Shop vac hose reel setup - low performance

[William Chain]

I need some help with my shop vac setup. I bolted one of the Rockler dust right hose reels on the wall with 40 ft of hose. It’s piped through a dust deputy, with the biggest shopvac I could find (6.5hp model). Obviously the suction with all that hose is much less than a direct connection to the DD via the factory hose. It still gets good separation at the DD, but the suction just isn’t good. It works for small tools but not for cleanup anymore. Certainly not for anything bigger than dust from saws, sanders, and other handheld stuff. I doubt a bigger vac is the answer, the DD bucket lid bows under the vac as it is. Any ideas or tricks to get the flow higher on a setup like this?

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, it’s not really possible to overcome the frictional losses in that much hose with a shop vacuum.

You should keep the hose length to a minimum or increase the hose diameter if you really can’t live with a shorter.....Rod

[Dan Friedrichs]

As Rod said, it's just not feasible. It's like trying to suck a thick milkshake through a straw - no matter how hard you suck, the volume you get through it will be much less than if you just got a larger-diameter, shorter straw.

[Frank Pratt]

Ya, 40' of 1.5" hose will certainly kill the airflow. 2.25" hose would be quite a bit better but still not great. I run Ridgid's biggest vacuum with about 12" of hose & a Dust Deputy & the airflow is reduced a lot from what the vacuum alone does.

[Ole Anderson]

My son just had a whole house vacuum installed. It has 40 feet of 1.5"? hose that gets sucked up into the 2" piping in the walls/ceiling when you are done using it. I thought there would be nothing left after all of the buried piping and the hose, but it works surprisingly well. It all has to do with the blower being sized for the use. High suction at a reasonable flow. Shop vacs have a moderate suction at a moderate flow. Somewhere between a dust collector and a Beam central vac.

[Greg R Bradley]

A shop vac is medium suction, medium flow. A duct collector is high flow, low suction. We had an older US made Milwaukee Industrial vac that worked well with 50' of 1-7/8" hose. With 3 stages in the vac head, I'm guessing it would be called high suction, medium flow. I'm guessing that is similar to the central vac in Ole's post above. I think the 3 stage Milwaukees were targeted to car washes where they had to have long small hoses. I don't think they design car washes that way anymore. You might find a vac that is still built that way but I'm guessing you will need to talk to a commercial vac supplier and it won't be cheap. How about a used central vac?

I think all the Ridgid vacs I've seen were really optimized around a 10' 2-1/4" hose. Seems like the Festool, Fein, etc. are more optimized around hoses a bit longer and smaller. Once you get to a length/size where the blades start to stall, the flow will drop off pretty fast.

[Jim Dwight]

I have a 10 amp Rigid shop vac pulling through a dust deputy as my only dust collector at the moment. The SawStop needs a real DC and will get one before too long (upgraded HF). Planner and jointer have always needed a DC. But the shop vac is doing OK with the SawStop and does all the smaller tools fine. For cleanup or the table saw, I use a 20 foot 2.5 inch Rigid hose, I think they get $30 for it. That is long enough to get anywhere in my shop. For the smaller tools, track saw and sanders, I use a Bosch 5 meter hose. It is smaller diameter but still gives the sanders enough air.

I think the Rigid 6.5 hp shop vac pulls 12 amps - so a little more than mine. I picked the one I picked because it is small - 3 gallon compartment but that doesn't matter as long as I empty the bucket under the DD when it gets full.

I don't know why Rocker sells such a long small hose. A central house vacuum might be able to move air through it but I don't think any shop vacuum can.

[Doug Dawson]

I need some help with my shop vac setup. I bolted one of the Rockler dust right hose reels on the wall with 40 ft of hose. It’s piped through a dust deputy, with the biggest shopvac I could find (6.5hp model). Obviously the suction with all that hose is much less than a direct connection to the DD via the factory hose. It still gets good separation at the DD, but the suction just isn’t good. It works for small tools but not for cleanup anymore. Certainly not for anything bigger than dust from saws, sanders, and other handheld stuff. I doubt a bigger vac is the answer, the DD bucket lid bows under the vac as it is. Any ideas or tricks to get the flow higher on a setup like this?

If you bypass the Dust Deputy, does the performance improve?

[William Chain]

Indeed I have. It is not the DD. It’s the hose. I guess I’ll have to live with it as it is.


If you bypass the Dust Deputy, does the performance improve?

[glenn bradley]

I run a DD with a short host to the 6.5HP Ridgid vac and then have a 35' 2-1/2" hose after the DD.

402858 . 402859

This works well. I actually have to use a bleeder before the DD or even the wire helix hose tries to compress.

402860402861

Can you locate the DD at the vac and extend the hose after?

[Deb Clarkson]

Do you need all 40' of hose. If you can reach where you need to with less, then shorten the hose. That should help some. Why not do a portable setup for the vac/dust deputy and roll where you need it. I know this would be a waste of the investment in the hose reel, but if it doesn't do the job for you get rid of it and move on.

[Dick Mahany]

I run a DD with a short host to the 6.5HP Ridgid vac and then have a 35' 2-1/2" hose after the DD.

402858 . 402859

This works well. I actually have to use a bleeder before the DD or even the wire helix hose tries to compress.

402860402861

Can you locate the DD at the vac and extend the hose after?

I like your setup. Can you provide info on the 2.5" hose that you have incorporated?

I've recently downsized with no room for my Oneida V3000 cyclone. I now have a 6.5 Rigid vac coupled to a DD on an 18 gal fiber drum with a short hose, but finding a long flexible 2.5" hose for tool connections has been a challenge.

[glenn bradley]

I like your setup. Can you provide info on the 2.5" hose that you have incorporated?

I've recently downsized with no room for my Oneida V3000 cyclone. I now have a 6.5 Rigid vac coupled to a DD on an 18 gal fiber drum with a short hose, but finding a long flexible 2.5" hose for tool connections has been a challenge.

I have a couple of the 6.5 Ridgid vacs with the removable blower option. The idea of this is that you use it as a leaf blower or a yard vac. With the DD you no longer need the vac's barrel so I dump all that . . . OK, I confess I kept the barrel off the first vac for years up in the rafters. When I bought the second vac I tossed both barrels.

The hose is from Peachtree, item # 369. The one in the pics is about . . . let me check . . . I've been dragging that one around for about 8 years; pretty tough stuff. The hose went on sale a few months back for a price I couldn't pass up. If I ever wear this one out I will have a spare in the wings. It is 50 feet long and I cut it back to 30-odd feet. Basically I laid the hose out till I could reach everything I want to be able to reach and cut it off there.

The leftover is my router table fence hose, some drill press hose and other random sections I required. I have ends that thread on, clamp on, are fixed and that swivel. I have come to prefer the thread-on-non-swivel ones but, get whatever suits your needs.

[Doug Garson]

I have a couple of the 6.5 Ridgid vacs with the removable blower option. The idea of this is that you use it as a leaf blower or a yard vac. With the DD you no longer need the vac's barrel so I dump all that . . . OK, I confess I kept the barrel off the first vac for years up in the rafters. When I bought the second vac I tossed both barrels.

The hose is from Peachtree, item # 369. The one in the pics is about . . . let me check . . . I've been dragging that one around for about 8 years; pretty tough stuff. The hose went on sale a few months back for a price I couldn't pass up. If I ever wear this one out I will have a spare in the wings. It is 50 feet long and I cut it back to 30-odd feet. Basically I laid the hose out till I could reach everything I want to be able to reach and cut it off there.

The leftover is my router table fence hose, some drill press hose and other random sections I required. I have ends that thread on, clamp on, are fixed and that swivel. I have come to prefer the thread-on-non-swivel ones but, get whatever suits your needs.
It looks like you replaced the shopvac barrel with a plywood box. What does the box do that the barrel doesn't?

[William Chain]

Yes it is. We'll just live with the performance as is, and use a more portable dust collection setup as needed. Shame though, if I could get more draw on the long hose, it would service all needs in one package.



Do you need all 40' of hose. If you can reach where you need to with less, then shorten the hose. That should help some. Why not do a portable setup for the vac/dust deputy and roll where you need it. I know this would be a waste of the investment in the hose reel, but if it doesn't do the job for you get rid of it and move on.

[Bert McMahan]

with the biggest shopvac I could find (6.5hp model)

Just as an FYI, the horsepower numbers quoted on shopvacs are not accurate, and cannot be compared to full size dust collectors (nor can they be realistically compared across brands).

It's literally impossible to drive 6.5 horsepower through a 110V/15A outlet. I'm not saying you don't have the biggest one you could find, I'm just saying that comparing the shopvac to a 2 hp dust collector is an apples to oranges comparison. Good luck with your hose issue, sorry I couldn't offer more help.

[Derek Meyer]

I have a small Shop-Vac wall mounted unit that came with a 25 foot hose. I connected it through a Dust Deputy and the suction is fine for general clean up tasks. I don't know how it would be for a stationary tool as I haven't tried it with that. It works fine with my track saw, however.

[William Chain]

Yes I’m quite aware.


Just as an FYI, the horsepower numbers quoted on shopvacs are not accurate, and cannot be compared to full size dust collectors (nor can they be realistically compared across brands).

It's literally impossible to drive 6.5 horsepower through a 110V/15A outlet. I'm not saying you don't have the biggest one you could find, I'm just saying that comparing the shopvac to a 2 hp dust collector is an apples to oranges comparison. Good luck with your hose issue, sorry I couldn't offer more help.