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Questions about Dirt Devil Wet Dry Vac
QUESTION: Hi all. I'm back after a long absence. I've been just too busy to keep
up
with what goes on here daily.
Anyway, I have a 10+ year old Sears wet/dry vac that has serviced me
well for
a long time. It's a 2.25hp 12 gallon model. The problem is, I have a
basement shop and when I turn on the vac, it's so loud the wife and kids
(up
stairs) get irate. So, I just got a new Shop-vac QSP 6hp 18 gallon
model. I
figured more power is always better and I wanted to see if they're as
quiet
as advertised.
Sure enough - this thing is quiet! They don't even hear it upstairs.
It's
even quieter than the Dirt Devil we use for general household vacuuming.
It sucked up a pile of junk nicely. I don't have a scientific way of
comparing the suction of the old vac to the new one, but just holding my
hand
at the end of the hose (both are 2.5") I didn't feel much difference.
Being
the old one is 2.25hp and the new one is 6hp, I expected a noticeable
difference.
One thing I noticed is the 2.25hp is rated at 12.5 amps, while the 6hp
is
rated at 9.5 amps. How does this hp rating work? Why does lower amps
translate to higher hp in the Shop-vac?
ANSWER: At our age, you should be able to smell BS when you're standing in it..
6HP=4476 Watts. At 120V, that's about 37 amps. Everyone who believes 37
amps are flowing in that little cord, please stand up (it would melt).
Who knows what they think, or why they aren't locked up!
We use and abuse shop vacs at work. We use them to clean mud and rocks
and nails and water out of machine base footings. Even to suck up
mixtures of wet concrete and mud. The Sears shop vac is the only one
that has lasted under these conditions and is the most powerful of the
bunch but as you said it makes a heck of a racket. The sears vac can
suck up water from at least an 8' deep hole. None of the others we have
tried can do that. I have no doubt the amperage rating is the most
accurate way of guaging power in a shop vac
I believe that the 6 HP rating has something to do with the maximum HP
the motor can generate when it is suddenly stalled. I don't know what
that has to do with anything. Who cares if it can generate 6 HP for a
millisecond? These ad guys that come up with this crap must surely hate
the fact that all you really have to do is look at the amperage rating
to determine the actual power. They probably don't want to put the
amperage on the machine but are required by electrical codes to do so. I
am sure it cramps their style.
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