Shop vacuum

Karl_T

Karl_T

H-M Supporter - Sustaining Member
H-M Platinum Supporter
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
1,970
My 30 year old industrial shop vacuum has died. :( May she rest in piece, they don't make them like this anymore.

The shop vacs I see at the big box stores look like play toys in comparison. A few days of sucking chips with coolant, oils, etc will kill them.

I know this will cost through the nose, but where does one go for an industrial quality shop vac?
 
Usually the old vacuums are fixable? What happened to it?

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.4gal-portable-poly-wetdry-vacuum.1001015301.html

Home Depot had these on sale for $29 a few weeks ago. Replaced the shop vac brand vac I had in the garage for ships. I was pleasantly surprised. Decent suction, handles the chips and oil fine. I guess we will see in the long run. We live in a throw away, disposable society now, for $30 you can't really go wrong. If I get a year out of it, I'd be satisfied. The vacuums get really gross after a long period.
 
Prices on shop vacs are all over the map, as is the quality. What we've used in industrial settings are the Dayton industrial vacs. They hold up and have strong suction. They are also not cheap. There are also decent medium priced, meaning less than $300 vacs out there, those Dayton's are $600 and up.
 
Look around for a vacuum repair shop, or even look on line for a replacement motor. In over 30 yrs. of hardwood floor contracting I have used a lot of vacuums . I have ordered a few motors but found a local shop with very reasonable rates and used them when needed for the last 20 or so yrs. An easy fix.
 
One thing you may want to consider is noise. Some are extremely loud, lots of cfm and suction, but not nice for extended periods. When my last one die, I decided to just go cheap and get wet dry ones, and I have three, one at each machine, rather than dragging hoses and cords around the shop and getting tangled. We often have them on sale here at our local box store. So far none have failed and they are perhaps 3 years old now.

David
 
I have an 45 year old Craftsman Home-N-Shop Vac that I have nursed along for the last twenty years, replacing brushes, redesigning an obsolete filter system, and general maintenance. Last year, I bought one of the low cost 5 gallon stainless steel body Shop Vacs and I also was pleasantly surprised. It's suction made my Craftsman vacuum look like a Dust Buster. It utilizes either a disposable filter bag or a cartridge filter and is a wet or dry vacuum.
It follows me around on its four casters like a little R2D2 rather than the Dalek from Dr. Who. I am able to use my 2-1/2" hoses and tools from my old Craftsman and the 13 lb. weight and top mounted carrying handle make it easy to relocate as opposed to my old hernia generator.
As I recall, I bought it on sale for around $30 and last week the local DIY had it on sale for $30 again.
 
Amazon sells Mastercraft vacuums. Relatively quiet, powerful and rugged ... but they cost. I think these units are quite good.

I hook all my vacs to a Dust Deputy so very little gets to the actual vacuum. Bags and filters last forever.
 
I've got a Festool with Dust Deputy (good, quiet, and very expensive). I also have a Ridgid, which is good, quiet, and pretty reasonable. I use the Ridgid for metal stuff, the Festool for local dust collection.
 
I picked up a Bissell Wall mount wet/dry vac last summer. I’ve been very pleased with it, reasonably quiet, good power and takes NO floor space. It has four gal tank and 32’ hose. I wired a relay to a Hunter ceiling fan remote so I can operate it from anywhere in my garage.
I just looked an Amazon where I paid $113 in June, it’s now $160
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top