A clogged motor in Boone changed my whole view on shop vacs

I got called to a job in Boone last month, a rental property with a wood stove that had a year of creosote build up. During the sweep I used my old shop vac to catch the debris, and it died halfway through, just stopped pulling air. I took it apart and found the filter was completely plugged because I never used a cyclone separator, I always thought they were a waste of money. The homeowner lent me his Rigid with a cheap plastic cyclone top, and that thing caught almost everything before the filter even got dirty. I drove home and ordered a separator that night for 60 bucks, now I never run a sweep without it. Anyone else had a vac fail on them mid job and switch over to a cyclone setup?