Heartiest wet dry vac of them all
Written: Jan 04 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: very powerful motor, built to last, little maintenance needed if any
Cons: short cord, predictably noisy, top won't lock on when too much liquid has been vacuumed
The Bottom Line: Don't bother with other brands-- the Ridgid outlasts them. It has the power to do any job and doesn't require changing filters for wet or dry conditions.
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| hawknoah's Full Review: Ridgid Wet/Dry Vac WD1200 |
I bought this 12 gallon, 4.25 horsepower vac after my last two failed me after one and two years, respectively. I first used the Shop Vac variety, whose motor burned out after a year (that smell is unforgettable - yuck) and then replaced it with the Genie model who lasted double that before giving out. I consulted Consumer Reports, which rated the Ridgid model a best buy.
The main uses I have for a wet dry vac are: (1) vacuuming out the cars maybe four to six times a year for each car; and (2) vacuuming up water that occasionally gets into my unfinished basement after big storms. A few more times a year, I'll use it for miscellaneous jobs like vacuuming up the garage floor, cleaning out the intake vents in our house, or the dryer hose. I'd say the machine gets in the neighborhood of 20 uses a year.
What I needed was a fairly large model (although they make 16 gallon models, I didn't think it was worth the extra expense since 12 gallon is plenty large for me) with a lot of power to really do an effective job on the car interiors and more importantly, something that could pick up lots of water quickly if I am faced with a flood. Consumer Reports said something to the effect of the 4.25 horsepower rating of the Ridgid was misleading, because it was at least as powerful as most of the 6 HP models on the market.
Sure enough, the Ridgid is incredibly powerful, feels like it has twice the power of either of my previous models. Not once have I ever had a job where I found it to have insufficient power, in fact I am still amazed by what it can accomplish.
One of the shortcomings of both the Genie and the ShopVac models was that once they were fairly full of water, you would spill it if you didn't lift the unit from the bottom, since the top (where the motor resides) didn't lock on to the bottom (where the vacummings are collected). The Ridgid's top indeed locks on to the bottom neatly for such a situation I just desribed.
In practice, if the machine is even a third full of water (4 gallons), I wouldn't advise lifting from the top. The lock isn't strong enough to keep the top on when the machine is that heavy with water. This is unfortunate, since when I have to carry the water-filled machine from the bottom, I can't let it get more than 3/4 full because I simply can't carry it up the stairs without the benefit of the leverage gained from lifting it from the top handles. All the more reason why I didn't need a 16 gallon model..
The most important feature I needed was a filter that didn't need to be changed for wet or dry conditions. Face it, a wet dry vac is used for your nastiest jobs and most people don't want to have to maintain it, short of emptying it and only when absolutely necessary. The filters in my previous models were downright disgusting and it was an absolute mess to mess with them especially when wet.
This has been a great feature of the Ridgid model.. after four years, I haven't done more maintenance than emptying it and pulling some of the embedded junk off of the filter occasionally, even though I often alternate between wet and dry jobs. I imagine I am probably supposed to change the filter on it at certain intervals, but I think I'll resist that until the filter disintegrates altogether (as most wet/dry users probably would also do).
You can pull the hose off this unit and place it in a different hole and use it as a blower. I have never tried this, but I would imagine it would not be a terribly effective blower. It seems to me that electric blowers are not terribly useful, much less one that was meant primarily as a vacuum. That's okay, I didn't buy it for that purpose anyway.
The unit comes with four different attachments/extensions and a squeegee insert for use in wet conditions. The cord is not terribly long and I don't think I've used it more than a handful of times without an extension cord.
Although it's not as loud as my previous vacs, I confess that it's still very noisy. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a wet dry vac that was both effective and quiet though.
Overall, despite a couple of issues described, this is the best wet dry vac I have ever owned or used, regardless of size and horsepower rating. It's a bargain at $70 as I found it at Home Depot. After four years, it's still going strong-- I don't recommend wasting your money on a Genie or ShopVac model that won't last even two years when you can get a Ridgid for less.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hawknoah
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Reviews written: 67
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