Small Vacuums. Armor All (AA255) compared with Bauer (1952E-B3) from Harbor Freight

In addition to a dust collection system, I also use a number of small vacuums dedicated to specific areas of the shop for spot cleaning.

Mostly, these are the Armor All AA255, which is meant for the inside of a car, but certainly has a place in the wood shop.

A few years ago you could buy these vacuums on Amazon for about $30.  Now, unfortunately, they are more than $60.  And while it is generally a good product, I’m not sure it’s worth that much money.

So, when I saw that Harbor Freight had their similar-looking Bauer 1952E-B3 on sale for about $35, I thought I would give it a shot.

They are both compact and have plenty of suction but there are some notable differences, the main things being:

    • The components on these two vacuums are for the most part not interchangeable (but the attachments are.)
    • The hose on the Armor All is longer
    • The Armor All come with more attachments.
    • The Harbor Freight is louder and also may be more powerful.

The details:

The AA hose is about 6’ long and the HF is 4’, which is pretty short.  You can’t attach the longer Armor All hose to the Harbor Freight - the diameter of the port on the AA is about 1 ⅜” whereas the one on the HF is about 1 ⅛” 

 

 

 However the attachment ends of the hoses are both about 1 ⅛”  so the attachments are interchangeable.  The HF only comes with two attachments whereas the AA comes with more, including the wide nozzle (which is the one I used most,) and the small tapered nozzle with fine brush attachment, which is great for getting into tight places.

 

I have had a power switch fail on the Armor All.  Luckily, I was able to find a replacement.

 

The Armor All is about 14” high and the HF is about 15”, so if you’re trying to fit the HF into a tight spot, you may be our of luck.  The AA has a channel on either side of the body that you can snap the hose to for storage, the HF does not. (That said, I almost never use this feature.) The power cords are both about 10’ long.  The AA has a velcro loop to secure the wrapped cord to itself, the HF just has a twist tie.

The way the filters attach are secured differently.  The Armor All filter bag has elastic stitched onto the opening which snugs around the motor intake. The Harbor Freight has a plastic rigid band that slip over the filter.

Also, I measures the noise level of these two units and while the AA was around 80 Db's, the HF was around 90 Db's.  That said, The HF is rated at 3hp compared with 2.5 hp for the AA.