Vacmaster VF408 4 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner with 2-Stage Motor

Clearly Five Stars. We've had it for over 2 years. It is very dusty in our Honduras, Central America, home. The vacuum comes with a pleated filter standard. We fitted the vacuum with a dust bag from Space Tent, a third filter over the pleated standard filter, and the hepa filter. 4 filters in total. I suppose that reduces the suction force. But my sensitive nose likes it that way.The automatic cord wind up is wimpy. I'm careful with it. Two years old, still works.This is the second machine we've owned from this company. I wear hearing protection with the old machine. This red machine doesn't bother my ears.Super economical. Just be careful so the floor paint doesn't get sucked up too.

I have almost always bought Sears indoor and outdoor vacuum cleaners for my garage and patio needs. This is the first time I have bought outside of Sears, and I am pleased. This vacuum is small in size and much easier to move around the round vacuum's I was used to. In addition, it stores far more of its attachments than the Sears vacuum ever did. You still will need a container to store some of the attachments but its really impressive how much this thing can hold for such a small vacuum. It's got a basket attachment and a 2 slots for other attachments. The hose and tubes are about an inch and three quarters to two inches in diameter, are very light but strong, the tubing is very flexible but won't kink on you either. It is light moving around but is a bit top heavy, [this is where the motor is.], the tank is big enough to handle most household areas for wet work. It has a large on off button on the top and two large clasps for opening and closing the top half from the bottom half. This is a nice feature with those with big hands. A very nice feature is a spring-loaded extension cord. I cannot tell you how much easier it is to vaccuum an area without always tripping over the cord. Suction is really good as long as you make sure your attachment is in contact with the floor. If your at an angle to the floor it will not pick up things as well. As soon as I realized what I was doing wrong, there wasn't a problem.Positives: Good Price, very good suction power, ease to move around does not get in the way of itself. Great suction just be sure you're at the right angle with the attachment you're using. Nice interior volume. It stores nicely in a very small space, I love this.Negatives: Some assembly required and of course the instructions aren't always clear, YouTube it you will be fine. [The hooks for the hose were the most difficult.] Does not store everything that comes with it. To the best of my knowledge, it cannot be used as a blower. The floor wands for vacuuming and mopping are a little too small for large areas but do work well, just plan on it taking a little longer to do the same job.Overall, I recommend this vacuum. As long as you're not doing more than a two-car garage or a patio of equivalent size this product will serve you well. In addition, there are third party products that you can use, [bags and filters], that will save you money and work just as well as the factory brands. I do not recommend this product for commercial or large-scale use, mainly because of the small size of the attachments, not because it couldn't do the job.

Good Vacum Cleaner, Terrible Hose and attachments

This is the one! Love the powerful motor and has great suction. It’s not loud compared to other shop vacs. Having the front spinning rollers makes it easy to maneuver around. Great for vehicles and having all the attachments makes it easy to store on the shop vac. I also like that it has a retractable cord! The size of this shop vac is perfect, not too big and not too small.

I love this freaking thing!!! It is the 2nd vacmaster I have purchased. My husband got ahold of the first one so it is now a garage/basement use. But I am guarding this one. I like it even more. It is powerful convenient and has great attachments. My hubby touches this one and we will have trouble in our household! Lol

I bought this vac almost 3 months ago on the strength of the reviews and have since put it through its paces. I already own a full size shop vac but I wanted a lighter vac for small jobs that also had comparable performance just in a smaller package.IMO many of the reviews written on it are a bit too generous. Don't get me wrong, it's not horrible, but it is not the powerhouse that will suck your soul out if you're not careful that some reviews seem to imply.The suction is adequate, but that's mostly because it uses a smaller 1 1/4" hose, which limits the volume of whatever you are sucking up with it and of course, more prone to clogging. Switch to one of the larger attachments like the floor head and it loses quite a bit of that suction.In addition to being small, the hose is flimsy and will kink if you are not careful. The metal brackets to hold the hose keep falling off even when they are correctly installed. All it takes is to bump into something...I mean, it's a vacuum on wheels with a hose attached...people are going to pull on it like a leash and it's going to bump into things. It should be designed for it.The wand section and all of the attachments are friction fit. I prefer the type with locking tabs. The hose does screw into tank securely. The vacuum driven rotary brush tool they call the "turbo nozzle" isn't very effective, but it's got a cool name, right?. All the other attachments are adequate, but not 5 star.I have used it as a wet vac and it does OK. The float will get sucked up into the cage if the water level gets too high. It doesn't shut the unit down, but you will notice a loss of suction. Once you've emptied the water you will likely have to remove the foam filter and pop the ball loose with a screwdriver or something, it gets stuck pretty good. Also, the foam filter is kind of like a sleeve you stretch over the float cage. It's not the canister type you may be used to, which I found odd because the dry vac filter is that style. I don't expect it will last too long with repeated use.I have not had any issue with the retractable cord that some others have reported. There is green, yellow and red colored tape on the cord to indicate how you should be pulling on the cord. I'm sure most of us know what that means, but I'm also sure there are those for which red means stop (if it is my best interest), green means go (if I'm paying attention and not looking at my phone) and yellow means go even faster.It's not a bad vacuum, but I wish I had spent ten dollars more and bought Ridgid's 4 gallon vac instead. Bigger, better hose and performance, all around it is a much better vac. I had one before but lost custody of it. Sucks.IMO this unit is a bit overpriced and over-rated.

Works great!!!