The suction on this little shop vac is not very strong, even when it's running properly. Worse, the one big flaw in this vac is that it tips over easily if you happen to set it on the floor. Once it has tipped over, the suction ceases entirely, and the only thing that works to get it going again is to turn it off, take off the top, and put the top back on, again. Very, very inconvenient. Surely there has got to be a small, portable shop vac that works better than this one. If it were only more stable when you set it down, it would not be such a problem because it would not be tipping over all the time. I would not purchase this vac again.