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How many gallons wet/dry Shop Vac
QUESTION: There's been a recent discussion in rec.woodworking about how
a shop vac is an essential tool. I emphatically agree.
I've attacked many messes with my shop vac and many pounds of
stuff have passed through those hoses.
What brought this to mind is a recent sales flyer from Sears.
The 3 HP 16 gal wet/dry vac is on sale for $100 with several
accessories (normally $120) (sale ends Saturday 3/21/92).
It's nearly a full moon and I feel silly, so here goes ...
Floop! Gulp!
My Sear's 16 gallon wet-dry vac doesn't have the nicest table manners,
but the 2 1/2 inch diameter hose really gobbles up anything near it!
The hose rarely chokes on anything.
Just poke the nozzle at something and it's instantly
captured and sucked into the bucket.
It's fun feeding the vac all the dirt and scraps and watching all
the dirt get thoroughly overpowered by the suction.
It even swallowed the wire scraps from my telephone wiring.
It may be overkill for many jobs,
but it never wastes my time or effort.
From fine plaster dust to rags, nothing escapes it.
The suction power's really awesome. When the nozzle grabs
something big, it's a tug of war that the vac usually wins.
If it eats something you didn't intent to trash, don't worry.
It doesn't chew or mangle it's food - it just slips-n-slides into
the bucket and is easily retrieved. Just check the bucket when
emptying for any lost treasures.
The bucket's so large, it's hard to fill.
The filter usually surface loads with dust first.
The corrugated paper filter is quite efficient, but difficult to clean,
so I put an old undershirt over it. Any porous cloth should do.
It probably decreases the suction power a little, but
it's a lot easier to clean and protects the filter.
I have an older model where there's a "Y" adapter at the inlet
to prevent stuff from hitting directly on the filter.
Long or stringy stuff clogged there
so I replaced it with a small splash shield.
The new vacs have that design (proving that I was right - yay!).
Looking into the inlet, you can see the filter behind
the small splash shield, so now anything that can slide into the
hose is assured to slip-n-slide all the way into the bucket.
I'm moving into a new apartment and the vac's the first thing I
moved in. It's fantastic at gobbling up all the dirt, dust and debris.
Checking the bucket, I rescued several coins, keys, marbles, nuts and bolts.
It really gulped down a lot!
The car nozzle's really wicked!
It's great at concentrating the power, so it snags stuff really fast.
It's super at cleaning the radiators because the suction really
reaches down between the vanes and pulls out the dust.
It'll grab dust bunnies from several inches away and the slurping sounds
are really intense. It's also good for sucking up water from the
floor, even through a carpet.
I used it to eat the peeling paint and plaster right off the walls.
Very little fell to the floor because the suction was so focused.
When cleaning the apartment, it really reached into the nooks and crannies and
dragged out anything hiding in the molding, and later
slurped up every drop of the dirty water from scrubbing the kitchen floor.
The vac can handle both wet and dry stuff at the same time, but
I cleaned all the dust out of the bucket before sucking up wet stuff
because it would be really icky cleaning out all the slime.
The funnel shaped utility nozzle is good for gathering loose stuff.
I rarely use it because it's so easy for stuff to
slide into the nozzle and disappear!
A plastic shopping bag is sucked away in a flash!
The hose is large enough that it'll eat up styrofoam peanuts in an instant!
The brush nozzle's used the most because the brush loosens
dirt that suction alone wouldn't get, and it gets into corners and edges.
The regular floor nozzle's good for bare floors, and there's a
new convertible nozzle that looks like a box.
One side is for wet pickups, the other for carpets.
I haven't tried it yet.
Some vacs have variable power. Another way to vary the power is to
use the handle accessory, for it has a hole on the side with a
sliding cover that let you bleed off the power.
The handle accessory is very useful because
1) the handle is a lot more comfortable than holding the hose directly
2) the bend is helpful for floor cleaning
3) you can bleed off the suction when full power is overpowering
The "peak horsepower" ratings are bogus.
I saw several vacs of different ratings all listed as drawing 10 Amperes.
There is no technical information in the catalogues
(air moved in CFM, lift in inches of water or mercury, etc.)
so it's hard to really compare the different models.
It's a good idea to wear hearing protectors / earplugs.
It's really loud! And boy does it suck!
ANSWER: I bought one and I TRULY love it! The one I bought from Sears has
3.25 HP, instead of 3.00 HP (they had a small limitted amount of 3.25 HP).
Well worth the $99 bucks and great suction.
I have an older 2.5 Sears shop vac. I was in the store and they
had a return on sale for about half price. When I got it home and started
using it I found out what real noise was about. I took it apart and found
a matchstick in the impeller blade along with some stringy stuff. After
carefull cleaning and balancing, it has becone one of the most used tools
in the shop. Every job ends with its use.
2 weeks ago I was given a big vac. This sits on top of a 55 gal.
drum with the outlet feeding a bag about the size of another 55 gal drum.
The motor is a 2 horse 3 ph. which I will have to find a replacement.
The inlet tube looks to be about 4 in dia. Does any one have any idea
how much this sucker can suck? The pieces that I was collecting to build
my own have now gone on to other people and places.
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