Shop-Vac
Jim & Becky
This is a very powerful air mover. Be careful where you plan on testing it because it will blow everything everywhere. It's super easy to use very durable. It is heavy so it's a good thing it comes with wheels to move it around. It's pretty quiet as far as noise levels go. You could have it running in another room and not hear it.
FancyPants
This air mover by Shop-Vac really is an amazing piece of equipment. While I’m not sure what others are using it for, I’m using it to dry rugs in my home after cleaning them and it works wonders. The position of the blower vent sits right against the floor making it perfect for my use of it. It’s not as loud as a vacuum cleaner or my carpet shampooer but it’s not super quiet either. As long as the area isn’t super saturated, it dries rugs in no time! I also like to blow under the beds and other difficult to move furniture with this air blower. It really helps me in my house cleaning duties. In the short video, I have the blower on low to show how loud it is.
This only took my husband about ten minutes to assemble. Definitely worth it!
natevw
Jumping ahead a bit to the blower itself, I like it! It seems quiet. Not really that it's particularly silent by any means, but it just has a nice balanced sound to it. It just sounds like a blower, without any whistles or roars or weird resonances. Definitely moves the air with a decent bit of power relative to the added noise level.
The housing and overall experience isn't a perfect design but it's still quite nice. One of the initial things is just the assembly instructions are very very short on detail. Here's some notes from my own assembly:
1. The vertical tubes have dimples on one side — put those indented holes facing OUTWARDS so the screw heads can rest in them, leaving the flat holes inwards.
2. Don't fully tighten the screws for the vertical tubes until you've gotten the axle put horizontally through it. It just helps it slip through better and I just waited until the wheels were fully on to finish snugging the tube's own screws once everything was aligned together.
3. For the wheels I just put a washer on each side and dropped the cotter pins. So from inside out it's: the vertical tube, a washer, a wheel, a washer, the cotter pin.
4. And then finally for the handle part, it's a little weird because there's six attachment points on the handle and only four on the fan. I guessed wrong before I noticed the picture on the box. Basically use the bottom two pairs and leave the top bracket just floating above.
Anyway once it's together it's handy to be able to wheel it around instead of always lugging it. But there is also a handle for that and it's not too heavy so I suppose you could leave that part off if you were so inclined. I'll probably just leave it on as I don't think there's really more tilt options or that much more compact without them, and it is a nice feeling handle.
Two other minor quibbles are that the cord storage isn't super easy to just wrap up quickly (with the roller wheel stuff attached). The rods and tubes and handles kinda get in the way a bit and I felt like I had to kind of "work around" them. And the other fairly minor thing I noticed is that the speed switch has dead spots in it between settings. Not a showstopper either just a little surprising on something priced relatively high.
David Bake
If you need to move some serious air, this is the unit for you. We occasionally get water in our basement from a septic holding tank issue, and we’ve been searching for a reliable solution to help dry things out quickly. The Shop-Vac 5430214 has been the perfect answer.
It’s extremely powerful yet easy to move around thanks to the built-in hand cart and wheels. The 30 ft power cord is a big advantage, making it simple to position the fan exactly where you need it without hunting for outlets. Best of all, it moves a huge amount of air very quickly—exactly what’s needed to dry floors, carpets, and walls before mold or other issues set in. While it moves a lot of air, we found the fan to be fairly quiet and the noise level more manageable than other units we have tried. The unit runs on 120V current. 3 speeds to meet your needs.
The instructions were not great, but you are only attaching the axle and dolly handle, 8 total screws, so it doesn't take long to figure out what goes where.
Compact, stackable, and heavy-duty, this air mover is a fantastic investment for restoration, cleanup, or just keeping problem areas dry. Highly recommend!
