SMKS
Well-known member
I already have two shop vacs, a small Stihl shop vac for general cleaning in the car and garage and a larger Dustless Technologies Hepa vac for lead paint and other fine debris.
I’ve been wanting a larger, moderately priced vacuum for sucking up water and general messes that may be too much for the Stihl. I picked up these three and compared them to see which one I like best.
A note on suction:
All these vacuums seem to have good suction, with some variation from my casual testing. My “test” involved sticking my hand partially over the end of the hose to judge the suction.
Frankly, any of these vacuums provide more than enough suction for my needs, and actually too much for some jobs. So, I didn’t do any tests to see how fast they pick up debris or water.
Since any of these will meet my needs, I’m comparing them on noise, build quality and the quality/quantity of attachments.
A note on noise:
I’m not claiming this is a scientific test, so I would encourage the GJ members who always claim “that’s not scientific enough” to save their breath and complain somewhere else. I’m only providing this info to try to show some kind of quantifiable difference in the sounds volumes.
I used an app for my phone to measure the decibels under similar conditions. I plopped each vac into the middle of an in-progress project in my basement, then measured the decibels from seven feet away. I even went as far as to make sure the hose was pointed the same way on each vac because I found pointing the hose end at the phone would increase the db reading.I even introduced some variables, such as switching the positions of the vacuums and the difference in dB ratings stayed pretty similar.
What my experience with these vacuums shows is that there’s more than just pure decibels to consider. For example, the Craftsman produces nearly as many decibels as the Shop Vac in my “testing,” but the noise produced by the Craftsman seems far less grating to me. The Ridgid WD1450 is 4-6 dB lower than the Craftsman and Shop Vac, which is significant, but the type of sound produced also seems more tolerable.
Here's where I did the sound testing:
A note on calling this a “review”:
I’m only judging these vacuums on noise, the attachments they come with and build quality. Those are by far the most important qualities to me. I can’t comment on the long-term durability since this is only an initial review.
I’m sure there are other models people would recommend, but I searched through what was available locally and these are the ones I picked to try out.
====================
Ridgid WD1636 16 gallon purchased at Home Depot for $40 on Black Friday (no pics of this model because I forgot to take them)
http://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-16-Gal-5-Peak-HP-Wet-Dry-Vac-WD1636/204351678#.Up4pieLvZOI
COO: Mexico
Approximate decibels:93- 95
Warranty: Ridgid claims this has a “lifetime” warranty against manufacturing defects.
Pros:
-Cheap
-Big
Cons:
-Really low-quality hose. It’s cheap, stiff and plasticky. Definitely the worst hose of any vacs I’ve owned or used.
-Short hose. I’d like longer than seven feet.
-Really loud.
-Very poor assortment of attachments. Cheap paper filter and only one adapter.
-Jet-like exhaust port. A really powerful jet of exhaust goes straight out the back of the vac and will easily blow around anything in its path. You can buy a diffuser for $13.
Other thoughts:
This is a de-contented model specifically made for Black Friday sales and I was not impressed. By the time you buy other attachments and a better hose you’ll have spent enough that you could have just bought a better quality and better equipped vac in the first place.
If all you want is cheap and big, and don’t care as much about noise or attachments, it’s probably not a terrible choice.
====================
Shop Vac 5876200 12 gallon purchased at Menards for $79.99 after MIR (regularly $129.99)
http://www.shopvac.com/wet-dry-vacs/vac-details.aspx?vacId=399&vacSKU=587-62-00
COO: “Made in the USA with foreign and domestic components”
Approximate decibels: 90-91
Warranty: Four years in home use
Pros:
-Really nice selection of attachments, by far the best of this group. Good non-paper filter that can be used for dry or limited wet pickup.
-Nice quality hose. It’s 10 feet long and much more supple and flexible than the cheap Ridgid’s hose. It’s still more soft and flexible than the Craftsman or WD1450 Ridgid.
-Somewhat diffused exhaust. There are two smaller ports that diffuse the exhaust back and somewhat down, but it will still blow stuff around.
-The cart and big wheels could make transporting this vac easier than other models.
Cons:
-Loud. Shop Vac rates their vacuums on a scale with words like “quiet” and “super quiet.” This vacuum is rated “super quiet,” but on first blush I thought this vac was really loud and the noise is very grating. The interesting thing about this vacuum is that most of the noise seems to come from the exhaust. If they did a little sound control on the exhaust it might be a big improvement.
-Heavy because of the stainless steel tank
-Cheap feeling on/off switch
-Head to tank connection seems the loosest of the three.
Other thoughts:
On paper I thought this would be a sure winner. Quality attachments, a long hose and claimed “super quiet” performance looked like just what I wanted. I was disappointed when I plugged it in and heard how loud it is.
If I didn’t care about noise as much, I’d choose this vac.
I’ve been wanting a larger, moderately priced vacuum for sucking up water and general messes that may be too much for the Stihl. I picked up these three and compared them to see which one I like best.
A note on suction:
All these vacuums seem to have good suction, with some variation from my casual testing. My “test” involved sticking my hand partially over the end of the hose to judge the suction.
Frankly, any of these vacuums provide more than enough suction for my needs, and actually too much for some jobs. So, I didn’t do any tests to see how fast they pick up debris or water.
Since any of these will meet my needs, I’m comparing them on noise, build quality and the quality/quantity of attachments.
A note on noise:
I’m not claiming this is a scientific test, so I would encourage the GJ members who always claim “that’s not scientific enough” to save their breath and complain somewhere else. I’m only providing this info to try to show some kind of quantifiable difference in the sounds volumes.
I used an app for my phone to measure the decibels under similar conditions. I plopped each vac into the middle of an in-progress project in my basement, then measured the decibels from seven feet away. I even went as far as to make sure the hose was pointed the same way on each vac because I found pointing the hose end at the phone would increase the db reading.I even introduced some variables, such as switching the positions of the vacuums and the difference in dB ratings stayed pretty similar.
What my experience with these vacuums shows is that there’s more than just pure decibels to consider. For example, the Craftsman produces nearly as many decibels as the Shop Vac in my “testing,” but the noise produced by the Craftsman seems far less grating to me. The Ridgid WD1450 is 4-6 dB lower than the Craftsman and Shop Vac, which is significant, but the type of sound produced also seems more tolerable.
Here's where I did the sound testing:
A note on calling this a “review”:
I’m only judging these vacuums on noise, the attachments they come with and build quality. Those are by far the most important qualities to me. I can’t comment on the long-term durability since this is only an initial review.
I’m sure there are other models people would recommend, but I searched through what was available locally and these are the ones I picked to try out.
====================
Ridgid WD1636 16 gallon purchased at Home Depot for $40 on Black Friday (no pics of this model because I forgot to take them)
http://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-16-Gal-5-Peak-HP-Wet-Dry-Vac-WD1636/204351678#.Up4pieLvZOI
COO: Mexico
Approximate decibels:93- 95
Warranty: Ridgid claims this has a “lifetime” warranty against manufacturing defects.
Pros:
-Cheap
-Big
Cons:
-Really low-quality hose. It’s cheap, stiff and plasticky. Definitely the worst hose of any vacs I’ve owned or used.
-Short hose. I’d like longer than seven feet.
-Really loud.
-Very poor assortment of attachments. Cheap paper filter and only one adapter.
-Jet-like exhaust port. A really powerful jet of exhaust goes straight out the back of the vac and will easily blow around anything in its path. You can buy a diffuser for $13.
Other thoughts:
This is a de-contented model specifically made for Black Friday sales and I was not impressed. By the time you buy other attachments and a better hose you’ll have spent enough that you could have just bought a better quality and better equipped vac in the first place.
If all you want is cheap and big, and don’t care as much about noise or attachments, it’s probably not a terrible choice.
====================
Shop Vac 5876200 12 gallon purchased at Menards for $79.99 after MIR (regularly $129.99)
http://www.shopvac.com/wet-dry-vacs/vac-details.aspx?vacId=399&vacSKU=587-62-00
COO: “Made in the USA with foreign and domestic components”
Approximate decibels: 90-91
Warranty: Four years in home use
Pros:
-Really nice selection of attachments, by far the best of this group. Good non-paper filter that can be used for dry or limited wet pickup.
-Nice quality hose. It’s 10 feet long and much more supple and flexible than the cheap Ridgid’s hose. It’s still more soft and flexible than the Craftsman or WD1450 Ridgid.
-Somewhat diffused exhaust. There are two smaller ports that diffuse the exhaust back and somewhat down, but it will still blow stuff around.
-The cart and big wheels could make transporting this vac easier than other models.
Cons:
-Loud. Shop Vac rates their vacuums on a scale with words like “quiet” and “super quiet.” This vacuum is rated “super quiet,” but on first blush I thought this vac was really loud and the noise is very grating. The interesting thing about this vacuum is that most of the noise seems to come from the exhaust. If they did a little sound control on the exhaust it might be a big improvement.
-Heavy because of the stainless steel tank
-Cheap feeling on/off switch
-Head to tank connection seems the loosest of the three.
Other thoughts:
On paper I thought this would be a sure winner. Quality attachments, a long hose and claimed “super quiet” performance looked like just what I wanted. I was disappointed when I plugged it in and heard how loud it is.
If I didn’t care about noise as much, I’d choose this vac.
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