Wet/Dry Vacuum Buying Guide (2019)

http://wet-dry-vac.com/wet-dry-vacuum-guide.html

by walterbell • 4 years ago

165 226 4 years ago

wet-dry-vac.com

gruberjl• 4 years ago

More than I'll ever need to know about vacuums. Next time my wife has a question I may be able to answer.

theseanz• 4 years ago

This site might be able to help also: https://www.vacuumland.org

turdnagel2• 4 years ago

Imagine a world where every product category had someone dedicated enough to build a site like this and keep it up to date. I'd specifically love one for cameras, lenses, and for the analog shooters out there, film.

tantalor• 4 years ago

It's hard to trust a site with nothing but Amazon affiliate links.

shanecleveland• 4 years ago

I would say true for most affiliate sites that are just aggregating the available options.

However, there are certainly sites, and perhaps this is one, where there is considerable credibility (actual interest and knowledge), research and effort that I have no problem with the owner being compensated for providing the resource.

Even if just providing a more intuitive and deeper method to narrow down options to fit a narrower use case (which vac has the longest cord!), then there is added value.

elephanlemon• 4 years ago

I think Ken Rockwell probably qualifies for that. https://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm

buildbot3• 4 years ago

I would strongly recommend against ken rockwell, much of his info is incorrect and he has…strong niche opinions, like RAW files being useless.

trumpablehump• 4 years ago

There exist countless sites for any product category in any language. With zero quality assurance or heart but filled with nothing but useless text and affiliate links.

Affiliate programs have destroyed this kind of web and Google happily suggests these sites as search results.

somehnguy• 4 years ago

Only continues to get worse too. I get ads for AI copywriting services on my social media all the time. Out of curiosity I joined one of the groups for one specific software - just filled with people attempting to do affiliate marketing spam. Not even tech savvy people, just suckers who are following some stupid get rich thing.

It honestly just makes me sad.

Avamander• 4 years ago

GSMArena exists and I really like it. The one I personally miss the most is one for monitors. It's way too difficult to wade trough all the models and not get tricked.

shepherdjerred• 4 years ago

Have you seen https://www.rtings.com/ ?

ciupicri• 4 years ago

https://tftcentral.co.uk/ used to be pretty good, but they don't test too many models.

lastofthemojito2• 4 years ago

I'd prefer such a decentralized world, but heck, if Amazon provided such an accurate, detailed, garbage-free view into product categories I might start shopping with Amazon again.

trabant00• 4 years ago

I would recommend (not necessarily for your categories) https://www.rtings.com/ I use it mostly for monitors, mouse, keyboards, TVs. It does have amazon affiliate links but the test are pretty good (and standardized to allow comparisons) as far as I am concerned.

buildbot3• 4 years ago

Forums are awesome for this, for example. https://www.photrio.com/forum/home/

alexb_• 4 years ago

That's what Reddit is for.

Ajedi32• 4 years ago

Yeah, just about every major hobby subreddit has a wiki which is basically that.

randerson• 4 years ago

https://www.the-digital-picture.com/ seems like a good one for cameras/lenses, and https://cameradecision.com/ is useful for just comparing quantitative data.

pjlegato• 4 years ago

This is pretty much the world we live in now. True aficionados who devote time to discovering, analyzing, and sharing actual quality -- not because they expect to make money from doing so, but simply because they like that category. Untold amounts of time have been spent on this exact thing over the past twenty years.

The problem is discoverability. Though there are more sites like this than ever before, it's hard to find any of them. Google has been thoroughly conquered by content marketing at this point -- if you search for any product category, the first dozens of pages are 100% long form commercial advertising now. They all have much larger budgets and way better SEO skills than the average aficionado.

thestepafter• 4 years ago

Check out Fred Miranda for photography reviews and discussions on equipment.

jrussino• 4 years ago

I check this every time I or someone in my family needs a new bicycle helmet: https://helmets.org/

andrewksl• 4 years ago

I've always liked the lens reviews on https://www.opticallimits.com/reviews

ClumsyPilot3• 4 years ago

Alton Industries makes all Stanley and most Porter-Cable vacs, as well as most Dewalt wet/dry vacuums! Understanding these relationships can be important for your vacuum choice. You might love well Dewalt manufacturers its drills, but that would not be a reason to purchase a large Dewalt vac, since it's not manufactured by them—Dewalt licensed their brand name for vacuums to Alton Industries.

We have gone from branding that consumers revognise to branding spesifically being used to mislead and confuse customers. Hwat went wrong in the market?

DoneWithAllThat• 4 years ago

I think the short answer is that brands as a legitimate thing (a method by which a given maker-of-things could distinguish its products) were a relatively recent invention in human commerce, and were exploitable on a way that only even more recently was discovered. Essentially turns out the approach has a fatal flaw and that flaw has been exposed.

nerdponx• 4 years ago

I suspect that this flaw has been exploited for a long time, and I also would assert that brands have been "a thing" for a long time. A brand is just a systematic attempt by a business to develop name recognition among customers and potential customers.

ClumsyPilot3• 4 years ago

brands as a legitimate thing were a relatively recent invention in human commerce

The origins of Stella Artois can be traced to 1366 when the Den Hoorn brewery was established in Leuven, Belgium

I am sure even cavemen traded sharpened rocks and said 'this one is made by steve, he is really good, so I want more meat for it'

buildbot3• 4 years ago

Could be as simple as metric gaming? Brands where a good metric, but of course, once we decided that, they were not anymore.

zwieback2• 4 years ago

Noticed that at work where we have lots of DeWalt. The vacs are not great.

bombcar4• 4 years ago

They suck because they don't suck?

tptacek• 4 years ago

An entertaining aspect of this is in whiskey, where, for instance, Wild Turkey makes one of the more successful and appreciated bourbons on the market, but also has a very popular rye, which they don't distill: Wild Turkey Rye is a relabeled MGPI whiskey. A surprising number of whiskeys are MGPI.

bombcar4• 4 years ago

Because bourbon takes (something like) ten years to "age" if you want to start a bourbon distillery you either have money to run ten years with no product, or you white label something else for ten years until you get your own going.

So many industries are like this, just out of sight of the average customer, it's hilarious.

adamsmith1432• 4 years ago

What went wrong? What do you mean. The market is operating as intended, it just found yet another way to extract profit from consumers. This time by misleading them about the quality of a product by leveraging a known brand.

VWWHFSfQ• 4 years ago

I believe the OP means what went wrong for consumers.

marcrosoft• 4 years ago

This happens all the time. Quaker State for example is a marketing company they don’t manufacture a drop of oil.

IgorPartola• 4 years ago

It is similar to rent seeking behavior: create a super high quality product with a strong brand name. Then once it gets popular, switch to a cheap product but keep the same brand name. Keep price the same, lower your costs, get more $$.

Part of the problem is also that knock off manufacturing is now quick and pretty good. Snap-On initially had a huge lead on the market because (a) they invented something new and (b) nobody could quickly replicate what they had. Now if they come out with a new type of wrench within a year others will copy the design at a fraction of the cost and it will be almost as good. In most cases it will be way better value for the money.

reaperducer• 4 years ago

It started many decades ago, when low-rent importers and manufacturers bought the rights to out-of-business brand names, then started slapping them on all kinds of cheap junk and advertising them on TV. Even though it had its own store at the Mall of America, "As Seen On TV" is a red flag, not a badge of honor.

Think Crosley record players, or different anti-itch powders, and such.

Some managed to be just-good-enough to crawl back into becoming a real brand with real manufacturing. But some remained just junk, only to disappear again.

Or, in other cases, the manufacturer of cheap Chinese junk will contract with a well-known American brand to put their brand on the junk and offer it as a discount to the American company's existing customers. Readers' Digest clock radios is a good example.

Looking through Goodwill will reveal dozens of these brands, and their junk just before it hits the landfill.

dpeck• 4 years ago

words no longer mean things.

We’re living in a world where nearly everything is low quality. It’s the old Sam Vimes narrative about being poor being expensive, but it is currently challenging for people of any means to find a quality product without loads of research and expertise.

And even then, it’s subject to change as good brands get bought by someone larger or new management comes in and cuts quality to increase margins.

itsoktocry2• 4 years ago

We’re living in a world where nearly everything is low quality.

Can you actually list items that, on a price-adjusted level, are lower quality? Nearly everything is of higher quality and cheaper than it ever was.

tinco2• 4 years ago

Maybe that's true for small consumer expenses, but for things like shop vacs it's really not true. If you spend $100 on a shop vac you'll get a low end shop vac. If you spend $400 or more, you'll get a Bosch or a Festool or whatever the high end vacs are in the US, and it'll be a great shop vac. The amazing thing is that you can actually get decent shop vacs for around $150.

mc322• 4 years ago

I agree that often brands take advantage of their goodwill and take white label products and brand them as their own.

One very popular product was subcompact cars in the '80s when GM, Ford, etc., needed something to offer in a segment they had no expertise in or manufacturing capacity, so they had third string Japanese and S Korean MFs pump out stuff and rebadge them as their own. Often these rebranded Daihatsus, Ssanyang, etc., sucked... but so did Chevy and GM in many respects anyway.

That said, if a brand is quality conscious and can filter on our behalf, I don't see the problem. A perfect example is Apple. They have someone MFG their designs to spec and we receive a quality product.

kennywinker5• 4 years ago

It took me a few tries to read “MFs” as “manufacturers”.

prpl• 4 years ago

Craftsman never manufactured their own things, it was always contracted out. So long as DeWalt is fine with the quality and supports the product I don’t see the difference

aardvarkr• 4 years ago

In this case it’s dewalt, one of the most premium high end tool brands, selling their brand recognition to porter cable, the lowest of the low end tools.

NegativeLatency3• 4 years ago

Craftsman used to have a fantastic return policy

cameldrv2• 4 years ago

A lot of the Made in USA Craftsman hand tools were made by Western Forge. There's usually a "WF" somewhere on the tool on those. These are generally good quality. Craftsman then moved production to China and the Western Forge plant shut down, although the company is still around.

itsoktocry2• 4 years ago

spesifically being used to mislead and confuse customers.

You trust the brand to outsource manufacturing to high-quality suppliers. They're outsourcing 99% of all components anyway. Apple does this. What is the difference?

Cpoll• 4 years ago

Apple designs the object made up of those components, selects the suppliers and QAs the components. They're directly involved in the manufacturing.

Dewalt (Stanley, etc.) is doing none of that, they're just white-labelling. Essentially in this relationship Dewalt is a marketer.

LukeShu2• 4 years ago

(without knowing the details of the DeWalt/Alton deal) There's a difference between "you can design and sell products under our brand" and "manufacture our design for us".

And Apple will even do the reverse, arranging for Apple-designed products to be sold under someone else's brand, if they don't believe that the design is up to usual Apple quality.

samstave6• 4 years ago

https://www.importyeti.com/supplier/suzhou-alton-electrical-...

Here is the likely chinese manufacturer

michaelt• 4 years ago

Hwat went wrong in the market?

If you're the CEO of a company, licensing out your brand seems like free money, in the short term.

If you're a well known international brand of backhoes, and somebody offers you $x00k/year to put your logo on their line of disposable batteries? No cost to you, no effort needed on your part, it's pure profit.

It's only in the medium term you run into problems - if they're shitty batteries, that might damage your reputation and harm your backhoe sales. Or even if they're perfectly good batteries, having your name on consumer-grade disposable items might be a poor association if your main business is all about industrial multi-decade-life products.

Oh, some CEOs would resist the siren song of free money. But others will ignore the 'fuzzy marketing mumbo-jumbo' about 'brand reputation' and comfort themselves with the assumption their customers are sophisticated enough to know the batteries don't reflect on the backhoes. Nobody expects Harley-Davidson baseball caps to be made in a Harley-Davidson factory, after all! And if you've moved jobs before the reputation impact shows up on the bottom line, it'll look like you did a great job.

wmeredith• 4 years ago

This is called cashing out brand equity. Your brand is worth something as a signal. You can cash in on that. If you do it poorly, though, it reduces brand equity. If you do it well, then it is in fact free money other than the time spent on due diligence researching your contractors.

An example of someone currently doing that well is Kirkland house brands at Costco. They are universally known for being an incredible value and just as good or superior to the name brand stuff on the shelf next to them.

An example of someone currently doing it poorly is Pendleton, who is known for making wool blankets that cost $500 and last generations. They have been putting their name all over $20 plastic fleece blankets in the last year or so.

waynesonfire• 4 years ago

furthermore, whether its Alton or Acme Industries it's all the same made in China.

ericd2• 4 years ago

Huh? There is huge variability between factories. It’s not like a country of a billion plus people is doing the same quality work throughout…

twobitshifter2• 4 years ago

In kitchen stuff, licensing out brand names is really bad with kitchen aid. Their mixers are a known quantity but by anything else and you’re getting subpar quality at inflated prices.

For tools, it’s not only brand licensing but mass consolidation. Brands are used similar to car manufacturers.

https://www.protoolreviews.com/power-tool-manufacturers-who-...

Milwaukee Ryobi Rigid and Hart (found at walmart) are all the same manufacturer. I own mostly Milwaukee tool, bought something from Ryobi and had it break right away.

Freestyler_3• 4 years ago

I remember being confused how kitchenaid and competitors calculate how strong they are. The machine has a HP rating and a Wattage, the HP was higher than the wattage when converted. So after some reading it turns out they have a special way of measuring HP. It still confuses me.

shortstuffsushi• 4 years ago

I might be naively interpreting this, but isn't "ownership" of a brand different than manufacturing? For instance, TTI owns Milwaukee, Ryobi... etc, but if I understand correctly, they each still manufacture independently. This would be different from the car manufacturers, where the actual components put into the car are often the same between differing brands under one larger owner (Nissan and Infiniti for instance)

paulmd• 4 years ago

kitchenaid has also been cheapening up their mixers in recent years... the $200 mixer at costco or your department store now has a much weaker motor and plastic gears that can tend to strip over time with certain workloads (particularly the bread-mixing attachment).

(the argument is that the plastic gear serves as a "mechanical fuse" and if something's going to break it's better that it be a $2 plastic gear instead of burning up your motor, but, in the big picture, they're also weakening up the motor, etc.)

tomcam• 4 years ago

That chart is an incredible eye-opener.

Blackthorn5• 4 years ago

Tools get another dimension of that too which can be very frustrating.

I live in the USA and I generally consider Makita (which also doesn't have any other brands or lines, it's just Makita) to be a high-quality tool brand that I'm happy to use and happy to own in the garage. I think most people would agree with that assessment as well. But the Makita tools we get here have nothing on the Makita tools that are actually available in Japan. It's like another tier entirely. I sure wish we could get all that good stuff here.

sosuke• 4 years ago

There are some teardowns on YouTube that show exactly that. AvE I believe has one or two for Makita. I really enjoy his channel. Warning he can be a little crass.

etrautmann• 4 years ago

I used to think that as well, but I've seen three crosscut saws that all lost the thumb switch button, and the general build quality just doesn't seem up to what I would expect.

SoftTalker3• 4 years ago

Almost all car batteries in North America are made by two companies: Exide, or Johnson Controls.

post_break• 4 years ago

I bought the cheap black friday rigid from home depot for $49 and have been pleased with it. I have a koi pond and purchased an expensive pond vacuum however. If you live in an area prone to flooding, it's pretty incredible. Instead of shutting off when full, it has a discharge hose. It can run continuously while vacuuming. Meaning it fills up and then empties itself while running. Would be a godsend if you ever experience flooding inside your home. I hope I never have to use it that way.

sgt• 4 years ago

I need a new dust filter for my Hoover Max Extract Pressure Pro model 60.

Can perhaps anyone on HN assist? It's urgent.

crmd• 4 years ago

This youtube video is an excellent shootout of wet dry vac price/performance.

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSN7PXwn1yU

Summary: SHOP VACS TESTED: Ridgid, Craftsman, Shop Vac, Bauer, DeWalt, Hart, and Stanley tested for horsepower, air speed, suction and noise level. Testing also included speed of vacuuming 5 gallons of water and 50 pounds of sand. Total water holding capacity also measured for each brand. Finally, each brand participated in a "grudge" match when the suction hoses were joined together.

nolan879• 4 years ago

Project Farm really does some very helpful consumer research videos, he is quite active in reading the video comments for suggestions too.

twblalock2• 4 years ago

I wonder where he gets the money to buy all the stuff he reviews. It can't all be coming from Patreon. He also seems to live on, and maintain, a fairly large plot of farmland.

zwieback2• 4 years ago

All of this guy's reviews are instant classics. I watch reviews of stuff I'll never buy.

pitaj• 4 years ago

One thing he can't really cover in his videos is durability.

NotYourLawyer• 4 years ago

He does do stress testing, dropping tools, etc.

jeffbee3• 4 years ago

The problem with this guy's reviews is he's presenting it as a false choice. Here he does 6 mass-market vacuums that are all about the same price, design, and performance. He doesn't really review them on any useful basis, like how long it can run between filter changes, how much toxic dust they spew into the air, etc. This video is basically "which of these garbage vacuums will you regret buying the least?"

A useful review would give you an actual choice: what's the difference between a department store brand $100 vacuum, a $500 vacuum, and a $1000 vacuum?

samstave6• 4 years ago

"how much toxic dust they spew into the air"

This, to me is the most important metric. And from a person who is allergic to absolutely nothing thank spaghetti, I’ve always noticed this aspect of vacuums

To the point where I make an effort to start my vacuum out the door when first starting it such that the initial blow of the fan blasts the dust captured within to the outside.

Most people don’t realize that many vacuums have a small filter for the escape air and they never clean or change that other filter

EDIT: I also, will never have a carpeted home. The reason is, once you have a fully hardwood home, you realize just how much actual detritus accumulates in even the most lightly traveled areas.

In the 1980s we bought a house in Tahoe, and it had 2" (TWO INCH LONG) shag carpet. and it was RAINBOW COLORED.

I wish I had a pic of it, but it was literally 2" long rainbow shag carpet that was a nightmare.

https://i.imgur.com/u4sFJj2.jpg

But the entire house. 1982 cocaine house.

Carpets were invented to hide dirt. The history of the vacuum is quite amazing.

Blackthorn5• 4 years ago

A useful review would give you an actual choice: what's the difference between a department store brand $100 vacuum, a $500 vacuum, and a $1000 vacuum?

Strongly disagree. He's reviewing vacuums that someone would actually use in their shop environment. Who the heck is going to risk dropping $1000 on a vacuum for use in a busy shop? I'd be paranoid that something would scratch it. Or never want to use it outside of the basic parameters it's designed for. Whereas with my $50 ShopVac, I have no fear of using it and it gets used all the time, and probably for things it's not meant for.

lock-the-spock2• 4 years ago

How weird not to see Kärcher on the list. A German family enterprise that seems to have cornered the EU market for great quality at fair prices for shop vacuums for home and professional use. They are known to be always ugly but durable and able to take any beating.

jq-r• 4 years ago

You cannot put Karcher and quality in the same sentence. Had 3 of their pressure washers of different prices and they all had a premature death. Maybe their shop vacuums are fine, but pressure washers...

wil421• 4 years ago

I’ve seen him include German tools and building hardware in other videos. I’ve never seen Kärcher in stores before. I see a ton of Bosch stuff around including things I own. Project Farm has done reviews with Bosch and Festool.

bergenty3• 4 years ago

They’re all so overpriced though for really no increase in value.

hinkley• 4 years ago

When I was trying to set up a woodworking space years ago the common wisdom was that the Ridgid was far and away your best bet for building a small scale dust collection system. It had the right balance of oomph (enough to run a dust separator if you were careful) operating hours, and ease of adapting hoses to tick the right boxes. It also notably has an exhaust hose, so you could route the microparticles outside instead of filtering them with your lungs.

Also used this beast and a couple chunks of conduit to clear a tricky gutter.

wnevets• 4 years ago

One of important things that aren't tested is the filters. If you're using a Shop Vac do yourself a favor and get a good HEPA filter.

Already__Taken• 4 years ago

Anything to attach the blowers to for use as a compressor? Shop vac is really useful on a boat and the blower can do 90% of the inflatables to top-off with a compressor. Bolting something on the blower for the last 10% would be awesome.

toss1• 4 years ago

Looks like a very useful tool - all searches should be on actual characteristics like this!

Of course, there's always more to add, and the first items I notice are that there seems to be nothing from Fein (makes great vacs, I've used one in my workshop for years), and that we can't sort by CFM, Lift, or Air Watts.

Please keep up the good work!

photochemsyn• 4 years ago

Nice search engine, but the 'country of origin' information is often lacking from product descriptions or is highly ambiguous ('Made in China' vs. 'Assembled in USA' for example - 'Made in USA' gets zero results).

I'd guess almost all the parts are manufactured in China these days, even if some assembly is done in the USA.

dj_mc_merlin• 4 years ago

It never ceases to amaze me just how much complexity and story there is even in most random subjects. Wall mountable vacs. Volume levels. Power cord length. A family business that implodes after being the biggest player in the vac manufacturing market. Hose diameter. Washable filters (which should be called rinseable). Motor stages. Tank capacity.

symlinkk• 4 years ago

Same, I bought a house recently and wanted to get the walls painted white. Turns out there are hundreds of different whites that are ever so slightly different from one another, various sheens that determine how reflective and glossy the paint is, various levels of durability, various schools of thought on what color goes where (i.e. one theory is glossy plain white on trim and doors, beige ish off white on walls, flat white on ceiling).

I ended up getting everything in a single shade of white, just varying levels of glossy depending on if it’s trim or ceiling. And I am not really that happy with the outcome to be honest.

samstave6• 4 years ago

You'd be surprised at how well all shades of grey, from super light to actualy black, can make a space.

I had a GF who decided to paint a major wall in her house as pure pitch black. I thought it was a horrid idea, until it was finished.

Grey is the way.

Its neutral to all of your bad interior design decisions.

yboris• 4 years ago

The best design for a (home) vacuum I think is the Rainbow: it uses water to filter out all the dust and debris. Water is the best filter - once a dust particle touches it, it will not be blown out with the air.

The downside is how expensive and heavy the vacuum is, along with the extra time it takes to set up (add water & later discard water).

bombcar4• 4 years ago

It looks good but an actual filtered vacuum performs better. There's something entirely satisfying about dumping out that filthy water afterwards, however, that you don't quite get with a bagged vacuum.

"Bagless" vacuums like the popular Dyson are a joke compared to either.

hatware• 4 years ago

"Bagless" vacuums like the popular Dyson are a joke compared to either.

The Dyson weighs considerably less. Turns out there's tradeoffs in different engineering solutions.

Arrath• 4 years ago

My parents have always been quite happy with their central vac. It solves the problem by just exhausting anything that evades the filter to the outside.

4wsn• 4 years ago

I got a Makita shop vac a couple of years ago for home use. It's huge, loud, and heavy. But it sure is the best vacuum I've ever owned.

jrm4• 4 years ago

To pull back the camera a bit:

Hey, HN type people: How can we build a network of people and sites like this to replace the inferior process of adding "reddit" to the Google searches to actually find useful information?

InvaderFizz• 4 years ago

I guess the question is how do you prevent astroturfing and how do you fund it?

Wirecutter being a prime example, they tend to exclude products they can't get an affiliate link for. So their incentives are not always aligned with yours.

90minuteAPI• 4 years ago

I knew something had to be up with them. It’s bad when I come across a round-up or comparison that fails to even mention my top options, and that seems to be the norm over there.

bfors• 4 years ago

It's amazing how much more useful this site is than anything I've found on google recently

ARussell• 4 years ago

Kagi (a search engine you pay for) has a feature called Lenses. One of the default lenses is for "Discussions". It's been quite helpful for me, personally, so far.

StrictDabbler2• 4 years ago

That part's easy. The hard part is that, as soon as it's a trusted source, somebody shows up with sacks of money.

That whole mattress review scandal with Sleepopolis and HonestMattressReviews shows exactly what happens when sites like this get big.

So they need to stay small and secret. Unfortunate.

lastofthemojito2• 4 years ago

I wish Google would add an advanced search parameter, maybe called "Unpolished discussion" for this reason (but to include forums, etc - results beyond just Reddit).

I was looking at vacation destinations recently, and considering taking a toddler, and Google searches for things like "Destination A vs Destination B" or "Destination A with toddlers" led to so much SEO junk. Ads for shiny e-books with regurgitated information, text that was clearly robot-generated, etc. Then adding "reddit" to the end of the searches does get you to helpful discussion from everyday people. Sure, you might have to read between the lines ("oh, this person seems unwilling to pay more than Motel 6 rates", "oh, this person seems like they might be afraid of black people", etc). Sure, the info might be out of date, or otherwise in need of verification. But you can quickly accumulate some useful ideas that the shinier SEO-optimized junk sites just don't seem to provide.

jeffbee3• 4 years ago

Well, thanks to HN's durability and Google's crawler we can count on being able to find this site as "that unbelievably ugly wet-dry vacuum database" hereafter.

vestrigi• 4 years ago

Practicing that often gives me the feeling that I just need any opinion about one of the many choices. Only after that I can commit to eg. buying something but I still know that I most likely only scratched the surface. I can't just try things out, I need to conclude first that I won't be able to pick the best option. Or just trust the one random person on reddit that was satisfied with his or her choice like it's your best friend.

throwaway0a5e• 4 years ago

You don't. Anything large enough to be useful as a destination for that info is large enough to be gamed.

And that's assuming you can even amass useful information. For every useful bit of information you will have to filter out ten dolts who just want to hype whatever premium product they bought in order to self-justify the purchase (see for example Reddit's penchant for certain brands in certain product categories).

natch• 4 years ago

Good question.

I’m the meantime before such a site exists, the (imperfect) solution is to do research as well as you can, and only buy products from vendors who offer a good return policy. In the US, Costco comes to mind.

And be brutal about returning stuff that is not great.

Spooky23• 4 years ago

We could revisit the ancient practice of hosting websites.

amelius• 4 years ago

Yes, I'm looking for some quality active speakers at a good price/performance point. But it seems like the entire market is trying to con me.

Same for buying kitchens, mattresses, cars ...

dsr_• 4 years ago

Do you have a particular price point in mind? And have you looked at audiosciencereview ?

hubraumhugo• 4 years ago

We're trying to build such a network of sites at https://Looria.com. We aggregate and summarize the most trusted product reviews on the web from sources like Reddit, Youtube, or Consumer Reports. Just like Rotten Tomatoes provides trustworthy ratings for movies, Looria offers ratings and reviews for all kinds of products.

We focus on keeping track of and removing the special status of sources caught getting paid to write fake reviews. Some categories are more prone to astroturfing than others, and we account for that by restricting the sources. Actively curating the sources is part of our daily work.

LeSaucy2• 4 years ago

Uncanny timing, I literally just bought a Numatic George yesterday!

twic• 4 years ago

When i bought my own place, i hired a cleaner to do a deep clean before moving in. I asked her what vacuum cleaner to buy, and she recommended a Henry with no hesitation. They're big and heavy, but they'll suck up anything and they're indestructible. I also got a George; i'll mention for the benefit of our American readers that Henry is a dry vacuum, Charles is a wet/dry, and George is a wet/dry with a tank and pump for spraying carpet cleaner.

There seem to be no Numatics in this database: http://wet-dry-vac.com/?manu=Numatic%

DrewADesign• 4 years ago

Great info, but man, making the background a bluish slate grey without changing the default blue link color was a bad decision. Illegible on my devices. This is a much more obvious problem than most "well X is my favorite color and it it looks fine on my monitor" developer design decisions, but the subtler ones can be as or more consequential. Design is more than decoration and really knowing how it works takes a lot more learning and practice than many developers realize.

memcg• 4 years ago

Agreed. I had to view in Firefox reader mode.

jh00ker• 4 years ago

Came here to say this.

twobitshifter2• 4 years ago

I bought a cheaper rigid vacuum from home depot a while back so i’m not in the market for another. When I compared the rigid vacuum to our expensive miele on a floor, the rigid picks up much more. It seems to be that household vacuums give priority to noise, light weight, maneuvering, etc. and that comes at the sacrifice of power.

LeSaucy2• 4 years ago

modern cannister vaccums will also contain multiple filters on the bag, motor, and exhaust. The ridgid might have more suction, but that is only part of the engineering that goes into canister vacs.

hairofadog3• 4 years ago

I bought a rigid vacuum cleaner a few years back in part because it had "Lifetime Warranty!" emblazoned on the front of the box, and it died after about six months of light use. When I checked the terms of the warranty, it said that it was only covered if it failed on the first or second use out of the box.

https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/wet-dry-vac-warranty

It is our experience that a product that fails prematurely due to a manufacturing defect in materials or workmanship, will generally do so very early in the products life cycle, often the first or second time the product is used. When returned for inspection, these products are generally found to still be in like new condition and show very little signs of use. It is uncommon for a product that was manufactured with a defect, to survive under normal use for any extended period of time. Products that are returned for warranty inspection after months or years of continuous reliable service are rarely found to be defective. The most common demand for service is the result of normal wear and tear issues, which may not be considered a defect in materials or workmanship.

No warranty is fine, but I don't understand how they can put that badge on the box in good conscience. It wasn't that big a deal, but it rubbed me the wrong way and I'll never buy Rigid again.

bornfreddy• 4 years ago

Is there no mandatory warranty period required by law where you live? Genuinly curious.

seabriez• 4 years ago

Rigid is a Chinesium company. Surprised by your finding, but I guess it makes sense.

bdowling2• 4 years ago

How Long Coverage Lasts?
The Lifetime warranty lasts for the manufacturer’s defined lifetime of your vac. The vacs are designed to have a run life of 500-700 hours. The warranty coverage ends the shorter of: after such run life or the product becomes unusable for reasons other than defects in workmanship or material.

https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/wet-dry-vac-warranty

greedo2• 4 years ago

Apples and Oranges? Is the Rigid using HEPA filters? Are the settings consistent on both vacuums?

Syzygies• 4 years ago

Wow, I learned that I could have a wet vac drain.

My yard is absurd clay. I've used my wet/dry vac, along with an electric pressure washer, to dig holes and remove tree roots (easier to cut what you can see).

A drain would increase my work time, at the expense of thicker sludge when I'd have to empty the vac manually. What I really want is to move the mud slurry, not store it. I suppose I should build an open frame to replace the vacuum body, and just use the pump lid.

1MachineElf• 4 years ago

I love my Ridgid wet/dry vac. They're the only brand I can find in stores that sell a "HEPA" filter+bag combo for trapping fine drywall dust. Lots of accessories available, including a unique water pump attachment that hooks up to a garden hose.

120photo• 4 years ago

Did some research and Ridgid is king. Also seen that HF Bauer vacs are also a strong competitor. Do love that I can wash the filter on my Redgid and install those bags.

SoftTalker3• 4 years ago

Harbor Freight stuff seems to be getting better and better. Of course they still sell a lot of junk, but in my experience their toolboxes, power tools, and hand tools are generally much better today than they were 10 years ago.

walterbell7• 4 years ago

The portable corded Dewalt (Alton) DXV04T has an optional HEPA filter, https://www.protoolreviews.com/dewalt-4-gallon-wet-dry-vac-r...

thrdbndndn• 4 years ago

Fantastic stuff!

This kind of website (filter search list) often looks intimidating at the first glance but they're surprisingly very easy to use, from my experience using Digi-key as a non-EE professional.

I do have a question about shop-vac in general: Under what situation you (as your household) need one comparing to just having a normal "dry" vacuum? I never owned one so don't see its applications.

stew-j2• 4 years ago

You can remove the paper filter and clean up liquid spills--plumbing overflows, accidents in the kitchen, etc.

ericd2• 4 years ago

Great site, but in my experience, the challenge with this kind of thing is designing a (preferably automated) process to keep the data up to date without more work than keeping it running is worth to you. I’d be curious to know if the original author has found ways to automate this, or if he’s somehow maintained a high level of motivation (or if it’s been abandoned).

Night_Thastus4• 4 years ago

EDIT: I misunderstood the purpose of the site, my bad. Ignore this.

lock-the-spock2• 4 years ago

We have a super expensive Miele bagless and a cheap Kärcher and I always end up using the Kärcher as I don't need to be afraid to break anything... I like Miele products (we have dishwasher stove and dryer and are just waiting for our Samsung washer to fail to buy a Miele) but the price always makes me afraid that any damage will cost me dearly...

matthewowen• 4 years ago

Miele don't produce wet/dry vacuums, AFAIK? Just "regular" style.

Night_Thastus4• 4 years ago

Oh, I thought this for wet OR dry vacuums, not ones that could do both.

Stratoscope3• 4 years ago

Actually I will reply to a couple of your points anyway, since I have your original message open on a separate device. I hope this may be helpful. :-)

Regarding the thin non-HEPA filters that come with the packs of bags, if your Miele is anything like mine, you're supposed to use one of those and the HEPA filter. There is a vertical tray behind the bag compartment that snaps open where you can insert one of these pre-filters. (You may need to cut it to size.) The air exiting the bag goes through the pre-filter first and then the HEPA filter, so the HEPA filter clogs more slowly.

On the cord retrieval system, my vacuum came with instructions to hold the plug while the cord is pulled in, and only let it go when the slack has been all taken up. This prevents the whipping you mentioned.

Night_Thastus4• 4 years ago

The compartment there is not for the filter that comes with the bags. You'll notice the cut lines don't match up. That filter behind the bags is the pre-motor filter. It's a very wirey filter, kind of like the back of a sponge. It's not smooth.

If you try using an exhaust filter on the motor intake, it will starve the intake, stressing the motor.

yuan43• 4 years ago

I don't get it. It seems that some context is missing. Is this parody? Why is this the top story on HN?

Why do I see SQL at the bottom of the highly-touted wet/dry search page?

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT vacid) FROM vac ;

http://wet-dry-vac.com

stew-j2• 4 years ago

From the guide:

The original, and most iconic manufacturer of wet-dry vacuums, the privately held Shop-Vac Company, imploded and went out of business.

A disappointing sign of the times, but luckily (so far) I've been able to find 3rd party replacement bags and supplies for my 3 Shop-Vacs online.

walterbell7• 4 years ago

They were resuscitated in 2021, https://www.inquirer.com/business/shop-vac-vacuum-williamspo...

The bank indeed sold Shop-Vac’s assets to a Chinese company. But the new owner, through its subsidiary GreatStar Tools USA, decided to keep Shop-Vac’s operations in Williamsport, led by new American managers. More than 200 of the old workers -- about half of the previous Pennsylvania workforce -- were retained or rehired this year ... Shop-Vac will continue to produce motor assemblies for all of its vacuums in Asia, and it will also continue to produce small Shop-Vacs -- under four gallons -- in China or in Vietnam to reduce tariff costs. Those smaller household vacuums sell at a lower profit margin, and they can still be produced in Asia at a lower cost.

londons_explore3• 4 years ago

It's notable for all users in the EU that the EU versions of these products are very different because there are power and noise limits on EU products.

Products made before the power and noise limits came into force now sell for a lot of money, because they work better!

hancholo• 4 years ago

Since I already had a ryobi drill, I bought a ryobi battery powered vacuum that uses the same batteries. It's not going to be stronger than the ridgid or shopvacs but it definitely gets the job done for cleaning my car.

tegiddrone• 4 years ago

When I read the description on HEPA filters, it is alarming advice to me:

  > "[A HEPA Filter] is particularly useful for very fine dust that can be harmful, like asbestos or mold spores [...]"

It is a misconception that you can purchase a vacuum with a HEPA filter and safely pick up materials like asbestos, lead dust, mold. If the seals in the vacuum are not sufficient then you risk throwing around the hazardous materials when you suck them up.

The professional vacuums (such as some manufactured Pullman Holt, Nikro) are tested and certified for these purposes. Please do comprehensive research when dealing with hazardous materials. Consider professional abatement services.

Edit: formatting, disclaimer, typos, precision

kevin_thibedeau• 4 years ago

While good advice in general, these sort of products are designed for professionals with 40 hours of exposure a week to hazardous materials. Vacuuming up small quantities on an infrequent basis isn't going to create an elevated risk.

calsy2• 4 years ago

Something is clearly wrong if you are being exposed to hazardous materials 40 hours a week.

frognumber• 4 years ago

This is an important disclaimer.

I'll mention, though, that a HEPA filter on the vacuum, together with an N95 on your face, is often adequate, even if the vacuum doesn't have a properly sealed full HEPA system. The upside of a HEPA filter on the vacuum which most of the air passes through is that it will catch most (not 99+%) of the fine dust. If you reduce fine, harmful dust by 80% every time (assuming 80% of the air passes through the filter and 20% goes around it), after three cleanings, you'll have removed >99% of the fine dust.

A lot of this depends on the level of hazard. There's a scale from pollen allergies to nuclear/BSL-4 waste.

For the pollen end, I've found that combined half-measures usually do better than the uber-over-engineered stuff.

MafellUser• 4 years ago

This is where Europe labelling and certification make more sense. L, M , H and H asbestos. Having a HEPA filter is like saying your clothes is 100% polyester, doesn't really say anything useful.

water8• 4 years ago

Whatever you do get a cyclone filter

corytheboyd• 4 years ago

The best vacuum I own is a shop vac I got for $10 in an estate sale. It gives no fucks about me, and I give no fucks about it. When it dies I'll go spend $10 again. Perfection

walterbell7• 4 years ago

UK manufacturer Numatic's "Henry", https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/24/how-hen...

Modesty permeates Numatic. The campus is more Wernham Hogg than Silicon Valley; the firm never advertises Henry and retains no PR agency. Yet it has a turnover of almost £160m and has now made more than 14m Henry vacuums ... Duncan beams with pride as he tells me almost all of the 75 parts that make up the latest model could be used to repair “Number one”, as he calls the 1981 original; Henrys are made to last – and to be easily repaired – in the landfill age of rapid obsolescence.

https://numatic.com

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32414066

I'll mention for the benefit of our American readers that Henry is a dry vacuum, Charles is a wet/dry, and George is a wet/dry with a tank and pump for spraying carpet cleaner.

spfzero2• 4 years ago

Too bad there are no reviews of Fein and Festool vacs. I've had a Fein for over 20 years, still going strong, can still get parts. Nice and quiet too. Love that thing.

samstave6• 4 years ago

https://www.importyeti.com/supplier/suzhou-alton-electrical-...

Wet/Dry Vacuum Buying Guide (2019)

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