DOWNSIZING SUCKS!: Shop Vac MICRO vacuum

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I've carried a Sears Wet/Dry 2-1/2 gallon vacuum on board for a few years. It comes in very handy for various cleaning jobs on board. At the time it was the smallest 120 volt vacuum I could find. Having the Honda 2000 generator on board makes it easy to use even at anchor or on the mooring. Though I primarily bought it to suck water out of the bilge. The bilge on BIANKA is rather deep and I was getting tired of spending so much time on my knees with the hand pump and sponge when it needed to be cleaned or drained. The wet/dry vac did the job a lot faster and better. Recently I saw that Shop Vac had come out with an even smaller wet/dry vac a one gallon unit called the Shop-Vac Micro Wet/Dry Vac. On a 30 foot sail boat downsizing to smaller things is always a good idea. So I bought one and tested to see if it would work for what I needed it for. First lets see what it comes with:



So far so good. You can see how it compares in size the the 2-1/2 gallon vacuum I already had on board even while it was still in the box:

Here it is in a side by side comparison:

Unlike the larger vac which had a dry filter that was wrapped around the foam filter the  Shop-Vac Micro Wet/Dry Vac has a separate filter bag that slides into the intake for the vacuum:

This filter bag wraps around the motor in the lower case:

It only comes with one bag so if you plan to do a lot of heavy duty dry cleaning you will need to order more  Micro Filter Bags so you have them on hand. But, since I primarily use the wet/dry vac for emptying the deep bilge on BIANKA of water I needed to see how well it would do that job. So I did a quick initial test which you can see here:



It works just as well as the larger wet dry vac it is replacing for removing water from the bilge. The cons are since it only has a one gallon capacity I might have to empty it more often depending on how much water is in the bilge. It also seems to sometimes spray a little water out the exhaust as it nears capacity. But, that is easily wiped up. Also unlike larger vacuums the output port does not allow you to use it as a blower but, I never did use the larger vacuum for this either. All in all I am pleased to downsize to this smaller vac which takes up a lot less space than the one it is replacing and will still allow me to do the clean up jobs I need it to do. So it gets the Captain Mike seal of approval.
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