Any experiences with the RIDGID shop vacs with the HEPA filters?


Von

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I use an old Craftsman 16G shop vac for dust collection for most of my portable power tools, primarily my ROS but also routers and other small stuff as well. I've decided it's time to replace this guy. The replacement will still need to serve as a general purpose shop vac from time-to-time (e.g. deal with flooding disasters and weird spills), so I'm not ready to get a dust extractor at this point. I'm eyeing a RIDGID with a HEPA filter as a compromise of handling fine sanding dust while still being a shop vac and wondering if anyone has experiences to share? TIA. Von

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I have two of those.  I use the Gore HEPA filters with them, which are easy to rinse out with a water hose.  Mine are older models that weren't designed to take bags.  They work great with router tables, drill press, and other such things that work better with small diameter high velocity hoses better than a big DC hose.  One of them ran all day, every day for a week cleaning out the attic in an 1828 house in 2009.  That one is still in use.

The old Craftsman shop vacs were the same as the Rigid ones.  I wore out several of them over the years, but don't find the newer Rigid ones any slighter built.

For fine dust, I use the large model Shop Vac, sold in Lowes, that take the yellow fine particle bags.  That was bought before the Rigid ones were designed to use bags. I use those for plaster, sheetrock, and other fine dust.  You have to be careful not to overfill the bags, or it will break clogging up the last chance filter that you have to take the bottom off the motor to clean out.

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Von, I have had one of the 16 gal, big wheel units you linked in my home shop for about a year and persuaded the highschool to buy one for the wood shop a few months ago.  I would buy again. I have the green HEPA pleated cannister filter and the regular yellow bags (I'll switch to green bags at the next change).  I can't give you numbers, but it has both strong suction and abundant air flow as compared to the Vacmaster it replaced.  The wheel design rolls more easily, too, and there's better attachment storage.  In fact my only issue with it is that the vac is too powerful, e.g. it will suck up power cords that are several inches a way.  I bought a handle attachment with an adjustable vent to solve the problem.   

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Here are the filters I use on them.  We keep several for each vac so we can always have a dry one to use while the ones wet from cleaning are drying.  They were all bought before they came out with the green ones.  Even the filters I bought as long ago as 2007 are still in use.

https://www.oneida-air.com/gore-cleanstream-pro-hepa-filter-dome-top-design?gclid=Cj0KCQjwlPWgBhDHARIsAH2xdNdYnYobSFZoqBAnmG9O6F6UNiztCMlTFrTg-nUulp75mFALc3VpNVQaAjxZEALw_wcB

Home Depot used to sell these in the store along with the vacs.

The reason these say post 2013 is because their vacuums before then required a plastic nut to hold the filter on.  I have one of each type, but there is no difference in performance.  These newer filters just slip on.

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On 3/24/2023 at 9:46 PM, Coop said:

Von, I have the same Craftsman that you described and use mine for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I have a central dc system for my major tools. Why are you replacing yours? 

Just for clarity, I have a Sears 16 Gallon Wet/Dry Shop Vac 113.178490. It's >20 years old (my wife bought it before we met).

A few reasons I'm replacing it:

The main reason is it won't take any sort of bag that I can find. The inlet comes in through the top, as opposed to the sidewall, and splits into a Y for some reason. This concerns me with regards to how much fine dust it is passing through and also makes emptying it a very dusty experience. I'm hoping a bag will also keep the filter cleaner longer.

The wheels are tiny, catch on everything and won't go over its own power cord.

The hose is getting pretty beat up, has a couple of kinks, and the end has several cracks.

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Got the RIDGID HD1800 with the HEPA kit. Have only had time to assembly it so far, and it assembled well and seems well made. Getting the HEPA bag on the inlet felt a little "is this right?" but no major issues.

And, it should go without saying but I feel like I never know, it has the same size 2.5" hose as my Craftsman so thanks goodness all my adaptors fit.

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