Take the idea of a Dirt Devil and let the engineers at DeWalt toy with the concept for a while. What you get is the DeWalt DC515K 18V Cordless Wet Dry Portable Vac. With cord-free vacuuming, you can now easily clean up almost anywhere. To make getting into tight spaces easier, just pull out the attached 2.5-foot-long hose.
Build Quality and Features
The test vacuum arrived in a cardboard, retail-ready box that included the DeWALT DC515K Vacuum, one 18V XRP Ni-Cad battery, and a one-hour charger. We are glad that this vacuum came with a better Ni-Cad XRP battery since it offers a much longer run time, but we still wish it came with a newer Li-ion battery since that typically means care-free charging, longer life expectancy, and greater power-to-weight ratio.
The main body of the tool is made up of tough yellow plastic along with the lower removable 1/2 gallon capacity tank. Once the tank is removed, you have easy access to the removable and washable HEPA-rated filter. This filter makes the vacuum shine since it can remove particles as small as .3 microns. This means that this filter will trap up to 99.97 percent of the drywall dust that it sucks up. It also means that when you turn it on, it won’t blow out a big dust cloud because this filter catches it all. It should be noted that this is a vacuum only, with no blower functionality like many other wet/dry vacuums out there.
DeWalt DC515K 18V Wet Dry Portable Vac Testing and Use
Using the DeWALT DC515K 18V Cordless 1/2 Gallon Wet/Dry Portable Vacuum was a no-brainer. We just charged the battery and went to town cleaning up. Because of its compact size, it was very convenient to leave it on the benchtop to have it ready when we needed to clean up after a small project. The vacuum’s suction is adequate to pick up many smaller items, such as drywall screws, dust, dirt, sand, metal shavings, and saw dust.
Keep in mind that this little vacuum does not necessarily replace your full-size shop vacuum for larger clean-up jobs, but in many cases, we found that it was able to hold its own just fine. Just for fun, we measured the decibel rating and it measured in at 79 db SPL which is loud but not uncomfortable.
To further test out the DeWALT DC515K 18V Cordless 1/2 Gallon Wet/Dry Portable Vacuum, we gave it to a local contractor who specializes in repairs, building maintenance, and punch-out lists. He explained to us that many times he has to make numerous minor drywall repairs, and he said that this vacuum has helped him simplify what he has to bring on site to handle cleanup. The DC515K does a fantastic job of sucking up drywall dust and, since it has a HEPA-rated filter, it doesn’t ever blow dust out of the exhaust port. This is a critical item because punch lists are often performed in homes that are occupied, and it’s critical to minimize the spread of dust.
Conclusion
The DeWALT DC515K 18V Cordless 1/2 Gallon Wet/Dry Portable Vacuum is an excellent addition to anyone who already owns other 18V DeWALT cordless tools. We found the battery life to be sufficiently long but wish it came with the newer Lithium-Ion Nano batteries. For our Performance rating, we gave the vacuum a 7/10 since it does well to clean up small messes and makes it easy to lug around without having to be tethered to an outlet with a power cord. We gave the vacuum a 6/10 for our Value rating since it is not inexpensive. We suspect that it would be most attractive to current DeWALT 18V folks since they will have spare batteries ready.
