Looking for recommendations for quiet shop vacuums. I’ve read in the forums that that Fien and Festool are quality quiet machines. Any other recommendations? I guess I’ve reached a point where I’m willing to spend more for a quiet machine. I don’t want to build an enclosure.
I’m curious how the recommended shop vacuums perform under long run times, hours on hours.
I just bought a dust deputy from Home Depot and will use that with whatever shop vacuum I settle on.
Jimmy, when I was on a similar quest I landed on this vacuum. It’s quieter than most sub $100 options and it’s served me well for years. While it has a relatively small capacity at 4 gallons, it’s easy to empty after a long CNC run. With an extended hose and a variety of 3D printed adapters it serves well as my second vacuum.
I have a festool paired with a dust deputy, and it’s amazing how little sawdust makes it into the machine. I ran my thickness planer hard for a few jobs, and filled up 3 large bags of sawdust. There was less than a cup of fine dust in the festool bag. It also has a speed dial, so you can reduce the motor rpm and the noise to what is adequate for the job. I keep my shop vac handy for machines not connected to the festool, or work in the house.
DeWalt has a new series called “DeWalt StealthSonic Wet Dry Shop Vac”, the model number is DXV12P-QT, be careful not the same as DXV12P. There are also other capacity models but be careful some of the smaller one don’t use the standard 2 1/2" hose if it is important for you. When used with a cyclone, a smaller size would be nice with the same power. I would have bought one but since I am in Canada those models are not available yet. I have read that it is Alton industries who manufactures DeWalt shop vac. If you search with Google you will find some sound comparison tests with other shop vac and it is quite impressive.
Jimmy:
I will second the Vacmaster. I have the 5 gallon version and it has worked well.
It is quiet
2 stage motor that doesn’t overheat.
Mine is paired with an Oneida Dust deputy on my Shapeoko SO3
I have a Fein, Ridgid and the Vacmaster in my shop. For the price the Vacmaster is an excellent choice.
Bill
Mine is a Rigid NXT buried under the Shapeoko and is barely audible. I did include two small airflow fans to bring air in/out of the enclosure.
Most of the [noise] from my operation is from the router itself. I’ve yet to find a good way to knock that high pitched noise down.
Using a Hoover TX50PET with a cheap cyclone inline. It is quiter than my voice, really, super quiet with no enclosure needed.
In a noiseinduced, migraine-fueled rage I bought a Festool CT Midi and an Oneida Dust Deputy.
Swithching to a straight 2.5" hose made it quite quiet
I’ll third on the Vacmaster 
I have the 5 gal wall mount version.
Paired with a cyclone style off-brand dust collector (which works really well). This one is a really good price if anyone is looking.
The Vacmaster has great vac power even with a long run of about 30+ feet of hose and the dust collector. I went with the wall mount so I could place it by the end of my garage to keep the noise further away, keep the exhaust heat further away, and be accessible for vacuuming the cars. Been really happy with the set-up as a whole.
While were on vacuums - this anti-static tinsel is great:
Definitely recommend it. I put a run of 2" PVC from my wall mount vac to my router table to get the hose up off the ground. Wrapped that in the tinsel and connected it to a bare grounding wire. It’s made a huge difference in the static discharge from the vac airflow. Also - if you’re doing a PVC run - don’t waste $ on special connections. Warm the end with a heat gun and push the end of you vac hose into it. It will expand nicely, then hit with cool water to solidify. It makes a nice, tight but removable seal just like a factory vac hose connection.
@HaroldO - if you’re on a trim router, I found using the SuperPID cut the noise down considerably due to the way it controls speed. I did an install guide here. I’d say router itself was 30% or quieter, and the cuts were quieter too. Also, check your brushes, mine got really loud as they approached EOL, but didn’t realize it as it happened gradually.
The noise is what eventually drove me to move to a spindle. They’ve come down a lot in price the last few years. My installation and experience with that here. So much quieter! Cuts are still loud, but huge reduction in overall noise.
I do not understand how a control board will affect the output sound of a router. Speed adjusting, feedrate, etc, ok, but a simple controller?
My brushes are at 2/3 remaining.
No way I can get into the technical details, well above my understanding. My brother is an EE and went into the details… all of which were lost on me 
. It has to do with the PID controller (proportional–integral–derivative) which you can read about on wikipedia and on the SuperPID site.
My simple understanding is because it’s a closed loop controller it can fine tune the amount of power to maintain a given speed at all times even as load stresses change. It did work in my experience. Using the super-sophisticated-free-sound-app on my phone 
- I measured 83db on my Dewalt router at ~18K rpm under no load with stock controls and about 74db with the SuperPID at the same RPM. At those levels, 9db is significant and noticeable.
I need to measure my spindle again - I think that it was in the low 60s at the same speed no load - but that’s a completely different thing.
Thanks all!! Appreciate all the input. Saved me about $400. I’m going with the Vacmaster VWM510. Sounds like the sound performance will be an upgrade from my old ShopVac.
I received my Vacmaster VWM510. It is MUCH quieter than my shop vac. Happy with the purchase.
Any idea how much power it pulls(watts/amps) while you’re running a job?
8.5 Amps according to the manual.
If possible you should have the vacuum and router on another circuit from the CNC
Bill
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