American Sanders AVAC Q-10 Dust Control Back Pack Vacuum

So I am adding to my previous review on this backpack vac after a few months of use.

1. Suction power is great, but will quickly drop to nothing once the bag is over half full. And I do mean NOTHING. When the bag is full, you will question if the vacuum is turned on at all. This means you frequently need to empty it at just less than 5quarts. For the cost of bags, I recommend reusing them by cutting the bottom of the bag off, rolling it up and sealing it with a clip. Emptying the bag this frequently is a big drawback in my opinion and the biggest issue with the vacuum IMO.

2. Vacuum will shock you with static electricity due to the velocity of dust going through the hose. I'm not sure if this is an "anti-static" hose or not, but the shocking is pretty severe sometimes. If there was a way to ground the hose that would be a big improvement, otherwise I may try to buy a different hose labeled as anti static.

3. The shoulder straps are very poorly designed. They will frequently slip off causing the backpack to fall off your body. I recommend sewing the straps to prevent this from happening.

4. There is no long extension wand included so if you want to vacuum the edges of the room with the crevice tool you will need to purchase a separate attachment. This was a pretty expensive and big pain to find something that worked but I went with ProTeam's straight extension wand and adapter. it works.

5. One plus is how quiet this vacuum is, and the filters never need cleaning which are two big plusses in my book.

Ultimately, I think for the price I would look elsewhere unless you can get this vacuum used and deal with the drawbacks above. I'm most likely going to transition to a real dust extractor or a full size dual motor vacuum in the future such as Bona's DCS 2.0. Dealing with the backpack vacuum is more of a pain than it's worth and I often find myself grabbing my $200 shopvac instead. Carrying the backpack vacuum around on a large floor can be fairly exhausting. Having a long hose with a dust extractor seems like a better bet. Bona's vacuums are all non-marring which I think is a pretty big plus.

So, my thoughts on this vacuum: It has great suction. I like the bag and filter system, however 10quarts isn't very much capacity for it's size and weight in my opinion. I could have used more bag and less filter i guess. The bags aren't cheap at about $5 each.

The attachments and wand are a bit odd in my opinion in how they connect vs some other professional tools I've used. The main hose doesn't feel like a natural connection to the vacuum. You really have to apply some force to get it to connect. Not exactly intuitive. I may end up purchasing a 1.5 in wand from another brand. There is no 14in horse hair floor tool included which I think for the cost of the vacuum would have been nice to have. The manual is very bare bones and doesn't give you much in the way of using the vacuum and its attachments but more importantly, i don't see any part numbers.

Overall 4/5. Could be better, but because I am using an American Sanders buffer, I wanted to make sure the backpack vacuum was compatible with it. I don't see this being a be all end all vacuum for my hardwood floor install/refinishing but it should be an improvement over my box store shop vac.

Best

As a floor installer I need a good vacuum so this is it easy to use light weight very comfortable.
Definitely recommended

4400 square feet of hard wood floors! Having moved 6 times in 18 years of marriage -- I have had over 20,000 square feet of hardwoods ... how did it take me so long to find you! You had me at hello! DON'T HESITATE! So easy to vacuum! Never fight your canister again!