EZ, cheapo shop vac hose repair

[JDgreen227]

I am sure many of the TBN members have a shop vacuum with a 2 1/2 inch hose, if you are like me, you will sooner or later break the hard plastic swivel end on your "crushproof" hose. Of course you cannot buy just that part, they want you to buy a new hose instead.

I fix mine with caps from an empty bottle of Clorox Stain Fighter and Color Booster. Cut the very top off the cap, and odds are it will be a press fit in both the end of the vacuum hose and the vacuum port. No, it will not swivel, and no, it isn't color coordinated. But is it ever a fast and cheap repair.....:thumbsup:

 

[groundcover]

Nice fix ! Gotta love the no cost fixes !:thumbsup:

 

[MoKelly]

Does this mean I now need to start taking stains out of my clothes and try to make the colors brighter? There is always a downside to everything!:laughing:

Seriously, good tip and thanks.

MoKelly

 

[deepNdirt]

clever idea:thumbsup: I'll have to remember this trick, \
I do basement finishing and use a shop-vac quite frequently, I have need to exhaust it to the outdoors, so I set the vacuum inside at about halfway to the door, I then use the large hose that came with the shop-vac connected to the exhaust outlet and 10ft of PVC pipe to extend on out the door or window,
I found at a yard sale a length of hose from a house vacuum cleaner, paid 1.00 for it... it must have been an option to the vacuum but was never used and just discarded, when I pulled it out of its plastic bag it came out like a slinky toy, Just kept stretching and stretching, when laying it out on the floor it would be 4 ft. but it will stretch out to 12ft. and quickly recoils back up as you move back toward the shop-vac, the new hose is 1 3/4 diameter and I had to adapt it to the shop-vac by using an old smaller shop-vac hose connector that I had, it makes it allot easier having not to drag the vacuum around with me:thumbsup:
Just though I'd throw this in here, if you can ever find these type of hoses grab them up you'll find them quite handy,

 

[JDgreen227]

Have never seen a house vac hose that was that long, although I have a few shorter ones. The one disadvantage about a house vacuum hose is that no matter how powerful a shop vac you have, the smaller hoses really reduce the amount of suction available. Another thing...irks the bleep out of me the companies that make shop vacuums didn't use the standard 2 inch size that PVC pipe would connect to, instead they use something oddball so you are stuck with their overpriced hoses and attachments.

 

[deepNdirt]

Have never seen a house vac hose that was that long, although I have a few shorter ones. The one disadvantage about a house vacuum hose is that no matter how powerful a shop vac you have, the smaller hoses really reduce the amount of suction available. Another thing...irks the bleep out of me the companies that make shop vacuums didn't use the standard 2 inch size that PVC pipe would connect to, instead they use something oddball so you are stuck with their overpriced hoses and attachments.

Actually come to think of it, it might not have been from a vacuum cleaner at all, I got it in a high end Home community subdivision and the hose might have been meant to use with a central vac system, this would explain the expandable length
My shop-vac is a Rigid 3.5 hp -9 gal has 2 1/4 inlet/outlet's and a 2"od pvc slips right into the 2 1/4 hose, I have another rigid exactly like it in my shop with 2" pvc plumb to my saw's and then to the shop-vac, it seems to suck with no problem over some 20ft lengths of pipe, but yes when downsizing to a 1 3/4 it restricts it somewhat

 

[Fixemall]

I'm an avid "trash picker" and use a length of that expandable hose over the exhausts on machines in my shop to keep the place from looking like a dead show, especially in cold weather. I fitted a piece of aluminum irrigation pipe for the end where it touches the hot pipe and it works well.

 

[likesowls]

I am sure many of the TBN members have a shop vacuum with a 2 1/2 inch hose, if you are like me, you will sooner or later break the hard plastic swivel end on your "crushproof" hose. Of course you cannot buy just that part, they want you to buy a new hose instead.

I fix mine with caps from an empty bottle of Clorox Stain Fighter and Color Booster. Cut the very top off the cap, and odds are it will be a press fit in both the end of the vacuum hose and the vacuum port. No, it will not swivel, and no, it isn't color coordinated. But is it ever a fast and cheap repair.....:thumbsup:

Wonderful!! I am not abusive to my shop tools but I just broke my Shop Vac hose for the second time in about 2years. When I looked at the replacement Shop Vac connector, I noticed that they seem very thin where there would be stress on a Shop Vac as you pull it (it is on casters, right?). Our local Walmart Super Store does not carry the hose but I am pretty sure that Home Depot would. This fix is great because I feel like a sucker buying a new $25 dollar replacement hose that has design (intentional?) flaws? Thank you very much!!

 

[zing]

Actually come to think of it, it might not have been from a vacuum cleaner at all, I got it in a high end Home community subdivision and the hose might have been meant to use with a central vac system, this would explain the expandable length
My shop-vac is a Rigid 3.5 hp -9 gal has 2 1/4 inlet/outlet's and a 2"od pvc slips right into the 2 1/4 hose, I have another rigid exactly like it in my shop with 2" pvc plumb to my saw's and then to the shop-vac, it seems to suck with no problem over some 20ft lengths of pipe, but yes when downsizing to a 1 3/4 it restricts it somewhat

I can back you up on the pvc pipe. I have one of the same Craftsman garbage can size shop vac very similar to the OP's. When I bought my farm there was about a hundred years of bat guano in the attic. Not kidding, the piles were actually 1 and 2 feet high in some of the common roosting spots. As many of you probably know, bat guano, releases toxic fumes if you let it pile up, due to the fungus spores in it causing a disease called histoplasmosis. I wanted to remove the bat poop, without spreading the spores all through the house, so I parked the shop vac outside on the lawn. I used a small piece of 2 " pvc pipe at the inlet, to an elbow pointing up, to a 10 foot pipe, to an elbow pointing in my second floor bedroom window, to a 10 foot pipe across the room, to an elbow pointing up, to a pipe going up through the attic hole in the ceiling, to an elbow to another 10 foot pipe. Then I had the flexible shop vac hose duct taped to the last pipe. I must have had 40-50 feet of pipe and 4 elbows between the vac and my hose end, but it worked brilliantly. I could walk around the attic wearing an asbestos mask, and suck up all the guano piles and I never one had a clog. When the suction dropped/stopped I knew the vac canister was full and I was filling the hose, so I went down and emptied the canister into a garbage bag. I ended up filling about 10 garbage bags with poop and poop coated styrofoam peanut style insulation. It really did work amazingly well.