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Garage vacuum, which to purchase?

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IONH

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The "what did you do in your garage today" thread got me thinking about installing a wall mounted garage vacuum. So off I went to Amazon to see what was out there.

The majority of the vacuums have complaint about clogging easily when attempting to **** up even leaves in the fall. I often get a car in my garage with a lot of pine needles and acorns which I want to **** away and use my shop vac for that. I'll also sometimes have nuts or broken off bolts that are in a pile of debris which will not be used again that I want to **** up.

This seems that I would want a vacuum with at least a 2" ID hose seeing as my shop vac must have a 2.5-3" hose and never gets clogged.

Can anyone suggest one? I don't want to say price is not an object, but I am not against paying $200-300 if it'll do the job of a shop vac but be wall mounted with a reasonable length (20+ foot) hose.
 
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bdamico

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I just converted my whole house vac into a garage/car vac. It came with the house and sucked at cleaning my house--but it rocks for what I use it for. Much more powerful than other stuff you may find. I'd probably check CL for one used.
 

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Outlawmws

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IONH said:
The "what did you do in your garage today" thread got me thinking about installing a wall mounted garage vacuum. So off I went to Amazon to see what was out there.

The majority of the vacuums have complaint about clogging easily when attempting to **** up even leaves in the fall. I often get a car in my garage with a lot of pine needles and acorns which I want to **** away and use my shop vac for that. I'll also sometimes have nuts or broken off bolts that are in a pile of debris which will not be used again that I want to **** up.

This seems that I would want a vacuum with at least a 2" ID hose seeing as my shop vac must have a 2.5-3" hose and never gets clogged.

Can anyone suggest one? I don't want to say price is not an object, but I am not against paying $200-300 if it'll do the job of a shop vac but be wall mounted with a reasonable length (20+ foot) hose.
Click to expand...

My kids have only managed to clog my 12 Gal Rigid one time, because a stick got caught sideways. the 16 gal is even more powerful I understand... With my old shop vacs it was a multiple times a use deal, even with me doing the work.
 
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Dan in Pasadena

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IONH, I'm the guy that posted the pics of the Bissell GaragePro in the "What Did You Do In Your Garage Today" thread.

I think you've got a fundamental problem with trying to pick up pine needles without clogging using a wall mount type vac. The reason is the length of individual pine needles is much longer than the I. D. of the hoses. I THINK the walk mounts always use smaller I. D. hoses to compensate for extra length.

I think you'll be much happier with the biggest conventional shop vac you can get. Either that or stop parking under pine trees. The sap is effing up your paint anyway, lol.
 
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IONH

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Dan in Pasadena said:
IONH, I'm the guy that posted the pics of the Bissell GaragePro in the "What Did You Do In Your Garage Today" thread.

I think you've got a fundamental problem with trying to pick up pine needles without clogging using a wall mount type vac. The reason is the length of individual pine needles is much longer than the I. D. of the hoses. I THINK the walk mounts always use smaller I. D. hoses to compensate for extra length.

I think you'll be much happier with the biggest conventional shop vac you can get. Either that or stop parking under pine trees. The sap is effing up your paint anyway, lol.
Click to expand...

haha, I actually have no pine trees, so that's not really my concern. However, I do often have to vacuum out an old mower engine top which would be full of mouse nest with acorns and other debris. Plus I often get a car in my shop which has sat under trees (not necessarily of the pine variety) for years and I want to **** up all that stuff by the wiper blades which I can easily do with my normal shop vac.

Oh, and nuts and bolts are a must as well as so many cars I end up snapping the bolt heads or cutting them off and would like to just vac them up instead of sweeping.

I almost wonder if I should see about getting a longer hose for my standard shop vac and then make a shelf for it on the wall. I don't need 30 or 50 feet, 20 would be fine.

All the pictures of garage vacs in use show pristine garages. Mine's the opposite of that and gets worked hard.
 
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philwire

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One morning my wife was going to Home Depot for some flowers and asked me if I needed something. I asked her for a small shopvac, something around 40$ no more. She came back with a 160$ shopvac that was on special for 120$. That thing is so huge I can't even hold it while vacuming in the van I have to lift it in. Thinking about changing the coasters for bigger rubber ones because it's impossible to drag in the grass.
 
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wb2vsj

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Why not just mount a shop vac on a platform on the wall? Or are you trying to go smaller to save space?


I've got that 16 gallon RIDGID that was mentioned with an extra length of hose and a foot operated on/off switch. I have it stowed under a bench. Nice "sucker". I use it on my Drill press all the time picking up metal shavings.
 
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IONH

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wb2vsj said:
Why not just mount a shop vac on a platform on the wall? Or are you trying to go smaller to save space?

I've got that 16 gallon RIDGID that was mentioned with an extra length of hose and a foot operated on/off switch. I have it stowed under a bench. Nice "sucker". I use it on my Drill press all the time picking up metal shavings.
Click to expand...

That might be what I end up doing in the long run. The narrower body of a wall mounted vac would have been nice to have.
 
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RedAggie03

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31XxsgEZuwL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


45-784_bk_thumbProduct.jpg


I use this one and have REALLY liked it so far for the cost. I like the nice long hose (that's what SHE said - OHHHHHHHHHH!)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003V5L686/?tag=atomicindus08-20
 
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UpstateNY

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RedAggie03 said:
31XxsgEZuwL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


45-784_bk_thumbProduct.jpg


I use this one and have REALLY liked it so far for the cost. I like the nice long hose (that's what SHE said - OHHHHHHHHHH!)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003V5L686/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Click to expand...

RedAggie03, that shop vac one you have ***** compared to this one posted by vart04

http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hardw...&storeId=10051


It's all about suction, 88 -Inch sealed pressure/water lift for the VacMaster, 55 for the Shop Vac. And you can get the VacMaster from Amazon for the same price as at home despot
 
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kartracer23

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SMKS

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What is the country of origin on the Vacmaster vacs? I've only seen one in person and it was made in China.

That GarageVac brand model seems interesting. There are several for around $200 on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00211R6W6/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Here are a couple more I found today.

This one is also made in the USA:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003WSGV0U/?tag=atomicindus08-20

The reviews for this one claim it's made in Canada, but the listing doesn't say. I'd definitely email the company and find the country of origin before buying it to find out where it's made.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000289920/?tag=atomicindus08-20
 
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IONH

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kartracer23 said:
I've got one of those in my kart shop. I'll buy another for my new garage. And I got the 6hp VacMaster roller for my portable. I've also got a 5 hp Shop Vac and a 5 HP Craftsman wall mount. Neither of them even come close to the power of the VacMasters I have. Esp. the 6 hp. You have to be CAREFUL that that thing.
Click to expand...

Do you think it can pick up nuts and bolts that are around 1" in diameter?

Seems like a great price and the cord length will make it easy to pop off the wall and bring further if needed.

The 1.8" hose seems to be one of the larger ones available on wall mounted vacuums. I only see a 2 year warranty though.
 
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thetreshon

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IONH said:
Can you do me a favor and measure the inner diameter of the hose? A picture with a tape measure across it would be even better. :beer:
Click to expand...


Hey IONH, my dad isn't good at all at taking pics and emailing them to me, but i asked him to measure and he said "1.26 about 1 1/4" pipe."

I'm assuming he used a digital caliper for the measurements.
 
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kartracer23

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IONH said:
Do you think it can pick up nuts and bolts that are around 1" in diameter?

Seems like a great price and the cord length will make it easy to pop off the wall and bring further if needed.

The 1.8" hose seems to be one of the larger ones available on wall mounted vacuums. I only see a 2 year warranty though.
Click to expand...

I've never tried to see what it would / wouldn't pick up. I just know that compared to my others, it's more powerful (with new filters in all). The hose is 10X better than my Craftsman wall mount. One section of it is 'slinky' style hose so it's a lot easier to move around stuff than traditional hoses - doesn't get hung up on things. The remote is cool too - just make sure you put the switch to the 'off' position on the unit. I had mine turn on over a weekend by some random radio frequency.

It's rare that I would buy the same item after having one if I needed to replace it. Usually I'll find one I like better or something I don't like about what I bought. The VacMaster is one of the few things I would re-buy. (And my Little Giant Ladder-my new Exterme just came in yesterday!).
 
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IONH

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kartracer23 said:
I've never tried to see what it would / wouldn't pick up. I just know that compared to my others, it's more powerful (with new filters in all). The hose is 10X better than my Craftsman wall mount. One section of it is 'slinky' style hose so it's a lot easier to move around stuff than traditional hoses - doesn't get hung up on things. The remote is cool too - just make sure you put the switch to the 'off' position on the unit. I had mine turn on over a weekend by some random radio frequency.

It's rare that I would buy the same item after having one if I needed to replace it. Usually I'll find one I like better or something I don't like about what I bought. The VacMaster is one of the few things I would re-buy. (And my Little Giant Ladder-my new Exterme just came in yesterday!).
Click to expand...

I was under the impression the whole 20 feet of hose was slinky style. Is that not the case? How much of it is/isn't? Is the length that's not slinky style rigid?.. I'm having a hard time visualizing how that would get navigated into a useful direction.
 
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kartracer23

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IONH said:
I was under the impression the whole 20 feet of hose was slinky style. Is that not the case? How much of it is/isn't? Is the length that's not slinky style rigid?.. I'm having a hard time visualizing how that would get navigated into a useful direction.
Click to expand...

On mine (couple years old), there are two types of hose - the slinky type and a more rigid type. Though it's not as rigid as the hoses on my ShopVac or Craftsman (Craftsman is the worst-you can't coil that thing any smaller than about 6 ft.). You can see how long the slinky type is - it's the one from the unit to the floor (5' maybe? Probably extends to twice that). The more rigid section is on the floor. And you can swap them around and have the slinky part at the end, but it's hard to use a wand with it there.

vacmaster.jpg
 
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IONH

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Thanks for the pictures guys.

Kartracer, I think I may go with yours as it is also so compact and potentially portable if needed.
 
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