TouchPrice: Shopping Blog Online Store: Porter-cable 7812 10-gallon 1-1/2-horsepower tool-start wet/dry vacuum

Best Price Porter Cable 7812 For Sale. Buy Now!.

Customer Buzz

We have been using the Portor Cable vacuums for about 17 years as a drywall company. We started with the previous model 7810. The new 7812 is a vast improvement over the old one, excluding the bags. The vacuum is extremely quiet, more so than any vacuum I have ever heard. It vacuums well and reliably. We abuse the vacuums a couple of days a week. They last about 5 to 7 years of rough service. It does filter out all of the dust very well and does not clog up. The automotive style filter catches any dust that gets by the bag. The vacuum does not have the air flow that shop vacs have. You will not find the cfms ratings on any web site. It will not vacuum up any large pieces with its smaller hose and attachments. Don't plan on using it for a wet vac. There is a sensor to detect moisture on the top of the vacuum bag chamber. You will get less than 5 minutes of wet use before the sensor cuts the vacuum off and you have to open it up to let it dry out before it will run again.

The bags on the other hand are a different story.

The previous model 7810 bags you could empty and reuse until they were wore out maybe 5 times. The glue to hold them together held well. The 7812 bags are glued with extremely weak glue. If you're not careful when installing them the flange will separate. The seam on the back of the bag often blows out while vacuuming. Even with extreme care dumping the bags is next to impossible without ruining the bag. I believe the new bags were engineered so you could not reuse them and they succeeded. We spend more on bags each year than the vacuum cost.

Customer Buzz

I bought this vacuum over a year ago because I wanted a quiet, powerful vacuum and was willing to pay more than the price of the various ones available at Lowes, etc. Well, it is relatively quiet, but my household vacuum has better suction. Additionally, the lack of standard types of hose end fittings is disappointing, and there's no place to conveniently wind either the power cord or the very long hose.

Customer Buzz

I've only had limited use of the PC 7812 so far. I recently bought a house and I promised myself I'd get a *real* shop vac. Not a garage sale canister vac, not a $75 big box specail, but a proper shop vac made to be used in a real shop!

I've had two incidence where I needed the PC 7812. The first was just your basic "clean up the mess I made after drilling lots of holes" and the vac worked perfectly...but also reminded me that it didn't come with any attachements (extra expense for that kit). I could have used a small brush to help with the cleanup...much like the nice one that came with my Dyson (that I promised my fiance I wouldn't use as a shop vac...though it's *very* tempting). The second incident involved a large pet water fountain that holds about a gallon of water, and was plugged up and overflowing due to cat fur stuck in the intake. I quickly grabbed the PC 7812 and poked at the carpeting and it seemed to be doing it's job, but it wasn't until I poked the hose into the fountain to suck up water and cat fur that I really saw the power of the Porter Cable. I swear, this little box sucked up a half gallon of water as quickly as gravity could pull the hose to the bottom of the fountain! It was EMPTY in seconds! I looked over at my fiance who laughed at the magic trick I just did, making a half gallon of water almost instantly dissapear.

So I'm impressed with the power, and cleanup was easy...but for the price I'm dissapointed that it comes without an attachment kit.

Customer Buzz

I'm glad I replaced my $99 Craftsman "6.0 peak horsepower" shop vac with this ($230 on sale) vac. The Porter Cable 7812 is much quieter, much less clumsy to wheel around, stores in half the space, has a filter-clearing gizmo, and other nice features. I replaced the flimsy 1-1/4 inch ID hose with a commercial grade 1-1/2" hose, and made adapters to fit standard 2" ID nozzles. The suction is good for most shop clean-up tasks, but noticeably less than the crazed suction power of the Craftsman 6HP.

Size: It is NOT 23-1/2" high as stated in the specs. It is 20-3/4" high. Width is 14-1/2". Length is about 20" plus at least 8" for protruding hose.

Suction: This unit is 9.0 amps versus 11.4 amps for my Craftsman "6.0 peak horsepower" vac. (Don't compare the stated 1.5 horsepower of this unit with the grossly inflated "Peak Horsepower" claimed by other shop vacs.) I'd say the suction and air volume are at least 25% less on the Porter Cable, but adequate for most tasks. The filter clearing gizmo helps maintain suction. Maybe it's nice that your loose fitting sweatshirt is not suddenly pulled 9" up the vacuum hose. On the other hand, when I am using a large nozzle to vacuum sawdust off my driveway, it takes just a bit longer.

Noise: It's not crazy quiet, but it's much quieter than my Craftsman 6HP shop vac. It's noisier than my (pretty quiet) Kenmore indoor canister vac, but it's not a grating sound and you won't feel like wearing ear protection.

Bags & Filters: I can't see spending $100 a year for bags (over $4 each) so I use the filter only. A filter cleaning gizmo dislodges crud when you pull a tab on the outside of the vac. I use this all the time. I hope it won't wear holes in the filter. Other vacs don't get de-clogged till they've lost 80% of their suction because it's too much mess and hassle. The top-mounted flat filter is more convenient than the cylindrical filters on most shop vacs.

Hose Replacement & Tools: The flimsy 1-1/4" ID hose provided is perfect for hooking to your belt sander or other hand-held power tools. A larger commercial grade hose is better for vacuuming floors, etc. Less air resistance. Less insult to your manhood. You'll need to track it down (get it with swivel cuffs), find or make adapters, and work out misc issues. (I used 1-1/2" ID hose. 20% more diameter means 44% better throughput. 1-1/2" PVC couplings (from the plumbing or electrical aisle) fit nicely. Some rubbery PVC tape from the plumbing dept will pad out the couplings to fit standard large (2" ID) shop vac tools available at Home Depot. 1-1/2" female threaded PVC couplings fit the 1-1/2" swivel cuffs nicely.)

Hose Diameter Confusion: If you are putting together a 3rd party hose & tool solution, beware that advertised info on diameters of hoses and adapters is often absent or misleading. This unit comes with 1-1/4" ID (Inside diameter) hose. The OD (outside diameter) is 1.56". The tapered cuff is about 1.39" at the midpoint. For so-called 2-1/2 inch hose that is standard for larger shop vacs, the inside diameter is 2" and tapered interconnects are about 2.275" at the midpoint. For 1-1/2" ID hose, the OD is 1.91" and the tapered cuffs are about 1.79" at the midpoint.

Power Tool Outlet - Trigger: Seems nicely designed. The owner's manual has loads of electrical precaution boilerplate but avoids the one thing you'd like to know: How many amps can you draw from the tool-trigger outlet? Theoretically, 15 amps minus 9 amps consumed by the vacuum = 6 amps. You might get away with more, but I don't think you'll be using this outlet with your table saw.

Transport: Very easy to wheel around and carry. 7" rear wheels with small front swivel-casters are the perfect design. Easily carried with top handle as the vac is only 14-1/2" wide. You'll suddenly realize how much you hate your traditional shop vac with the 4 protruding swivel-casters.

Other: The beefy 22.5 foot cord is water resistant 3x14ga. with 3 solid prongs. This vac feels like quality. The head is assembled with stainless steel screws, for example.

Customer Buzz

I am generally happy with this product. It has good suction, it's relatively quiet and easy to use. I like the auto tool turn on feature. Three things could be improved -1.The hose is small diameter[1.5"]and seems flimsy 2. There is only a hook on the back of the machine to store the long power cord 3. There are no attachments included with the machine and the attachment package is very expensive [$61.00].

Customer Buzz

very quiet and reliable unit, however, better for very fine particles. it does not have a ton of power to pick up large shop debris. also, the filter fills very quickly.

I purchased this vacuum after reading the reviews here on Amazon and I agree with most of the things said in those reviews. I have used this tool a lot in the last 6 months and there are a few things I feel will help others decide if this is the tool for them. It is my opinion that although this is a nice tool that performs very well it is primarily suited to be used in conjunction with a power tool as a dust collector or other applications that do not involve large volume intake. Big debris will not go through the small hose and sucking lots of debris will fill the bags up fast and the bags are expensive. You can use it without bags but this will cause the relatively small fine particle filter to load up with dirt rapidly which will at best make it necessary maintain it on a regular interval and will perhaps shorten its life. I use a large shopvac style vacuum with a .4 micron filter element for heavy clean-up on the job. Most shopvac style machines allow you to hook the hose to the discharge side and use it as a blower; this is not possible with the 7812. It is also worth noting that I accidentally sucked up a small amount of spilled Diet Coke (less than an ounce) and the result was a severely ruptured dustbag. Regarding the criticism for the lack of adequate cord and hose storage, I solved that with a 12 inch long bungi cord. I have used this machine in conjunctiion with random orbit sanders, belt sanders, a table saw, chop saws, a compound miter saw, and various drilling operations and it really helps to reduce the dust associated with these tools. I have used rubber Fernco drainage fittings to adapt the hose to the various sized tool discharge pipes and have adapted to tools that have no dust collection by rigging tools up using duct tape and scrounged stuff. This tool helps me to keep a lot of the dust I make from messing up my jobsites; I start the sander, the vacuum turns on, I stop the sander and after a few seconds the vacuum turns off, very little dust escapes. For what it is worth, this vacuum is very very similar to the ones sold by Festool that cost a whole lot more, furthermore , I have been told by a guy who is in a position to know these things that they are made in the same factory as the Festool vacuums but I am not sure if this is so.

Customer Buzz

I have a small one car garage/shop and I use the Vacuum a lot, it has great suction and is relitivly quiet. The only thing is I wish there would be a industry standard for the size of the vacuum ports on all the different tools.

First one I bought the "Tool activated" switch did not work i.e. the vac came on even when tool (Dewalt router, table saw or miter saw) was not on. OK, maybe a bad switch or something I thought.

Returned it, next one SAME THING! Called PC they said "we can said out a new switch" so there it remains in my garage unused. Also bags fill up VERY FAST and are $$$. Don't think about using vac w/o bags because it is a mess to clean out.

Ultimately the vac sucks, but not in the good way.

Customer Buzz

This vacuum cannot be beat for easy clean-up of drywall and other fine particulates. I bought for my husband after I got tired of tripping over a system he rigged up with a shop vac, a bucket of water and some hoses. He was convinced that no vacuum was worth $265 until he tried it. It is now a permanent fixture on every project. I recommend buying the hose adaptor and accessory pack--he uses those all the time too.