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As far as I am concerned one of the of the mandatory tools for any craftsman or garage hobbyist must have is a Wet/Dry vacuum. When the car needs cleaning it can save a trip to the car wash and save money. When the water heater is out of warranty by 6 months and it decides to flood the basement get out the wet/dry vacuum and go to town. That is if you have a good one.
When seeking the vacuum I decided to look at a top of the line model manufactured by Fein, the commercial Fein 9-77-25 Turbo III Portable Vacuum used by a contractor friend of mine. Yes, this is the Cadillac of vacuums and has a Cadillac price, around $300. It is built with the same fine technology as the Fein Multi Master tool that most people are familiar with but is it worth it?
The automatic on/off feature is unique in that when you are using it with hand tools to suck up sanding dust it turns itself on when the sander is on and off when you turn the sander off. Not that I need that particular feature. The Fein is quiet, producing a mere 57.8 dB (A) noise level at 3.5 feet distance. It is one of the quietest vacuums available on the market today. Wow, all this for only $300.
At trip to my local Sears store presented me with as more affordable option, $60.00. While it does not turn itself on and off or offer an automatic emptying option, it has all the features I need in my garage workshop. It has wheels that swivel and move the canister quite easily. The tools are standard issue, a large hose, a small hose, a flat pickup nozzle, and a brush attachment. If you are a garage woodworker, you can adapt the nozzles to pick up tool dust with little effort.
For the car it is excellent is that it picks up the popcorn kernels, the Mac Donald's tabs that the kids pulled off the cups, the tops of the potato chip bags from lunch. It is quite good at sucking up the change that fell to the floor as well. Retrieving the change from the canister can be somewhat yucky but in today's economy, it is worth it. Emptying it is quite easy and if you use it for liquids, I suggest that you hose out the canister every time you use it to keep it fresh and clean.
I believe it does every thing the Fein does, with the possible exception of turning itself on and off but at $300, the manual switch works just fine.
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