You’re probably guilty of quickly cleaning up messes with a vacuum that you probably should have tackled by hand. But the one place you definitely don’t want most vacuums to tread is in the workshop. That’s the domain of burly shop vacs, which Milkwaukee has finally managed to shrink into a debris-sucking handheld package.
You won’t have to worry about ever tripping over the new Milwaukee M18’s power cord as you move about your workshop because the handheld vacuum instead draws power from the same batteries the brand’s power tools use.
With a standard battery pack you can expect to get about 25 minutes of suction, but with a heftier “high demand” battery, the M18 vacuum will run for almost three-quarters of an hour, sucking up sawdust, wood and metal shavings, and other larger pieces of debris a Dustbuster would simply choke on.
The drawback to using a handheld tool like this in the shop is that it needs to be smaller in order to be light enough to carry around, which in turn means its canister can only hold about 1,020.58g of dust and debris before needing to be emptied.
Compare that to a full-size shop vac that can gobble up junk for days, you might find yourself getting tired of constantly having to empty the M18 in the middle of a project. But at around $US150 ($198), with hose attachments and an extension wand so you can also use it as a handheld floor vac, the M18 might be a great addition for smaller workshops where you’d rather fill the limited space with tools instead.