I purchased the Ridgid WD1450 "professional" wet/dry vac I was asking about last week. The quotes around "professional" are mine, as the ratings Ridgid provided were obviously designed for the "homeowner" type of user. I'd expect a professional vacuum to be rated according to scientific measurements like inches of water column and dB rather than Peak Horsepower (assuming weak horses, naturally) and arbitrary sound ratings.
As far as value for the money is concerned, it looks to be a good buy. For just over $100 you get a servicable and quieter than some shop vacuum. You'll still have to talk loudly to get over it, but it's nowhere near as bad as many of the others. If I had to guess, I'd guess the level was somewhere around 75-80 dB.
Included in the box is an upgraded filter (it said it had a VF5000, but it looks like the VF6000 HEPA filter was installed), small accessory kit, and a 2 1/2" hose. I was unimpressed with the included accessories: A wet floor sweep (might be useful, but you have to purchase a wet filter separately), small floor sweep that's all plastic (the ones with brushes work better), and a "upholstery" attachment that's really a blower nozzle.
An additional purchase was dust bags, because it just doesn't make any sense to me to get all dusty cleaning out a vacuum that's supposed to keep you from getting all dusty. They're not too cheap at 2 for $15, but it does take a while to fill one.
After connecting the vacuum to the table saw and cutting some dados, I noticed that not only was the process neater but the dado blade seemed to cut easier. I guess the vacuum pulling the chips away from the blade helped quite a bit.
There's only 1 speed on this vacuum, and no electrical plug in. If you must have those features, you'll have to buy something else.
Filtration seems to work correctly. Dust is trapped in the vacuum and not just pulled away from the work area and redistributed. I suspect that the Ridgid power head sees very few changes to be used on the HEPA certified models. (This is just my suspicion. I haven't looked much at the HEPA models and I could be 100% wrong. It wouldn't be the first time...)
Drawbacks include combination of the small casters under the unit and the long cord and short hose. This means the vacuum wants to follow you as you work, but often winds up getting caught on its own cord. The hose is not antistatic nor is it grounded, but not much static builds up anyway. It's certainly not enough to be annoying.
The wet filter is a separate purchase, so while there's a squeegee floor sweep included the vacuum cannot be used for wet stuff out of the box. A little annoying, but that's why I keep the Shop Vac around.
One plastic clip that holds the head to the bucket is a little tight (I used a prybar to get it off) but that seems to happen with most plastic clips. Maybe it'll loosen up after a few cycles.
The "jet stream" out of the back is designed for use as a leaf blower. I just don't see the point as a leaf blower is lighter than the vacuum, needs no filter changes, and just as noisy. To blow tools off using the vacuum, the best thing to do is set the vacuum hose in the direction of an air compressor blow gun and blow the dust into the vacuum. I consider the leaf blower feature to be just a marketing bullet point thing.
Overall, this is just a simple vacuum that's a good value for the money. It's not overly loud, but could be quieter. Dust control seems to be effective, with no noticable dust escaping out the exhaust. Ridgid's dust bags are on the expensive side, but perhaps aftermarket bags will solve that problem.
Puckdropper