9 Gal. 4.25-Peak HP NXT Wet/Dry Shop Vacuum with Standard Filter, Wet Filter, Dust Bags, Hose and Accessories

Hello Bert, We're sorry to hear your review on this product. First, thank you for your review of our product and the feedback you’ve provided. The best feedback we can get from our customers is going to be constructive in nature, and while your opinion is very important to us, we disagree with some of your findings. We’ve spent thousands of hours designing and redesigning this latest generation of vacuums and to compare a new 9 gallon machine to an older generation 12 gallon machine can be misleading, in that every size machine is designed to different user requirements, and based on these requirements different sized motors, different hose sizes, and differing accessories based on the most common jobs to be performed are included with each machine. Our smaller machines (6 and 9 gallon) are designed and optimized for a smaller, 1-7/8” diameter hose due to their limited drum capacity. Since the hose is a smaller diameter, it is more difficult to have a large volume of air, so the performance curve is tipped to higher inches of suction and lower CFM. The opposite is true for the 12/14/16 gallon units that we make. Due to the larger capacity tanks, those units were designed for higher CFM, so that the drums could be filled up quicker with debris than they could with the smaller diameter hose. The larger hose can also pick up larger debris due to the larger hose size. As for the performance metrics you provided in your review, based on the pictures provided, we're afraid you are not using Industry standard test procedures to calculate the air performance (ASTM F558-17) or the noise power (ASTM F1334-14) of the machines you compared, nor are you using the proper anemometer, or a proper noise room to calculate the sound power equally between the two. We also don’t know the condition of the calibration on the equipment you used. We understand why you might have used the same size hose for your testing, but these machines are not intended to use the same size hose and will perform better, in the real world, using the hoses for which they were designed. When the proper anemometer is used, based on industry standard test procedures, the duct (hose) size is taken into consideration and our testing shows that, with the supplied hose, our vacuums moved 5533 FPM for the HD0900 and 6148 FPM for the WD1270. Additionally, sound power readings on equipment similar to the piece you used are completely dependent on the vacs orientation, hose position, microphone location, and surrounding materials. These variables alone can easily change the reading by 10 dB A or more. When this test is run under controlled conditions as described in industry standard test procedures we received results showing 76.8 dB A for the HD0900 and 72.9 dB A for the WD1270. If you have further questions, you may call us at 1-800-474-3443 or you can send us an email at info@ridgidvacs.com. Thanks, RIDGID