What is a wet/dry vacuum used for?

[CBW]

There's loads of other places where you can get wet/dry vacs. Screwfix have one for £45 for example.

Yes, I know. As mentioned, I have a Lidl one and it’s pretty good. Is the Screwfix one branded Titan? If so, a mate uses that one, and his is pretty good too.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

QUESTION: why would you want a vacuum with a bag?
Is the pain of having to have a bag worth it? ,,

If you are dealing with very fine dusts having a bag means that you just close the bag seal and drop it in the bin - without a bag you can end up getting covered in dust when you empty the cleaner. My missus insisted on having a Miele vacuum for the attic room and top stairs, partly because it uses a sealable bag - it is a far less onerous task to change the bags on that than it is to empty the downstairs Dyson. Just saying. Bags do tend to increase the running costs quite a bit, though

£250 vs £60 Amazon vacuum - is it really 4x better?

It may have better filters, who knows? Surely one of the things you pay for in a better vacuum is the filters - both in filter area and filter quality. To emphasise that point I have two M-class vacuums (trade) which each use TWO washable primary filters. A pair of those filters currently cost around £80, which is why you take care of them!

The nearest to commercial M-class filters is HEPA, so any vacuum with HEPA filter(s) will be better for your lungs

 

[blup]

The amazon essentials isn't bad for small scale domestic house work, but it economises on components e.g. it has a long retractable lead but very thin plastic cable, casing and a basic hose and brush. £150 for a domestic vacuum is a starting point for a decent brand, not top price.

Blup

 

[OM2]

A pack of 10 bags cost £15 say - just saying what I saw on Amazon.
After a bag is full, you throw away?? That makes it super expensive!
EDIT Seen others for £7.50 for 10 - the point still stands
I remember in the olden days, we used to empty bags and reuse them - means getting dust in the air when you empty.

Hepa filter?
£80 - that's super expensive
It's JUST plastic surely - nothing like the complex electronics and engines inside a vacuum?

@blup I'd live with those short falls and get the cheaper Amazon vacuum!

The Amazon bag hoover cost just over £50
The less powerful bagless one costs £60
If I were buying a hoover, I would consider the Amazon ones simply because of ratings - more than 8000 4.5 stars.
Not looking for one though... we have a refurbished Dyson we've had for years. It does it's job.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Hepa filter?
£80 - that's super expensive

Industrial quality filtration (class M), designed to last for years (unless you let some idiot suck-up soot with them, in which case they get foobarred PDQ ), and there are two filters in the pack, not one (the vacuums I use are 2-filter vacuums) - to put it in perspective both my industrial vacs cost in the £400 to £500 range when new - there is almost no such thing as a cheap industrial vacuum. AFAIK those filters (Starmix/Metabo) are par for the course in terms of price against equivalent products from Bosch, DW, Fein, Festool, etc. I was just trying to highlight the fact that high quality filters aren't really that cheap.

HEPA is an American filtration standard which is almost on a par with European class-M and is recommended for people with allergies. With class-M filters 99.9% of the dust out of air passing through the filter. It may seem to make no difference, but if you have a cheap vacuum which filters, say 70% of the dust then remaining 30% is passed out the back of the vacuum into the air that you breathe. Meaning that your lungs are the filters, instead.

 

[foxhole]

A pack of 10 bags cost £15 say - just saying what I saw on Amazon.
After a bag is full, you throw away?? That makes it super expensive!
EDIT Seen others for £7.50 for 10 - the point still stands
I remember in the olden days, we used to empty bags and reuse them - means getting dust in the air when you empty.

Hepa filter?
£80 - that's super expensive
It's JUST plastic surely - nothing like the complex electronics and engines inside a vacuum?

@blup I'd live with those short falls and get the cheaper Amazon vacuum!

The Amazon bag hoover cost just over £50
The less powerful bagless one costs £60
If I were buying a hoover, I would consider the Amazon ones simply because of ratings - more than 8000 4.5 stars.
Not looking for one though... we have a refurbished Dyson we've had for years. It does it's job.

My Henry uses cloth bags, few £ for 6 , have reused each bag about 20 times .

 

[mrrusty]

And then there's these https://www.quirepace.co.uk/products/industrial-vacuum-cleaners/products/centurion/ if you want something with a bit more power.....

 

[pcaouolte]

Vacuum cleaners without bags are a PITA. You empty the plastic container and dust goes everywhere, then you have a filter system within the plastic container that needs to be removed and cleaned, time consuming and dust everywhere again. With a bag you pick it out of the machine and bin it, then put another bag in. Quick easy and clean. The only time I use a vacuum cleaner without a bag is for picking up liquids.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

And then there's these https://www.quirepace.co.uk/products/industrial-vacuum-cleaners/products/centurion/ if you want something with a bit more power.....

Sort of Mother of All Vacuum Cleaners? (MOAVAC)

 

[cdbe]

40p each for paper Henry bags last time I stocked up. There must be a cost offset vs bagless and cleaning/replacing the filter (I presume you can't get "cyclonic" cylinder vacs).

I used my Karcher wet and dry as a pump to extract liquid clay slurry from my foundation trench - did the job but destroyed it. I reserve it's replacement for wet jobs as its a lot more expensive in consumables than Henry.

 

[Tigercubrider]

I have an Aldi vac.
wet/dry stainless body, I think it also blows, power take off with delay.

Sucks like a good hooker on a Friday night.
Mine was £70 or so and is my go to.

 

[opps]

40p each for paper Henry bags last time I stocked up. There must be a cost offset vs bagless and cleaning/replacing the filter (I presume you can't get "cyclonic" cylinder vacs).

I used my Karcher wet and dry as a pump to extract liquid clay slurry from my foundation trench - did the job but destroyed it. I reserve it's replacement for wet jobs as its a lot more expensive in consumables than Henry.

You can get cyclonic separators but they are only of use if you are trying to prevent heavier materials from entering the final bag (eg wood chipping or sand). They typically use plastic bags to catch the waste.

There are a number of firms that make them, eg Dust Devil and even Festool.

You can buy DIY ones on ebay quite cheaply.

During the lock down, because I couldn't go to the pub, I did by a small cyclonic chamber and even toyed with a the idea of using a water filter to deal with the fine dust, but then the pubs reopened and I haven't looked back.

When I first started decorating, I used to have a Numatic dust extractor (with power take off). The bags were paper, they used to split within 30 minutes of sanding powder based fillers. When I complained to Numatic they blamed the EU for it (yeah, seriously) but kindly sent me a pre-filter, which I had to remove every time it got clogged with dust, ie, every couple of hours.

Any machine that has bags that split is not fit for the purpose in hand.

To date, none of my Festool cloth bags has ever split but I did once buy some snide ones from Tools4Trade in Hanwell. After the first two split, I went back to the shop for a partial refund (they refused to give me a full refund). When I complained about the quality, the response was "well they are cheaper"...

 

[TeaAndBiscuits]

I have an Aldi vac.
wet/dry stainless body, I think it also blows, power take off with delay.

Sucks like a good hooker on a Friday night.
Mine was £70 or so and is my go to.

Yep me too, it's taken a beating and still going strong. Takes cheapo Einhell bags from amazon or ebay.

Only slightly irritating thing with mine is that the 'wand/pole/lance' is a multi-piece plastic affair which in all honestly is a total crap and a waste of time. But I never use it anyway.