Water, rubble, workshop · review
The entry workshop vacuum: seventeen litres, a cartridge filter, and nothing that will not be missed.
The bottom line The right first workshop vacuum: cheap, honest, and unremarkable in the way a tool should be.
The WD 3 is the machine most workshops start with: 17 litres, 1 000 W and a cartridge filter that handles dust and water without being swapped.
Not carpets. It is for what a household vacuum must never meet — standing water, plaster dust, sawdust, broken glass, the contents of a blocked sink trap, the gravel in a car footwell. A domestic vacuum bag turns to paste on the first litre of water; this machine is built around that fact.
The specification that shapes daily use is the hose, and two metres is short. In a car it is fine. Across a workshop floor it means the machine follows you every couple of minutes, which is exactly when tools get pulled over. The step up to a WD 4 P or WD 5 P buys hose, cable and a power socket for a sander — a bigger practical difference than the drum size.
Fleece bags cost more than paper and hold several times as much before the suction fades, because they filter across their whole surface instead of clogging at the inlet. On plaster or ash — which this machine should not be used for anyway — the difference is not marginal.
One reference across all six Amazon stores, including the United States.
| Container | 17 l, plastic |
|---|---|
| Power | 1 000 W |
| Hose | 2 m |
| Filtration | Cartridge filter plus fleece filter bag |
| Part number | 1.628-130.0 |
| Amazon reference | B0GC6MPDLY |
| EAN | 4066529220929 |
On this generation Kärcher's cartridge filter is designed to stay fitted for both wet and dry work, which removes the classic wet-vac mistake of soaking a paper element. Check the manual for your exact model before the first wet job — on older and cheaper machines a foam filter must be fitted instead, and getting that wrong destroys the filter in one use.
For a household machine, yes. Wattage describes what the motor consumes, not what the machine picks up — airflow and suction do that, and neither is published here. What actually limits this machine is the two-metre hose and the 17-litre drum, not its motor.
Compared with the median of its own aisle on this site — not with the market at large.
7.2/ 10
The right first workshop vacuum: cheap, honest, and unremarkable in the way a tool should be.
A garage, a car and the occasional flood — the vacuum you buy because a household one must not be used for this
cleaning machines from the same category, at nearby prices. Only what all of them publish is shown: a column with holes compares nothing.
| Model | Price | Container | Amazon reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kärcher WD 3 V-17/4/20 | 110 £ | 17 l, plastic | B0GC6MPDLY |
| Kärcher WD 4 P V-20/5/22 | 125 £ | 20 l, plastic | B0CRVVJ7L9 |
| Bosch UniversalVac 15 | 91 £ | 15 l | B06XT2BCCH |
| Vacmaster VQ1530SFDC | 88 £ | 30 l, stainless steel | B08C34L9X2 |
At 110 £, it sits -33 % against the 165 £ median of the 13 models in this category published here.
Listed because the accessory itself names this model as compatible.
A reference exists on these Amazon stores: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, United States. Listed is not the same as in stock — availability changes daily.
Details checked on August 15, 2026.
Specifications: the manufacturer sheet for cleaning machines and the matching Amazon product page. Prices and availability: Keepa. Every figure on this page names its source.
1 250 W · 65 l/s airflow · 200 mbar · HEPA filter
The only machine here that publishes both numbers that matter — airflow and suction.
Best for: Trade use, or a home workshop where the vacuum runs alongside tools most weeks
≈ 170 €
1 000 W · 15 l · five paper bags included
The small, cheap, sensible one — and the bags in the box are most of the value.
Best for: A flat, a car and light workshop use, where storage space decides more than capacity
≈ 91 €
L class · HEPA filter · button filter cleaning · 2 000 W tool socket
Einhell's site-grade answer: dust class L with a HEPA element and a socket rated for a real power tool.
Best for: Site and workshop use where the vacuum runs off a saw, and where L-class filtration with a HEPA element is the requirement
≈ 195 €
Prices quoted in these summaries are dated readings. The live price is shown next to each product.
