Ridgid Shop Vac Surprise

[Bob Winkler]

The other week I was at HD and made a Ridgid WD1450 Shop Vac purchase. My surprise is that for less than $100, this vaccuum is better in many ways than my Fein Mini-Turbo. It's very quiet, powerful, and has a large capacity. Plus, it has a 20' cord and all the accesories. And a Hepa filter and small micron bags are availabe for it. Apparently, shop vacs have come a long way.

I keep a old Craftsman shop vac in the garage which is a screamer. My Fein works ok, but I dislike the small hose and capacity so I limit it to small jobs. For my big tools, I use a Jet DC, but I'm using this Ridgid vac more and more for general cleanup because of it's convenience and performance.

I'm really happy that I saved a couple of hundred bucks and tried this Ridgid Vac. BTW, this is the first Ridgid tool I own, and have no affiliation. Just thought I'd share my opinion for others to check out.

Bob

[Mike Henderson]

I have a Ridgid vac, also, and like it. I use it connected to my sander to collect dust. Couple of things I wish they'd add are variable speed and turn-on when a tool plugged into it turned on. I bought a couple of extra things that give me those two features but I'd be nice to have them built in.

And just a comment - the Ridgid vacs come in different noise levels. At HD, they have a display that tells you how noisy each one is. The quieter ones used to be a bit more expensive.

Mike

[david brum]

My sentiments exactly. They are using "scrolling technology" which really reduces the noise. The suction is spectacular.

The other great thing about the nicer Ridgid vacs is that you can use both bags and pleated filters at the same time. I use a Clean Steam HEPA filter, although I think there is a Ridgid HEPA filter now available. With the bag as a pre filter, the HEPA filter almost never gets dirty. I reuse the bag by cutting off one end and clamping it after I empty it.

[Charlie Barnes]

I just bought the same model about a month ago and am very impressed as well. The fact that my old Craftsman finally died was a blessing in disguise. The Rigid is really quiet and powerful. I plan to add a Dust Deputy in the coming weeks as well.

[Bruce Wrenn]

If it's covered by the LSA, be sure and do the paperwork!

[scott vroom]

Yeah, but it's not green, not German, and not absurdly overpriced

I also own a Rigid, it really sucks....far surperior to my old Fein, which burned up after 2 years.

I'm predicting a 35 post thread on this one.

[glenn bradley]

I have a couple of Ridgids with Clean Stream filters and Dust Deputy pre-seperators. I am fooling around with designs to eliminate the large bin as with the seperator I only get about a cup or so of material in the bin versus emptying the DD bucket a dozen times or more.

[Kurt Cady]

I have a couple of Ridgids with Clean Stream filters and Dust Deputy pre-seperators. I am fooling around with designs to eliminate the large bin as with the seperator I only get about a cup or so of material in the bin versus emptying the DD bucket a dozen times or more.

How do you hook up the DD to the Ridgid? My only complaint with my two Ridgid vaca is that their hoses are a weird size. 1 7/8" I believe.

[John McClanahan]

Would you folks recommend this model over the other models?

John

[Mike Henderson]

How do you hook up the DD to the Ridgid? My only complaint with my two Ridgid vaca is that their hoses are a weird size. 1 7/8" I believe.

I'm not sure that's true. I had a Shop Vac (brand) wet-or-dry vac and the hose was interchangeable with the Ridgid. I also bought a Festool hose to connect my sander and Domino to the Ridgid and the end that goes into the vac was the right size for the Ridgid. This leads me to believe that the Ridgid has a standard size hose.

Mike

[P.S. I gave the ShopVac away - it was such a screamer that my wife complained every time I turned it on.]

[Kurt Cady]

I'm positive mine are 1 7/8". Measured them this afternoon. I've searched other vacs at HD and most were also 1 7/8"

[Mike Henderson]

I'm positive mine are 1 7/8". Measured them this afternoon. I've searched other vacs at HD and most were also 1 7/8"

I just went and measured mine. The largest outside size of the hose is 2 1/2". The opening into the vac is about 2 1/4", and the inside diameter of the hose is about 2 1/8".

They, of course, claim that the hose is 2 1/2" in their specs.

Mike

[Andrew Joiner]

I have a couple of Ridgids with Clean Stream filters and Dust Deputy pre-seperators. I am fooling around with designs to eliminate the large bin as with the seperator I only get about a cup or so of material in the bin versus emptying the DD bucket a dozen times or more.

Great idea Glenn . Please show us a pic when you can.

[scott vroom]

I prefer old iron....here's a vintage Fein that I picked up on CL.

[mreza Salav]

I think they come with life time warranty too (at least when I bought mine 5-6 years ago); at the very least it must have a life-time-service agreement (LSA) if you register it.