My father gave me his old shop vac, it was worthless in terms of suction so I pitched it. I purchased some huge thing from sears, and that thing sucks like crazy; I love it. Loud, but it just keeps working. Suck up dust, no problem. Suck up water, no problem.
Love my old festool 26 model. Works like a champ, but when I have water backup I use the old Craftsman that I bought on sale years ago. Understand that I have more than one vacuum. If my sears dies, i will replace it with something that has a lot of suction and I can beat up and not worry about it. If my festool breaks, that is a different thing entirely. Might just get another festool or fein II, or similar.