Vacuum Cleaner Bags

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I have to ask... why are you even using bags for the cleaner? My experience of bags in these sorts of vaccum cleaners is they limit the capacity, often tear and at ..... £10 for 5 (crikey!!), just soak up your money.

I have a Lidl wet n dry vac, similar design and all I did was take a pillow case, double it inside itself so it's half as long and the extra material creates a second "skin" of filter material, then put it over the filter and twisted some wire around it.

If you wanted to get crazy, you can sew or use that hemming tape on the pillow opening so you've got a full double filter all round, or better yet get some fine wadding, like the stuffing from a pillow, put between the two layers and create your own fine particle filter.

Actually, now that I mention it - I've got both and might just do that so I don't even have to blow out the supplied filter.

Voila - never needed to use a bag once, sure a little bit of the superfine stuff gets through, but nothing serious that a jet of compressed air won't deal with.

Take it out now and again and hose it down.

It's just a different version of how a Henry Vac works.

Or make / buy a seperator... I've never got why ppl throw money away on bags for a shop vac.
 
I use bags
1/ for convenience of emptying, and
2/ because my friend spend spent his working life repairing domestic elecricals and he told always to use bags as the vast majority of vacuums he'd either condemned or replaced motors on had been used without bags.
 
When it is just for your own personal use, you can of course use whatever you like. However, if employees are involved HSE are on a roll to move everyone to M Class, H Class and ATEX rated vacs depending on application. Problem is if you ignore the HSE advice and an employee gets a lung issue, you are stuffed.
 
rafezetter":20bwhhs7 said:
I have to ask... why are you even using bags for the cleaner? My experience of bags in these sorts of vaccum cleaners is they limit the capacity, often tear and at ..... £10 for 5 (crikey!!), just soak up your money.

I have a Lidl wet n dry vac, similar design and all I did was take a pillow case, double it inside itself so it's half as long and the extra material creates a second "skin" of filter material, then put it over the filter and twisted some wire around it.

If you wanted to get crazy, you can sew or use that hemming tape on the pillow opening so you've got a full double filter all round, or better yet get some fine wadding, like the stuffing from a pillow, put between the two layers and create your own fine particle filter.

Actually, now that I mention it - I've got both and might just do that so I don't even have to blow out the supplied filter.

Voila - never needed to use a bag once, sure a little bit of the superfine stuff gets through, but nothing serious that a jet of compressed air won't deal with.

Take it out now and again and hose it down.

It's just a different version of how a Henry Vac works.

Or make / buy a seperator... I've never got why ppl throw money away on bags for a shop vac.


That's an interesting idea - we have a Henry hoover with the reusable cloth bags Might give that a a try.

I have used it for a while without bags but it has got into everywhere and started blowing nasty fine dust out of the vents. Had to strip it all down and clean it. Too much hassle. Might try the pillow case idea.

To be honest - I was just looking for an amazon prime alternative and then be able to shop around a bit for ever cheaper versions. I have tried emptying the bags and reusing them a couple of times (craft knife and gaffer tape special!!)
 
I picked up the Lidl wet and dry vac for the workshop a few years ago. I made a few attempts to get replacement bags but ended up with the wrong ones. I haven't used anything in it since. Simply tip it into the bin when needed and blast the filter clean with compressed air. Still going strong!

Sent from my COL-L29 using Tapatalk
 
phil.p":2ew0wl09 said:
I use bags
1/ for convenience of emptying, and
2/ because my friend spend spent his working life repairing domestic elecricals and he told always to use bags as the vast majority of vacuums he'd either condemned or replaced motors on had been used without bags.

I had hoped it was obvious I was only referring to personal workshop type usage and yes HSE - whole other story, but then the company will have the bags as consumables and a tax deductable.

Phil.p, yes but you are talking domestic vacs, and probably where people haven't exactly taken care of it - we have had the same vac for the last 15 years, a panasonic, requires bags but also has a prefilter for the motor - which I regularly remove, wash and replace so it actually works... The Lidl one, and the model the OP is talking about both have a filter before it gets to the motor, and I have to assume as they come with a 3 year guarentee they have been tested for the motor to withstand a degree of fine particles that might get through the paper filter, which is no different than the type you get for your car.

My pillow case prefilter has meant I can use it without bags for the majority of the stuff I pick up - and the paper filter gets the fine stuff.

It really does work, easy to shake out or wash if it's really grimey, takes a minute or two and saves me more than I can earn in the same timespan even if I were working flat out.

Oh and you're never at risk of the vac suddenly blowing a cloud of dust into the room when a bag tears inside** - I had my fathers karcher wet n dry do that twice in the same bloody day inside the swimming pool room, because he INSISTS on bags for much the same reason - next they come round I'm buying him a Lidl one and doing the pillow case thing. **or when they become disconnected.

@Stanleymonkey - does it have that circular fabric filter 'tween the collection area and the motor?

I just hose that down once in a while ( 1 or 2 times a year?) with a bit of fairy liquid, then it works again catching the fine particles, but that's because I use it attached to a sander when working in peoples houses.
 
It's a Rutlands wet and dry one with the floating shut off valve if the liquid level gets too high. So I'm not sure about any circular fabric filter. Its all enclosed and sealed up. Your have to remove the cover from the motor section and expose the electrics before you get to any filters.
 
I always use bags these days.

Burnt up 2 trend vacs very quickly not using bags (although think their vacs not great).

It's so much cleaner and easier to just take bag out, put in bin, fit new bag.

Cost of bag added to cost of job.
 

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