Think You’ve Got No Use for a Shop Vac? Think Again.

A wet/dry vac is a deceptively simple device. Many models—like the one I use, our top pick, the Ridgid 12-Gallon NXT Wet/Dry Vac HD1200—look like a big, lidded bucket on wheels. A motor and a filter are built into that lid, and the bucket has two holes on opposite sides: One sucks air into the bucket, and the other blows air out. You attach the vac’s hose to either hole depending on whether you want to use it as a vacuum or a blower. To convert a wet/dry vac from dry vacuuming to wet vacuuming, you simply remove its filter.

The HD1200 is designed to be wheeled around, but its bulk can make it cumbersome to navigate through narrow door frames or to haul up and down stairways. There’s also no option to operate it cordlessly, which can limit its range of motion if you need more slack than its 15-foot cord provides.

If you think you’ll mainly use a wet/dry vac for small jobs, or you hate futzing with cords, a cordless option we recommend (which I have personally tested and like for quick pickups) is the Greenworks 40V 3-Gallon Wet/Dry Cordless Vac. Keep in mind, though, that portable vacs have much less power and capacity and are designed to be carried via a handle rather than rolled on casters, so they could prove uncomfortable to lug around. (The two we recommend, the Greenworks vac and the DeWalt DCV581H 20V 2-Gallon Cordless/Corded Wet/Dry Vac, each weigh about 17 pounds.)

You know that expression, “You can have it good, you can have it fast, you can have it cheap—pick two”? In my experience, a wet/dry vac gives you all three. It cuts down on the time needed to complete onerous around-the-house chores while also doing a better job than if you’d used less powerful tools or done the work by hand. Plus, you can buy a wet/dry vac for under $100 and avoid the need to purchase other, more-specialized pieces of equipment.

Here are the ways I use my wet/dry vac most often and how it saves me time, money, and frustration.

Littered with snack crumbs, pet hair, straw wrappers, tiny pebbles, and teeny clumps of dirt, my car is, frankly, disgusting. But that doesn’t mean I need a dedicated car vacuum to keep it neat. Both of the Ridgid wet/dry vacs we recommend come with a car nozzle, an angled hose attachment that can suck up rubbish to restore a car’s interior to a much fresher state.

I’ve tested my Ridgid HD1200 side-by-side against my years-old Dyson V8 Animal—a discontinued model similar to the Dyson V8 Absolute, which we cite as another good option in our cordless stick vac guide. The HD1200’s pickup abilities surpass the Dyson’s on my car’s upholstery, allowing me to clean the interior in less time and with less effort.

Because the HD1200 is corded, and because my house isn’t equipped with any exterior electrical outlets, the initial setup to use it outdoors can be a pain. Not only do I have to lug it up from the basement and out the front door, but I have to then leave the door cracked open with an extension cord snaking through it. Once it’s ready to go, though, I find the HD1200 easy to maneuver. Despite the fact that the wet/dry vac looks like a hulking behemoth compared with my compact Dyson handheld, rolling it from one side of the car to the other on its swiveling casters can be done with a gentle push, and its hose and attachments are all very lightweight.

With its angled head, the car nozzle works especially well as a crevice tool for getting all the gunk out from deep within the seats. And even when I can’t stretch the hose (or my own body) far enough to reach every nook and cranny along the floorboards, the machine’s suction is strong enough that it picks up particles from an inch or so away, without needing to actually make contact with surfaces—a feat my Dyson vacuum has not been able to achieve. (Another way to clean hard-to-reach places with the HD1200 is to use one or both of its included extension wands.)

However, depending on how stubbornly your pet’s hair clings to your car’s upholstery, you may find that you prefer a machine with grippier, motorized brushes, like the Black+Decker 20V Max Dustbuster AdvancedClean+ Cordless Pet Hand Vacuum HHVK515JP07, which we recommend for picking up fur.

What can happen if you don’t keep your dryer’s lint trap and vent clean? At best, your dryer will work less efficiently, which could mean it’ll take longer to fully dry your clothes and cost you more energy to run. At worst, you could inadvertently start a fire. Emptying the lint from my dryer vent is another household task that I trust to my wet/dry vac, which saves me from springing for a dryer cleaning kit or paying a professional.

While a dryer’s lint screen should be cleaned after every laundry cycle, the exhaust hose (the flexible duct that runs from the back of the dryer to a hole in the wall, where it shoots lint and moisture outside) only needs to be cleaned once a year. To do this, I first detach the exhaust hose from the interior wall; then I stick my wet/dry vac’s hose down the dryer’s exhaust hose and move it around to suck up whatever lint is inside. I also vacuum the in-wall ducting (the actual hole in the wall) from the outside after removing the duct cover, as this Today’s Homeowner video illustrates. The whole process takes under 10 minutes.

If you can’t reach parts of your exhaust hose or in-wall ducting with your wet/dry vac, however, you should have the duct professionally cleaned.

A sooty mess is no match for a wet/dry vac. My HD1200 has sucked up both loose and caked-on sediment from a charcoal grill with ease, saving me from hand-scrubbing all that crusty ash from the grill’s interior. Home Depot recommends using a wet/dry vac for the same purpose and in the same way when cleaning a pellet grill.

I’ve also used both the Ridgid and Greenworks wet/dry vacs to easily clean up the ash that accumulates on the floor of my wood-burning fireplace. However, this can prove dangerous if you do it right after you’ve enjoyed a fire, as glowing embers might still be buried in the soot. To avoid a fire hazard, I only vacuum the fireplace after it’s been dormant for at least several days. (Really, I only do it a couple times a year.)

The problem: Your patio, walkways, decking, and other outdoor surfaces are riddled with nature’s leftovers—think acorns, dead leaves, pine cones, and whatever else might fall from nearby trees or be shuttled onto your property by the wind. All that unsightly detritus has somehow wedged its way into every nook and cranny, making your outdoor space look like a mess.

The solution: Why rake when you can suck?

As wacky as it sounds, my favorite way to use my wet/dry vac is probably as a hardscaping cleaner-upper. Not only is it much faster and less annoying than sweeping, shoveling, or raking all those crunchy bits (a rake on a stone patio, after all, sounds like nails on a chalkboard), but I also prefer it to using a leaf blower. I find that the stuff that gets stuck in the dips and grooves of paved surfaces, like tiny pebbles, is removed faster by sucking than blowing. Plus, once you’re done, all that litter is neatly contained for you inside the vac’s interior. (Since I’m dealing with organic waste in this scenario, I dump it all into my compost bin.)

In my experience, a larger wet/dry vac such as the HD1200 is better for this task than a portable vac, because its wider hose prevents larger items like leaves or pine cones from getting stuck. If you do use a portable vac for this job, a few taps on the mouth of the hose should dislodge any clogs you encounter along the way.

Though I often clean the concrete floors of my unfinished basement with the HD1200, I don’t tend to break it out for everyday floor care. Not only is it more annoying to bring up from the basement than my cordless stick vac, but I worry that its hard-edge hose attachments might leave scratch or scuff marks on my hardwood surfaces.

When a rug needs an occasional deeper clean, though, I have sworn off renting cumbersome carpet-cleaning equipment thanks to my wet/dry vac. The utility nozzle attachment creates impressively forceful suction against a rug’s pile—enough pulling power that I can routinely suck a rug right off the floor. (PSA: Rugs are surprisingly heavy! This deep clean can feel like an upper-body workout.)

In general, the higher a vacuum’s wattage, the more it sucks (in a good way). The most powerful vacuum cleaner we recommend, the SEBO Felix Premium, features a 1000-watt suction motor, but the HD1200 boasts “5.0 peak horsepower,” which is nearly four times more powerful.

However, keep in mind that this suggestion should only apply to low-pile, heavy-duty floor coverings, like wall-to-wall carpet, indoor/outdoor rugs, or those made from less-precious materials like cotton, acrylic, or polypropylene.

As our in-house floor-care team notes, a wet/dry vac’s raw suction could potentially damage high-pile or shag rugs, as well as those that are hand-knotted or made from delicate textiles like silk or high-quality wool. For those, we recommend an upright or canister vac that’s designed with agitating brush rolls and adjustable suction (all of our picks have both) to prevent clogging, which could cause a rug’s fibers to get torn out.

Do not be afraid of your wet/dry vac’s most awesome superpower: Saving you from calling a plumber. A wet/dry vac’s suction can often unclog a sink in less than a minute.

I’ve used mine to fix a slow drain in my bathroom vanity—one that my husband initially tried to unclog with a sink plunger, which only slightly and temporarily improved the drainage.

To do this, I first removed the wet/dry vac’s paper filter. Then, while the sink already had some standing water in it, I positioned the mouth of the wet/dry vac’s hose over the drain (no need to remove the stopper, but make sure it’s in the open position), held it in place, and turned the vac on. I let it run for 30 seconds, turned the vac off, and my sink started draining as good as new again. The small amount of watery gunk that got sucked into my wet/dry vac’s bucket then got poured down the (wider) toilet drain.

Important: I then immediately reattached the filter once I was done. Most of the things I do with a wet/dry vac involve dry vacuuming, and trust me, you do not want to vacuum up anything dry without the filter attached. If you forget, you’ll quickly be reminded when the vac unleashes a dust cloud all around you.

Plenty of tutorials online claim you can also use a wet/dry vac to unclog a toilet. That may technically be true, but we don’t recommend it, if for no other reason than sanitizing your vac afterwards would be a huge pain.

Stick to a tried-and-true tool for that one: a good, old-fashioned toilet plunger.

This article was edited by Alexander Aciman and Catherine Kast.