I've decided to get a wall mountable shop vac for my detached garage that the vette lives in. I got the idea the other day Christmas shopping with my wife and I slipped off and went to sears. Anyway they had a 5 gallon wet/dry wall mountable unit I liked for $99.00 but was out of stock. Since then I checked out local Lowes and they have a really nice Kobalt 5hp unit I like better. My question for the group is, do any of you use/have wall mountable shop vac that you recommend?

Thanks,
Steve

 

I don't use a mountable because I tend to haul my vac from the garage to room to room, to out in the yard and anywhere I need to suck something up - including charcoal ash out of my Weber - bamboo leaves - crap in the piston hole after cleaning up the deck of a block - Simple Green hosed off with water from my garden hose on tile floors, etc, etc. And it really depends on what you're going to use it for. Most of the guts; ie, the electric motor, for SEARS, Shop VAC, Rigid are all the same and I guarantee you that they will all burn out (often within a matter of days) if you start using them for dust collection while sanding, particularly drywall, and that's while using a bag (oh - and those bags tend to break and you need to catch that immediately or they will blow dust out of the exhaust and you will spend the rest of your lifetime trying to get it up). The warrantys, though they seem generous, require that you return the motor to them for service or replacement - a real hassle if you're in the middle of a job. So, if you're going to use your vac for this sort of stuff, buy something else from a specialty shop. You'll spend 3x's as much, but it will last a hell of lot longer. Otherwise, 18 months to 2 years is probably the best you'll see and don't be surprised that when you go to replace it, the design has changed and the new model won't fit the wall mount you've all ready installed (which for me would require some drywall work if I didn't want to stare at a couple of holes from the old mount).

 

Buy the best one you can afford. Definitely get one with your usage in mind as suggested. And ditto on the sheetrock dust. Nothing will cause one to fail faster than sheetrock dust. That goes for anything exposed to it. Every time you start the vac it will spew sheet rock dust back out all over the place.

 

i've used shop vacs for sheetwall dust for years. just make sure you keep the filter clean, it'll be fine.

I have one of the larger sears brands that the motor comes off so I can use it as a blower and I have a small portable black and decker I use for cars.

 

I thought about one of the wall-mounted vacs but with a three car garage, the hose is just long enough to reach the corners and I would have to stretch it over the tops of the Vettes. And the only place in my garage where it would be centrally located to use doesn't have a nearby wall outlet.

The capacity of the wall mount vacs is much less (5 gallon??) and I like the portability of the roll-around units. I have an old 10 gallon Shop-Vac with a metal can and it has worked great for over 20 years now. Filters and dust bags are still available and I can use generic 2" replacement hoses.

 

I have three: Sears baddest and a Sears wall mount at
home, and an older Sears (1978ish) that was pretty bad
then but only medium now. The wall-mount is the dust
collector for my radial arm saw. The old one at the week
end place has seen better days (have to duct tape the
top on) but runs fine.

Once you use a filter for wet or drywall dust, don't use
it for normal stuff.

The Sears latching hoses are great.

I'd recommend mounting a wall-mount in the rafters
of the middle of the garage if it's used as a normal
vac.

Write the p/n and color code for the filter on vac with
a sharpie.

I'm not at all impressed with Kobalt stuff.


Chuck

 

 

Thanks for the responses!!

I have decent luck with the "Walmart" varity of Shop Vacs. I agree the key is to keeping a clean filter on them when working with fine material like sheetrock. My man cave is is 20 * 24 and is full. That's why I want a wall mount. The Lowes model has a remote on/off switch which would be handy. My primary uses will be the vette and small cleanup jobs from the messes I make playing with the vette.

Steve

 

I have a Ridgid Stor-N-Go from Home Depot that I've been pretty happy with. It's not hard to remove from the wall mount if need be.

http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/WD5500-W...c/EN/index.htm

 

I've had 5 different ones. From 2-Shop-Vac, 1-Craftsman, & 2-Ridgid.

Current one Ridgid is over 15 years old, lives in the small garage, gets cleaned after every use, dry or wet, has foam filter cover and paper filter bag over foam cover which covers the filter. I got 2 extra hoses which gives me about 20 feet of hose to reach anything, replaced 10' power cord with a 50' heavy duty extension cord.

Life is good with the wet vac.

 

I wouldn't have the wall mounted one. Mine has just gone too many places with me for me to consider one that wasn't mobile.

Mine has a home under the work bench where it stays plugged in and ready to go for anything. Extension hoses are close by as well....so I can push "on" and clean whatever/whenever.

Mine is the "Shop Vac" brand 6.0 HP with a 16 gallon tank......that thing lifts up the carpet in the house when I use it inside. I'll shampoo the carpets inside with the old fashioned Electrolux three brush carpet cleaner.....and then suck up the water/grime after the with the shop vac.

I've also made attachments so I can hook the Vac to my Sanding machines, both belt and orbital.