Customer Reviews for RIDGID 3 Gal 3.5 Peak HP Handheld Shop Vac Wet Dry Vacuum with RIDGID SWEEP Dust Pan, Filter, Locking Hose and Car Nozzle

Great for jobs and can carry over shoulder. Even has a lite if needed

I bought this RIDGID WD3050 3 Gal Vac. It is very powerful with great suction yet not big and bulky. Great to have on hand in the garage, shed, or camper. Easy to transport too. Great Vac.

I wanted a handheld vacuum with which I could move around quickly. This works, good suction. And, it’s a lot cheaper than my old handheld (rhymes with Woreck). However, this Ridgid 3 gallon is built around their standard filter size making bag installation awkward. Also, the 10ft cord on this Ridgid is too short when moving around. My old smaller Woreck has a 20ft cord.

Hose and connect are one unit. Glue adheres hose to vac's female connector. Warm air from vent (normal) deteriorated the glue, rendering the vac unusable. Rigid is sending a replacement hose, but replacement has same design problem. Rigid sells a better hose: https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-1-7-8-in-x-8-ft-Pro-Grade-Locking-Vacuum-Hose-for-RIDGID-Wet-Dry-Shop-Vacuums-VT2572/205576957. Vac works pretty good - no issues with it picking up dirt. And, it's nice and compact.

You'll just be embarrassed that you got it thinking it would be helpful at all in the workshop. Especially for any kind of dust maintenance. This could work for a Honda Civic mom that doesn't mind this thing falling over constantly or picking up more than 75% of carpet fuzz dirtems.

I bought this tool for draining a sump pit. I have used it many times and it works extremely well.

Decent vacuum. Overall, it doesn't quite have the amount of power I was hoping for. For anyone wondering, my previous vacuum was the Bucket Head 5 gallon vacuum which you place on a 5 gallon utility bucket. The Ridgid 3 gallon is definitely more powerful and has a better selection of attachments. I do feel that this vacuum is a little loud for it's size. If you are able to get this for the sale price of $45 I think it is worth it. Overall it is a decent vacuum for the size and price, assuming you get it reduced from the normal $60 price tag. It is a bit less than I was hoping for, as my plans were to use it with my orbital sander to collect dust. Additionally, the car nozzle seems of very high quality. The hose has a tendency to pull the vacuum in the event of a sudden loss of suction, such as covering the nozzle with your palm, or sucking dirt from carpet using the entirety of the hose. Thankfully this can be remedied with the little air relief valve on the hose, but is still a tad irritating. I think this vac could benefit from some sort of small, grippy feet to keep this problem from occurring. If you just need it for light, around-the-house pickups, and for car cleaning, I think this vacuum will be great for you. I have only been using this vacuum for a few days now. I appreciate the availability of dust bags, as I didn't have an option for that with the Bucket Head vac. I also bought to 7 piece car detailing kit to use with this, and they pair well together. **The hose pictured below in my review is from this detailing kit, and is not included with the vacuum.**

I'm very impressed with this shop vacuum. I purchased it primarily to vacuum our cars and it does that and more. As others stated there are a lot of attachments with no explanation. I did some research and these special buy came with the car cleaning accessory kit and details on the additional attachments can be found here: https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-1-1-4-in-Premium-Car-Cleaning-Accessory-Kit-for-RIDGID-Wet-Dry-Shop-Vacuums-VT2534/100638355 I have attached a photo from the webpage for a quick review of the car cleaning attachments.

Suction is sufficient for my car, but it should have another vacuuming attachment with it.

Great little shop vac. I purchased this mainly to clean out my pellet smoker, however I use this thing all over the place. In the house, in my shop. Works awesome for cars. Don’t let the small size of this shopvac fool you. It has great suction for its size. Highly recommend if you need something smaller for little cleanups.

To add a post script to the previous review: I don't mean to offend anyone's viewpoint; but I'd say for the smaller size & form-factor, this shop-vac has perfectly fine suction (if not slightly better than expected). Eh, I'd suggest checking the seal around where the bottom bin/top enclosure meet for any obstructions or that the seal hasn't fallen out of alignment somehow causing the apparent decrease in suction. Also, make sure the twistable "collar" located at the handle-end of the hose is rotated around to correctly cover the entire "vent slot" (I attached a picture of the exact piece so that it's communicated as clear as possible). I'm pretty sure it's for manually adjusting the strength of suction and occasionally releasing the pressure-lock that occurs when the nozzle accidentally picks up something it shouldn't [i.e. - corner of a rug, etc.] that results in clogging the intake. If it continues to perform poorly; exchange it due to defect or perhaps the level of debris you're attempting to clean just simply requires a more powerful vacuum regardless. Now, I attempted the obscenely expensive Milwaukee 18V Cordless "mini"-Vac with 5Ah Battery and it was much worse than this RIDGID for completely different reasons. If other reviewers are talking about "poor suction" with this 3 Gal/3.5 HP model which I believe is intended to be mostly used to clean car interiors... go and try the Milwaukee for 4x the cost. Even though Li-ON is supposed to maintain full power output before quickly failing at the very end; that's not how vacuuming with this one felt. I'd take the 10ft tether/power cord trade-off any day over how quickly the charge falls off (my Milwaukee drills, etc. don't exhibit any semblance of that issue). And WOW is the that tiny cordless loud. Either the motor-type and/or compact structure of the air channels both result in the highest-pitch shriek and electrical "whine" that I've heard with a power tool since using a full-size 15yr old electric leaf blower. I knew within 5 seconds of turning it on the first time it was getting returned. Some circular saws I've used sound relaxing in comparison. So considering all of that long-winded backstory, I am objectively saying that this RIDGID is a much better experience so far. The "dust pan" feature is such a simple idea yet so clever... ingenious and a definite productivity booster. My only complaint is the lack of any extension wands or attachments that RIDGID decided on NOT including with this shop-vac... common guys, you mean to tell me you don't have the room in the profit margin to throw in a simple plastic tube or a hollowed-out plastic brush, if but only for the sake of it being a nice gesture? /rant over. Either way, at the "special buy" price it's well worth it.

I purchased this vacuum because of the side opening. It works, but just ok. When you sweep debris towards the hole is doesn't all go is and you have to move the whole container around and sweep again and again finally taking off the wand to pick the remaining bits left over. It is very light and portable making it very useful when laying a vinyl plank floor and needing to vacuum every edge for every plank. The floor was installed piece by piece, moving the vacuum along with me as the floor was installed was easy and helpful.

This machine works as advertised, but does have some shortcomings. It needs to come with a the extension pipes and dusting attachment. The hose drapes over the top of the machine and is a bit clunky. This unit seems very compact until you factor in the hose, the fact it is plugged in on one end and drapes over the top After purchasing these separately the vac became a bit pricey. The other thing I don't like about this is there is no good way to store any attachments. The two little clips on the top (see photo) are flimsy and a poor effort on RIDGID's part for storage. I was hoping the built-in dust pan feature would work a little better. By the time you get all of the sweeping up off the floor it would be faster to just take the hose out and just vacuum up the sweepings instead of trying to sweep toward the "dust pan." RIDGID makes excellent products, but this particular one does not quite do what I was hoping it would do for me. I was hoping to keep it in the kitchen closet where I could just sweep the floor right into it, but I have to move the vacuum around to get all of the sweepings. The inlet for the dust pan feature needs to be as wide as the entire body of the vacuum to work properly. The opening is only about 4 1/4 wide. It should be about 10 inches. Maybe one day RIDGID will make me a nice looking stand-alone kitchen vac that would look nice standing in the corner. In the photo, the extension pipes and dusting attachment simply will not stay put on top of the unit. My other experiences with RIDGID vacuums is much better than with this one.

I needed a small, powerful shop vac without wheels and with a paper filter for my workshop. I attempted to use two cheaper products, but the cloth filters would saturate with sawdust, get partially sucked into the fan, and blow sawdust all over the room. So far so good with this vac!

Awsome shop vac, this is high quality, the hose I think is rubber not the cheep plastic that Craftsmen makes. Its hard to find a 3.5-Peak HP in such a small vac. I use this with any kind of cleanups that I use for my carpets. Your typical brush attachment fits with this vac if you use the adaptor which I bought at Ace, but they have them at Home Depot I also modified mine for my convenience. This is easy to lift and you can hang on to it while u vacuum up leaves in your home and messes. I can't lift much but this just works. Very happy.

Asked for this shop vac for Christmas, and am happy I received it. The motor is much more powerful than I expected, and It had no trouble sucking up a thick layer of pine needles off the carpet under our Christmas tree (see video). I didn't realize that it had a dustpan feature until I got it. Not sure how much I'll use it, but when I tested it it seemed to perform well. It's nice to see innovative and simple features like that! There is a strange port in the end of the hose (see video) -- I'm not really sure what that would be used for. The vacuum is VERY lightweight, and has a comfortable handle. Perfect for my use as an indoor vacuum for the house (I own a 14 gallon Rigid vacuum for garage and outdoor uses). The rectangular shape fits nicely on stairs, so you don't have to have a 20' hose or awkwardly hold it while vacuuming. The only issue with this narrow shape is that it tips over easily, as the hose is a "coiled spring." Adding rubber grips to the bottom of the vacuum would help alleviate this issue. The filter takes up quite a lot of space inside the vacuum, and I filled it twice while vacuuming up the debris from under our Christmas tree. I wish it came with some more accessories. For $60, it should come with a soft brush or a crevice tool. This vacuum is the more expensive than some 6-16 gallon Rigid models, but doesn't include any accessories. Other than those small issues, I really like this vacuum, and I'm sure I'll get many years of use out of it. I would definitely recommend this vacuum to anyone looking for a small, ultra-portable vacuum for use in their basement shop or around the house for odd jobs.

I bought this to help clear out a 400 sq. ft. crawl space under part of my home. I removed the old fiberglass insulation and then vacuumed the entire area including the concrete floor and this worked beautifully. The small size made it easy to maneuver in a small space. I have not yet used this for wet cleanup but I have no reason to believe it won't work just as well.

Ridgid's 3gal. wet/dry vac is a workhorse, great for everything I've thrown at it (raw dirt, sawdust and chips, mud, water and every combination of the above). It's fantastic for cleaning the car, given it's very portable nature. The one thing I dislike about the vac is the hose.. it's plenty long when stretched, but the main vac unit weighs so little that trying to stretch the hose usually just topples the vac and drags it. I resorted to using a 1 7/8 extension hose, and it makes certain jobs like cleaning the car go smoothly. Cleaning floors I just carry the vac around (granted I'd do that for floors even if the hose weren't an issue). All told, a fantastic portable vac, but it really needs a hose that stretches MUCH easier.

This unit is small but packs power. It is handy for those small jobs. It even has a "power dustpan" feature, whereby, you can turn on the vac, and sweep dirt toward the "dustpan" (the black part). See photos. The power cord, the vac hose and the car tool all store on the vac itself. There is even 2 clips to add accessories if desired. It is also wet/dry, easy to empty, and of course, it is a Ridgid product who makes great stuff. The only minor issue is the rather large handle on the top which makes it easy to carry, but harder to store. A smaller, integrated handle (maybe that rotates out of the way) would have been preferred. I keep this in my garage, and use it for car, garage, and small cleanups inside. And because it is wet/dry, I can use it in the yard.

Soon after I got the Ridgid Wet/dry vaccum, we had a major spill in the bathroom due to a drain plug in our bathroom sink. To make matters worse the water from kitchen sink started coming out of sink due to the plug, This vac was perfect for the job. Thank god :-) Also yesterday our son flipped over almost a gallon of juice on the carpet but this vac sucked it dry. It is a portable vac for your everyday spills and cleaning around the shop. It has great suction power for it's size. I have used it for cleaning the car as it's easy to carry. We love the vacuum and would highly recommend it. You can use it right out of box, no assembly required at all.

Same rated HP as my old Craftsman shopvac without the bulk. My "craft hut" is rather tight so I needed a small footprint with a large amount of suction and this Rigid Model gets the job done. My stone carving hobby creates a lot of fine dust, so I've clamped the vac hose to my work bench.

rubber on filter started to crack when taking it off and nozzle didn't fit into holder dust pan didn't work or maybe I didn't know how to use it no instructions

Perfect for vehicle & small jobs around the house or shop.

This is an excellent and inexpensive (plus FREE Shipping) solution to localized shop dust!

love it works hard i should have bought it along time ago.

Wrong nozzle does not fit on the side of the vacuum none in store to buy

Perfect size. Love the flexible hose. Lot of power for a small vac.