Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 16 to 21 of 21

Thread: Best shop vac

  1. #16
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Highland MI
    Posts
    4,511
    Blog Entries
    11
    I have a 6.5 "hp", 12 gallon Craftsman which I really like. But my son is building a new house and only has my old 5 gallon ShopVac screamer, so I bought him the Ridgid 16 gallon with the cart style wheels and push handle. No more dragging the rig around by the hose waiting for it to tip over or looking for the attachments. We had one at work and really liked it. HD just reduced the price by $20. https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-1...1851/100638360

    NOW you tell me...

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    central tx
    Posts
    589
    Quote Originally Posted by joel cervera View Post
    My trusty and dependable Ridgid shop vac just just burnt out after 10 or 12 years. I did some research but in the end decided to buy another Ridgid. It has more suck than any of the other high end vacs. In my 2 car garage the shop, that is usually with the door open, I figured a clean stream hepa filter and a dust deputy would work great. Well at the very last minute, I found out that home depot sells a new Duststopper separator for $40 bucks. I researched on line and it seems to perform nearly identically to the dust deputy. Whatever minuscule performance differences are totally offset by the low profile of the duststopper (YMMV).

    I bought a new 14 gallon 6 hp Ridgid vac for $99. Duststopper $40. clean stream hepa filter $30. and and some small HF polyurethane casters $12. Strapped it all together with a pair of old bungee cords and it works great! Wheels around super smoothly. Easy and fast to clean or separate for odd jobs not requiring the dust stopper. Kept the original filter for yard jobs not requiring hepa filtration. And the new Vac is much quieter the my old one.

    All in all, in my situation I could not be happier for $200 bucks.
    This was such a great idea, I copied it this weekend:

  3. #18
    Nice! I just posted about this again in the new Duststopper thread. I really liking my setup so far. Hope you enjoy yours too.

    although it does beg the question " When will they start making vacs with a separator built in? Hope its not till my new rig burns out !

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Berwick, Nova Scotia, Canada
    Posts
    425
    Something that seems to be missing in this discussion is Ridgid's life time warranty. I had a 6.5hp beast go on me after 4 years. I live in Canada. I contacted Ridgid. They asked for a few pictures, which I sent. A couple of weeks later, a new vacuum showed up, with a request from Ridgid to cut the cord off the broken one before I put it by the curb for garbage. Can't beat that for support. Oh yeah. I have used Craftsman, Shop Vac, Master Vac (Cdn Tire brand) and a few others. Ridgid provided best performance with the least amount of noise. This is real world experience, not speculation.
    Mike

  5. #20
    I see nothing really wrong with this but I do not believe the cyclone alternative will separate fine dust like my dust deputy. I think you will have to clean the filter more often. But I see no other disadvantage. Other things that may help are an auto-on switch, they are not expensive, and a Bosch 5 meter hose (for smaller tools). I also like my wooden cart. I've changed it several times but my changes were to fit my shop and might not be the best arrangement for others. I also like to connect the separator to the shop vac with PVC plumbing pipe. It will improve suction to use the smoother straight pipe. You can modify it with a heat gun if necessary. But if this setup works for you, no real need to change anything.

  6. It seems everyone I talk to has a ridgid 16. I've had mine for years without a problem. It even has a peak horse power of over 5 and can be used with longer hoses. (Rockler has a hose reel and on the box it says something like "for use with shop vacs rated at least 5hp")

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •