Good cheap shop vac (for shed and reno work)

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  777 on 06/03/2012 - 06:21

  saw one dry and wet vac 20 l for $49 at bunnings, otherwise RYOBI simlar is in bunnings around 75 ish all the time

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  ESEMCE on 06/03/2012 - 07:51

  Grab one off a hard rubbish pile..
  Then you truly don't care what happens to it!

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  Geewhizz on 06/03/2012 - 09:34

  We bought a Ryobi at Bunnings for around $79 - stainless steel bin, with a longer hose than most others offer, and it does the job just fine.

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  llama on 06/03/2012 - 11:06

  I've used a lot of these. It's really important to research the filters, or you will die of frustration.

  When you are renovating, stuff like plaster and cement dust causes major problems for vacuum cleaners. The dust is pretty fine, and moisture in the air causes it to kind of congeal onto the paper filter surface, completely blocking it very quickly.

  Since it's paper, you can bash it (into a plastic bag, or even better over the fence into the neighbour's open windows) and get a lot off, but you'll never get 100% so even with regular (every hour) cleaning in a pretty short time the filter becomes completely gunged up and needs replacing.

  Some vacs have a removeable (aditional) foam filter that is washable. You still have the paper/hepa filter but the foam acts as a pre-filter to slow down the blockage of the paper filter. If you get a couple of the foam filters as spares, you can keep washing / drying them as you go… pop the top, change the foam filter, wash the old one, continue.

  I tried out a tie-on cloth bag accessory thing in my Vac recently, and it was absolutely useless. It blocked within minutes. I got that from Bunnings, in the Shop Vac department.

  Note - these comments relate specifically to the fine plaster/cement dust. If you are just vacuuming up wood shavings, you won't have this issue at all.

  The absolute best thing I've ever used is our Valet inbuilt ducted vacuum cleaner. It has a massive paper bag, so it took quite a long time to completely block. Unfortunately, when they DO block, the suction from the 2.5HP Valet motor is so strong that the bag bursts… completely filling the insides of the machine with plaster dust. I ended up blowing up the motor in the Valet because of doing this, and now it's gunna cost $300 to replace it LOL.

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    Telios on 06/03/2012 - 14:56

    With industrial vacuums, you're best of getting the paper bag disposable types for most jobs (for concrete slurry or plasterboard dust, they have special vacuums for these with multiple stage filtering)

    Generally for a standard wet/dry vacuum a permanent cloth/fibre filter that can be washed/air washed and re-used; a one-use paper filter bag; and for wet material, you take BOTH filters out (unless manufacturer specifies otherwise)

    For workshop dust/wood shavings/metal shavings spending around $200 would get a industrial vac that will survive, for plasterboard/concrete/aspestos/fibreglass you will need to be very careful not to end up hurting yourself as many industrial vacs DO NOT come with HEPA filters by default.

    The ones we use for most worksites are:
    http://www.kerrick.com.au/products/product.php?product_id=46

    For something more reasonable in price ($299)
    http://www.bunnings.com.au/products_product_ryobi-60l-wet-dr…