A Subject that Really Sucks
Apr. 16th, 2005 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
To recap a previous long post, I want a cannister vac for the bare floors in my house, because the current fashion, uprights, don't work worth beans on bare floors. Not only that, I want a powerful one with HEPA bags.
My boss recommended her "Big Vac," which she got mail-order for $400. Yeah, it looked pretty good, but that's a bit pricey for a plastic shell with a filter bag and a suction fan. Wasn't there something more reasonable?
I'm ashamed to admit how long it was before it occurred to me that I had a Shop-Vac out in the garage. I got it to suction water out of the garage when it flooded badly one springtime. I fixed what caused the flood, and haven't really used the thing much since.
The Shop-Vac is definitely powerful enough. Instead of a bag, it uses an air filter of the pleated paper, automotive style. I'd prefer a bag but the filter might catch dust well enough, I suppose. It's worth a try, since I already have the thing. Right?
Let's go down to the store and see whether they have accessories to let you use a Shop-Vac indoors. This looks like the asile. Down here, on the right...
Oh..
my..
god.
Replacement filters. Foam rings to use as prefilters for your paper filter. TEN-GALLON HEPA dust bags. Wands, hoses, bare floor brushes, an air-driven "turbine" beater brush for vacuuming carpets. Everything you could think of. How long has THIS racket been going on?
Got some bags, got a floor nozzle, went home, watched sand, cat food, lint, debris, small bits of paper, bottle caps vanish from the floor and rattle their way into a filter bag which, when I unfolded it, turned out to be six inches deep, eighteen inches high, and four feet long. This, folks, is one vacuum that really sucks! The Feline Contingent calls a vacuum cleaner a "Cat-Eating Machine," which is usually silly, but they're right to be afraid of this one.
The only problem is that its double-insulated, grounded power cord is way short. But duct-taping a 25-foot bright orange contractor grade extension cord to the vacuum's own cord not only solved that problem, it also won me another 27 Manly Man points. (I looked it up in the rule book. If you don't believe me, look it up yourself!)
If I were getting one JUST to use indoors, I'd probably get the 5-gallon model. But since I already have it, I guess I can put up with the 3 horsepower, 12-gallon Mega-Suck. Oh yeah. :)
My boss recommended her "Big Vac," which she got mail-order for $400. Yeah, it looked pretty good, but that's a bit pricey for a plastic shell with a filter bag and a suction fan. Wasn't there something more reasonable?
I'm ashamed to admit how long it was before it occurred to me that I had a Shop-Vac out in the garage. I got it to suction water out of the garage when it flooded badly one springtime. I fixed what caused the flood, and haven't really used the thing much since.
The Shop-Vac is definitely powerful enough. Instead of a bag, it uses an air filter of the pleated paper, automotive style. I'd prefer a bag but the filter might catch dust well enough, I suppose. It's worth a try, since I already have the thing. Right?
Let's go down to the store and see whether they have accessories to let you use a Shop-Vac indoors. This looks like the asile. Down here, on the right...
Oh..
my..
god.
Replacement filters. Foam rings to use as prefilters for your paper filter. TEN-GALLON HEPA dust bags. Wands, hoses, bare floor brushes, an air-driven "turbine" beater brush for vacuuming carpets. Everything you could think of. How long has THIS racket been going on?
Got some bags, got a floor nozzle, went home, watched sand, cat food, lint, debris, small bits of paper, bottle caps vanish from the floor and rattle their way into a filter bag which, when I unfolded it, turned out to be six inches deep, eighteen inches high, and four feet long. This, folks, is one vacuum that really sucks! The Feline Contingent calls a vacuum cleaner a "Cat-Eating Machine," which is usually silly, but they're right to be afraid of this one.
The only problem is that its double-insulated, grounded power cord is way short. But duct-taping a 25-foot bright orange contractor grade extension cord to the vacuum's own cord not only solved that problem, it also won me another 27 Manly Man points. (I looked it up in the rule book. If you don't believe me, look it up yourself!)
If I were getting one JUST to use indoors, I'd probably get the 5-gallon model. But since I already have it, I guess I can put up with the 3 horsepower, 12-gallon Mega-Suck. Oh yeah. :)
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 07:30 am (UTC)How much did this all cost? It sounds like it might be a very worthwhile alternative to the standard vacuum cleaner.
Don't have cats here (unfortunately), but it's Florida; we have lots of sand. Lots.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 01:35 pm (UTC)No matter what, it's less than the $400 that other machine cost. There's nothing magic about a Shop-Vac, but it has some real power to it, and it will do at least as well as anything else you could get for use on bare floors.
The uprights with powered rotary brushes are going to work better on the heavier carpets. In that case it's the beater brush that's doing most of the work, while the vacuum serves mainly to draw in the dust and debris the beater has already kicked up.