I’d like to get a powerful vacuum to help with cleaning up after house renovations. I’m looking at Karcher – any recommendations for these or other makes?

Thanks

We’ve got a karcher and a numatic (metal bodied industrial Henry). Both bought second hand. The karcher is ok. Switch is a bit dodgy and the filter clogs pretty readily with DIY dust. The numatic is bomb proof. Brilliant suck. It’s old but you can still buy spares. Happy with both but the numatic is definitely better

The fact that my Henry is still smiling suggests he can handle renovation type stuff and come back for more.

Either that or he is on drugs

Even though I hate wickes ….. Their 40 quid Henry rip offs are brilliant

Buy a second hand Kirby ..if you would like a full work out at the same time ..( very heavy man )
Not an industrial vacuum ..but we have a Miele (Cat & Dog version) ..my missus is a home / mobile hairdresser and this has given 12 years of great service and is still going strong ..
I’ve always found Henry’s to be pretty crap ..and was involved in commercial contract cleaning for a good while ( sales ) ..so saw at first hand ..

I have a Nilfisk aero similar to the link below , and a couple of others Titan/Festool ,
the Nilfisk is a good compromise – well made , quiet – long cable and long hose , with the additional power take off which is useful , use the fleece bags and the dust will be kept to a minimum , Nilfisk have a good reputation and spares are available.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/nilfisk-aero-26-21-pc-1250w-25ltr-wet-dry-vacuum-cleaner-240v/66972#product_additional_details_container

I’ve got this Karcher one on the right from Screwfix with power take-off.

I use it exclusively for dust collection on a mitre saw, for which it is mint. Very powerful.

Can’t comment on floor sweepage.

https://youtu.be/5lm-mhakfgE

a powerful vacuum

the powerful-est are the Fein Dustex ones but you won’t get much change from £300 – very sucky, simple and tough.

Ebay is dripping with various second hand Numatics and cheap spares for them. There are little blue and grey versions of the Henry’s (basically the same machine without the winding mechanism for the cord) that can be had very cheap. The larger industrial spec ones are useful for just guzzling more crap between emptying – physically bigger than you’d want as a home hoover in the long term but the size means they tend to be collection-only which throttles the price a bit – wait and see what comes up nearby or look what will be close when you’re travelling.

I think they’re are better functioning machines about but the numatic stuff is reasuringing robust and repairable meaning you buy second hand with reasonable confidence. They’re easy to sell again when the renovations are done, so in the long term it could be pretty much free.

Get something with a power take off – it acts as an extension lead and also starts the vacuum when you run a power tool.

I’d second the Nilfisk Aero 26, great on dust, attached to power tools, hoovering the car, picking up building debris, spillage and even acts as a pump, I use it to Take the last 50litres of water out of our pond when cleaning it.

I picked up a Vacmaster Multi 20 PTO, works as a usable but industrial vacuum, but can also do wet sucking, blowing, has adaptors to be dust extraction, and has power take off.

cleaning up after house renovations

when you say ‘cleaning up after’ do you mean you’re not actually doing the renovation work? So this is clean up rather than dust extraction? A power take off is only  useful if you’re extracting while you work and you have tools you can extract from.

Something to keep in mind….. for clean up you generally want better filtration than you’d have for extraction – the dust that will come off a saw is pretty clean and uniform for instance. If you’re cleaning up a site then you’re stirring up all kinds of shite – the dust you’ve created and the dust of ages –  including a lot of silica from cement / concrete dust – in an old enough house that can even include anthrax. A poor filter will mean you’ll be blowing the finest, nastiest particles up in the air and into your families lungs.

I’m pretty skeptical about the whole ‘L’,’M’,’H’ class thing – or rather the way the industry is gaming it. But for clean up rather than extraction you should (if you were being paid to do it) be using an M-Class machine at least. The reality is that for a lot of the better machines the same filter is in the L Class and M class machines but they slap an ‘L’ on the less feature-laden ones as a way of up-selling their more expensive ranges.

Book marking for later. I was going to ask the same question. Good to know.

The reality is that for a lot of the better machines the same filter is in the L Class and M class machines but they slap an ‘L’ on the less feature-laden ones as a way of up-selling their more expensive ranges.

I wonder if it’s also to do with how well the filter is sealed in place etc, as you don’t want asbestos etc escaping around it. Also how well the bag seals etc.

I got a Titan 30 litre wet and dry vac with power take off for 70 quid in Screwfix a couple of months ago, very happy with it and it’s been great at keeping the dust down when working in the garage with the table saw, plunge saw, and router.

Lidl have a similar one on sale this Thursday.

Thanks all – it’s for post-renovation clean up and then general garage duties after that

I’ve got a Bosch GAS25 with a power take off. Long hose so very good for using with my DA sander. Lots of spares available and the reusable zipped bags are worthwhile too.

From Thursday – 3 years warranty – very good price if that matters, lots of bits and bobs it comes with

https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/MiddleofLidl.htm?articleId=23772

I’ve got the Karcher MV 3 P with the power take off. It gets used for dust extraction (nice over-run to clear the tool after you turn it off) garage and car duties, it also coped with a clearing a flooded garage and we lent it to our neighbours when they flooded out their kitchen.

It comes advertised as bagless but get the paper bags off ebay, the pleated car style filter gets clogged very easily otherwise.

Its been knocked about a bit, I have a 8×4 fold down workbench for big sheets and sometimes put the Karcher in the centre so I can cut plywood without moving it, has fallen off a few times and only has some superficial damage to clips inside the lid.

On the rare occasion it comes in the house, it shows up how bad the crappy house hoover is.

Slightly more expensive, but my workshop vacuum is a Festool Cleantec..

Excellent filtration, power take off, very long power lead.