oneida. It VASTLY reduced the amount of fine dust making it into the vacuum canister itself, and I get absolutely no larger sawdust granules or wood chips in the canister, either. I used to have to wash my filter every week, and that was when I was using a typical bucket lid "separator". Now that I have the Dust Deputy, I do it every few months whether it needs it or not.
 
Hi,

I have a Shop Vac from Lowe's and a Ridgid from Home Depot. Both have a lot of miles on them over the years---without looking it up I would guarantee five years, eight or nine would not be a big surprise.

There have been no problems with either of them except for a switch that I broke (not equipment fault---well it was equipment fault---my equipment---my brain). Switch replaced for about a buck and a half.

The Ridgid is the one I keep out in a handy place. My only complaint is that the hose is a bit stiff.

The ShopVac resides under the router table, attached to my Triton router. My major DC feeds in above the table. Triton really has the DC down to a science. When the router turns on; the vac turns on. It does such a great job that I do not use the major system very often.

A couple years ago one of the magazines had a vacuum for the shop run-off. Ridgid was the winner. There was a Consumer's Reports evaluation a few years ago; Ridgid won.

If I could have only one, the Ridgid wins.

I hope this helped you. If knowing the exact models would be of any use to you I can get them---however, remember they are years old.

Please understand that I am NOT unhappy with the ShopVac.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
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