Customer Reviews

Ridgid WD1450 14-Gallon 6-Horsepower Wet/Dry Vacuum

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This vac hits just about every mark right on the nose for me.

PROS:
It has a ton of suction power (as long as you keep the filter relatively clean).

It has a large diameter hose that can suck up large chunks.

Well thought-out attachments. I didn't think I would, but I've used all of them for different applications, and found all to be very useful.

It is very quiet for how powerful it is.

Great carrying handle, and easy to use snap-locks to take the lid off and put it back on.

Long cord, long hose, quite portable.

Great casters, very stable.

CONS:
Just one, but it's nasty: The output blower blows with incredible force on the opposite side of the suction input. Some form of this is to be expected to a certain extent, as the air that is sucked in has to be pushed back out in some way with equal force; I've just seen other designs that manage this much better. This design pushes with equal force out of a hole equal in diameter to the input hole, horizontally out the opposite side. Like I said, the force is great. It is like a leaf-blower. This design is supposedly set up this way so that one could hook the hose up to the output hole and do things like blow leaves... but if you're not blowing leaves, you blow dust, dirt, debris, and other unwanted things out into the air to fly off and settle somewhere else. A nightmare for, say, cleaning up drywall dust after hanging, taping and sanding drywall -- by turning on the vac, you are effectively distributing all the dust on the output side out into the rest of the house.

Don't get me wrong; the suction is amazing, and what you suck up is sufficiently filtered and deposited into the base... It's just that anything that happens to be on the wrong side of the vac will be lifted up off the ground and spread off into the distance. The only way I've found to avoid this is to aim the output hole out a door and be mindful not to tug the vac in too far while cleaning. Seems like a serious nuisance to me.

Are most shop vacs designed this way? I guess I've only seen one other brand's design, which came out the top and somehow spread the "impedance" of the air so that it exited gently out of a vent that ran 360 degrees around the motor, instead of being concentrated into a tight, forceful air jet shooting out of one side.

Overall I really like the vac. It's the most powerful of any I've ever used and has really worked well for all the things I've used it for. I just have to pay close attention to where that exit port is and make sure it won't cause any problems.

I've owned the the WD 1450 for awhile now and have used it in a variety of wet and dry applications. I initially bought it because my carpet got flooded and I used it to suck the water out of the carpet. It did a great job at getting the bulk of the water out. I still needed to tear up the carpet and let it dry, but the drying time was dramatically reduced because the vac removed gallons of water from the carpet. I bought the optional dusting brush and hard floor brush so I could use this vac for dirt on hard floors and spider webs on the walls and windows. I've also used it to vacuum up the ashes from my gas grill and for cleaning my car. There are so many uses for this vac, I could go on and on.

Other reviews talk about the powerful airflow out the back as being a problem. That's true so I bought the optional muffler to diffuse the powerful airflow out the back. This is less of an issue if you use it outside mostly, but I use it inside mostly so the diffuser is helpful for me. I also suggest getting the VF3502 bags for dry pickup. They make it a lot easier to clean the vac and make it easier to switch to wet pickup - just remove the bag and the air filter. If you are doing wet pickup be sure to remove the filter (and the dry pickup bag if applicable) as detailed in the instructions. Re-install the filter when returning to dry pickup; this is very important!!

Pros:

1) Lots of suction for both wet and dry pickup
2) Good variety of accessories available
3) While there is a lot of airflow out the back, the filter does and excellent job at reducing particle dust
4) Good accessory storage on the vac
5) It's less noisy that I thought even though the muffler does not reduce noise at all
6) The hose fits securely into the vac's body so you can pull it with the hose
7) Long 20 foot power cord
8) On/off switch is easily accessible
9) Large 2.5 inch hose means debris is less likely to get stuck in the hose
10) You can put the vac hose in the blower output and use the vac as a blower

Cons:

1) There are a lot of small crevices in the container which dust can get wedged in. You can get around this by using one of the dry pickup bags that I mentioned earlier
2) There is a lot of airflow out the back, but this can be reduced with the muffler accessory. Note that this feature is also a benefit because you can put the hose in the output port and the vac will double as a blower.

So would I buy this vac if I could do it all over? Absolutely yes! The cons are minor and can mostly be addressed by buying an accessory if you find them bothersome. This vac is an excellent choice if you are looking for a great mid-sized wet/dry vac. I would only choose another model of if you are short on space or looking for portability (I'd go for the WD4070), or if you are heavy user with big demands (I'd go for the WD1851). I chose the WD1450 because it's a good compromise between the two and an excellent choice for a mid-sized wet/dry vac!

Note that consumer reports rated the WD1450 as a best buy in their tests of wet/dry vacs

Purchased this vac and a Craftsman Gutter Clean-up Kit (Sears $19.99) and cleaned the gutters on my ranch house this afternoon. I am a 5'2" 66 year old woman, and with these two items I finished the job in just over an hour!

The gutter kit contains 2 extension tubes (identical to the ones that come with the vacuum) and a candy cane shaped piece for the end which fits into the gutter. All I had to do was walk along and vacuum up the leaves, twigs, dirt, etc. SO EASY!

The pieces did NOT come apart - stayed together much more securely that my little 5 gallon Shop-Vac. It was also WHISPER QUIET compared to the Shop-Vac even with 6hp motor compared to 1.3hp on my old one.

Assembly involved putting on the wheels. The top half was very easy to put on and latch with two side latches. Nothing spewed out as it had a good seal. Cord wraps neatly around the handle.

I have been paying $40 to $50 twice a yr to have my gutters done, so this will pay for itself in no time. I have had a problem with water running over the top of my gutters in heavy rain, so today was an interim clean-up, but the container is very roomy and will hold lots when the full fall clean-up happens.

Vac rolls nicely on hard surfaces, but must be carried over grass. I was worried about the size and weight, but even at my small size it was not a problem.

Chose this model after doing some research and reading some consumer reports. This model is great for moderate to heavy household and garage/shop use. Powerful vacuum and blower functions. Casters roll great and prevent tip-over. Tools and tool bag are nice too.

This is a great vacuum, but Amazon is listing it for $159.77 plus $7.50 shipping. The Home Depot sells this vacuum cleaner for $115 online, and their shipping is free.

Updating the review to 4 stars now that compatible 3rd party filters are available. PRevious review was:

Oh boy this is the printer cartridge deal all over again.

The rigid vet dry are relatively price competitive, until you get to the cheezy filters. Cheezy enough so that an independent manufacturer (CleanStream) is selling for the same price higher quality filters. But sneaky Rigid updates its product line with a 'better', 'patented' (read: incompatible) Qwik Lock Filter Fastening.

So yes, you do gain 10 seconds of not having to remove the filter nut when changing it. But it also means that you are locked in with Rigid filters for life, thanks to that sneaky patent.

The filters prices are outrageous ($30), especially for entry level Rigid dry vacs ($50).

The ustensil are also pricey ($8 for a head, $20 for an hose extender, auto cleaning kit is pricier) - clearly Rigid is making back benefits after selling you an apparent good deal on the dry vac itself. It's just like these cheap printers with ink catridges draining your wallet empty.

Unfortunately I do not have the experience of other dry vac brands to compare.

The Ridgid WD1450 shop vacuum cleaner is the best I've ever used. The horsepower makes all the difference in the world in sucking up dirt and debris in the garage, cars, and all the rest of the house. [ASIN:B001MBADFI Ridgid WD1450 14-Gallon 6-Horsepower Wet/Dry Vacuum]

After my sparsely used blue and gray shop vac decided to flat out die right in the middle of a 100 year flood after about 10 minutes of use I decided to do a lot of research before buying my next vac. This Rigid WD1450 has excellent reviews here and at the Home Depot website so I grabbed it ($99 at HD). This thing is great, powerfull suction with waaayyyy less noise than my old vac. My only complaint is the same as a few others here, the exhaust creates a really powerful breeze, on the plus side my kids love following me around and standing in the jetstream lol. I might take a look at the muffler accessory, if it works this thing will be flawless.

I had high hopes for this vac given the other reviews here, but, in my experience, after owning and sending two very powerful, but NOISY, wet/dry vacs to the landfill over the past 10+ years, I was hoping for a great & quiet perfomer... But NO, not this vac. It's quiet alright, unfortunately for me, at the expense of its suction power. This vac's flaccid, weakly underwhelming performance is inspiring me to bring it back.

A couple of other issues:

1. The Handle wrap cord ears, that the power cord is supposed to wrap around, and is built into the carry handle are so narrow, that the power cord bulges out beyond the boundary of the ears causing the powercord to unravel. Not at all helpful.

2. The cannister/motor latches are unsafely designed with sharp right angle edges with can easily catch one's fingers when latching the motor to the cannister... OUCH!

Good Luck!

This shopvac does everything a good one should. it has power and is very quiet compared to my last one. With the supplied hepa filter, it seems more like a "in your home" vacuum. I will try a cheaper filter to get more suction in the garage though. It also was kinda difficult figuring out which other filters and accessories would work with this vacuum?