Help with Next Purchase

So I have some money I can spend on my next purchase. I have narrowed it down to either a Shop Vac or a Bissell Little Green. Both are needed but I'm having a really hard time deciding between the two. The Shop Vac I can use as an extractor almost and it would be nice to have one to keep in the garage instead of lugging around the house vacuum. The Bissell Little Green would be great as well since the vacuum I'm using now has enough power to do 95% of the cars I do, but I don't have an extractor. I'm just thinking the shop vac is a lot more convenient for me since I can keep it in the garage but the Bissell Little Green may be a bit better since it's got more extracting power. If you guys could be give me input on which you guys would choose that would be awesome. Currently I'm just using a house vacuum and it's working fine. It's just not a wet vacuum.

Thanks, Brendan

 

How bad are the carpets/seats that you clean normally? Are you getting decent results with your current setup? If so, and you dont get too bad of condition seats, I would go with shop vac now as they are easier to deal with than lugging the house vac out and can use to extract water, for now, till you can get a better machine for carpets.

 

Get the Shop Vac.

My opinion: I know extractors are great and all that, but I have yet to find a carpet where I really "needed" an extractor. I get excellent results mimicking an extractor with good chemicals, a spray bottle full of hot water, and my shop vac.

The vac is also useful for a lot more things than the BLGM is. They're great for around the house tasks. You can vacuum leaves and other debris out of hard to reach places. Many vacs break down into a leaf blower, which is also useful.

 

Shop Vac... the bissel machine is ok, but if you really feel that you need an extractor than skip that machine, it just doesn't hold up very well...

 

I've had some that are near perfect to absolutely disgusting. Most of the time for floor mats I just take them out and soak them in APC, scrub, and then pressure wash them. I haven't had any carpets that haven't turned out great with that method. I'm thinking with a shop vac I can suck up some water out of it for even quicker drying.

Thanks Karl, so with the actual carpet on cars (not floormats) I can just spray them down with APC or whatever, agitate, and then spray hot water on them extract with shop vac? My main concern is doing the actual carpets of the cars not really floor mats so thats why I'm thinking of getting the BLGM. What is your method when doing carpets?

 

Yep, you've got the idea, it's what I do. I just posted this in the interior section, in that thread about the Duragloss upholstery cleaner. But for the others who haven't seen this thread, this is what I do:

Same goes for the mats. I rarely, if ever, use my pressure washer, for anything - carpets or otherwise. It sits in the garage and collects dust.

 

Well I'm pretty much set on picking up a shop vac now. I just gotta find a good deal on one. I'm thinking of picking one up thats used. I'm looking at Ridgids because I see them everywhere haha. Anything I should look out for on a used one? How hard would it be to fix one up if it did break down?

 

I'd just buy a new one... they aren't that much...

I bought mine at Lowes for $79.99...

 

Home Depot Canada: $129
Homedepot.ca - Search - 906286
Home Depot US: $69.97
http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hard...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Funny thing is our dollars the same. I'm not looking to shell out $150 on one. Thats why I'm thinking of getting a used one. That or maybe waiting till boxing day.

 

Shop vac for sure as you can use it to extract water if you have to. Look at the Ridgid 4050.

 

Mine is a Ridgid, and I like it a lot, but there's one problem with it. It uses a non-standard diameter hose. So if you damage the hose, or want to replace it with something longer/better, you might be out of luck.

Majestic had a really cool replacement shop vac hose on the shelf. It was orange and was described as the same type you see at coin-op car washes. The sort of thing you can run over with a car. It came with all sorts of neat attachments too. But it wouldn't fit. The hookup on my Ridgid was too large, and none of the adapters made it work. Phil (at Majestic) said he runs into this with customers with Ridgids all the time.

Mine's pretty old, so maybe they've changed this over the years. Just something to consider before buying.

 

I looked at it and it actually looks like it could be good for somebody like me. I don't necessarily need a huge one. I only saw the 4070 though. Didn't see the 4050 on the HD Canada site. The only problem is as I was going through the reviews the attachments that fit on the bigger models doesn't fit the hose on the smaller ones. And the ones that do fit are over priced. I'll take a look though, I'm not in a rush so I'll wait for it to go on sale. No use buying it full price.

Brenadn

 

So would you guys stay away from buying used?

 

Not necessarily. I haven't exactly been kind to mine, it's eight years old and still going.

With that said, if it's a difference between say $50 and $100, I'd get the new one. That way, you get a brand new filter and a brand new hose.

 

Theres a guy selling his for $25 and it's a larger one. 3.5HP and 43 litres which is just under 12 gallons. Only asking $25
Ridgid Shop Vac

 

I would say new. You don't know how the previous owner treated it. You oughta check out lowe's and see what they offer in the "shop-vac" brand they carry.

 

Thats true, I'm leaning towards buying new, but $25 for one is a pretty good deal imo. I'll think about it a bit more though. If not I'll just wait for a sale on one.

 

i second the 4 gallon vs 12 (or liters /etc) i have the 12 and it is a PITA mostly cause it takes up a lot of space in the garage.

That and the fact that i have never ever ever had more than 2 inches (or 5.80cm) worth of junk in the bottom. and that is after 5 years of using it for all sorts of around the house things and a complete bathroom tear down to the studs remodel.

Shop Vac with the auto hose kit . skip the BIssell.

also if you buy used find out from the manufacture what their warranty is. You might make out if they have life time on certian things. (and you dont need to provide original receipt)
just my $0.02 (which is 0.0206579986 Canadian dollars)

 

thanks! Yeah for $25 I think it's a good deal, but my garage is packed enough so I may end up waiting till boxing day and picking one up. I called home depot asking the lowest sale price of it and it's never gone on sale... So I'll see may end up going down to the states

 

theres an idea you can check out black friday ads from last year and the year before.


also look at the foot print of the 4gal / 12gal. if they are the same then it doesn't make a difference cause you can't put anything on the thing anyway