Anyone tried the Dewalt Cordless Shop Vac?

The furnace guy brought along one of the above on a service call the other day and it looked useful enough to consider buying. The call at our house was the first time he'd used it and he wasn't able to provide any feedback so I'm looking for some here.

I've already got a good shop vac for the shop and am just looking for something that would be easy to use for the odd jobs where it's too much hassle to move the big one.

TIA

Reply to
Mike Henry
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Thought of a couple more items. It uses a synthetic filter so you suck water without removing the inner pleated filter. Supposed to suck 110 gallons of water on 1 18V battery charge.

Reply to
RellikJM

Yep - for $99 it seems worth taking a chance. Then again, it seems kind of cheap for a quality tool, so maybe it isn't. I was hoping for a first hand report to help make a decision.

Reply to
Mike Henry

Turns out that batteries and a charger are not included, so that doubles (or better) the price unless one already has other DeWalt cordless tools. I don't, so would appreciate advice on these options.

I'll assume that the primary benefit to 18V (vs 12 or 14V) is longer run time, but how about their chargers? Looks like Dewalt sells two types of

7.2-18V chargers - one with a 15-minute charge time and the other with a 1-hour charge time. Are there any reasons to prefer one over the other, neglecting charge time.

Also, one the Dewalt FAQs claims that "In fact, it is better for the battery to leave it in the charger to be sure it goes through Equalization and Maintenance Modes."

Sounds good to me, but I'd thought NiCads didn't like continuous charging. Been a while since I read that, though.

Reply to
Mike Henry

There are a lot of different grades of nicad batteries. Their discharge and charging ratings vary a lot, and some cells are designed for continuous charging.

The information about the different grades of nicads is usually available from manufacturers or distributors. Digi-Key sells numerous grades of nicads, and provides some cell characteristics in their catalogs.

WB ..................

Reply to
Wild Bill

On Mon, 6 Oct 2003 18:13:02 -0500, "Mike Henry" wrote something ......and in reply I say!:

This can be wrong. Given the same battery technology, if the battery weighs the same (same size) then you may get less _constant_ usage time, because usually what higher voltages are used for is more power. However you do usually get more power. So you will probably each job done quicker. But to get appreciably more work (holes drilled) out of the drill you need a bigger, or better, battery.

If the chargers are really well-behaved, and charge only what is needed, then protect the batteries, the 15-minute one is the obvious choice.

They are claiming quite a good charger. It should check battery condition, then ideally run a charge/discharge cycle, with a trickle section when the battery is fully charged.

A good battery charger will not charge continuously. It will charge only what is required for that charge (not to the capacity of the battery measured only by time) then either switch off or trickle so slowly that no harm is done (less than one percent of the battery's capacity should be added per day, probably). The _claims_ made by Dewalt, as you quote them, indicate a well-behaved battery charger.

****************************************************************************************** Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. The rest sit around and make snide comments.

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Reply to
Old Nick

Well, the Dewalt and a couple of on-line vendor sites are silent on the issue of battery weight. Dewalt claims 2.4 amp-hour for the 18V battery but doesn't mention specs for the 14.4 or 12V batteries.

The 1-hour & 15-minute chargers seem to offer the same features, but the latter is about $40 higher. Spending the extra bucks for a faster recharge would be attractive for metal-removing tools, but the shop vac is the only cordless Dewalt tool in my immediate future and I'll take any opportunity to procrastinate clean up. Mostly, I was wondering if there was any benefit other than charge time.

Sounded good to me - just didn't want to get sucked into a false marketing claim, like Sears HP.

There don't seem to be any complaints on the web (Google search) regarding the Dewalt XR batteries or charger. Doesn't mean that their claims are valid, of course, but it's usually easy to find someone on the web with a complaint about a specific brand or product.

Thanks for the input,

Mike

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Reply to
Mike Henry

Googling on newsgroups seems to indicate that users are generally happy with Dewalt cordless tools, batteries, & chargers.

Thanks for the tip on the Digi-key site - I'll check it out.

Reply to
Mike Henry

On Wed, 8 Oct 2003 21:21:10 -0500, "Mike Henry" wrote something ......and in reply I say!:

Sorry. Air sucked

It's difficult to c9ompare anyway, unless you know the current draw of the machine you are using.

Go for the slow one!

None that I have become aware of. Even with a really good charger, a very rapid charge may be tougher on the battery. Not sure about that one. If the fast charger is $40 extra, I would hope that they are being reasonable and you would get a decent charger.

Actually, if I am looking at any charger, my first question is "What happens if you lkeave tyhe battery in?". There is usually a back-off at that stage. Actually recommending that you leave the batteyr in inidicates at least the intention to have a good charging cycle. If it frizes batteries, there would be all hell to pay.

****************************************************************************************** Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. The rest sit around and make snide comments.

Nick White --- HEAD:Hertz Music Please remove ns from my header address to reply via email !!

Reply to
Old Nick

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