Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

How good are Bauer shop vacs? I'm thinking about buying one @ Harbor Freight Or should I stick to my Ridgid vac? The Ridgid's cfm leaves a bit to desire (I have a 9 gallon HD09001

Kludge that is only sold at Harbor Freight. The original Shop-Vac company is still making high quality vacuums in Williamsport. Most of their products are American made and very high quality. Most on-line comparison tests (which I often disagree with) of shop vacs seem to favor Rigid, Vacmaster (their parent company Suzhou Cleva Electric Appliance Company Ltd. also makes most Craftsman shop vacuums), Craftsman, Makita and on the high end Bosch. Sometimes a DeWalt shop vac sneaks in with a high score. We have a huge old Rigid wet-dry shop vac that refuses to quit and a smaller Stanley SL18129 wet-dry vac that is pretty good too. In all of these, be sure you can get replacement parts for them before spending your hard earned. And obtw, while those stainless steel drums on some shop vacs look pretty when new but get dents and dings with hard use. Thick plastic doesn't dent. Just saying ..................

I decided to buy a Ridgid 9 gallon HD0901 wet/dry vac because its cheaper than the Bauer & more choices of accessories & filters for the Ridgid than the Bauer

Rigid seems durable and does the job. As you noticed they are well supported with parts and bags. They're made by Techtronics Industries, TTI, same company that owns Hoover, Dirt Devil, Oreck and Ryobi.