And this vac is similar to the one I’ve spent countless hours using at home and on lots of job sites during my construction career. I’ve never had any problems with it, and I’ve never found another wet/dry vac that was noticeably better. Failure to pick up within the given time or refusal of product will result in a 20% restock fee.
Since wet/dry vacs are often used in an emergency, the cord provides a nice back-up power source, in case you don’t have a battery on hand. And you also have the cordless option for working in a remote location or during a power outage (if you have charged DeWalt batteries on hand). This Ridgid vac has a 12-gallon canister, which is the sweet spot between capacity and maneuverability. With the HD1200, you won’t have to stop and empty it as often as you would with smaller vacs. Compared with the larger sizes, this Ridgid vac isn’t too bulky to empty out, and most people will be able to haul it up a set of stairs with the aid of its conveniently placed upper handle. The HD1200 stands about 2 feet high, with a diameter of about 20 inches (approximately the same as on other 12-gallon models).
The HD1200 is a newer model, with an improved center-mounted handle for easy carrying and a larger, glove-friendly on/off switch. So far, this model has exhibited the same quality we’ve come to expect from similar Ridgid vacs over the years. For structured tests, we recorded the time it took each vacuum to suck up a pile of “workshop stew” that we created.
If you’re looking for something smaller and more portable, we like the DeWalt DCV581H 20V 2-Gallon Cordless/Corded Wet/Dry Vac. This is a much smaller vacuum than the Ridgid models, and it doesn’t match their capabilities on larger messes. But it’s a real champ with cleaning up little projects around the garage, in the house, or in the basement. Because there’s also a cordless option and this vac is so light, you won’t hyper tough tool set have a problem using it in a crawl space, a tight attic, or an outbuilding that needs a little tidying, like a potting shed. While the 36-minute run time was impressive, the capabilities of the DeWalt are limited by the small motor and hose diameter. We had no problem sucking up wood shavings, drywall dust, and little bits of this and that, but this vac had problems with anything heavier, like a nail or a screw.
The other suction test we did was to fill a bucket with two gallons of water and time how long it took each vac to empty the bucket with the nozzle fully immersed in the water. We would have liked to have used a larger amount of water, but the smallest vac we tested has a 2-gallon capacity, so we stuck with that. For all of the large-size benefits, 12-gallon vacs are still manageable for most people to maneuver around their homes or down a set of basement stairs. (It’s awkward, but doable.) As a vac’s size increases, maneuverability naturally becomes more difficult. This small vac can be used either with a DeWalt 20-volt battery or plugged into an outlet.
They’re generally less expensive than self-propelled models, albeit with fewer features. Below, members can read on for ratings and reviews of this year’s very best battery-powered walk-behind mowers—both push and self-propelled—as well as a couple of models that miss the mark. The DeWalt vac’s power is decent, but this model clearly doesn’t have the suction of the corded Ridgid vacs (or even the cordless Greenworks vac, which we’ll get to next).