Posted on 08/19/2013 2:54:36 PM PDT by virgil283
"One of the handiest tools around home & shop these days has to be the wet-vac. I have 4 or 5 of them, and use one every single day, on the job and off....."
* Unclog sink, tub, or dishwasher drains
* Clean lint from dryers
* Empty water from ‘dead’ dishwashers
* Open clogged refrigerator defrost drains using a computer cleaning (3/8” nozzle) attachment – a very handy nozzle for a lot of things
* Pick up various messes little kids make in the middle of the night (yech! – sit it outside, go back to bed, then hose it out in the AM!)
* Empty water from washers for service – replacing pumps, etc – on most washers, you can just hold it onto the end of the drain hose for a few seconds
* Clean those really long dryer vents, using a 30 ft central vac hose, from the outside
* Clean those hard-to-reach refrig. condenser coils, with the vac running and a long condenser brush
* Pull heaters & wires through curved tubing or conduit, vacuuming a small string through first (refrigerator Yoder loops, etc)
* Clean AC & Dehum. coils - spray with water or a coil-cleaning chemical first
* Retrieve cell phones from floor drains
* Check various hoses for clogs (listen for the vac motor’s pitch change)
* Compact sleeping bags and bulky blankets in plastic bags for storage
* I guess you could use it to just vacuum or blow dirt, too!
* 'Evacuate' nuisance bees, like Yellow Jackets, from hard-to-reach nests inside house walls (don't ask!). Just run it for a couple of hours near the nest entrance, then spray a bit of wasp/hornet spray into the 'business end' just before turning it off. Awesome!
* Pull a vacuum on a water heater to replace an element - even a bottom one - WITHOUT draining the water!
PS - One tip I’ve learned with my ShopVac™ brand units: it’s not necessary to change back and forth between that paper ‘bag’ and foam ‘wet’ filter. I just use 2 foam filters and pick up water or ‘dry’ with no problems.
Oh, and if you plan on picking up much water, stay with the 5-6 gallon size. At 8 pounds per gallon, that’s heavy enough when full!
Whatever you do.. DON’T SHOW A PICTURE OF IT! LOL (Someone is trolling for ‘click throughs’).
Whatever you do.. DON’T SHOW A PICTURE OF IT! LOL (Someone is trolling for ‘click throughs’).
Don't know about that one, Virgil.
Most of the list is like that one, a very big stretch.
I have replaced a lot of water heater elements, and never needed a wet-vac, the vacuum is always sufficent.
Aw, Virgil, VIRgil...
Every bachelor will tell you the handiest tool is the HAMMER.
Totally agree with Ansell — have replaced many without draining even on the bottom. Might have a little less water loss (it is minimal) with whatever technique he uses, but it works fine. Just be ready with a properly fitting element!
So I clicked it. It’s nice little mainly TEST based site and he has a book he’s going to publish that might actually be worth looking at, but that’s like the most commercial thing there really. I did not poke around that much, but the link page was not what I would consider a problem.
He is not a blog pimp in my book.
He is a Freeper who acts like a Freeper and participates here.
That site (if it is even his) is mostly text, and if there is something on it where he gets paid for clicks it is really minimal.
You great defenders against blog pimps, who I generally APPRECIATE, should just go into harms way and check these things out yourselves before shooting from the hip. CLICK! Tell us what happens! Go into harms way for us! Then fewer of us will click anyway if it’s a problem.
Your click will not add that much to their revenue stream, PENNIES, and you can properly “review” the link for us all so that we do not unnecessary ignore innocent Freepers who live on line and are just sharing their lives a little.
We have better things to use our ammunition on.
(TEXT based site, not TEST based.)
Been doing a LOT of remodeling, lately. While a good shop-vac is absolutely necessary, I would be sunk without my 20-volt cordless hammer drill and a good utility knife with lots of blades.
See this:
http://www.vacmasters.com/airsystems.html
These introduced over the last 25 years are the atomic version of what you have in the house. You can suck up the water and soil around a hidden or broken utility line for installation or repairs without damage to surrounding pipe or electric line. 
See this:
http://www.vacmasters.com/airsystems.html
These introduced over the last 25 years are the atomic version of what you have in the house. You can suck up the water and soil around a hidden or broken utility line for installation or repairs without damage to surrounding pipe or electric line.
Hard to believe, but not just five minutes ago I was cleaning out my garage using my brand new Shop-Vac. My old one lasted 20 years or so. Truly one of the best tools ever, perhaps with the exception of the lever.
“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”
Archimedes
Catch a mouse.
I have a wetvac (R) but I've never had any of the disasters Virgil described. Good insurance, I guess. Since they've never happened, they are still yet to happen. A diagram would be nice.
I have a wetvac (R) but I've never had any of the disasters Virgil described. Good insurance, I guess. Since they've never happened, they are still yet to happen. A diagram would be nice.
I have a wetvac (R) but I've never had any of the disasters Virgil described. Good insurance, I guess. Since they've never happened, they are still yet to happen. A diagram would be nice.
The Vac might make my top 30.
#1 A knife
I rescued a baby chick from a downspout drain system. Lots of little neighbor kids around to watch as I blew him out of the pipe. Little yellow chick hovered above the outlet like he was flying like a humming bird. The aplause was so great I considered running him through again:)
One they missed was for speeding up the process of cleaning scallops. Pop the shell, apply wet vac to remove innards, remove muscle. EZPZ
vob
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