I think I'm in the market for a new shop vac to take over from our venerable Henry for all the renovation work we have coming up after moving house.
I've had a good run with Henry in our old, and much smaller, house doing similar work but found that it would quickly fill up when going at big piles of rubble and dust and on occasion it would have been very handy to be able to suck up water/wet stuff as well. So new one should be bigger and capable of wet and dry operation. I'd also quite like to be able to use this as dust extraction for some of my power tools so things like a power take off and a standard 35mm hose size would be handy to have. If they can last as long as Henry has (probably getting on for 20 years at this point) that would be a big plus.
From having a quick look around I've found a couple of potential options at around £100 (the Erbauer EWDV40L probably being the most appealing) and then jumped up a bit to a considerably more spendy Karcher WD 6 at a bit over £200. I did start looking at some offerings from Nilfisk but stopped that before it started getting too expensive.
It would be handy to be able to get hands on with the ones I've found before picking something but that doesn't seem likely to happen so I figure, as usual, the next best thing is to ask STW what the think.
Anyone have any experience, good or bad, with the two offerings linked above? Or are there other options out there that I should be looking at instead?
I have a Titan vac with a Triton dust collector fitted in line to catch the bulk of the crap. Saved me lots of paper bags over the years.
Henry/James. Had mine 10+ years and it's perfect for the job.
The Erbauer is specced as, "Suitable Dust Class: Not Suitable for L, M or H Class Dusts", i.e. Low, Med and High risk
L and M are probably most useful for DIY. H is, for example, asbestos, mould, glass wool insulation, etc. so decide what you'll use it for and then check a full list. HEPA traps larger particles so isn't ideal in a workshop
I can't see a spec for the Karcher filter
Mine is a V-Tuf mini, but Trend and others do a small M-class, all for £150-ish. Buy a separate Wet/Dry when you need one, around £50
What about something between price wise
Has power take off, which is very handy when using it with a sander etc.
Or a Bosch pro, also with power take off, at about £200
As to M or L class. Festool make their little wheeled shop vacs as M or L. But the true difference is the M has an alarm to show when the bag is full. And thats it. Both their M and L class take the exact same filter and dust bag, which means its pretty much the same thing bar the alarm feature
I did a ton of research on this earlier this year after being annoyed to breaking point with my existing vac. I ended up a) very confused, and b) with a Nilfisk Aero 26. It's excellent for sucking up stuff and not loosing suction (I'm in the trades and it gets some hammer). So 10/10 for that.
It's also got a tool adapter so you can connect it to power tools for dust extraction (I also use cheap plastic adapters from Amazon because tool dust extraction is pretty shambolic and non standardised). Plus it has a plug socket so you can plug 240v tools into it and it will automatically start up when you start the tool (power take off).
Downsides are that it's fairly big (but less bag changes that way) and the hose/pipe/cord storage is virtually non existent (bizarrely, I'd have thought that was essential) so I'm using a bungee to hold them all together.
Oh, it's got a long cord and hose which is part of the reason I got it - I can do a flight of stairs while leaving it at the bottom.
I would certainly recommend it purely on its relentless vacuuming power/capacity.
I can recommend a Nilfisk wet and dry too. Had one for years and it’s dealt with lots of different waste - plaster, rubble, sawdust and swarf. I use the genuine bags that are thick and cotton like so consequently I don’t have to clean the filter much. The auto start is good for when it’s connected to my saw bench or sanders. The hose attaches to the clips supplied for storage but there isn’t any cable storage, I think I could have had recoil for an extra £20. It can also be used to blow by plugging the hose into the exhaust port, useful for if you clog the hose. I am very impressed, it’s had a lot of hard use.
You can get an M-Class filter from Nilfisk that's compatible with the Aero for £35. FILTER PET FLEECE M-CLASS D185X140 Product number: 302000490
The Nilfisk Aero 26 already has an M class filter in it (99.9% filtration efficiency). The only reason it's an L class machine and not an M class is because it doesn't have an audible alarm if the filter gets clogged. So it you're not doing site work where h&s would require the machine to have M class certification it does the same filtration job
...it doesn't have an audible alarm if the filter gets clogged
It doesn't have to be audible, visual meets the standard.
Mine is a PITA, when you put their small brush nozzle on it limits the airflow enough to kick the alarm off 🙂
So it you're not doing site work where h&s would require the machine to have M class certification it does the same filtration job
Ideal
Thanks for the feedback on this; looks like the Aero 26 might be the way forward then. Time to go shopping.
Edit: one question for those who have one, do you know what size hose these have? Specs seem to be a little contradictory saying 32 mm diameter but 36 mm (?) tools?
Just measured mine. Internal dia looks to be 32mm, external dia 40mm
Metal tube is 32mm OD, tools that fit are classed by OD as well
Mate has that Nilfisk, it's awesome tbh. Not cheap but it makes the job so effortless, nothing fazes it. But as imnotamused mentions it has no hose or cable management worth mentioning, which is not a fault but marks it out as a "use it all the time" vac not a "take it out when you need it" vac. Which is fine, but it'd be frustrating for me most of the time.
Honestly as good as it is, I definitely wouldn't buy it because brother has the cheapest stainless Titan, £50, and it's nothing like as impressive but it does still get the job done really well. It's a wee bit slower to lift dust, a wee bit more hassle to run in general. Also has little hose management. But in practical terms it's like 90% as good for 25% the price. Genuinely it seems like the top end features just aren't that useful for most people, I'm mid refurb on a 1960s house and the titan would do the job absolutely fine
I have a cheapo draper, it's shite. Honestly because of this thread I'm tempted to walk to screwfix right now before they close and get one of those Titans. But realistically once I'm done with this house I'll barely use it again for years.
Also highly recommended the Aero 26, mines been battered, sawdust from power tools (power take off is excellent), rubble and use it annually to empty my ornamental pond and suck the sludge out. Spares are readily accessible, also great for spilt liquids.
Well, Facebook has come up trumps today. I managed to find an Aero 26 with all its accessories and some spare dust bags for £60. It’s been used by a couple doing up their house for the last year or two and seems like a wipe with a damp cloth will bring it back to looking new.
Total bargain! Looks in really good nick and they haven't lost the tools like I did on day 2 😂
