Best Shop Vac in 2022

[Craig Meaney]

Bring on the recommendations! I'll be using it for general around the house use (some drywall work coming up) as well as woodworking once the shop is up and running. I'm open to "extractors" and interested in opinions about whether the added cost is worth HEPA and a plug.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I bought a 16 gallons stainless steel Ridgid shop vac a couple years ago and have been happy with it.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I Have need for a new one too. I thought I knew just what I wanted from Lowes. Lowes has replaced Shop Vac with Craftsman. Or I should say they only have empty shelves for missing Craftsman vacs that I know nothing about.

[Jim Becker]

I use a plain old Ridgid shop vac for general cleanup purposes and a Festool extractor with hand-held electric tools.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

The old Shopvac company is dead. I bought a bunch of bags when I found out, and when my supply runs out I’ll send the vacuum to electronic recycling.
In the shop I have 2 Rigid vacs, one for light duty and the big one attached to my dust deputy for chips, shaving etc. They do the job.
I’ll leave the Festool vacs to my more well-heeled brethren. (Joke, folks).

[Kurt Wyberanec]

I bought a Flex 33 extractor which basically competes with the festool type level... had gotten some sort of flash deal from acme at half price... have been very pleased with it...I use it mostly to hook up to my handheld tools and I see virtually nothing escape from it around the vac itself and the bags while pricey are top notch. I do feel that it could suck a little harder but it has all the features you'd likely ever need. They go new right now just under 600.

For everything else I have a couple of rigid units and they do what they're supposed to do but you can tell that a bit more escapes then (though never tried with a hepa cartridge installed) overall they are great bang for the buck though and have had for many years with 0 issues.

I only bought the flex because I wanted something to capture finer stuff and at the time the price was so much better than festool and I felt they were better than fein. That said there are several similar style units out there from the likes of metabo, makita, even husqvarna I think. Most of those are aimed at drywall or concrete guys and the way I look at it is that stuff is even more hazardous than woodwork so probably more than adequate.

The one downside to any of them is often proprietary fittings and or bags but there are a lot of work arounds.

[Charles Coolidge]

I have 2 of the stainless Rigid, with bags love the bags. Quieter than my previous Shopvac brand.

[Christopher Herzog]

Mine died last year and i bought the biggest craftsman. Seems fine, no festool....

[Rob Sack]

I recently bought a Ridgid from Home Depot that has a claimed cfm rating of 203 cfm. Whether or not this is accurate, it is a very well built machine that out performs any of my other shop vacs. I use it specifically for my Festool Kapex and as near as I can tell, it works just as well in this capacity as any of the Festool "dust extractors" I have demoed. Unlike Festool's dust extractors, the Ridgid is an actual shop vac capable of wet and dry vacuuming. While Home Depot is among my least favorite places to shop, it is the exclusive dealer for Ridgid shop vacs. It is designed very well with a tool storage compartment, is fairly quiet, is very easy to maneuver around, and best of all comes the Ridgid lifetime warranty. As my other shop vacs bite the dust, I will be replacing them with this same unit.

[Randall J Cox]

I'm on my second Fein vac. First one lasted about 13-14 years, about 8 years on this one so far. Long hoses, good suction and fairly quiet. With optional bag, pretty sure its hepa rated. Randy

[Prashun Patel]

I use a plain old Ridgid. But I have a dust deputy connected to it for dusty operations. For your drywall project I would also add a drywall bag instead of a filter.

[Bobby Robbinett]

Depends on what you want to use it for. For sanding nothing beats a Festool or Maefel. I like the Festool CT26’s and above because you can get their boom arm and cyclone. For general shop use a Ridged with a Dust Deputy is great. Fein makes a great unit too. That Festool boom arm is the sweet part of their system

[Lawrence Duckworth]

I watched a Mike Farrington YouTube video the other day and noticed his vacuum hose hooked to his router looked something like an old Letrolux vacuum hose. I have the rigid vacuums and they have those crappy-plastic-corrugated-hard-to-use-stiff hoses. other than that if the filters are kept clean they work great.

[William Hodge]

After a going through plastic shop vacs, I went metal. 125" of static lift at 121 cfm, all metal construction, replaceable motor, remote start, Dust Deputy on a 55 gallon drum. Ultra Clean SC200.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a Festool CT26 in the shop, 12 years old now.

It’s the best extractor I’ve owned, previous was a Nilfisk.

Quiet, powerful, compact, variable speed which is very handy when sanding, and auto on/off.

You can also stack the Systainers on it, and it has a very long cord.

It’s also a true HEPA vacuum, not just one with a HEPA filter, it also uses bags which are very important for reducing fine dust exposure. One word of warning on the bags, the vac packs the bag so densely without losing suction that the bag can become very heavy.

An afternoon of drilling 3/4” holes in concrete with a Hilti drill made the bag so heavy you would thought it was full of concrete😀

Diann liked the unit so much that we now have a Festool MIDI for a house vacuum.

Regards, Rod

[Jerome Stanek]

I have 2 Fein vacs as hold down on my CNC they are 18 years old and still running strong. I did have to replace the brushes but they run for hours at a time

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I have sump pump discharge hose on one sander. I like old canister vacs with reusable cloth filters. My vacs always have filter a bag inside. I use Clarke floor sander bags and hose clamp or the yellow shop vac drywall bags.
We went through a lot of cheap shop vacs at the factory. I still have some that were tossed out as "Dead". I learned to take them apart and oil the bronze bearings and make them go again. The old ones are easy to work on, as they get newer they get harder to disassemble for oiling. Dad has a Festool. It continues working. They are quiet and probably worth the investment.

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[Dave Sabo]

The old Shopvac company is dead. I bought a bunch of bags when I found out, and when my supply runs out I’ll send the vacuum to electronic recycling.
In the shop I have 2 Rigid vacs, one for light duty and the big one attached to my dust deputy for chips, shaving etc. They do the job.
I’ll leave the Festool vacs to my more well-heeled brethren. (Joke, folks).

Are you under the impression that only “ShopVac” bags will work in your shop vac ?

That simply isn’t the case. Lots of generic choices for vac bags out there that’ll fit your vac - whatever size / model you have.

[Dwayne Watt]

The AC-series vacs sold by John Deere dealers or via Deere website are very good. Well built, quiet (62 dB), and highly effective but priced and configured more like a dust extractor than a box store scream machine (they sell those as well). These are Mi-T-Mac vacs rebranded with Deere colors.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I like Green! checking the Deere website out now.
The AC-series John Deere looks like a great replacement for a fleet of scream machines. It also looks like my floor sander bags would adapt. We have Sidenstrickers John Deere close by, Thanks Dwane Watt that's a good lead.

[Jack Frederick]

I bought a Karcher WXD-5 last year and have been quite pleased with it. The primary is my Festool which I’ve had for a long time. I gave my big bellied Ridgid to the kids when I got tired of the size and noise. Problem on the Karcher is that it doesn’t handle the same connection points as the Festool and the hose is much shorter than the FT. It works very well however and is a narrower base.

[Robert London]

I still have several Rigid shop vacs from Home Depot and I've beat them up a lot through the years. Hard to beat for the money.

I also have a nicer Fein that I use with my cordless rechargeable sander. Better suction and hepa filter, but that's why it's closer to $300.

[Charles Coolidge]

Best shop vac for 1 1/4-1 1/2 inch dust port tools? I paid $1,100 for a indoor vac years ago for the house. That thing will suck a golf ball through a garden hose so I know it's possible to build a strong vac like that.

I have a step down fitting for my Rigid but I'd rate the dust collection as poor. Recently acquired a Makita sliding miter and Makita 1 1/8" hand held belt sander that have these small port. Plus ROS's.

And while I'm a big fan of my Rigid stainless shop vacs it seems like I'm always trying to 'aim' the exhaust so the exhaust doesn't blow a pile of debris into the air. I should find a fitting to deal with that, or 3D print something.

[Andrew More]

The old Shopvac company is dead. I bought a bunch of bags when I found out, and when my supply runs out I’ll send the vacuum to electronic recycling.
FWIW, I've got a 16 gallon ShopVac that I think I got at Lowes (it says shop vac). I have had no issues with using Rigid bags with it from the Home Depot. I keep looking for reason to kill this old shop vac monster, but it keeps on ticking 13 years later.

If any when my old ShopVac kicks the bucket, I'm going to look at Rigid. Honestly, the Dust Extractors are over priced unless you're doing concrete or drywall work professionally, because their defining feature is self-cleaning filters. For wood working it seems to be overkill, even when doing sanding. The other is auto on, which is nice, but I can bend down. If that doesn't work for people, you can buy auto on switches for $50, which is far less than the $200-300 price difference between shop vacs and dust extractors.

I like Rigid because I can get stuff at Home Depot, and I can't see any differences in the various generic shop vacs.

[Dan Friedrichs]

A $120 Ridgid with a $30 CleanStream HEPA filter is hard to beat. Quiet, lots of CFM, inexpensive, wet/dry....I use it more than my Festool (which is relegated to sanders and the Domino).

[james manutes]

A $120 Ridgid with a $30 CleanStream HEPA filter is hard to beat. Quiet, lots of CFM, inexpensive, wet/dry....I use it more than my Festool (which is relegated to sanders and the Domino).
Me too. The Festool are better in every way , but the Rigid line is fine . I have both, I like both .

[Frank Pratt]

I've had a big Ridgid with a HEPA filter and Dust Deputy for many years. It's very powerful and not terribly noisy. Sure, there are better vacs out there, but I doubt there are better values. I just have to choose where I want to spend my resources and can't see much advantage to spending 2 or 4 or 6 times the money for a shop vac.

[Bruce Mack]

I bought a 16 gallons stainless steel Ridgid shop vac a couple years ago and have been happy with it.
A Ridgid vacuum ratchet-strapped to a DustRight separator, with a 20 foot 2 1/4" hose is my do all, Ken. It collects sawdust from my tablesaw and my small planer and is great for hand plane shavings and whatever. It fails with my Ridgid jointer possibly because of a bottleneck at the reduction set up from 4" diameter to 2". I trigger it with a $20 remote. While the hose can be unwieldy, I've gotten accustomed to it and now make sure to pull it away from where I could trip.

[Matt Beuchel]

I have a Rigid as well, you can get HEPA filters for it too. I have mine connected to a dust deputy and works great.

[Scott Bernstein]

I've had the Milwaukee 8 gallon dust extractor for a few years and it's been great. True OSHA-compliance/HEPA for silica materials, auto filter clean, adjustable suction, and a plug on the vac for your tool (auto-on). It has great suction and is fairly quiet. Downside is that it is kinda small in terms of capacity. I use it a lot for sanding and small jobs in the house. I recently purchased a Hilti VC-300 17X, which is a beast. It has a much larger capacity (17gal) and two motors for 300 CFM...and it pulls awfully hard. Also OSHA-compliant HEPA capable, auto filter clean, for wet or dry silica removal. I got it because I will be grinding my garage floor smooth and needed something that could keep up with a 7" concrete grinder. It weighs about 70lb and needs to be on dedicated circuit - or at least one with nothing else running - otherwise it will pop a 20A breaker. I figure with his Hilti vac and a PAPR, I should be set for the concrete grinding project.

[Andrew More]

Scott at $3K I'd expect that Hilti to be a beast. OTOH, I'd rather have an entire garage full of tools. :)

[Dave Sabo]

Scott at $3K I'd expect that Hilti to be a beast. OTOH, I'd rather have an entire garage full of tools. :)

To each his own, but Scott bought that vac for a specific job - grinding a garage floor. Which is a good reason to buy a tool. There are few other vacs in that class and it’s only $2k.

[George Yetka]

For cleanup I would go with a ridgid. Be prepared to replace the filter and bag after the drywall work and take it outside and clean the heck out of it. Every vac we have used for drywall cleanup basically became a throwaway, because no one was willing to take it apart and really clean it. We have 6 or so in my companies shop and they all blow fine dust out the exhaust. If we need one for a jobsite I always figure a new one.

[Curt Harms]

A $120 Ridgid with a $30 CleanStream HEPA filter is hard to beat. Quiet, lots of CFM, inexpensive, wet/dry....I use it more than my Festool (which is relegated to sanders and the Domino).

The 'red stripe' CleanStream filter will also fit older R2D2 Fein vacs. There's not a hole in the filter but it doesn't need it. It fits snug enough that it's unlikely to come off.

[Andrew More]

To each his own, but Scott bought that vac for a specific job - grinding a garage floor. Which is a good reason to buy a tool. There are few other vacs in that class and it’s only $2k.

Where I live, a specific, one-time job like that would warrant a trip to the tool rental place.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I own two vacs, a Festool and the huge Craftsman that I purchased 17 years ago when I bought my house.

If my Festool broke, I would replace it with a Festool or a Fein. I like being able to plug a device into it and, more importantly, if I am sanding, I want to be able to adjust the suction on the vac itself.

If my Craftsman stopped working, I would replace it with something similar like a Rigid or another Craftsman. My Craftsman is way too loud, but, it has lots of suction. I run it through a dust deputy to catch the finer particles. My router table connects to a dedicated dust collector, but, I connect the vac to the fence. I also have a Rigid oscillating sander and I connect the vac to that. I also use that vac for general clean-up. I use it to suck water when needed; not often, but when I needed it, it really was the tool for the job.

[Tom M King]

For cleanup I would go with a ridgid. Be prepared to replace the filter and bag after the drywall work and take it outside and clean the heck out of it. Every vac we have used for drywall cleanup basically became a throwaway, because no one was willing to take it apart and really clean it. We have 6 or so in my companies shop and they all blow fine dust out the exhaust. If we need one for a jobsite I always figure a new one.

The bags got overfilled, and burst, or someone wasn't using the yellow bags. I think there are only three screws under the motor holding the cover over the last chance emergency filter, which is easy to clean under a faucet. I did that several times sanding plaster with a drywall pole saw, until I figured out to time it. Those bags are full with fine dust a lot sooner than they look like they are.

[Bert McMahan]

Check out Project Farm's video for some comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSN7PXwn1yU

I'd also recommend Toolboxbuzz's article: https://www.toolboxbuzz.com/head-to-head/best-dust-extractors-head-to-head/

(Note: at the time of this post, Toolboxbuzz's site is down, but archive.org has a snapshot: https://web.archive.org/web/20210415054053/https://www.toolboxbuzz.com/head-to-head/best-dust-extractors-head-to-head/)


They do some really thorough testing. The short version is they liked Hilti the best, then Makita, Festool, Bosch, Milwaukee, Metabo, Fein, Dewalt.

[Dave Sabo]

Where I live, a specific, one-time job like that would warrant a trip to the tool rental place.


Again, to each his own; but many tool rental places don't have vacs similar to that. And do you know that the vac won't be used for other projects ?

Bet you don't use all of your "purchased" tools on every project you do and I'll also wager most of your tools don;t get used on most of your projects. But you still bought them instead of renting them, didn't you ?

[Andrew More]

But you still bought them instead of renting them, didn't you ?

Really depends to be frank. For a one time use, as stated by the OP, renting is the way to go. I've rented plenty of tools, and will continue to do so in the future. More than that and it starts coming down to a question of how often you're going to use it vs the cost. And if I don't find myself using something I sell it or give it away, I don't have room to store useless stuff.

Looks like the Home Depot rents the $1,500 model, should be enough for most people, in most areas.

[Scott Bernstein]

I've rented tools plenty of times. But I also tend to work on projects in fits & starts, due to other domestic and work responsibilities. The garage floor I'm doing in multiple small sections over several weekends, so it is just not practical to rent. Plus, there are obviously plenty of other applications for a vac like this, like when I re-point some of the bricks in our chimney later this year. I also invested in a 3M PAPR system for the concrete project(s); haven't found anywhere those can be rented.

In terms of the original question about the shop vacs - I started woodworking about 8 years ago with the orange Rigid. Good for what it is. Provides good suction...until the filter clogs, and that doesn't take very long. Plus they are extremely loud. So I suppose it is better than nothing and for quick cleanups and small house projects it's fine. One can add a cyclone to capture most of the dust which will delay the filter clogging, but it will also reduce the suction somewhat. The shop/wet-dry vacs with automatic filter cleaning are so much better for woodshop use. Like the Festool, for example, and plenty of other brands which have been mentioned. The next step up from the monster Hilti I acquired would be a full-fledged stationary dust collector. Also there are some middling options like the Oneida SuperCell system. In addition to the shop vacs, I do have a big stationary cyclone DC for my larger stationary tools.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

We have Menards stores here in the midwest. A big end cap display of these Porter Cables showed up this week. I had been thinking about getting a 10 gal. stainless Shop Vac. This looks very similar. The price is $80.09. It is by no means deluxe, but affordable.

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[Craig Meaney]

Wow quite a few recommendations for Ridgid as a general purpose vac! I'll be picking one up and checking out Festool if I ever decide to get a dust extractor. Thanks for all the replies!

[Jim Becker]

Wow quite a few recommendations for Ridgid as a general purpose vac! I'll be picking one up and checking out Festool if I ever decide to get a dust extractor. Thanks for all the replies!
They have a healthy percentage of the market for "general" shop vacs and have for quite awhile now. It's a stable brand with a strong retail partner in Home Depot. Stuff with the Craftsman name has been coming online via Lowes, but that's a catch up situation, IMHO, because the brand bounced around for a bit with the demise of Sears, etc.

[Justin Rapp]

rigid with the hepa filter installed. For drywall, you can add a 2nd hose to the exhaust and exhaust it outside.

[mark mcfarlane]

... Be prepared to replace the filter and bag after the drywall work and take it outside and clean the heck out of it. Every vac we have used for drywall cleanup basically became a throwaway, because no one was willing to take it apart and really clean it...

Yep. I do as much joint-compound-sanding-dust cleaning as possible with a broom, dustpan, and mask. Unless you buy an auto-clean high end extractor, joint compound dust will clog up just about anything and cleaning a vac after sucking up this dust is a PITA. For small repairs I use a soft brush and dustpan, followed by a wet rag. For larger jobs its a broom and dust pan, using the vac and crevice tool to get into corners.

For me it takes longer to clean a vac after sucking up joint compound dust than to just us a broom or brush and dust pan.

[mark mcfarlane]

Wow quite a few recommendations for Ridgid as a general purpose vac! ...

In my experience the stock Rigid hoses are lacking. Rigid sells a bright orange upgrade hose that is pretty good and reasonable priced. If you can swing it I'd also get the upgrade hose in the initial purchase.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I sand lots of joint compound, suck up concrete dust while attached to the angle grinder and diamond cup wheel, etc. I use cheap shop vacs and get years out of them. I use a drywall bag and pleated filter or a cloth bag and a pleated filter. I never sand drywall without attaching the sander to the vac. If the dust only goes into the bag the cleanup is as simple as emptying the bag.

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[Jim Becker]

Rigid sells a bright orange upgrade hose that is pretty good and reasonable priced.

Yea, that orange hose is really good and quite flexible. I've had mine for years. It will also work with the Festool extractor for those times when I want a larger diameter for something odd-ball, but it's largely conneted to my small Ridgid shop vac.

[Dave Sabo]

I’ve always found that orange Ridgid hose to be too short.