Ridgid Shopvac with Drywall compound dust

[Robert J Near]

I have a 5.5hp Ridgid Wet/Dry 16 gallon shopvac and I was wondering if I use this unit to vacum drywall compound dust will the fine dust damage the unit? Should I purchase the 3 stage HEPA filter for it? I am currently taping my new house and would like to use this vac to clean up all the drywall dust from sanding and thus save the cost of renting special drywall vac. What do you think or ae there some tricks to cleaning up this fine dust?

Thanks

[K. L. McReynolds]

I have used mine several times for drywall dust with only one problem. I need to clean the filter more often. I am sheetrocking a room with about 25 sheets, and clean the filter after each sanding and cleanup.

[JSchnarre]

Robert,

Any RIDGID vac can handle drywall dust with no problem as long as you use at least the 2 stage filter (the 3 stage filter also works) The part numbers on those filters are VF5000 and VF6000 respectively.

Jake

[Curly Qsawn]

Hometime had a segment on finishing a basement and they were trying out a 2 stage system (Rigid shop vac) with a water container to help collect a lot of the dust. They never said how it worked out. I picked up a Stanley drywall sander for use with a shop vac and am anxious to try it, if the wife will ever pick out colors.

[JSchnarre]

If you are drywalling in the house, make sure you have at least the 2 stage filter installed on you vac, otherwise you will just be spreading the drywall dust around the house.

Jake

[Ivan]

Which filter does the WD1635 come with? Is it a 2 stage filter? BTW, how can you tell what kind of filter that you have? (i.e single stage, 2 stage, 3 stage, etc.)

[ 05-24-2002, 10:47 AM: Message edited by: Ivan ]

[Ivan]

I now have a WD1635 and need to decide between the 2-stage and 3-stage filters. Will the 3-stage (HEPA) filter have a tendency to clog up more than the 2-stage when picking up sheetrock dust?