Any Recommendations For New Shop Vac?

[tsteahr]

Stihl has a nice looking vac that they rate at 62db. I have not used it. If it is anything like the rest of their products it should be top quality:

Professional Vacuums - SE 122 Professional Vacuum Cleaners for Tough Cleaning | STIHL

 

[snorulz]

I also vote for Rigid, best cheap vac I have seen

 

[TRO]

Another vote for the Rigid. I have one and it works great.

 

[Window Geek]

I vote for the 16 gallon Rigid vac; the best I ever bought. It has a spigot for easy emptying of liquid and can be hooked to a small pump for continuous water removal. It picks up nails, screws, all the way to fine dust. It has plenty of flow to arrest sawdut from my table saw.

I purchased a 12 gallon Rigid Thanksgiving weekend 2009 for my pellet furnace. This one was a little louder, but was around $20.00. (Loss leader) It works fine for my needs, sucking up cold ash and soot, and cleaning up labrador retriever fuzz that otherwise gets everywhere.

 

[robs660]

Best shop vac out there is made by festool, but be ready to shell out $500.00. It has a duel hepa filter and sucks like nothing I have ever had. Lower cost I buy craftsman. They work great for me. I think I have 3 now. Not including my festool that is the first go to

 

[Scooby074]

How much you want to spend? As soon as my old sears noise maker dies im getting a new, quiet model.

Festool is a excellent vac, but im leaning strongly towards a Nilfisk Attix or Bosch as they have self cleaning filters.

Fein also is good but not self clean. Any of those 4 will be MUCH quieter then a traditional shopvac

 

[sixdogs]

Have owned different brands and my vote is the Craftsman from Sears. That is one product that really does the job, the filters are easy to find and it runs forever, Heck, yours was 29 years old.
Buy the biggest and most powerful you can. Plus, there should be some great Thanksgiving/Christmas deals coming. They use it as an incentive.

 

[boatyard]

Fein. Great Vac. Quiet! Not as expensive as the Festool. Long hose. Long cord. Nice attachments. Mine gets used several hours per week with sanders, routers and the biscuit joiner. Nice for cleaning up before finishing projects.

Not cheap, but a serious tool.

 

[EddieWalker]

I went with portable and easy to store everything. I liked the square, stackable, Rigid from Home Depot. I've had it for about 3 years now, and don't have any complaints. I use it for sheetrock, tile and dirt. With a clean filter, it will suck up just about anything!!!!!

What I really like, even more then all the power that it has, is how the hose, cord and attachements store in the sides of the vacuum. It's flat on top, so it stacks with my other tool boxes, and I can stack stuff on top of it.

I noticed that Lowes now has one with a similar design. I forget the brand name, but I was curious about it when I saw it.

I honestly don't know why anybody would need one with all that storage. I've never filled mine up on a job, and I've hauled it all over the place. I even leave it out in the back of my truck in the rain, and it just keeps on working.

Eddie

 

[petes]

I got a Rigid vac for Christmas 'cause I mentioned to my inlaws that my 15 or so year old Shop Vac Quiet Vac was in the process of losing it's bearings... refitting a couple boats and vaccuming up lots of saltwater over the years was rough on it.

The Rigid has plenty of suction when the filter is clean, and the pleated filter is easy to remove with a locking ring/disk on the filter is a real pain to clean, often making nearly as much of a mess trying to clean the clogged filter as I cleaned up with the vac on the last use.. It would have been much better if the air inlet came in at an angle so that the swirling air in the canister centrifugally separated some of the dirt/junk/dust rather than it pelting directly into the filter. It's low profile, which means it doesn't tip over, but also takes up quite a bit of floorspace. I'm going to try making a fabric cover for the pleated filter - less surface area but hopefully the caked dust will just fall off it when the vac isn't running. Also will try putting a PVC 45 in the canister off the hose inlet to get the air swirling... someday.