How to Choose a Shop Vac

A wet /dry shop vac is a great tool and addition to any home. The uses for shop vacs are many and varied from cleaning out your car to sucking up a spill from a carpet. Shop vacs have a few major advantages over your normal household vacuum cleaner. For one, shop vacs can suck up liquid or dry material. Additionally shop vacs tend to be more powerful, and can suck up larger diameter items than a normal vacuum can. In this article we will take a look at all the things you need to know when considering a shop vac purpose.

To begin you should consider the size of the tank that you will want for your vac. Vacs come in any size from 1 gallon all the way up to 55 gallons. If you are primarily planning on vacuuming up dry materials then a smaller vac may be suitable. If you are thinking that you will have quite a bit of liquid to vacuum up from time to time, then you should go with a larger model. My recommendation is to go with a 16 gallon model - since this is big enough to handle most liquid clean ups but not to big to move around. At the same time you are considering tank size, you should also consider the type of material that the tank is made out of. Tanks can come in plastic or stainless steel models. Stainless steel tanks are a little easier to clean as material seems to stick less to the metal tanks than plastic.

The next item you should consider when purchasing a shop vac is the horsepower (HP) rating of the motor. Generally the more horsepower the motor is rated the stronger the suction of the vacuum. I usally go for the highest horsepower I can get for the tank size that I have selected (usually around 4 to 6HP).

The next option you should consider is the type of vac. Vacs come in corded, cordless (battery), rolling, or wall mountable hang up types. The cordless shop vacs are nice for cleaning up small messes, but you wouldn't want to rely on them for a big job. The wall mountable types are nice if you are looking to install a vac in a shop area and don't plan on ever having to move it.

After you have selected your vac type then its time to look at the features which may come with the shop vac. Features vary from, longer power cords, self retracting power cords, on board tool accessory storage, a blower feature, quiet operation, built in liquid pump, and so on. Depending on your particular needs you should select the options that you think you will get the most use out of.

Shop vacs are widely available at any home improvement store. You can expect to pay $50 on the low end all the way up to $300 on the high end. Price will definitely reflect the features and power rating of the unit that you choose. Currently the sweet spot seems to be around $149 on sale for a decent full-featured model.