Shop Vacs

My 15 year old Rigid shop vac died, I think the bearings failed in the motor and the impeller gradually self destructed.  Now I need another. 
 

I haven't shopped for these in quite a while, and this place knows everything.  I don't want a big monster of a shop vacuum.  The one I had was 9 gallons and 3.5 hp and was totally adequate, I don't want any bigger.   Uses are general: car carpets, project cleanup by a handy homeowner, the basics.  I never have used it for significant water and don't plan to.  Portability is nice.  Is a 5 gallon capacity going to be too small to work with?   I see some have bags these days, is that good or bad?  Power is good, obviously.  

I have the $70 12 gallons Home Depot rigid one. Works excellent 

my second one in 20 years 

I have a little one gallon from the thrift store which is what i generally use for the cars. Its not a filtered exhaust,  so it blows dust everywhere. 

The big bastard lives in the shed. Its huge, filtered,  and sucks like dante's girlfriend. But takes up too much room. 

Id think a filtered exhaust five gallon would be perfect for most stuff.

I have a smaller shop vac brand from lowes, i guess its 5 gallons or so. If i remember right it has a higher amp motor typically found on a larger unit, but I wanted nothing to do with storing a huge vacuum. It does great.just make sure the motor is more powerful if you get a smaller one. 
 

and the dust bags rock. 
Edit:

heres mines #'s. 

Whatever you get get the bags for the inside turns a shop vac into nearly a hepa you leave the filter in aswell. 

Here's what I bought to replace my old Craftsman shop vac. It has a 15 foot hose which does 99 percent of what I need it to do. Every once in a while I talk it off the wall to use. It's out of the way and takes zero floor space which is a big deal for me.

BucketHead

It depends...  

It my business i need to use the Big Momma sucker machine.   Yes, it always seems a pain to navigate with the big units.  But i need the volume and power.  i was at a customer's home about three years ago, they had a large Craftsman.  It was great.  I gave my Lowes unit to the next door neighbor and bought the large Craftsman unit.  Very happy for work.  (a lot of residential demo)  Not usually a Craftsman fan, but that unit rocks.  Of course it probably has changed in 3 years to another model.  

Darling wife has a small unit she keeps in her garage for whatever.  I tried to use it recently to clean her car, which is a "grandkid bus".  It aggravated me because it just didn't seem to have the suction needed.  Went to my monster and it wanted to pull the carpets off the floors.  

IMHO some of the "convienent size" units are just toys.  The answer to many problems... more power!

YMMV

One trick i learned sometime in the past.  Put a pair of pantyhose over the exhaust pipe.  They catch whatever passes the filter (almost nothing) , but most importantly dampen the blast out of the exhaust that can be annoying.

Good to hear that some with the smaller units don't find them a problem.  I think I'll try to find the most powerful 6-8 gallon one I can find that has bags. 

I recommend this one every time:  https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-4-5-Gal-5-0-Peak-HP-ProPack-Wet-Dry-Shop-Vacuum-with-Filter-Expandable-Hose-and-Accessories-WD4522/100638389

Much more space efficient.  Easy to store on a shelf.  I hate tripping over some big monster that I only use once in a while.

My ex- has a Hoover  GUV "Garage Utility Vac" which seems to no longer be in production.  Not sure why.  Worked great.  I installed it on the wall next to the garage door so the 30' hose could reach cars parked outside or inside the garage.  Eventually I plan to get a similar wall mounted vac for my garage.   As I am tripping over my Ridgid shop vac in my garage, a wall mounted vac sounds really nice right now.

I had one of the monster ones - like 20 gallon 6 hp models from Ridgid.  It sucked up everything... if you have the space.  In my one car garage and my tiny basement, it was so annoyingly huge.  I replaced it with a much smaller one.  I think its a 6 gallon 3 hp.  I don't really notice much difference in suckage.  I think the HP ratings are BS.  A 6hp 120v motor suggests 4500 watts which is 40 amps.  Not a chance.  I'm convinced they use one of about 3 motors that are all 12 amp, cookie cutter motors and just shove them into different buckets.

My big criteria is the size of the hose.  I much prefer the bigger hose so I can suck up screws, small wood scraps, and other larger things.  It also fits on my chop saw and table saw as a nice dust collector, although I rarely use it that way.

If you are a costco member you can get one of these

https://www.costco.com/dewalt-10-gallon-wetdry-vacuum.product.100491610.html

I know it's a bit bigger than what you're looking for but I managed to snag one for $69 which is unbeatable. It's a really nicely made unit as well.

I have  12 gallon 4.2 HP Rigid purchased from Home Depot. I didn't do any research but needed a vacuum and Home Depot was the closest store. The vacuum is now over 15 years old has survived the renovation of a house, cleaning up wood chunks, drywall, drywall dust, concrete dust from cutting a into a slab, sucking up water. I also use it connected to a miter saw, disk sander, bandsaw, cleaning up the shop and vacuuming out three cars and also to suck out dust from a small sand blasting cabinet. I'm amazed it has lasted as long as it has. Occasionally purchase a new filter but most time take the filter outside and clean it with compressed air. The size is a bit cumbersome at times but it has good suction and gets the job done. If I needed another I'd just go to Home Dept and buy another Rigid

I use Ridgid at work and home. I made mine a "wall mount" by buying a 6-8" ladder hanger hook for $2 and hanging it on that.