They might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a tool, but vacuums are essential for cleaning, whether you’re in a kitchen or a workshop. When your workshop floors are covered in sawdust and you experience a gnarly spill in your garage, you’re going to want a vacuum on hand that’s easy to use but powerful enough to clear through your mess. And while shop vacs are certainly appropriately named, they’re pretty cumbersome most of the time and annoying to set up and use.
When people shop for vacuums, they usually have two questions on their mind: How light and maneuverable is it, and how well does it suck up dirt and grime? So when I saw that Ryobi had a cordless vacuum that weighed just 8 pounds, I knew I had to give it a try. Could this lightweight and easy-to-use vacuum be the answer to messy workshop woes?
That’s what I set out to find out in this edition of Tool Trials.
Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner
A cordless vacuum cleaner on the Ryobi battery platform.
The Tool On Trial
When unboxing the Ryboi One+ Cordless Stick Vacuum, I was immediately impressed by how well-made the tool felt in my hands. The components felt solid, and everything clicked together nicely when I assembled the tool. It’s also nice any time a tool doesn’t require a specialized battery. Being able to go straight to the chargers in my garage, pull out a Ryobi One+ battery and plug it into the vacuum made the whole setup process very smooth.
The vacuum itself is very straightforward. You can either use it in its full form or remove the extension wand to turn the standing vacuum into a hand vacuum. One extra nice feature that more vacuums should have is the ability to remove the roller bar for easier maintenance and cleaning.
Even before testing, I could see the tool was pretty simple to use and a breeze to assemble. Convenience points already!
Next came the test.
How We Tested
Ryobi claims this vacuum is “ideal for multi-surface use such as hard floors, carpets, and rugs.” I designed this test with that in mind, wanting to see just how well it performed on a variety of surfaces. I set up three test “spill zones” that were approximately 2 ft. x 2 ft. on three different surfaces: short carpet, shaggier carpet and the cement of a garage floor.
Then I poured a layer of kitchen flour into each mess area to simulate a sawdust spill in a workshop. With the spill zones all set up, I was ready to test.
For each zone, I set a 15-second timer to see just how much of the spill I could clean up in that time. That’s it… just fifteen seconds to clean up a pretty big spill. I wasn’t expecting to get the area fully clean in that time… but I was prepared to be impressed.
The Verdict
Unfortunately, the vacuum’s performance was only so-so in all three tests. It performed best on the short carpet, where nearly all the flour was vacuumed up from the spill zone during the 15-second test period.
The longer carpet and the garage spill zones were another story. On the large carpet, the vacuum struggled to handle the spill. And in the garage, the vacuum mostly seemed to push and blow the flour around rather than suck it up. I was pretty surprised by how much of the spill remained in the garage spill zone, as I was pretty confident the smooth concrete would pose no problems. Instead, the vacuum mostly just created an even bigger mess. In fact, I ended up having to use two other vacuum cleaners to get the spill zones back to normal.
It was pretty clear from this test that the Ryobi ONE+ Vacuum is a solid device, but it’s not a complete substitute for a shop vac. The cordless convenience is very nice, though. If you’re looking for a portable, easy-to-set-up vacuum you can use in your car or other tight places, definitely keep this tool in mind. It’s just not quite what you want for big spills.
Where To Buy the Ryobi ONE+ Vacuum
Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner
A cordless vacuum cleaner on the Ryobi battery platform.
The Ryobi ONE+ Cordless Vacuum costs around $80-90 and can be purchased through Home Depot or Amazon.
Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner
A cordless vacuum cleaner on the Ryobi battery platform.
The post Can a Cordless Stick Vacuum Really Replace Your Shop-Vac? We Tested Ryobi’s to Find Out appeared first on Family Handyman.
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