Which vacuum?

[davo453]

I'm in the market for a new drum type Workshop vacuum, old faithful died the other morning with a screech and puff of white smoke followed by my RCD popping off. That vacuum I made over 10 years ago from parts found at the local tip (nothing lasts), repairing it is out of the question as I haven't seen any suitable motors at the tip for ages.

I've been to Bunnings and checked out the range of workshop vacuums there, the Shop vac series look impressive the Karcher vac's look space age, the Ozito & GMC's felt cheap, I notice that Timbecon do one for just under $100.

Any advice?

Cheers




Dave

[Tex B]

I have used the Karcher vac from Bunnings for several years with no problems. Well, except you need some kind of trap or cyclone or triton bucket in front or else the filter bag fills up every few minutes. Expect that's true of all the shop vacs.

Tex

[Auld Bassoon]

Hi Dave,

I had a shop vac once. It lasted about a year before issuing forth much black smoke, strange and decidedly unhealthy sounds, then untidily expiring...

I bought the Timbecon $99 one. Several points:
1) it's much quieter than the shop vac
2) it's a lot more powerful than the shop vac
3) it blows as well as sucks
4) it has variable speed so one can tidy up without small screws, for example, being sucked up or full chat where small children or cats ( :D ) are at risk

In short, I'm happy with it (despite it being that horrible orange :D )

[Carry Pine]

I went to a mate's shed the other week and noticed that he had little vacs set up around the walls connected to separate machines. These household vacuum cleaners are thrown out at clean up week and may be an idea instead of a biggish one that connects to all points. He had a Triton/ type bin as a collector in each line so the vacuum cleaner bag didn't fill up.
The GMC one that costs about $200 got big raves in one of the magazines. Will look it up if you need it.
Carry Pine

[davo453]

The Timbercon one sounds good value then, Does it have a filter cartridge or a filter bag?, my old faithful had a sort of cover instead of a filter and it worked really well .

The filters look expensive for the Shop Vac's they also take up a lot of room in the drum, they have 1300 watt+ motors though and a larger than normal hose diameter.

Curious about the GMC if you can find the article I'd be interested in reading it.

I notice that Godfrey's sell a " Pullman commercial cleaner" $399+ these go for about $150 on eBay, wonder if they are any good.

Karcher worry me as I found it impossible to get parts for a 3 year old pressure washer recently.

Cheers



Dave

[Harry72]

The timbecon $99 special has the cover filter that you speak of, had mine for about 6mths done 20-30 good sessions on my router table(using a prefilter bucket)sometimes up to 2hrs solid work still working fine so far...
and the colour matches my machines!

[johnc]

Dave,

I'm in a similar position myself, the vac I had been using went up in a cloud of acrid black smoke. This was the second near disaster I suffered with this machine. The first was buying it for the wife as a birthday present 20 years ago:eek: , a gift she has never forgotten nor forgiven. I have just bought the $99 orange peril and will connect it up to a mini cyclone and bucket arrangement the old one had. I figure with the three year warranty plus low price you can't go to far wrong. It has yet to arrive but when it does it will be plugged into the back of the router table for a test run.

John

[j.stevens]

I reckon the GMC vacuum is a great little unit. I use it for general floor vacuuming on a dailybasis and connect the long hose to my various machines around the shop. I think the trick is to empty the tank really often.

[schaf]

Which of the machines or brands that have been mentioned in this thread would have the lowest noise level. I do not want to upset the neighbors.
regards Terry

[gnu52]

If your compressor is up to it a venturi nozzle is another option. Just snap on your air hose & a bit of old vacuum hose to a hessian/poly type bag. The bag must be able to let the air escape. If you want cleaner that that couple it to your bucket/ cyclone or whatever. Takes up no room hanging on the wall & is always ready for use. No bags to buy either. Cost of mine was about $12 some years ago. Regards, Bill

[banksiaman]

Davo453,

Got a Ozito (I think - $89) Vac from Bunnings for my birthday recently. I have to wear ear protection, and with the supplied large dia hose and very plastic nozzle, wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding. There is plenty of suction, but the air throughput is not enough to match the large dia hoze and nozzle. Plan to put a Triton dust bucket in front of it with smaller dia hose and alter the nozzle - should be OK. It has a filter, not a bag.
Still need ear protection though, Damn those things are noisy :(

Chris

[Iain]

I got the GMC RDC 50 at the Melb WWW for about $160, it died a month or so ago and GMC rapidly sent out a new one.
This the switched unit and I use it with my sander.
When the sander is switched on there is about a 5 second delay and the vac comnes on at about half speed for a couple of seconds then kicks into top gear, when the sander is turned off the vac remains running for about 10 seconds then shuts down.
It is rated at 1200watts for the switching and the delay is to prevent a dual surge on your power supply.
It is a bit noisy but not too bad, my other one is an old vacuum cleaner I picked up at a garage sale and connected with an IR remote control that cost about $50 at dick smiths.
They do fill up quickly but the pleated cartridge filter seems to work well and I have got a triton bucket but I have yet to hook it all together.
Works well on the floor and comes with a variety of attachments and hose adaptors.
The switch is a dual function and operates like a normal vac or auto sensing mode with an off p[osition in the centre.
No blower but I am not really too fussed about that.
When I bought mine it was a promo between GMC and Mitre 10 in Frankston.
Dean did a review on these in AWR late last year.

[Cliff Rogers]

...
I had a shop vac once. It lasted about a year before issuing forth much black smoke, strange and decidedly unhealthy sounds, then untidily expiring...)
I had one do that twice. :eek: once in warranty once out of warranty.

...
I bought the Timbecon $99 one. Several points:
1) it's much quieter than the shop vac
2) it's a lot more powerful than the shop vac
3) it blows as well as sucks
4) it has variable speed ....
I agree, only problem we have found is when it is used as a regular vacuum, because the bayonet fitting on the machine end of the hose doesn't actually 'lock' into place, it unscrews & pops out about 50 times an hour... very annoying. I am tempted to glue the bastard in. :mad:

[Schtoo]

I have a Generic shop vaccum and a Makita 436X.

The shop vac is pretty good, although it's starting to get some bearing noise. I use it only when I need it now.

The Makita is easily worth the $500+ asking price. Quiet, powerful and 2 speeds. Autoswitching (only 460W though) and also has a washable dust filter.

The only way I can think of that would make it better is a larger autoswitching capacity, but then you would need more juice at the GPO, which isn't here. I suspec the 240V models would have enough to run more than a hefty sander through the autoswitch.

As it is, I have to turn the speed down to get the most out of it with the sander, otherwise it sucks down to the surface too hard for the sander to work properly. Enough that I can stick the sander upside down if it's off and the vac is on.


Worth checking out if you want something very, very good. ;)

[davo453]

Thanks for all the input, the Makita sounds good but I doubt the bride would approve the expense :cool:

The Timbecon sounds on balance to be the best value with a tube of glue or duct tape as a possible accessory.

Or maybe the GMC hmmmm

I need to do something as this Aerobic (broom) clean up business sucks. Or should I say doesn't suck :eek:

Cheers


Dave

[Auld Bassoon]

I agree, only problem we have found is when it is used as a regular vacuum, because the bayonet fitting on the machine end of the hose doesn't actually 'lock' into place, it unscrews & pops out about 50 times an hour... very annoying. I am tempted to glue the bastard in. :mad:

Hi Cliff!

On mine, the bayonet has to be pushed in then turned, so have never had it "pop out" of its own accord.

However, the two metal tubes that used in the pick-up and that (supposedly) fit one into the other don't have a very good fit, so they often just fall apart, causing another Bassoon expletive :eek: :D

[Cliff Rogers]

Hi Cliff!

On mine, the bayonet has to be pushed in then turned, so have never had it "pop out" of its own accord.......

Yeap, it pushes in & turns OK but it doesn't lock into anything to stop it from turning around & popping back out again. :(

[martrix]

Does the Timbecon Vac have the ability to start up with a power tool connected?

[silkwood]

I have a Lavor GBX wet n' dry. Has tool take-off, sucks the proverbial, very good felt filter and no bags. Hooked up to a mini-cyclone it is absolutely brilliant.

Bought it from Glenfords on special (sorry, two years ago, can't remember the price. So many days, so much red wine...)

Cheers,:)

[davo453]

The decision was made for me at the weekend, I received a Shop Vac Pro 20 as a birthday present and the giver promptly unpacked it and gave my shed a good going over.

A certainly much appreciated and generous gift, not sure I’d have bought the same brand mind you. But now it’s used I can’t change it so there you go.

It actually sucks extremely well and the large hose makes it easy to vacuum up pretty large pieces, there is no power control though so it will also take up all those valuable screws etc that fall on the floor whether I like it or not.

The filter is very large meaning you have to empty the drum more than I’m used to, still it was a gift and it beats a broom by a country mile so I’m happy.

We’ll see how long it lasts though as several people have said the things die quickly.

Cheers


Dave

[martrix]

Bump......:o


Does the Timbecon Vac have the ability to start up with a power tool connected?

[johnc]

No Matrix, you have to remember to turn on the Vac as well as the power tool. Apparently they are bringing out a new model that will, but that no doubt will be closer in price to the Carba-tec models. Having now received the orange peril and set it up you would have to say it is reasonable value for $99.00 just don't compare it with the big names.

John.

[I_wanna_Shed]

I emailed Timbecon today to see if they were bringing any of the $99 vacuums to the Sydney show. Their reply is below:


We have now sold out of these. We had very limited stocks at the beginning of the promotion and they sold quickly at that price. We will have our new vacuums at the show however.

The new models mentioned will be:

The 25L ($199) is PAV-25 and the 60L ($299) is PAV-60. Thank you for your enquiry.

There's no details of these on their website yet, I'll keep an eye out for any info on them.