I have a  4 amp 3 gal one.  Works good. Follows me everywhere but gets stuck on a rug now n then. I pick it up and it just moves right along.

Sucking up hay and litter in it’s path. I use it to clean the bun cages too.  Now n then the solid part of the attachment gets clogged but I got a skinny stick and shove it in there and out the blockage goes right into the trash and away we go sucking up hay again.

works great couldn’t do without it.

This is what I use –

http://shopvac.com/vacs/detail.asp?…p;StoreID=

I have used the larger and quieter version too, but there was a lip/catch on the inside that we had to cut back to stop hay from getting stuck.  That may have been changed with the new version.

Inside of the of the bucket part right where the hose attaches to the vacuum, there is a catch flap thing, and what happens is hay gets caught there, and then it causes less suction which causes hay to get stuck even in the wide hose. SO, what we did is cut the catch back. That solved the problems.

Does that make sense to you? IF not, I can take photos of what I am talking about.

hmmm… i’m going to check mine for a flap thingy too. the shop vac i have is not even the cheapest on but i got it on a great sale for about $50. it worked fabulously the first couple of times but then became very pathetic all at once. i was so disgusted i have to admit that i didn’t spend a lot of time figuring where / if there was a clog.

Mine has that catch thingy too.  Hmm so you cut it off and it works much better now.  I may try that next time I vacuum cutting it off.  Thank you for the idea.

You don’t have to cut it off completely, we just cut half of it off. The reason it is there is because many people use it to pick up hard stuff, even like little nails and screws, and without that catch it will just damage the filter. So as long as you will not be using the shopvac to pick up a bunch of hardware, then it will be fine.

babybunsmum – Did you check the filter? Ours will slow down if the filter becomes too full.

Here’s the one I got – it was on sale when I got it though. I love it.  It’s small enough to carry around yet large enough not to need daily cleaning.  It works great as it is small enough to simply dump into my trash can and has a whopping 5hp. However, if I don’t clean it out weekly, it will begin to clog and I’ll have to be careful when I take the hose off since about 5 inches of it will be filled with hay.   
And about once a month, I use a smaller hand vac to vaccuum the filter and then I hand rinse the filter in the sink (with a screen so all that hay and poop doesn’t clog my drain).  If it’s warm outside, I just use a hose on the filter and let it dry overnight. 

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_…Tank+Style

I abuse vaccums-I mean abuse them. Ours has to get unclogged by Dave once a week plus all filters cleaned of fur. I’ve had it since I got Kokanee and it still works!! It’s an incredible vaccum -I seriously abuse it and it’s still going. I would HIGHLY recommend it. You can even vaccum up hay -and then shake the hose to get it unstuck-it’s amazing.

This is the one I have -it’s the Bissel bagless clean view -seriously would recommend it.

AND we just bougth a floor/carpet cleaner by Bissel and you would not believe how well it gets fur out of carpet!!! It was cheap too-does carpet, lino and hardwood-super easy to use.

Is it wierd that I want a new shop vac for mother’s day? I have a small one right now and it works OK but I want MORE POWER!