Shop floor vacuum testing is time consuming for a small business person and even more problematic is that there are so many to choose from. Most retailers won’t let you try them on in the store before you buy, but if you pick the wrong one, you’ll regret it.
After testing the commercial vacuum cleaners available to the public, we have some recommendations. If you’re going to buy a commercial vacuum from a major retailer instead of buying an industrial vacuum like a quiet and powerful Karcher or WAP, then these are the results you need to know. We tried many things first. Sawdust suction from a five gallon bucket. Sucking up different sized steel washers, sucking up water from a five gallon bucket and then measuring the decibels as we went. We tested the Craftsman 5.5 Hp 16 Gallon Vacuum. The Genie 6.0 hp 16 gallon vacuum. Ridgid 6.0 hp vac and Shop-Vac 6 hp 16 gallon shop vac.
Here are the results. The wood chip vacuum was won by Shop-Vac Vacuum, which took just 11.4 seconds. Second was the Ridgid with 12.4 seconds. Last the Craftsman in 14.1 seconds. For the water test, the winner was Genie with the five gallon bucket of water emptied in 7.3 seconds, Craftsman second with 9.4 and Ridgid and Shop-Vac tied for last with 9.6 seconds to empty the five gallon bucket of water. The noise factor is also important. The decibel rating for the Shop Vac was the lowest at 81 dB at a distance of five feet. The Craftsman was at 86 dB and the Ridgid at 88 dB. Last and loudest was the Genie at 90 dB. We think the Genie fared worse due to the high tone of the motor while under higher suction demands. But it absorbed the water faster while making this noise. It won the water suction test.
We can also recommend the muffler, which is available through Craftsman or Ridgid as an accessory. With some teflon tape it can be made to fit both the Genie and the Shop Vac without loss of suction. It’s a simple baffle system, which interrupts airflow and silences noise and high-pitched, shrill sounds. It will lower the aspirations between 5 and 7 decibels. If you put it on the exhaust port of your vacuum for a blower it will work and it costs $10.00.
You can order it from the Kmart-Sears catalog or buy the hardtop model off the shelf at a Home Depot. Another great accessory to add to your arsenal is the rain gutter accessory for around $7.00, which is also available through Craftsman or Ridgid. It is a molded piece of bent plastic capable of helping you clean rain gutters. These are the websites we found to help you learn more about Shop Vacs.
It requires about 6 amps from its 36 amp generator during runtime and peak is 12 amps and peak power. Average retail costs range from $78.00 to $99.00, available in yellow with a black lid.
Ridgid WD-1660 with blower, [http://www.ridgidwoodworking.com]
It needs 6.25 amps to run and the maximum peak is 12 amps. The price is around $129.00 but we have seen them on sale occasionally for $99.00 at Home Depot a few times a year. The color is gray and red top, it does not come in yellow. 1-800-474-3443. It has a twenty foot cord which is good.
Craftsman 113.177370 Usually sells for $99.00, sometimes more, but seems to be constantly on sale. It requires 5.5 amps to run and peaks at 11.4 according to the manual, but we got to 13.8 amps sucking up water. Also note that Craftsman went bankrupt but the good news is they are still in business and Craftsman has a 1 year warranty and if you buy with Sears card you can get an additional 3 year warranty for $15.00 we recommend this. 1-800-377-7414. Available only in red and black hood. The oldest and most popular brand of shop vacuum cleaners.
Genie PRO 600Q. 6 amps running, 12 peak.
It comes in yellow with a black cap. Prices are usually under $100.00, normally on sale for $89.00 and the sale is around $95.00 at Home Depot, Target, Loews, Home Depot and Wal*Mart.
After all of this testing, our research has concluded that because of the unit color, noise, and performance of these four best-selling shop vacs, we like the Shop-Vac model, with the muffler attachments at Home Depot from Ridgid wrapped three layers of one-inch-wide Teflon tape and stuck to the vacuum’s exhaust to quiet it down a bit.
Here are some other reasons to choose this unit over the others; Genie was too strong to use in office parks near clients, but we liked the color. Craftsman was good but we felt the red color and noise was an issue and also the lid falls off too easily when trying to move it, we didn’t like the latches or the cradle used to maneuver it took up too much space in the store. Ridgid has a gross color and the same large crib as the craftsman. We liked the idea of the blower, but not powerful enough to get water out of cars and no real accessory available to blow door jams. So that feature is not necessary and is probably the reason for the higher price.
Shop-Vac has a ridge on the inside of the bucket, so to empty it, you have to completely flip the vacuum over, which was a hassle. But in the end, the silence and the adjustability of the Ridgid accessory to make it even quieter got us down to 75 decibels, which is more than acceptable in office parks. Enough to let people know you’re there, but not enough to disturb or interfere with their phone calls, conferences, meetings, or conversations.
You can also communicate with your employees while you work, as long as you are within 10 feet of each other. It’s also nice when we attached a 30-foot pool hose to it, the Shop-Vac was still able to get adequate suction to pick up water from a carpet that was pressure washed to remove stains and dry it. Other good things that we think would add to the longevity of these units was the fact that Shop-Vac had a choice of dry collection filter bags and cartridges, either single or two stage pleated and a foam filter to collect water or a filter cover. about option. Like most of these they had Drum Liners
Consumer Reports had an article in their magazine, which rated the unit high but gave Craftsman the winning seal of approval. Other reports have been divided. Now keep in mind that we prefer the WAP, blue cube, black top drive to these off-the-shelf drives and they are much quieter by 25 decibels or more. The WAP with a ten meter vacuum hose draws much better airflow than any of these and is about 20% more powerful. It uses the same amps more or less.