What exactly is the difference?

[eureka1998]

Other than one having wet pickup as a feature, what's the difference between a portable wet dry vac (like a 4 gal) and something like a Eureka Mighty Mite? Mighty Mite, like a shop vac also has a blower feature. Might sound like a stupid question but was always intrigued by this. What type of canister is something like a MM classified as?

 

[panasonicvac]

Wet/dry vacs are primarily designed to handle jobs that a Mighty Mite wouldn't handle. Like for example drywall dust, saw shavings, ashes, etc.

 

[huskyvacs]

Yeah these are more for construction-based jobs. Dust capture standards and stuff. Plus they can pick up water.

I think Mighty Mite would be a portable vacuum for the home, but not construction-related work. And then the Rigid shop vacs would be for when working on projects, connecting them to tools, and et cetrera. Also the overall design of them, the Mighty Mite is designed to make it ergonomic and portable for the home whereas using the shop vac in the house every day would be clunky and cumbersome.

 

[lesinutah]

Wet/dry

One can be used to pick up water.
Wet/dry vacs are construction or a vacuum you'd use in a shop.
The mighty mite just a portable vacuum to use in like couches or stairs. Mighty mite are good for people in small apartment or studio apartment. There used in tandem with eureka upright.

 

[human]

Shop vacs can also be used to pick up bulkier debris that something like a Mighty Mite would choke on. When my (now ex-) wife and I were remodeling her house, I dislodged a room's worth of oak parquet flooring and then used her dad's Craftsman shop vac with a two-inch hose to suck them all up. It was much faster and easier than sweeping them into a dustpan. Heck, I couldn't even duplicate that feat with my Dayton shop vac, which has a 1.25-inch hose.

 

[amtraksebo1997]

I've always wondered if you could get away with using a Shop-Vac as a daily driver. I had a classmate of mine who did just that at their home, but if I were to do so, I'd want to use HEPA bags, a power nozzle, and possibly an extension cord with it.

 

[huskyvacs]

You can, and they do have HEPA filters and bags. The issue is they have no power nozzle. They have a turbo tool on some older models for upholstery I think. If you can find a powered central vacuum head, they have connection adapters that might allow you to connect it to the hose. The main problems are that shop vacs are extremely loud, and the hoses are 3 or 4 inches in diameter and it becomes extremely cumbersome.

 

[lesinutah]

Um

Numatic Henry is close to being such a vacuum. They have vacuum you can modify and make a power nozzle work.
Antoine the guy with compacts and luxe has a video on how.
My milwaukee shop vac has a ac adaptor that produces 149 cfm out of either 2.25 or 2.5 inch hose. It also has hepa filters and hepa bags. It has a battery powered 7 inch power nozzle for it too.

 

[eurekaprince]

The Eureka/Sanitaire Mighty Mite is a much easier to use vacuum for regular indoor cleaning of floors and furnishings. It’s got a longer 7 foot hose compared to a Shop Vac. It has a more compact shape which makes it easier to use on stairs and easier to store. It uses a standard diameter hose handle - which means you can buy any kind of vacuum attachment to use with it. With the included shoulder strap, you can more easily carry the Mighty Mite as you clean a room. And finally, it has a dust bag that is much easier to change than the one inside the Shop Vac.

 

[amtraksebo1997]

Huskyvacs

If I were to use a Shop Vac as a daily driver, I'd probably want one with an 1 1/4 hose, for pretty obvious reasons. That being said, I like being able to pick up larger debris with a larger diameter hose. I guess I could either use a cordless central vac power nozzle, or a Vacuflo Turbocat if I wanted to use a power nozzle. I think the biggest obstacle for using one in the home is how short the cords for them are. I never understood why they're so short, other than cost-cutting I guess. Either way, it's annoying.

 

[eureka1998]

On a side note

Hoover made a vacuum STRIKINGLY similar to the Mighty Mite and had it under several names (TurboPower, Portapower, Tempo). Dont think its as versatile as the Mighty Mite though (like the MM's blower ability).

 

[suckolux]

Let's not forget, most? All? Shop vac style are a bypass motor, dirty air and water not going through the actual motor. My poor neighbor tried to use a 5 gallon Shop-Vac as her only vacuum very loud, very clumsy and not satisfactory.

 

[human]

I worked at Pizza Hut for a couple of summers in 1982-'83, and the store where I mainly worked had a small Craftsman wet/dry shop vac to vacuum the dining room. Probably a wise choice for vacuuming up fragments of salad, pasta and pizza crust, although its 1/25-inch hose routinely got clogged with larger pieces of crust. That said, the rigors of daily use in a carpeted dining room definitely took its toll. The first summer it was in pretty good shape, but when I returned from college the following summer, the wands were held together with duct tape.

 

[amtraksebo1997]

suckolux

That's the entire point of a Shop Vac. It can suck up things that a household vacuum can't without damaging it.

 

[eurekaprince]

But most canister vacuums since the debut of that kind of cleaner are “bag first” vacuum cleaners. Only the NSS pig canister vac has a “motor first” configuration.

 

[amtraksebo1997]

EurekaPrince

The only canister machine that I can think of that uses a direct air system is the NSS Pig (and a Kirby in tool mode with the small handle attached, but I don't really count that, since it's an upright by nature). The clean-air design has been around a lot longer in canisters than it has been in uprights.