what wet vac?

[toddhunter]

I burned out a wet/dry vac removing water from my boat a few years ago and never replaced it. Any recommendations (preferably quiet)?

 

[MTboatguy]

Quiet and vacuum does not go together LOL, that said, I picked up a home depot Rigid brand a couple of years ago for all around use and it has been a darn good one, lots of attachments and good suction, I have used it for everything from drywall sanding to sucking water out of a stopped up toilet, it is a good and if I remember right I only paid about $90 bucks for it.

This is the one I picked up, been a good Vac.

https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/4-gallo...le-wet-dry-vac

 

[dingbat]

Quiet and vacuum does not go together LOL

Yep, no such thing as quiet.

We have an old "commercial" Rigid brand vac. Can't run it inside a building w/o hearing protection for any length of time.

Having said that, it will suck the tootsie roll center of of a tootsie pop with given the chance

 

[jbcurt00]

It does restrict the flow of exhaust air, which slightly impedes the suction, but Rigid offers an exhaust filter that helps tone down the really high pitch drone on shop vac.

In most of the cases we used one, the restriction was minimal on a 16-20gal 5-6hp vac for vac'n large quantities of water off the floor repetitively. 2 or 3 tank dumps, 10+times. About 400-450gals of water, in a 12X12 room. Possibly twice a day, so 800-900gals, so yeah, it helped.

It does only fits the larger 2+inch vacs. 2/2.25/2.5inch i cant remember but its the larger bore standard size hose for most vacs.

 

[mdunn]

Fein
Powerful
Relatively quiet for a shop vac
Way more so then Ridged or sears.
A little spendy but I've vacuumed a lot of water with mine.

 

[toddhunter]

"Having said that, it will suck the tootsie roll center of of a tootsie pop with given the chance"
Now you've given me something to think about! Pretty high standard.
I have a small vac that is surprisingly quiet. I think it's a Qsp, but I'll have to check. I would rather not risk it on regular water removal. Of course, I gave away my 6hp a few years ago, and could use it now. But I hate listening to my neighbors' vacs and power washers, so I don't want to be hypocritcal.

 

[MTboatguy]

Fein
Powerful
Relatively quiet for a shop vac
Way more so then Ridged or sears.
A little spendy but I've vacuumed a lot of water with mine.

Fein equipment is way over priced in this day and age, I have found many things that are great in the Fein line of tools, but have since found that many of their tools are manufactured by the same companies that build Rigid, Kobalt and Craftsman, I won't pay their premiums for the name.

 

[sublauxation]

My Rigid has stood up to a lot of abuse. The more expensive hose is worth the money and their reusable filter works really well.

 

[rallyart]

I looked for several years to find a 'quiet' shop vacuum. I bought the Rigid with SNR, which is not in all models. This Scroll Noise Reduction is effective and you can run it indoors without having to shout to be heard. I am very impressed and surprised that it is not more of a selling feature.

If quiet is not critical and you have lots of water, you can get some that automatically drain themselves through a hose when they are full from vacuuming.