: ....My ancient shop vac rolled over dead tonight. Stinks too.

: Is there a favorite shop vac out there that stands above the others that will
: not take a second mortgage to acquire? I did not find any advice in the
: archives so I'm hoping the tool experts out there will know which ones are
: the best. I already have a dust collector, but I still need the shop vac.

: TIA, Ted
Ted-After much deliberation I sprang for the Fein TurboII, at the time $219 at Amazon.com; pricey but worth every penny. It has an outlet to plug tools into and a switch which turns the vac on when the tool is turned on; when the tool is turned off, the vac stays on for a few seconds longer. This alone , to me, makes it worth the price. The hose has a rubber tube on the end which fits nearly all of the outlet ports on my tool, kinda simple but really works great. Add to this the fact that it's quieter than all my power tools, even the band saw; when first using it connected to tools, I had to touch the vac, make sure it was running, it's so quiet. After years of wearing headphone-style hearing protection with my old loud as hell Shopvac, this is a real treat, I no longer need them. With the on/off tool feature I can use the vac all over the shop as a dust collection system, no more writhing snake-pit like mess of extension cords on the floor. Only problem, and a minor one at that, is that the hose is really long, I've yet to devise a way to keep it out of the way. Buy it o;nce, use it hundred of times. Fein kills you with the accesories, though, very pricey; the rubber hose, though, enables you to use accesories from other vacs.-Greg