wet/dry vacs - shop vacs

HMP

HMP

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So one thing that Ive thought some about for a few months has been a decent wet/dry vac for the garage.

ShopVac has been around for ages, my father has one, it's worked great for years. (his is 6hp, I forget the gallons)
Home Depot has their Ridgid line, Lowes is getting a Craftsman line.

Any you would recommend or shy away from?
HD has a 12 gal/5hp for 70
Lowes has a 12 gal/4hp for 56
And they go up from there
Id like to be under 100, for sure, but those are two that caught my eye, especially the Ridgid at 70.

But looking for recommendations
 
HD started selling the Ridgid vacs when Sears off shored the manufacturing. Ridgid is owned by Emerson Electric.
 
I have 2 Ridgid vacs. The 16 gal as a shop use and the 4 gal in the work truck. I have no complaints for either. I use the dust bags with them. You lose some capacity but the filter stays cleaner.
 
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Ridgid Vacs should come with hearing protection... That said, They Suck ! Good.
 
I bit the bullet and got a Fein maybe 15 years ago. It’s a little louder now than it was new, but it’s a quiet sucker.
 
I have had a Rigid for about a year now. 14 gallon, 6 hp I believe. I've been pleased with it so far. It came with a car kit which is nice to have.
 
If I had to buy one right now, it would likely be a Ridgid. Shopvac isn't what it used to be and Craftsman is now cheap Chinese crap. Just my $0.02
 
Not sure your intended purpose for it. But if just smaller clean up jobs and cleaning out cars I really like my milwaukee battery one. Many others brands out there as well. It is just very handy for grab and go without needing drop cords. Use it mainly for cleaning cars and small clean up projects and blowing up kids toys. If you planning on using one longer periods than about 15 min then I grab a corded one and for that have a older larger shop vac but its nothing special.

https://m.northerntool.com/shop/too...MInLmv68SI6QIVjorICh3uuAufEAQYASABEgKMo_D_BwE
 
Yes, it'll be little things in the garage and cleaning out car.
I HOPE I dont have larger needs (ie flooding) for it!
Looks like Ridgid is the route I'll be taking with that 5hp model
 
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I have. Ridgid that looks like a tool box. Maybe 5 gallons and everything fits inside. I have used it on a work vehicle for at least 7 years and at home. It has never failed me. No way do I ever want another 12 gallon unit.
 
I have a Sho-Vac that is about 20 years old. It is a 2.5 HP and 6 gallons. Stays under the reloading bench and NOT used as industrial use. Have used it for some water spills, suck up primers, powder spills and other BS.
No complaints but not used the way it was built to 20 years ago.
 
I should add, eventually I'd like to add a media blaster to the garage, so this would be used for that too (filter between blaster and vac, of course)
 
Get the Shop-Vac SXP 16G Version at Lowe's. 97% made in America, they will not say so as they have to jump throw friggin hoops and lawsuits, so they do not bother.

Manufactured in Williamsport PA and Binghington, NY.

Shop Vacs have more accessories, more choice for bags and filters... and that family literally started the industry.
 
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I have a 10 or 12gal Ridgid, 4yr old now and I’ve used it for everything around the garage, mainly woodworking and cleaning the cars. I will highly recommend getting some sort of separator if you plan to use it with a lot of saw dust, otherwise the filter gets caked full pretty quickly.

Edit: like this ——>
 
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Jerzsubbie said:
I have a 10 or 12gal Ridgid, 4yr old now and I’ve used it for everything around the garage, mainly woodworking and cleaning the cars. I will highly recommend getting some sort of separator if you plan to use it with a lot of saw dust, otherwise the filter gets caked full pretty quickly.

Edit: like this ——>
Click to expand...


that's a really cool setup!
 
My next shop vac purchase will be substantially influenced by noise emission. Them sucker’s is LOUD and I’m interested in a quiet (but good) one.
 
I bought one of these pumps last year when I was dealing with a flooded shop, I was hoping I could adapt it to my ShopVac. No dice, only fits Ridgid. I'll post it for sale in BST. $20

pump1.JPG pump2.JPG
 
I've got a small ~3 gallon wet dry that we use if water is involved, it might be a ridged. Everything else in the shop is covered by an old wall mounted central vac with a 40-50ft hose. Adding a separator to it is on my list of things to do, changing bags gets old.
 
I buy at least 15-20 a year.( work related) We always buy the Lowe’s shopvac because there’s one close to the office. We buy the sub 100 bucks ones. We consider them Disposable. They honestly don’t seem to do as well as the ones made years ago.
 
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