Best Shop Vac for the $$$$$

[Jim VanBramer]

I need to pick up a shop vac for general clean up around the place, and I was just looking for some input from the troops. I don't want to spend a whole lot on this, but I'd like to get the best one available for the money. Whaddaya think???

[Kenn Osborne]

What's your price range? I got a Ridgid one from HD that I really like. I think it was about $80.00. I don't know if it is the best but it has held up for over a year so far and I REALLY abuse it.

[David Rose]

Jim, I seldom get more than I pay for with the exception of an occasional used or inherited product. As folks say, I'm learning to buy once and cry once. I have a small shop and wanted something fairly quiet. I got a Fein III. If I had it to do again I might buy the Fein II instead as some cheaper bags are available that fit the Shop Vac. I do like the Fein. I haven't had anything else but several old cheap Craftsman that would suck your socks off and blow your ears off. :D I don't know if many folks have several different "modern" vacs. Unless you get to try several, likely you will like what you have. There are several good vacs out there, but as far as I know you will get what you pay for.

The only negative things I can say about the Fein are that you should forget any email service. I wrote them probably 7-9 times with no replies. And I would like to have a single location air outlet so that I could run an air pressure type router tracer like Router Magic shows.

David

[Bruce Page]

Well Jim, this falls into the “ya’s can pay’s me now, or ya’s can pay’s me later” category. I started out with a bargain priced Shop-Vac, a few years later I upgraded to a Craftsman 5 “Peak” hp vac, and I finally settled on a Fein Turbo III that not only does a great job, it also does not hurt my ears. If I had combined the price of the Shop-Vac & the Sears unit, I could have almost bought the Fein Turbo III to begin with.

JMHO

[Brian Hale]

I've got an old Sears vac that will suck the blue out of your jeans but i hate to use it because its soooo darn loud.

I'd look for a low center of gravity, very flexible hose with a good lock or whatever so the hose doesn't come off when you drag it around the shop. Large wheels that will roll over cracks and debris are nice if all 4 swivel its a bonus.

Let us know what you get

Brian

[Keith Outten]

Shop Vac, 2HP-2Gallon at Walmart for $25.00...reasonably quiet and small enough to tuck under a cabinet. I bought this one to take with me when I do Freedom Pen Demonstrations. Lots of Vac for the money.

[Ned Bulken]

I'll second the ridgid vac. We have one in my shop, and despite having a small DC, it sees daily use around the shop, even around the tablesaw and planer where the DC lives...

[Jim Becker]

I've been using a big Ridgid unit for about six years. It works fine, although I need to clean the filter frequently. That said, I'm moving to a Festool or Fein vac "real soon now" to reduce the noise level significantly. Aside from general cleanup, I use the vac for dust extraction on small tools, like the ROS, and it's unpleasant with the screamer running, despite good hearing protection.

[Wolf Kiessling]

I need to pick up a shop vac for general clean up around the place, and I was just looking for some input from the troops. I don't want to spend a whole lot on this, but I'd like to get the best one available for the money. Whaddaya think???

I have the Rigid 6.25 hp 16 gal one which I bought about five or six years ago. I can't remember what it replaced but I do recall I like it A LOT better than the last one. Bought it at HD on a 10 % off day and paid somewhere around 70 - 80 bucks (I think). I recall looking at a lot of shop vacs, mostly at cfm's, hp and capacity and think the Rigid was the best for the money. I admit it's noisy but that doesn't bother me too much. I have a Penn State DC but the vac still gets a lot of use. I guess what irritates me more than anything else about it, AND IT IS A HUGE IRRITATION (I even threatened to toss it a couple of times because of it), is that when I move it around outside (for cleaning off the lawn tractor, emptying the tank, whatever), the wheel assy has a tendency to come off. Then, I have to turn the unit upside down to put them back on. I REALLY HATE THIS. However, I know, realistically speaking, I will not dump the vac because of this; that is usually just my temper talking.

Anyhow, there is another reason why I bought this particular unit and no one has mentioned this feature yet. It is a wet/dry vac and I considered no other type of unit. This feature is primarily for use in the house, we have had several water leaks, for different reasons, and the vac was invaluable in sucking the water out of the carpeting. It's strong enough to remove a lot of water.

Oh yeah, just thought of a couple of other things, pro and con. Another thing I don't like is that the hose comes off too easy when I am yanking the vac around during clean ups. I think some sort of a locking mechanism would be better. On the other hand, I don't have an air compressor and when I want to blow something out with air, it is very simple to move the hose from the inlet side to the outlet and it puts out a pretty good breeze. If I didn't already have a leaf blower, it would be plenty good to blow off the driveway and such.

[Scott Coffelt]

I have the Ridgid and for cleaning purposes it does what it needs too, the filters clogg easily, but it does a good job....however, it is extremely loud and I do not run very often.

I moved to the Mini Fein for use with my small power tools and the sound, suction and performance is all that I could want. I hooked it up to a X10 outlet, so I have a remote to turn on. The auto start feature of the bigger units or the Festool are nice, but for $75-100 more, not worth the price in my opinion.

I concur if you can ot afford to spend the bucks for one of those units, concider the new ultra quiet Shop Vacs. The brand has always been solid and now they are getting really quiet, not Fein or Festool quiet, but still much quieter then the Ridgid.

[Steven Wilson]

I use the Fein MiniTurbo - nice and quiet and not too expensive. I only pull out the Sears shop vac if I need to suck up water. Having said that I would probably go with a Festool and purchase the Festool vac in conjunction with their saw, router, or sander; a well designed system.

[Kenn Osborne]

...the wheel assy has a tendency to come off. .... the hose comes off too easy when I am yanking the vac around during clean ups. I think some sort of a locking mechanism would be better. ...
Wolf I have had the same problem with the wheels. I just ended up gluing them in, I have never had a reason to remove them. As for the hose ... the newer models have a locking hose. I love it, I use it to pull it around all the time.

As for the noise ... yeah it is very noisy but I don't use it for long periods of time unless I am cleaning the car and I normally got the radio blasting anyway. :)

[John Miliunas]

Jim, you say, "...best for the money". To me, that doesn't necessarily equal low-buck. As some of the others guys basically pointed out, the "pain" of the expense quickly fades when you start using the piece of equipment. I have Big Bertha (Craftsman guzzillion HP) vac, which I only use for BIG cleanups, such as large chips and misc. garbage like that. The other 95% of the time, I use my little Fein Mini Turbo. When I purchased it, I got it on a closeout special for a real good price. One of these days, Bertha's going to bite the big one and then I'll be replacing it with one of the two larger Festool units. If I was in the market for a little one, I think I'd pick the smaller Festool for that, as well. The Fein is a great little unit, but the Festool, IMHO, is a bit better engineered and more user friendly. :cool:

[Ed Falis]

You could also keep a search open on ebay for a Wap/Alto Aero model. The 5 gal ones come on pretty frequently and usually go for less than $100. A bit noisier than the Wap SQ10 (the best shop vac of all time, but >$500), it has the same "head" as the latter model. It'll still be a lot quieter than what you're used to. Has the switch that's controlled by a plugged in tool, which is a nice touch.

Bags and filters are a little tough to find, but Roberts Tool is a reliable internet source.

- Ed

[Byron Trantham]

I replaced my Sears screamer with a Festool unit. A great solution. I made adapters for my biscuit cutter, sanding center, oscillating spindle sander and skill saw. Those adaptations along with the tool controlled power switch make this combination a great tool. Also, you can drag this unit around by the hose without it tipping over. Finally, with the foam filters you can pick up water. this is my first Festool tool and it won't be the last. I'm looking at their power planer which, of course, also connects to the vac.

[Sam Chambers]

Jim:

I think a decent wet/dry vac should be given to every homeowner at closing. They're invaluable.

I have two Shop-Vacs. One is about 6-7 years old, and the other is about 18 months old. The older one is a "QPV" model, which is a little quieter than the newer one. I got the second one because I had a major water leakage problem in the basement and I was worried that the older one would die on me while sucking water out of the basement late at night.

FWIW, both of mine are the type that can pump water out of the tank via a garden hose. That's a big help at times.

Oh yeah...Whichever vac you buy, get a CleanStream filter for it. It filters much, much better than the stock filters, and they're much easier to clean. Plus, they last a long time.

[Chris Padilla]

I have a Ridgid that is a screamer. I hate it, hate it, hate it. It is simply too noisy and I have to clean the filter way too much. To that end, when I bought my Festool 150/5 ROS, I got a deal on the Festool Vac at the same time. Can you believe that one can run the sander AND the vac and it is significantly less noisy than the Ridgid all by itself!

The Feins and the Festool vac are expensive...very expensive. But they are worth for me and my ears and they hook up to sanders and what-not much more easily.

[Alan Turner]

I never heard of WAP, but here is an ebay # -- 4300114709

-- of one. Be interesting to see what it goes for.
Alan

[Tyler Howell]

Saw a great demo of the Bosch Airsweep. 13 gal wet/dry. Did it ever suck! It was set up to draw water in a 4" duct 8+ft in the air (1OO " static water lift):eek: Impressive. Quiet 69 db, 130 CFM, $400 + at Amazon.

[Michael Perata]

Jim

I have the Fein II and definitely recommend it.