Clean mind, clean shop.. no references to sucking here
Written: Jan 09 '07
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Pros: Nice price, good suction, compact size, wet/dry, attachments
Cons: noisy, no filter sock included, short cord
The Bottom Line: This is a very nicely proportioned vacuum with very good suction. I wouldnt go smaller or bigger. Its just right and very good for the money.
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| toolguy1963's Full Review: Craftsman 17741 Canister Wet/Dry Vacuum |
If you need a shop vacuum or wet-dry vacuum for general clean up, this may be a very good choice. Although it’s only a six-gallon vacuum it has plenty of suction and capacity for most anything you could do around the house or garage. That is unless of course you’re a serious woodworker and produce lots of sawdust.
I bought one of these and found it to be ideal for my garage/shop. One thing I hate about shop vacuums is that they take up so much space. You need a certain capacity and power rating to be able to do a good job and this one works well without being too large. I have a number of shop vacuums to work with at school, in both the auto shop and wood shop. One in particular is a big Pullman that is just fantastic. The Craftsman will vacuum almost as effectively as that model without the size and weight factor.
The Craftsman 17741 comes nicely packaged with a floor vacuuming head, hose, hose clip, and two tube extensions. The extensions slide over the caster mounts above the wheels to keep them out of the way. The wheels must also be mounted into the caster mounts when taking it out of the box but that’s not a big deal. One thing I do wish Sears had included is a filter sock to protect the filter and increase its service life.
Using the vacuum is very easy. Simply pull the extensions off their perches and connect them together then to the hose. I always leave my hose plugged into the container. Plug the floor head on if your going to use it. Plug the vacuum into your 110 AC power supply, push the on – off switch to on and your in business.
When using the vacuum it is going to be pretty noisy. It makes a lot more noise than the industrial Pullman model I mentioned, but it does have plenty of suction. Although the canister isn’t huge at 6 gallons, it does hold a sufficient amount of debris and takes a good while before it needs emptying. For my home shop I may empty it every couple of months.
This vacuum will suck up anything in its path. I can do a better cleaning of the interior of my cars with this vacuum than I can do with the coin monster at the carwash. It will pick up dirt, metal shavings, hair, rags, liquids, you name it. With additional attachments it becomes even more versatile. My favorites are the crevice tool for the car interior and reduction attachment. With that you can reduce the hose size to a household vacuum hose size. That in turn increases the air velocity at the tips making it a suck monster. When cleaning up around the bench it’s fantastic having a smaller hose with a huge vacuuming effect.
Now for some dirt on this vacuum, “pun intended”. It’s advertised to have a nice long ten-foot cord. Well ten feet may sound like a lot especially with another seven feet of hose, but I seem to run out cord way before I run out of work. If you don’t own an extension cord, pick one up along with the vacuum. It’s also advertised to be a blower. No problem here, but they say a leaf blower in the ad. Por Favor, you’re killing me Sears. If they had said a blow your bench off blower or hair dryer for cats it might have made more sense. If you really want to go out and pull this vacuum behind you as you blow leaves, have at it. I’m sure you’ll loose patience with that in no time. Lastly, because it is a smaller capacity container, it’s also very light in weight. I put two bricks in the bottom of mine to keep it from tipping over when I pull it around in the shop. It made a big difference.
The nice thing about this vacuum of course is its size, good suction, but even more the price. It sells for only forty bucks, and you get a lot of capability for that money. This isn’t an oversized dust buster; it’s an undersized industrial vacuum. I believe from looking at it that it’s probably made by the Shop-Vac corp. There is one Shop-Vac model on the market that looks identical to the 17741 except for the color.
For what this vacuum costs, for what it can do and not get in your way doing it, Id say it’s a pretty darn good deal. I can even forgive the short cord noise and ridiculous sales pitch.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 40
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