So… you’re looking to buy a new wet/dry shop vacuum or household vac for tackling muck and yuck that you wouldn’t use your regular vacuum for?
Good news, there are a couple of noteworthy Black Friday 2015 shop vacuum deals this year.
Actually, there’s great news – this year’s deals are pretty much the same as last year’s Black Friday vacuum deals, and so there are plenty of user review to draw from.
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Don’t forget to check out all these other great tool deals!
Which of these Black Friday 2015 vacuum deals would you pick?
Last year there was also a pre-BF Shop vac deal at Amazon, but they didn’t have something similar this year. Yet?
All of these vacuums are capable of wet or dry pickup, and they all have built-in drainage and blower ports. Vacuum hoses are 7 feet long, and power cords are all nice lengths, with the shortest of the 3 having a 15-foot power cord.
If you ask us, the Ridgid is the best $40 vac, and at $70 the Craftsman might be the best sale-priced everyday vac. All 3 vacs seem to have had great reviews so far, and our brief experience with the Craftsman XSP vacuum has been quite positive.
If you think you might need to buy a larger 2-1/2″ hose some day, you’re probably better off putting the extra money into the Craftsman vac right now. Other wise, the Ridgid deal might be the way to go for highest bang for the buck.
If you have experiences with any of these vacs, please let us know what you think of it!
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Home Depot: Ridgid
- 16-gallon tank
- 5.0 peak HP motor
- 1-7/8″ x 7 ft hose
- 2 extension wands, utility nozzle, pleated paper filter
- 15 ft power cord
- Blower port
- Casters
- Integrated handles
- Built-in drain
Black Friday 2015 Price: $40 (Sale Price is Now LIVE!)
More Info(Deal Discussion)
Shortcut: Home Depot 2015 Black Friday Tool Deals Roundup
Lowes: Shop Vac
- 12-gallon stainless steel tank
- 6 HP Peak motor
- 1-1/4″ x 7 ft hose
- 18 ft power cord
- Top carrying handle
- Rear blower port
- On-board cord and attachment storage
- Fits large cartridge filter, 10 to 14 gallon disposable collection bags, large foam filter
- 145 CFM air flow
- 60 inches sealed pressure
- Casters
Black Friday 2015 Price: $40
Shortcut: Lowes 2015 Black Friday Tool Deals Roundup
Sears: Craftsman
- 12-gal tank
- 5.5 peak HP motor
- 2-1/2″ x 7 ft hose
- 20 ft power cord
- 2 extension wands, utility nozzle, crevice tool, floor/squeegee nozzle combo, cartridge filter, wet foam filter
- Flat top provides a safe place to put accessories or small items
- Blower port
- Casters
- Integrated handles
- Built-in drain
Black Friday 2015 Price: $70 (Sale Price is Now LIVE!)
Tom
For me, accessory storage is really an important feature. I bought a Shop Vac at Lowes a few years back and am always losing the nozzles. And I’m always tripping on the hose since it doesn’t wrap and lock on the vacuum somehow. That Craftsman one looks like such a nice upgrade.
Pete
The ridgid is live and in store too. Great deal! I almost wanna ditch my shopvac for that price. The shopvac hose is way too small and seems to always clog everytime i use the freaking thing. Always have to unscrew the nozzle and put it on the blower side to unclog it.
Josh
Any idea if the rigid can use a 2 1/2″ hose? I need a cheap vac for a cyclone separator and being able to hook it up with standard fittings is a big deal
Stuart
It should be able to. Inlet ports are usually industry-standard size, regardless of hose bundled with a vac.
If not, you should be able to return it without issue.
DaveMD
I bought the rigid at a Black Friday deal for $25 and that was a solid deal and serves its purpose for general cleaning. It can handle some heavy stuff like drywall bits and small lite pieces of concrete, it does clog and the power could be better. My parents used to have a Craftsman and man do I miss that vac. I may go out and buy the Craftsman just to get rid of my Rigid and be done with it. I suspect that I’ll have the craftsman for 20 years.
DaveMD
Clarification: I didn’t realize the advertised Craftsman was only a 5.5. The Craftsman I had was a 7hp.
Seth
HP ratings on shop vacs are almost 100% bogus anyways. Your standard 12.5A 120V motor only makes ~2HP (physics), so the rest is marketing fluff.
It’s entirely likely that your folks old “7HP” vac and the current “5.5HP” vac deliver the same suction power under load.
Hang Fire
Stuart, please stop listing “peak HP”, a useless value not defined in physics.
A more useful rating would be amperage. Besides giving us a better idea of the power of the motor, it is helpful for those using shared power on 15A circuit breakers… or less. Some folks have really old wiring in their garages.
Another request is for a standard dB rating for noise. However I’m not going to blame you for not listing this, as most manufacturers don’t publish that information. They’d probably be a little embarrassed if they did.
Stuart
Don’t blame the messenger!
Horsepower isn’t used in physics at all, it’s more of an engineering unit.
Brands typically don’t provide peak or operating amperage drawer either, or noise level.
Benjamen
When did they stop listing amps? Maybe we just have to dig a little deeper into the instruction manual or the online specs. Here’s the amps for comparison
The Ridgid vac says 10A
The Shop vac says 11.8A
Craftsman is 11.8A *this info is provided by a commenter on the Sears website
None of the manuals had the amp rating or any of the specs. For shame.
For comparison my ShopVac lists 4.5 peak HP and 8.0 amps. I can verify the the 8 amps is pretty close. The 4.5 HP is complete BS though, it’s actually 1.3 real HP. It’s a pretty good sucker, but it’s really loud.
Benjamen
And now that I think about it, peak HP is double BS for vacuums, when are you going to develop that peak HP? Certainly not when you are sucking, maybe when the vacuum first turns on. Who cares then?
Vacuums aren’t like other tools. As you restrict the flow the current draw goes down! With a tool like a circular saw, as you start cutting it draws more amps, and as it gets bogged down it’ll draw even more till, it stalls or the breaker blows.
When you block the flow of a vacuum it does less work and draws less current.
DJA
The Ridgid is definitely a lower quality price-point vac, not just less features. This is not the same as other Ridgid models. The basic design is different. The motor is very loud, the hose is stiff and plasticy, the seal between head and tank fills with dust, and it doesn’t accept filter bags. If you just need a vacuum tank with a hose coming out of it this may be good enough. Mine went back, and I’m getting the Craftsman 5.5 / 12gal.