Do you remember what you were doing 5 yrs ago?
We were purchasing this RIDGID wet/dry vac. RIDGID is located here locally along with Wooster Brush Company, Sherwin Williams, Glidden Professional, DEVOE, Flood and XIM. It should be no surprise we would end up with a RIDGID wet/dry vac–we’re glad we did. The durable, inexpensive, complexly simplistic vac provided outstanding service ever since.
The vac was used heavily in literally hundreds of new construction homes, in addition to residential remodel projects. Prior to this purchase, we were using a variety of Sears Craftsman vacs. Today, our shop currently holds seven shop vacs, each unique but the RIDGID was the main vac on jobs because of its massive convenience features. All of the features listed below play a role with our efficiency schemes where every stupid little thing counts including how long it takes to put the cord away due to how easily it slides through our hands.
So why review a shop vac 5 years and 7 months old? Because we were impressed by the longevity, performance and features of a $59 vac. Not only that, but we have two (new to us) dust extractors currently in review that we are comparing features with this vac. Our efficiency schemes require specific conveniences often overlooked. Hundreds of conveniences combined provide maximum efficiency. Lets take a look at a few of them.
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CONS
- Although we never had one of the four casters fall out like every Craftsman vac did–the shop vac is not able to roll over its own cord.
- No way to lock casters. The work-around was to place the cord in front of wheels at the top of the stairs.
- Exhaust port direction faces straight out the rear which will blow air against the wall and dirt back into areas you already cleaned. Easy fix is to put an elbow on it to face upward
- PROS
- The locking 2 1/2″ diameter Tug-A-Long hose keeps the hose locked-in even when we added 18′ of hose
- Flexible hose, yet ridged enough to not recoil. The vac can be easily maneuvered by the rigidity of the hose without touching the vac.
- Small tab located on the backside of dome motor housing provides a place to lift vac from behind over cords or for lifting
- Handle located in the front allows the operator to pull the shop vac from the location you are likely to be standing. Easy to grab handle located at the outer edge of the vac assists in easy transitioning over obstacles
- Lower center of gravity reduces tipping
- Compact. This vac is not bulky to maneuver through hallways and doorways
- 4 Swivel Casters provide easy 360° mobility. Collectively the vac is very easy to maneuver, turn, pull, pick up and store
- Very powerful and maintains suction longer than other older models in the shop
- 15′ power cord. Although shorter than our preferred 24′ cord, we made up for it with a longer hose.
- Power cord is non-binding, firm and very fast to put away. The non-bindning cord minimizes snags and binding against doors casings or anything else the cord comes in contact with while you pull the cord along with you
- Power cord slides easily through our hands
- 6 on-board accessory storage locations
- 160 mph blower port
- Smooth interior drum, no lip inside drum to retain debris during dumping; Allows complete & easy dumping of debris or water
- Large drum drain port located at the base of the drum
- Not very noisy, not annoying
- Long lasting hose. Our hose was stepped on many times and only recently have we noticed one small separation in the hose
- Handles on side of drum
- Very easy and quick to empty filter. Easy to line up motor housing with drum handles. Nothing to latch, it simply snaps in place.
- Very efficient to clean out.
- Easy to carry up and down stairs even if you need to hold on to it while cleaning the stairs.
- 18.9 lbs
CONCLUSION
So as you can see, despite the vacs inability to roll over its own cord (huge pet peeve of mine), the PROS far outweigh the CONS. Knowing what this shop vac went through (including the wet rainy drives in the back of the truck), I am amazed its still working great and with original hoses. We only paid $59 bucks for it which makes this buy a steal!
If you are interested in this vac, the new design is RIDGID WD1270 for $79.
