shop vac Question

Ned Bulken

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5,529
Location
Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
OK gang,
I'm looking at getting a shop vac for the house, The LOML and I are gearing up for some demo in the next few weeks/months and I really dont' relish ruining our Rainbow house vac with dust etc from wallboard and so forth.
I'm looking at a couple of Ridgid shop vacs. John had a Ridgid shop vac and it did a decent job of it. Any other brand recommendations in the sub $100 or so range? I'm looking for your basic mid-sized shop vac, nothing fancy (much as I'd love to get a fancier vac). I have a (small) DC, so the vac is just for removing your basic crud, not dust collection.
 
ned, shop for shop vacs based on replacement filter costs! that`s the "gotcha" regardless of who makes or sells `em.......tod
 
Ned, I've got a couple of Shop Vac brand vacs. They make different models that are sold through different outlets, and the only differences I've seen between them are the colors and the length of warranty. I've got one of the yellow ones (sold through various hardware stores like Do-It Center) and one of the blue ones (sold through Lowe's). Both have done well for me, although the switch went out on my yellow one after about 6 or 7 years of use. I've not replaced the switch yet...I've got it hardwired into the 'On' position, plugged into my router table switch (which is part of my TS), and have it hooked up to my TS. That way, it's easy for me to turn on the vac before starting a cut with the TS.

I like the Shop Vac brand because the filters are available at several local stores. (Moreso than the Ridgid filters, as far as I can tell.) They also have a variety of filter oprions, including additional filtration bags you can add. I'd say my only complaint about them is the fact that they are pretty loud.

All in all, I've been happy with mine.
 
all joking aside, replacement filters? I think in the nearly 3 years that my mentor John and I shared a shop we never had to replace the filter on his Ridgid. We would normally just use it for dry work though; cleaning it out meant occasionally taking the air line and blasting it from the inside out (outdoors of course).

Vaughn, thanks for the tip on the shopvac line up. I may just get a Lowes colored one. I'm going to go 'kick the tahrs' on them tomorrow after work.
 
get one with a 2 1/4 hose , for years I've used small shop vacs with 1 1/4 hose , I recently picked up a rigid 12 gal with large hose ...I love it it can pick up most anything without jamming the hose



quite a difference , especially for demo work

I wish I got one years ago
 
The other thing I'd recommend is to get one that a hose will hook up to the exhaust. I have 2 Ridgids. I have the one that converts to a blower, I keep it in the shop. We use it to blow leaves around the yard and off the roof. I haven't played much with the smaller one, but I can hook a second hose up to mine and stick out an adjacent window when doing drywall. The filters never catch all of the dust going through the machine. This way, the extra at least goes outside, and the exhaust is not kicking up more dust inside. Now the convertible one is more expensive, but remember you are getting 2 tools instead of 1. Jim.
 
I have the Lowe's blue Shop Vac, 12 gal., 5.5 hp. It does fine. When you shop consider horsepower more than bucket size. Power is what does the job. 12 gal is an awful lot of dust, an 8 gal. with enough suction will do the job better for you than a 12 or 15 gal with only 3 hp.
 
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