Best Shop Vac in 2022

[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-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/20210415...-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.