Shop vac

Hey Dale
Most shop vacs are pretty loud unless you get into a Fein or other expensive models. But it does seem I read a review about a Ridgid model that was rated well in this Review that was Quieter than most an it was one hundred something instead of the $300 plus of a Fein.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

Jim is right … the Ridgid vacs do seem quieter. My old Shop Vac used to scream like a banshee … the Ridgid vac is a lot more tolerable. I don’t have one, but Ridgid also sells a muffler than goes in the vac’s exhaust port … not sure how much good it does, but anything is a plus.

-- Gerry -- "I don't plan to ever really grow up ... I'm just going to learn how to act in public!"

As far as the muffler for the Ridgid goes, it seems to get about 7 db of noise reduction, possibly a little more with some creativity. That is based on this test I found a while back:

http://www.huntfamily.com/shop_vac_muffler.htm

-- Optimists are usually disappointed. Pessimists are either right or pleasantly surprised. I tend to be a disappointed pessimist.

I have a 10 gallon Shop Vac and it is rather noisy. However, I do wear hearing protection whenever any electric powered tool is running. With all that, I can’t hear SWMBO yelling for me to do something!

-- Regret- the feeling you get just after you do something really stupid.

I just saw one in sears..A shop vac model…A quiet series ..i noticed quite a big difference..

-- Bueno...Nacho..

Thanks for the ideas. Jim, I looked at the Fein and they seem impressive. I can use it for many things so it may be a winner. I had nevr heard of this brand before. I will have to do some saving to make this happen. Thanks again. This is a great fourm.

Dale

Dale:

I have the Fein Turbo II. It is in a class far above the shop vacs that you see at Sears & the big boxes. It is rated at less than 60 dBA, making it one of the quietest “tools” in my shop, and I don’t have any tools that generate over 85 dBA.

The Fein vacs have an electrical recepticle into which you can plug your orbital sander. The vac automatically turns on when I turn on the switch on the sander. With the vac connected to the sander, the dust is sucked up almost 100%. This makes sanding “almost” enjoyable. The newer Fein vacs have variable suction, which can fine tune the amount of suction to your sander’s needs. My wife likes this vac so much that it is in our home as much as in the shop.

Festool also makes a fine vac, but like all of Festool’s products, they produce “sticker shock”.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

I actually found that the Dust Deputy serves to muffle the shop vacuum. Also, I generally have hearing protection on anyway due to whatever tool is running that is connected to the dust deputy, so it never bothers me.

-- PaulMayer, http://www.vernswoodgoods.com