Quiet Shop Vac?

[Yojevol]

Is there such a thing? With my downsizing exercise I'll be more reliant on my shop vac in the future.
At the moment I have a cheap Titan with power take off. It's a good sucker but very noisy.
I presume if I want something quieter I'll have to look for an induction motored unit.
Recommendations would be appreciated
Thanks
Brian

 

[thetyreman]

I've got the numatic PSP 370, very quiet and very happy with the performance, bags are cheap too, it's noticeably quieter than the ferrex/aldi one I had before and performs a lot better as well. I measured both with an app and the numatic measures 68dB SPL and the old one was 85dB SPL, so a 17dB difference.

 

[Sideways]

Cutting edge low noise performance is 57 to 59dB
That is a LOT quieter than 68
That type of low noise performance comes from commercial vacuums designed for use in hospitals and hotels to not disturb patients and guests.
This is just to tell you what is achievable. You might not find any shop vacs that go that quiet, even the most expensive.
But Numatic machines are good. Also take a look at a Henry for an affordable quiet vac. It can do a lot with a cyclone attached.

 

[Agent_zed]

I made a 2 bucket cyclone and used an old dyson dc02 which is a lot quieter than my titan shop vac or my vax. I couldn't see any dust in the dysons container and it pulled everything out of my bandsaw. Am continually amazed how well a couple of old buckets and some pipe extract the dust from the air.

 

[Blister]

Nilfisk are quiet , well the one I have is.

 

[Ollie78]

Earplugs are the way forward ! then they are all fairly quiet.
More seriously though my festool 26 with a dust deputy is very much quieter than any of the previous vacuums I have had, second is the good old Henry followed by Nilfisk, all the cheapo ones have been amazingly loud.

The trouble is the air movement itself causes a certain amount of howling/ whistling noise which cannot be avoided, sheilding the motor and attenuating the exhaust really helps a lot so if you look at the design you can tell a bit from that.
For our house vacuum we changed from a lidl special which died ( thank goodness, I hated that thing ) to a Sebo which is hugely quieter despite being very powerful.
For me its not the volume so much but the tone of the sound that can be annoying.

Ollie

 

[homeinthecity]

I’d be interesting to get suggestions too - I desperately need to replace my Evolution bagless 85Db+ horror.

I have a cyclone attached and use it mainly with a bandsaw and table saw, plus taking up waste from the drill press. Something quiet that also did the planer would be nirvana…

 

[Yojevol]

I’d be interesting to get suggestions too - I desperately need to replace my Evolution bagless 85Db+ horror.

I have a cyclone attached and use it mainly with a bandsaw and table saw, plus taking up waste from the drill press. Something quiet that also did the planer would be nirvana…

I've just purchased Mastervac EV12 from Maybrook Cleaning Supplies who have a large sale of old stock and demo vacs on ebay at very attractive prices
Brian

 

[Seascaper]

Is there such a thing? With my downsizing exercise I'll be more reliant on my shop vac in the future.
At the moment I have a cheap Titan with power take off. It's a good sucker but very noisy.
I presume if I want something quieter I'll have to look for an induction motored unit.
Recommendations would be appreciated
Thanks
Brian

I use a Numatic, does a great job, £125 from boltfix, bags are cheap and most important, on off switch is readily accessible on top of machine. Lots of accessorise and you can use it also to vacuum floor when finished.
Regards

 

[Molynoox]

DeWalt stealthsonic... in the reviews it seems so quiet! Can you get it in UK?
I've looked and I'm not sure I can find it...

Martin

 

[Ollie78]

DeWalt stealthsonic... in the reviews it seems so quiet! Can you get it in UK?
I've looked and I'm not sure I can find it...

Martin

Not bad, but it makes very little difference when using a router or a circular saw anyway.

Ollie

 

[Molynoox]

Not bad, but it makes very little difference when using a router or a circular saw anyway.

Ollie

That's not my experience; I find that when you have two loud noises happening at the same time you end up with one very loud noise.
Also, wouldn't it be great to be able to use your vac on its own without the need to put on ear defenders?
Anyway, the title of the thread is quiet shop vac... so there is already a need established by the OP.
Martin

 

[Limey Lurker]

I use a Numatic, does a great job, £125 from boltfix, bags are cheap and most important, on off switch is readily accessible on top of machine. Lots of accessorise and you can use it also to vacuum floor when finished.
Regards

And spares are available for all parts.

 

[Sideways]

DeWalt stealthsonic... in the reviews it seems so quiet!

They're only catching up with what other sellers have been doing for years.
Nothing to see here.
Once someone in their marketing department realises that noise is measured on a logarithmic scale we'll see their advertising change from "50% quieter" to "99% quieter". Just wait and see ....

 

[Ollie78]

That's not my experience; I find that when you have two loud noises happening at the same time you end up with one very loud noise.
Also, wouldn't it be great to be able to use your vac on its own without the need to put on ear defenders?
Anyway, the title of the thread is quiet shop vac... so there is already a need established by the OP.
Martin

I do not disagree, quieter is obviously going to be better.
My comment was not supposed to be serious, but also true. In a workshop situation using a big router you should have earplugs anyway.
I think the pitch of noises can be more critical than the volume when it comes to the annoyance factor.


Ollie

 

[Molynoox]

I do not disagree, quieter is obviously going to be better.
My comment was not supposed to be serious, but also true. In a workshop situation using a big router you should have earplugs anyway.
I think the pitch of noises can be more critical than the volume when it comes to the annoyance factor.


Ollie

No worries Ollie
I just find vac noise ultra annoying so I'd love a quiet one.

 

[Sideways]

It's not a shop vac. It's a 15 litre commercial that has been on the market for years.
But look at the numbers :

Rated power (W)1000
Airflow (l/sec.)35
Vacuum at nozzle (kPa)23
Sound power level (dB(A) IEC 704) 71
Sound pressure level (dB(A) BS 5415) 53

Nilfisk GD930

K'archer used to make one in a similar format but discontinued it some years ago. You will only find them used.

If you put the motor in the middle and wrap the dust bag around it, plus some sensible airflow management you can make a superior acoustic design.

 

[Ollie78]

It's not a shop vac. It's a 15 litre commercial that has been on the market for years.
But look at the numbers :

Rated power (W)1000
Airflow (l/sec.)35
Vacuum at nozzle (kPa)23
Sound power level (dB(A) IEC 704) 71
Sound pressure level (dB(A) BS 5415) 53

Nilfisk GD930
View attachment 155013

K'archer used to make one in a similar format but discontinued it some years ago. You will only find them used.

If you put the motor in the middle and wrap the dust bag around it, plus some sensible airflow management you can make a superior acoustic design.

That is very quiet, just looked at my Sebo for the house and it is a max of 72db and I thought that was way quieter than what we had before.

Purely non scientific but I think adding the dust deputy cyclone to my Festool reduced the noise, or at least changed it.

Ollie

 

[Jackie H]

I have just bought a Record Power Camvac. They use a simple technique to reduce the noise level which is to attach a 2m flex tube to the fan motor outlet. This acts as a noise baffle. The principles of noise baffle boxes are available online. The best example would be a car exhaust silencer.
My Camvac is demonstrably quieter when the flex tube is attached and doesn't appear to effect performance.
Dennis @ Hooked on Wood did a review of the Camvac and went a step further and built his own baffle box.
The Camvac stats are available on line. I will do a review once I have got it up and running on my table saw etc.
The point here is that I would think you could apply the principle to most any shop vacs if they have a suitable fan motor outlet i.e. you can attach a tube to.

 

[Molynoox]

Matt from badger workshop mentions that sometimes too. Haven't tried it myself but it's interesting that so much sound simply comes out of that exit pipe and can be easily attenuated.