I wouldn’t have thought that a shop vac would get me excited. However, winter is here, and I find myself engaging in a lot of clean-up around the house lately. After using a traditional shop vac for several years and suffering from the poor ergonomic design of these tools in general, I was excited to see a new form factor hit the market. Enter the Ridgid WD7000 SmartCart Vacuum.
Ridgid has redesigned the shop vac genre with its SmartCart. It offers, among other things, complete accessory storage and increased maneuverability. This is a very new kind of shop vac – and it’s broken the mold with a redesigned shape, accessory storage, and a squared-off design that gives the tool a much different appearance from its canister-shaped brethren.
First Impressions
The first thing you’ll note about the Ridgid WD7000 Smart Cart is its rectangular shape. The new shape gives it several advantages. For one, all of the accessories store neatly either on or inside the Smart Cart—yes, ALL the accessories. No more will you be tripping over an exposed hose or dropping a nozzle as you wheel the vacuum from one location to another. The Smart Cart is made up of four distinct sections.
On top is the hose storage, which is accessible by pulling out a drawer or opening up the hinged lid. It completely houses the included 8’x1-7/8″ Tug-A-Long 4x Pro hose. Under that is the accessory storage drawer, which lets you access and store the included utility nozzle, claw nozzle, wet nozzle, crevice tool, and dusting brush. Just below is the housing for the 6.5HP motor, and at the bottom is the 11-gallon waste container. The vacuum has four wheels. The front wheels rotate for easy maneuverability, and the larger rear wheels can be easily locked down to prevent the vacuum from rolling away on unlevel surfaces.
Ridgid SmartCart Vacuum Features and Build Quality
The included 3-layer fine dust filter fits easily into the rectangular 11-gallon drum and ensures that particles enter, but even minute dust doesn’t escape into the air while you are using the Smart Cart. The 11-gallon drum sits on guide rollers and pulls out easily, allowing almost effortless debris removal. We did notice that the foam seal around the filter started coming up due to friction when removing the tank only a few times.
Expect to possibly have to replace this seal over time (a rubber gasket would be a better design). Since the air evacuation is located outside the top of the drum, you can fill the Smart Cart almost to capacity before having to empty it. Just keep tabs on the suction to see when it’s taken on too much and needs to be cleared out.
While it looks larger than a standard shop vacuum, we compared it side by side with an 18-gallon Shop Vac brand model. While at first the Smart Cart looked obviously bigger, we quickly discovered this was not the case. The Shop Vac’s center handle is the same height as the Smart Cart’s deck lid (30.5″), and they both had push handles that are 36″ in height. The 18-gallon Shop Vac is 20″ wide, while the Smart Cart is just 19″ wide.
In terms of depth, our current Shop Vac measured 28.5″ and if you factor in the bend of the hose (which typically remains attached to the vacuum), the Smart Cart came in 1/2 inch less at 28″. After we added it all up, the Smart Cart is quite simply a better design. We felt that the reduced capacity (11 gallons as opposed to 18 gallons) is well worth the increased mobility and the added benefit of having a vacuum that can have things placed on top of it. Debris removal is also much more ergonomic with the pull-out tank as opposed to having to up-end an entire 18-gallon vacuum, wheels and all.
Ridgid SmartCart Vacuum Accessories
The Ridgid SmartCart vacuum comes with a 1-7/8” x 8′ “Tug-A-Long” locking Pro Hose, 2 extension wands, a utility nozzle, claw nozzle, wet nozzle, crevice tool, and dusting brush. As we alluded to above, there is a 3-Layer Fine Dust filter installed in the plastic tank, and of course, they include an owner’s manual to help with assembly and maintenance. We liked how the accessories locked onto the extension wands, allowing them to rotate, but not fall off when you pulled back while sucking up dirt.
Both the accessories and the extension wands allow 360 degrees of rotation and we found the hose to be flexible enough to allow us to reach into just about any area with the wands and attachments. The extension wands attach to the back of the Smart Cart and the extra-long 20′ extension cord can be looped around the cord wrap on the back and fastened to itself.
Conclusion
The Ridgid SmartCart vacuum is something that most shop vacuum systems aren’t: original. Its ergonomic design, thoughtful layout, and accessory storage system make this a no-brainer in the world of shop vacs. After using this, I don’t believe I could ever go back to the old form factor and be satisfied carting around a beastly round vacuum with no proper place to store all of my attachments.
Hopefully, this design represents the future, with more and more manufacturers getting onboard with integrated storage designs. Its only downfall is that, as of this writing, it is only available (from what we can tell) at Home Depot. That makes this a tool that may be tough to acquire for those not near this particular home improvement store. With a price tag under $200, you should put this at the top of your Spring and Summer cleaning shopping list.
