Any Recommendations For a Wet/Dry Vac?

[Marty Weiner]

I'm on a quest to buy one for my garage.

I like the Craftsman line. In particular the ones with a wider diameter hose, long cord and a blower port. I need at least a 12 gallon with about 5 hp.

Any recommendations?

Marty

 

[LitFuse]

Sears has some decent vacs. My recommendations would be to wait for a sale, and drop the $ on one of the washable Gore-Tex filters. They're great and really clean up the vac's exhaust, which is really nasty with the stock filter. Also sign up for the Craftsman Club if you aren't already a member. More info in this thread.

Peter

 

[cue003]

There was a thread a while back with this subject....
This page

or topic on dyson vacuums here..

Go here

 

[Marty Weiner]

Peter

Thanks for pointing out that thread and the Craftman Club. I'm going to look up the Fein units on Amazon.com (they sell a few of the models).

Marty

 

[JackBlades]

One thing that pisses me off with my Craftsman is the exhaust is vented out the sides towards the FLOOR. Try to clean up a dry mess and the thing just blows $hit everywhere..........

 

[BB]

One thing that bugs me with Vac's and other shop equipment are the claims of huge horse power on standard 15 amp 120 VAC plugs...

15a x 120vac/746 watts per horse=2.4 hp (assuming 100% eff)...

In reality, you cannot pull much more than 1 to 1.5 hp continuously from a 15 amp outlet--where are they getting these 5-6 hp numbers from???

When you look at other ratings, such as CFM for air compressors, the numbers seem to be more accurate (or at least, optimistically consistent across brands).

-Bill

 

[KC2IXE]

locked rotor (locked fan) instantanious power - that's why they always say "peek"

 

[BB]

Locked rotor would be zero shaft power output--3,500+ watts of heat? Circuit breaker/fuse would pop at ~0-20% over current (for anything more than a few seconds).

The only thing that I could think of was rotational momentum and a brake--Or possibly the instantaneous power consumption/surge on startup (IIRC 40amp max for a few cycles on a 15 amp circuit is allowed).

Again, either rating is useless in real life--unless you are running on a source that has limited surge current (such as a small generator). Then you would want the "peak horsepower" to be a smaller number, not a larger number.

-Bill

 

[kitelights]

Take a look at the RIDGID brand at Home Depot. My GF's son got their biggest one 3-4 years ago and I was very impressed with it. I got the 12 gal 4.5 hp just a year ago. I waited for it to go on sale ($40).

 

[StuU]

We have a Rigid vac. Bought it after my big Craftsman died after only a moderate amount of use. Very happy with the Rigid.

 

[freeze12]

I just bought a 16gal. 6.5hp Ridgid wet Dry vac at Home depot a couple of weeks ago and it came with a free small wet dry Vac and the large vac comes with a lifetime warranty.It was on sale a couple weeks ago for $69.00

 

[Pydpiper]

I saw a Dewalt shop vac at Home Depot that uses Dewalts rechargable Batteries.
I have a unch of the 18v batteries around from years of tool collecting. That unit is not for everyone but it would be priceless in the right circumstance.