DEWALT DC500 2-Gallon 12-to-18-Volt Cordless/Corded Wet/Dry Vacuum

I bought this so I could work in areas where there's no electricity, but I've been using it mostly to clean my big wet vac filter. It works great and has lots of power plugged in. I've yet to try it running on the battery, but the fact that I CAN plug it in if necessary makes it even more valuable. It cleans well and the hose, though it's short compared to it's big brother, is sturdy and provides lots of flexibility.A year later, I've used it a couple dozen times. Not really powerful enough to replace the 16 gallon wet-vac, but still really handy. I use it mostly just to vacuum out the filter for my 16 gallon. I've run it on the battery and it's not nearly as powerful as hooked into electric, but, it does work. If I had a tight area to wet-vac with this, I'd probably use. All in all, not as valuable as I had thought.Still, it works and is really portable. It might be that my batteries are kind of ragged out, so see for yourself whether it is useful as a portable vacuum.

The first time I saw this vacuum was in a catalog, and I thought what a great idea! Well I put off buying this tool for about 8 months, because it is not exciting like a new cordless impact wrench or saw. I finally bought it because I needed something to bring my total invoice up to $199 so that I could obtain the Amazon promotional deal of $25 off. Well now that I have it, I love it. I have probably 10 - 14.4 volt batteries to various Dewalt tools that I own kicking around so I knew that batteries would not be a problem. This has to be one of the best car vacs around; plenty of suction and best of all no need to plug it in, which works great for me because I don't have easy access to an outside outlet. With a fully recharged regular 14.4 volt battery I got about 5 minutes of use from it, and with an XBR 14.4 volt I got about 8 minutes of use. This is plenty of time to vacuum out a car or clean up a small mess. This is the perfect compliment to someone who owns multiple Dewalt tools, because you will already have the requisite batteries. If you don't have any batteries, you could probably do better elsewhere with a cheaper small wet/dry. One other positive thing about this vac; it is relatively quiet compared to similar sized units that I have used in the past, and it comes with a great locking high quality hose.

This product has lots of great features, but the best one is portability! Lots of times I don't want to drag a cord out to do a little pick up job, just pop in a battery and I'm ready to get the job done. I just used it in my 5th wheel while we were hunting to pick up some of the dirt that came in the RV. It was great and I didn't have to plug in a generator to power up. It does have a cord if you want to use 110, a feature I didn't realize when we purchased this...and that is handy for larger jobs. The new Lithium Ion batteries DO NOT work well with this type of unit...as they get hot with this type of use, so be sure to use the older NI-CAD style batteries. Another great feature.....no darn bags to fool with! Light weight....pretty good suction and above all.....this uses a great battery system that has more power than most of the current portable vacs on the market!

After reading the reviews on Amazon, I got the impression this was a decent, yet imperfet product. After trying it out for myself, I concluded those Amazon reviewers were dead on!It's a great idea. You use this little vac to clean up after cutting holes in walls, drilling holes or light sawing or sanding. Why drag out the huge shop vac? Seemed like a godsend.However, the execution is only 75% there. The cord is only 4 ft. (would it kill them to add 2 more feet?) So you have to bring an extension cord. The hose is high quality, but fits rather loosely in the vaccuum body as others have noted and could pop off easily. Suction using AC is decent-- does the job-- but gosh darn it, could have been a little better. Seems like my filterstream dustbuster (also cordless) has better suction. My miele vaccuum definitely has better suction, and compared to a real shop vac-- well, there is no comparison.I have not tried it with a battery, but I don't know if I want to invest more $s into this. This is my first Dewalt product... I usually only buy Makita tools. Maybe they will come out with one of these...