Vent: my shop vac lost suction mid-mop and dumped dirty water everywhere

I was cleaning up after a tile job yesterday and the vac just stopped pulling air. Water went all over the floor and I had to mop it up by hand. Has anyone else had a vac fail like that or is mine just a dud?

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3 Comments

david_reed223mo ago

Wait, aren't shop vacs supposed to stop pulling when they're full so they don't dump water?

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lee6893mo ago

Is it really that big of a deal if it spills a little water? People act like a shop vac killing itself is some kind of tragedy, they're like 50 bucks.

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olivia_white933mo ago

david_reed22 said they're SUPPOSED to stop when full, but mine didn't either. I think the REAL issue nobody's talking about is how fast those stupid automatic shutoff floats fail. I had one where the little plastic ball got jammed with grout residue and it just let the water keep filling until the suction died mid pull. Then when you tilt the vac to empty it, the water that was already inside dumps out the front. It's not that it's a $50 tragedy like lee689 said, it's that the design is FLAWED for actual work. You need to THOROUGHLY clean that float chamber after every wet job or you're basically playing roulette with a flood.

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