Compact Vacuum Cleaner?

OK, this is a very technical boating question. What is a good vacuum cleaner for a boat????

Seriously, for years we had an older Kenmore upright with a removable/extendable handle that made it nice and compact for storage. Unfortunately, it bit the dust. No pun intended. It was a pretty decent vacuum, had a rotating brush and good suction, plus a host of handheld tips and a very long hose. We replaced it with a new Hoover Commercial CH30000 compact vacuum. It's a canister style, with a shoulder strap that make it convenient to use and carry from cabin to cabin, deck to deck.

However, after about 6 months of using the new Hoover, we have determined that it sucks. Or, more precisely, it simply does not suck enough.

Does anyone have a good vacuum cleaner they would recommend that will break down for storage, clean carpet as well as hardwood, and have a variety of hand held tools?

We’ve had numerous vacuums and have determined that the Dyson is the best for us. Expensive but we think worth it.

Yeah, the Dyson. Just keep in mind that when they say "Lasts up to 45 min on a charge!" what they mean is 7 minutes - which is technically within the 'up to 45 min' range.

If no carpets or can live without a beater bar, I use 2, Lowes bucket shop vacs.

The older is relegated to nasty work.... the newer is the main cleaning vac or only dry stuff because of the HEPA filter cover installed.

I have 30 ft of pool hose (cheapest per foot) to reach fore and aft to every part of the boat and I sit the vacuum outside a door so ZERO dust recycling inside the boat. It blows all outside.

They can be converted to blow stuff off the decks when in tree lined waterways or bird droppings and also inflate the RHIB quickly as well as other inflatable things.

They are inexpensive and I have buckets from 3-6 gallons for any job onboard and the buckets can do double duty for other jobs.

They are way more powerful than any other small vacs I have owned and I believe the last one I bought was like $35. Now $27 but may not be the same...I think the old heads were rebranded Shop Vac brand and why they were pretty good.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Project-Source-5-GAL-BUCKET-LID-VACUUM/5001251237

We have carpets on the boat and use The Shark for both boat and house. Well designed and a lot cheaper than the Dyson. For an everyday day boat shop vac we use the small rectangular Rigid. Haven't tried any of the cordless ones.

Tator

PS. Makes a good coat/clothes rack when not in use.

Tator

On our previous boat with all hardwood floors I used a commercial Hover. Loved it, 35’ power cord so it would pretty much reach everywhere on the boat with one plug in and it is very compact. Our Formula has a builtin vacuum and we have not used it yet but builtins usually are not great. We have a Shark plug-in in our house that we use occasionally when my wife wants to deep clean and we like it. We also have a Roomba and Shark robots but they would not be great on the boat. Have not had the Shark robot very long but the first one that came didn’t work. After a troubleshooting call to their support the sent a new one out and said keep the first one. So we will keep it for mechanical parts. Pretty good customer service.

I have carpet and a Shark. It must be working because I have to empty the dust collection container.
I did have a blockage one time, too much stuff.
I also have a wet/dry vac from Home Depot. Happy with that too.

I have a Shark also.
Not sure of the model but it works very well on all surfaces. Is detachable to do the steps whether carpet or wood and is nice and compact. Fits in a corner in the closet.
Stands about 4 feet tall over all and 16” wide ?
guesstimate.

We have a Dyson as well. They are WAY overrated in our opinion, or perhaps we just got a bad one.

psneeld, I like your idea. We have a decent shop vac on board. If I add the lengthy pool hose, the vac (as its noise/dust) could stay out on deck as you suggest while reaching throughout the boat. How is the suction after 30' of hose? Still decent?

AZ2Loop said:

We have a Dyson as well. They are WAY overrated in our opinion, or perhaps we just got a bad one.

psneeld, I like your idea. We have a decent shop vac on board. If I add the lengthy pool hose, the vac (as its noise/dust) could stay out on deck as you suggest while reaching throughout the boat. How is the suction after 30' of hose? Still decent?

Click to expand...

Good enough to suck up dirt, pet hair, food that's not stuck, nuts and small bolts and even stuff I didn't mean to suck up.

Part of that is the power of the head...the ones Lowes sold when I bought were like mid level shop vacs. The nbucket heads at Home Depot are garbage for suction power.

They won't suck full hose water 6 feet, but just get a good trickle going and they will. Never tried liquids through the 30 foot hose...no real need to. Otherwise would be great to keep floating dinghies dry.

We have a small Stanley shop vac with a brush attachment and a small cheap upright Hoover for carpets. The combination is adequate. We run the Hoover on the Inverter when traveling.

Jim

I use a Scorpion by Dirt Devil. It does come with the attachment for standing up vacuuming. This one is the most compact I could find at the time (5-plus years ago)

My search criteria was power required. This one draws 7 amps, which is the highest for the smaller units. It will not work with wet items but for dust, dirt, fur, washers and more is perfect. My cabin has an area rug. The thing will suck it up.

Bagless (has a filter) so emptying is easy. It is also expensive if you dump the ding-dang filter overboard in a current and it floats away. Replacement was $7.

I paid $30 or perhaps $35. They normally run $50. Here's mine all folded up:



Filter can be washed:


Frankly though, a wet vac might be a better option as the capacity plus the ability to pick up fluids is one that could be useful. I do like mine and after 5 years I'm quite satisfied. I can see replacing it as the form factor is small and I've not got a lot of room aboard Seaweed.

Shopvac type, like this. We have a compact Shopvac. Marina mechanic uses one for after work clean up, but it`s an Ozito,a big store (Bunnings)home branded version,maybe Vax in disguise.

I am not qualified to address this, my wife says I suck when it comes to a vacuum. I do know she likes the small Dyson. My domain is below deck, she handles the living quarters, I get to come up for meals, sometimes.

I have a Shark too, with a bunch of attachments, including one for rugs and one for pet hair. I use it as an upright and handheld. Works great. Only complaints are the dirt container is a little small and I wish mine were cordless.

Small shopvac for nasty stuff and wet stuff.

Shark. Dunno which model, something about pet hair, and it DOES do pet hair. HEPA, I think.
Comes apart for more compact use, comes apart for storage. Corded, which isn't great, but then it didn't cost near as much as a Dyson either.

Plus we also have a Milwaukee battery-powered handheld dirt sucker for small jobs. Works well, but other brands probably do too. Ours is Milwaukee only because that's our battery ecosystem for other tools.

Plus a Milwaukee wet/dry vac, ditto battery power, ditto other brands etc etc etc.

Happens we have a built-in vac system on this newer boat; haven't tried it yet. Beam, I think... But we have a built-in vac system at our home too (Beam) and it's more unwieldy than you'd think, so our boat system may or may not be all that useful.

-Chris

We have a small 2 gallon stainless wet/dry shop vac from Walmart I got on sale for $20 after Christmas several years ago.

Works great in engine room and in cabin. I regularly have to dig things out that weren't supposed to be captured.

The long pool hose is a great idea. I have used ours when sanding inside and a long hose would keep noise down. Before I sat it outside and ran hose through the hatch.

We also have a small dust devil for rugs and furniture. But the shop vac really does the work.

Thanks for the replies everyone! From the responses, I think we will look into the Shark. We already have a 5-gal Shop Vac in the ER, but it's a but bulky for my wife to wrestle out of there. Which leads to the one other requirement I neglected to mention. Whichever unit we end up getting has to be light enough and easy to work with for my wife. As well, our 11-yr old is starting to get vacuuming as a chore...

We have a cordless hand-held shark with a detachable beater brush for the cabin and occasionally the deck (deck usually just gets hosed down). I keep a 1 -2 gallon shop vac(bagless) for the bilges, projects and water. I use cheap shop vacs because the second they are used if/when I have to open the sanitation system anywhere and they are involved in the clean up of black water, they get thrown out.

Dyson Animal for interior and a very small square (Rigid brand) 5hp shop vac in the laz for project cleanup and bigger jobs.

+1 for Dyson. If you look, Dyson and Ebay (among others) have refurbished ones on sale quite often. We got a Dyson V8 Animal+ (we have 2 dogs) for about $225 w/ tax...
It came w/ ALL of the attachments, which at first I thought was totally unneeded, but have come in handy quite often!

I keep an older handheld Dyson on the boat, a DC58. Following a discussion of battery types and hazards I brought it home while the boat is in winter storage.

We have a Dyson Animal V8 at the house and it is very good, best part about cordless vacuums is beer breaks while it recharges. Wife walks by me sitting on the couch enjoying an IPA (scrolling through Trawlerforum) and I proudly announce that I'm in the middle of vacuuming.

Dyson

We have been happy with the storage size/power of the Worx WX030L (and price). Downside is you have to empty and clean the collection chamber, but otherwise happy with it.

First anchors and now vacuums ..... LOL

All good input though! I have a cordless Makita, it sucks, but my other power tools are Makita and the batteries interchange. I mean it sucks as in it doesn't get things picked up, not as in "it does".

I am looking to upgrade to something that actually works, combination of wood and carpet on my decks. Shaking the rugs out over the side probably emulates having a beater bar to some extent but it's hard on the hems on the rugs.

I appreciate this thread

ranger42c said:

Shark. Dunno which model, something about pet hair, and it DOES do pet hair. HEPA, I think.
Comes apart for more compact use, comes apart for storage. Corded, which isn't great, but then it didn't cost near as much as a Dyson either.

Plus we also have a Milwaukee battery-powered handheld dirt sucker for small jobs. Works well, but other brands probably do too. Ours is Milwaukee only because that's our battery ecosystem for other tools.

Plus a Milwaukee wet/dry vac, ditto battery power, ditto other brands etc etc etc.

Happens we have a built-in vac system on this newer boat; haven't tried it yet. Beam, I think... But we have a built-in vac system at our home too (Beam) and it's more unwieldy than you'd think, so our boat system may or may not be all that useful.

-Chris

Click to expand...

i have a built in central vac too. it's ok but storing that long hose is a bummer. plus, no beater bar for the carpet.
so we carry a little folding handle upright in one of the lockers. it might be a shark, i'm not sure. the power unit detaches so it becomes a hand held if you want. it works very well and is nice and compact.

How about an antique Kerby full sized does rugs well

It has a universal motor with brushes that can operate on 110v AC or DC,so a truck stop inverter works just fine.

Not a plastic fly weight tho.

We've got one of the upright Shark vacuums at the house. Reasonably light, fairly small (smaller than the Hoover upright we also have) and works well. It can be taken apart somewhat for storage as well.



On the boat, we have the Hoover canister vacuum that's been on the boat since 1987. It's not the most powerful vacuum and I've debated replacing it, but it works fine, it's not very heavy and there happens to be a cabinet it fits perfectly in.