shop-vac Model: 9341411

[iclark]

the ShopVac on the Lowes page looks a lot like the Alton unit in today's Woodcraft email sale:
http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?P ... e=09IN01NL

I've never heard of Alton before but the specs are similar to the ShopVac's that you pointed to and it is $80 cheaper with the email sale offer.
Woodcraft is also offering free ground shipping this month if you spend $75.

anyone care to comment on the Alton versus the ShopVac?

Ivan

[reible]

Thanks for pointing this out, and yes the savings look interesting however I did see that and yes they look alike but the "airflow of 88.3 CFM" indicated this might have a smaller hose or very different filters or ????

They were just introduced a short while ago at woodcraft and are now a clearance item???

The site:
http://www.altonindustries.com/products ... ductId=731
show it but the buy on line link takes you to a amazon page where you get
Your search did not match any products.

So I have no idea what is going on with this machine.

So if anyone knows what is going on I'd like to hear.

Ed

the ShopVac on the Lowes page looks a lot like the Alton unit in today's Woodcraft email sale:
http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=149163&FamilyID=21035&refcode=09IN01NL

I've never heard of Alton before but the specs are similar to the ShopVac's that you pointed to and it is $80 cheaper with the email sale offer.
Woodcraft is also offering free ground shipping this month if you spend $75.

anyone care to comment on the Alton versus the ShopVac?

Ivan

[iclark]

yes they look alike but the "airflow of 88.3 CFM" indicated this might have a smaller hose or very different filters or ????

Ed,

I had skimmed past that spec since it was part of the loudness spec. woodcraft doesn't give an unrestricted airflow spec and Lowes doesn't say the airflow spec is with any hoses or filters in place.

the Alton flow does seem low for that horse power. of course, the ShopVac seems incredibly high compared to the DC3300 or the Fein Turbo III.

both the Alton and the ShopVac have 2.5" hoses but the ShopVac's is longer.

your findings about the Alton and Amazon sites certainly give me pause about buying one.

Ivan

[reible]

Hi again,

I just went to the Alton site and mailed off some questions and I check to see if any of the places I order bags from carried bags for Alton... no one had them listed so it could be they use a common size used on another brand. That too was one of my questions.

Yes it seem odd that there is not a standard for doing some of the specifications people like to put out. It becomes vary hard to compare one product with another. As I had mentioned earlier the shopvac I have seems to do OK for most tasks but finding parts is hit and miss, the insides are starting to crumble... well hey I've owned it for 30 years and I got it used so those sort of things can be expected. (I have no idea what its ratings would have been???) But I do know that the output airflow is important to me and no one lists that.

Are you planning on getting one?

Ed

Ed,

I had skimmed past that spec since it was part of the loudness spec. woodcraft doesn't give an unrestricted airflow spec and Lowes doesn't say the airflow spec is with any hoses or filters in place.

the Alton flow does seem low for that horse power. of course, the ShopVac seems incredibly high compared to the DC3300 or the Fein Turbo III.

both the Alton and the ShopVac have 2.5" hoses but the ShopVac's is longer.

your findings about the Alton and Amazon sites certainly give me pause about buying one.

Ivan

[ralphtaff]

My exsperiance is that if you use just the filer you will be cleanning that filer all thew time. use a paper bag with the filter and when it gets full open the bag ,empty it ,seal it back with duck tape and reuse. some times i get four times use before you notice decreace in preformance. we use that way at my middle school. The maschine is about four years old and still gonig good.

[reible]

A bit of an update to my search... as in I'm no longer searching. I got the one in question.

I was in the Lowe's store about 2 weeks ago and noticed they had them on sale for only $152 but this store didn't have anymore. Another store in the area had for so they were going to have one shipped over for me (ICV I think they called it, what ever that means). It was going to be there the following Tuesday and they would call me... so the following Thursday when I had to go pickup some parts I checked... no record of the request... nothing.

So I talked with a manager and they redid what ever they did and again it was going to be in on Tuesday... So it is Friday and 2 weeks after I first ask about it... Well it finally made it today.

Since back in January when I first posted about this I've gotten two gift cards so they took another $90 off my cost and with tax I paid only $73.02... the difference you might notice is the $11.02 in sales tax. Yea I know I really paid $163.02 but on my tool budget I only paid the $73.02 while I budgeted $180... so I have some more things I can get this year!!

Got it put together and it is a lot quieter then my old one by far. I guess the "quiet series" actually means something. Now as long as I don't have any "issues" with it I think I'm going to be happy.

Ed

PS
The Alton people never got back to me, I emailed them twice so what is up with them???

[Ed in Tampa]

I ran into Alton a few years back, Sears had a few units on clearance. Upon checking them out I found they are in a league similar to the Fein vacs. They are known for fairly high suction, low noise and the ability to run a long time without overheating or melting the brush holders (common problem I'm told in some vac lines).

I was convinced to buy the vac at Sears but when I checked the availability of replacement parts the glow was over. It seemed like finding a place to get replacement parts (filter, dust bags, etc) was similar to hunting for a needle in a hay stack.

So I passed on Alton vacs.