What to look for in a Shop Vac?

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cptzippy

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I've got a couple of $25 gift certificates to Home Depot and I've decided to get a shop vac to do my cars as well as general household stuff. What should I look for? Any particular model you guys like?
 
Double Dizzle said:
Horsepower is most important in my opinion.
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Horsepower is only a "peak" rating. Since your shop vac doesn't run at "peak" most of the time, the horsepower rating is somewhat useless. It's like when they write "4000 Watts Peak" on a car audio amplifier, when the RMS value (the constant sustainable output) is more like 50 watts.



CFM, Cubic Feet Per Minute, is important. This is how much air the shop vac can move with it's vacuum motor. The higher the number, the more air moved.



SP is also an important measure. It stands for Sealed Pressure, and represents how far up a glass tube the vacuum can lift a column of water, measured in inches.
 
cptzippy said:
I've got a couple of $25 gift certificates to Home Depot and I've decided to get a shop vac to do my cars as well as general household stuff. What should I look for? Any particular model you guys like?
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I've had the same vac for 20 years so I haven't been shopping for 'em lately.



I would personally never by a Shop Vac that didn't have a removeable blower. Nice for blowing leaves and crud out the garage door as well as blowing water off cars and especially motorcycles. I would avoid a tall vac canister, they tend to tip over when you pull 'em around by the hose. I don't know if they even make dry-only vacs but if they do I'd want a wet/dry.



TL
 
I have a large one and I don't like it. The hose is too big to get into crevices and such. Stuff that is inbeded in the carpet is hard to remove. For your car get something else. It is great for garage floor clean up. They do tip very easy and the wheels fall off too. I also use mine to clean the driveway of dirt, pineneedles etc...It can be kind of addicting!!!
 
I agree with WAS about cfm's being more important than "peak HP". I bought the Rigid (HD's brand) shop vac 6 years ago, and have used it a lot. Performs great, and I have yet to pull it over, even though it has a long hose.



Do yourself a favor and buy a "detailing kit" with it -- it's got the smaller nozzle/crevice tools needed to detail interiors. Here's a link to the one I bought:



RIDGID 14 Gallon Pro Vac WD1450 - WD1450 at The Home Depot
 
WAS;1387732 SP is also an important measure. It stands for Sealed Pressure said:
Most shop vac makers do not rate their suction by water lift. Metro does but they do not sell wet/dry.
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cptzippy said:
I've got a couple of $25 gift certificates to Home Depot and I've decided to get a shop vac to do my cars as well as general household stuff. What should I look for? Any particular model you guys like?
Click to expand...



I got mine from Lowes so i know that doesnt help a lot, but I agree the detachable blower is a GREAT plus. I love being able to have 1 machine that i can blow dry the car/rims/moulding areas where water seeps into and then drips all over once you drive it...and then once your done blowing snap it back into a shopvac mode:)



Just a quick note on blow drying cars..make sure you point the blower AWAY from the car first and turn it on that any built up dust etc from vacuuming gets blown out first and doesnt go all over your freshly washed car.



Mine is a 5.5 peak HP and i think its a 12 Gallon...and i'm quite happy with it.

I've used it for tons of cars and even used it for more hard core jobs like when we drained our pool and the Sub pump we had couldnt get up the last 60 or so gallons on the bottom. Brought my shop-vac down and put the hose in the water and it sucked up a full tanks worth of water in just a couple of minutes (pushing that thing full of water up the incline of the pool to empty it is another story:LOLOL)



I agree with not getting a tall one either...mine is more short/wide and has never tipped and ive yanked that hose mroe than a couple times to get the vacuum itself closer and never had any problems.



Another quick tip...some people put a LITTLE water in the bottom of the vac before using it...it helps to keep the dust down (if you remember to do it).



The little 'detail kit' that was mentioned is a nice little thing to have..i got mine for $12 or so at wal-mart...just make sure you get a zip-lock to keep the attachments in as they are easy to lose.



hope this helps!
 
The ShopVac I have was part of their "quiet" product line. It's been very good and i think they're still offered today.
 
I have an ancient 1.5 hp shopvac, it kinda *ahem* sucks. I really should get a new one, so this topic is somewhat useful to me too. What should I look for in terms of hp cfm, and sp?
 
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