Repcos have had these vacuums on special at $99 in their March sale. This model appears to be at the bottom of the Vacmaster range. The US based company produces a number of models which appear to be solidly made and well designed. I couldn’t find this model on their website so it may be end-of-line.
Here it is next to the Hoover. There are several design differences, one of the biggest is that the Vacmaster doesn’t use bags for dry vacuuming therefore needing a separate filter for the dry operation. Like the Hoover a flimsy foam filter is fitted onto the bottom of the motor unit for wet use. Although the supplied head was smaller than the Hoover’s, the combination of a slightly more powerful motor and undoubtedly better design results in a much greater suction power. Consequently the performance is vastly superior with any water whether on hard surface or carpet vacuumed up in mere seconds. Whilst noisy it doesn’t have the annoying high pitched whine of the Hoover either, and its blowing performance is much better. (The Hoover appears to be a rebadged third party design due to its poor performance which I would think is not exactly a credit to its brand name)
The lack of bags means I can’t replace my standard cleaner with it and thus I will leave it in wet config, while keeping my existing dry cleaner as well; the Hoover gets banished to the garage as a result, where it will mainly be used in dry config (which is as simple as fitting a bag) to pick up sawdust etc.