Vacmaster VWM510 Wall Mount Wet/Dry Vac – Tool Review
According to the Vacmaster website, this is a new tool, but we’ve actually had it for a couple of years. It’s been mounted to the wall at the office, and it’s been very useful to us. Our former office was in an old car factory. It was built in the early 1900s, and while it’s a cool building, we had a lot of cobwebs and a lot of dust… Everyday we’d walk in to more dust. And to make matters worse, the windows leaked, so if it rained hard enough, you came in to puddles to clean up.
So let’s talk about the features and the specifications of this tool. Like the title says it comes with a wall mount frame that is easily attached to any wall with just a few screws. Of course, you should make sure you either hit the studs in the wall where you mount the frame, or you should be sure to use really good wall anchors. The vac is not crazy heavy, but it isn’t light either.
Vacmaster says it has a dual turbo 4 stage motor and a 5 amp peak. I can’t speak to all the science behind the motor and the amp rating, but I can tell you this. I really like the size and I thought the power was great. It is large enough to not have to be emptied all that often, although emptying it is easy, but it’s light enough to carry around. The design of the handle helps that. It’s beefy and easy to grab. This vac is very easy to get off the frame on the wall, and put away again. It basically “clicks” place. The frame itself has plenty of storage for the numerous accessories that come with the tool. They are very neat and tidy way to keep them in place, and you don’t loose them that way. They say there are 13 accessories, I know I have all the normal ones, but I think I must have lost one or two along the way, so take a lesson from me… Store them in the wall mount frame! And the cord wraps around the frame, so it’s out of your way. I’ve used this vac to pick up dust and water, and t’s worked equally well in both situations.
Here are a couple of features I think everyone will like. The cord is 20 feet, which is quite long and I like that for a vac so I don’t have to keep plugging and unplugging. I can just move the vac itself. And if that weren’t enough, the 1 7/8” hose is 21 feet which takes you the rest of the way… If I plug the vac into a wall socket in the middle of my office, I rarely have to stop and move the plug. It would be more than enough for a garage or shop setting.
Now while I like the overall function of the machine, there is a feature that I really like as well if not better than the others. It may be in a tie with the wall mount frame. And the feature I’m referring to is the switch on the vac itself and the remote switch on the hose itself. The switch on the vac is nice and large and very clear. You know how you hate having to walk back to the vac itself to turn it off and on. I mean, really, doing that defeats the purpose of that long cord and hose doesn’t it?
The answer: a remote controlled on/off switch on the hose itself. Genius! You use them with table saws, etc, so why not with the function of the vac itself. Push the switch to the remote and now you can turn the vac off with the switch on the handle. I love that I can stop and start and not have to keep constantly moving from where I’m working. I give you one warning. I have left the switch in the remote position on at least two occasions, but I know about these two, because something happened. Maybe we lost power in the office or had a power surge, but on two occasions, I’ve walked into my office to find the vac running. Like I said, it’s only happened twice and I try to remember to turn it back to off instead of leaving it on remote.
Like a lot of wet/dry vacs, this one has a blower feature. All you have to do is pull this filter / port off and put the hose there. I admit I rarely use the blower feature on any wet/dry vac, but every once in awhile I’m glad it’s there.
Overall, I’m a big fan of this vac. I’ve had bigger ones that might hold more, but they are difficult to move and they are difficult to empty. I’ve had smaller ones that are great for small jobs, but they don’t have the power of this vac, and the capacity suites most folks needs just fine. Just remember… Don’t leave the vac in remote position when you are finished using it. Oh, and Vacmaster says it’s a quiet vac. In fact that say that has “ultra quiet operation”. I don’t know about that. It’s not obnoxious, but it still sounds like a wet/dry vac. I wouldn’t chat on the phone while it’s on. But it’s quiet enough!
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