Water, rubble, workshop · review
A carpet extractor with a clean-water tank and a bottom drain.
Where this ends up Not a vacuum but a carpet extractor — it sprays detergent from a four-and-a-half-liter tank and sucks it back, which nothing else on this shelf does. It is also the only machine here with a drain, so you empty five gallons without lifting it.
“Combines vacuuming, spraying, and water extraction in one unit.”
This is a different class of machine sitting on a shelf of shop vacuums, and the difference is worth being clear about.
A vacuum removes what is loose. Dust, grit, sawdust, standing water — anything not attached to the surface.
An extractor removes what is bonded in. Solution is pumped from the 4.5 liter clean water tank, sprayed into the pile, and immediately sucked back into the debris tank with whatever it has released. Spilled coffee, a pet accident, years of traffic on a stair carpet.
Nothing else on these twelve listings does it. The nearest neighbors are plain wet vacuums with a foam filter.
The spray trigger on the handle is the right implementation: you spray and recover in the same stroke, rather than walking back to a switch on the drum. The listing calls it a “Remote Control Spray Handle”, which overstates it — it is a trigger on a wand — but the function is correct.
And the nozzle set follows: a handheld shampoo nozzle, a carpet shampoo nozzle, an upholstery nozzle, plus the ordinary crevice tool and floor brush.
What no listing on this shelf mentions is the consequence of extraction: fabric stays damp for several hours, and carpet left wet in a cold room smells. Work in warm weather or with a window open, and make a second dry pass over each stroke to pull more water back.
“Bottom drain outlet allows for quick and mess-free disposal of dirty water without lifting or tilting the machine.”
Five US gallons is about nineteen liters, which is twenty kilos.
Emptying a wet vacuum without a drain means unclipping the motor head, lifting the drum, carrying it to a gully and tipping it — and the hard part is that the weight shifts as it pours.
Five other machines here hold four gallons or more:
Bissell 2035M — 6 gallons (and a stated “Dirt Cup Capacity: 23 L”, which is consistent) Vacmaster VFB511H and VOC508S — 5 gallons Giraffe Tools ×2 — 4.5 gallons Craftsman 17040 and Bissell 18P03 — 4 gallons
None of them has a drain.
The nearest alternative is on the two Giraffe Tools machines: “Press the orange quick-release latches to detach the heavy-duty tank. Slide it out, empty debris, and click it back into place” — better than unclipping a motor head, and still a carry.
On an extractor the drain earns its place twice over, because you are putting water in as well as taking it out, so the tank fills on every job.
5 gallons of debris, 4.5 liters of clean water.
The clean tank is the one to size up. Four and a half liters of solution covers a car interior comfortably and a flight of stairs; on a room-sized carpet you will refill.
And the ratio is right: the debris tank has to be far larger than the clean one, because it receives the water plus everything the water released, plus enough margin that it cannot overflow into the motor.
Which is the failure to watch on any wet machine. Water reaching the motor is the one fault that ends it, and this listing publishes no fill indicator. The Bissell 18P03 is the only machine here with one — a semi-translucent tank plus an “LED Full Water Tank Indicator”.
On an extractor, the arithmetic at least warns you: if you have sprayed 4.5 liters into a carpet and the debris tank holds nineteen, you will not fill it.
6 ft hose + 10 ft cord.
For a five-gallon machine that is modest:
Bissell 18P03 — a 32 ft hose · Giraffe Tools ×2 — 30 ft retractable · Vacmaster VFB511H — “25 feet of cleaning reach” · Craftsman 17040 — 22 ft · Armor All AA255W — 18 ft · this and Vacmaster VOC508S — 16 ft · Armor All AA155 — 10 ft · Kärcher — a 3.9 ft hose, battery so no cord · Craftsman 17250 — a 5 ft hose, cord not published
For a car on a driveway, sixteen feet is fine — you set it on the ground beside the door. For a staircase it means moving the machine every few steps, and a machine with four and a half liters of water in it is not light.
The bullet’s claim that this “cleans wide spaces with ease” and reduces “the need to unplug and reposition” is the one piece of overreach on an otherwise plain page.
4.5 peak HP is 3356 watts. A 120 V American socket on a 15 A breaker supplies about 1800 W.
So it is measured at stall or over a fraction of a second. The shelf’s claims: Vacmaster VFB511H 5.5 · Craftsman 17040 5.0 · this 4.5 · Vacmaster VOC508S 4.0 · Craftsman 17250 2.5 · Armor All ×2 2.0.
And Vacmaster proves the scale is unusable by publishing both on its two machines: “5.5 PHP” with “320 Air Watts”, against “4 Peak HP” with “135 air watt motor” — +37 per cent claimed, +137 per cent real.
Air watts is airflow multiplied by suction: the work at the nozzle. Only Vacmaster publishes it here. Three listings publish kPa (both Giraffe Tools and the VFB511H, all at 20 kPa), two publish amps, seven publish peak horsepower alone.
On an extractor, though, raw suction is not the figure that decides the result. Water recovery is — how much of what you sprayed comes back out of the carpet. No listing on this shelf publishes a recovery rate, and the practical answer is two passes per stroke: one wet, one dry.
No air watts, kPa or amps.
No filtration figure. The Vacmaster VFB511H at $97.64 is the only machine here that quantifies filtration, at 1 micron; the Bissell 2035M publishes “2 stage”.
No filter type at all, which on a machine handling both water and dry debris is a real gap. A cartridge filter is ruined by water; a foam sleeve handles it and traps no dust. The Vacmaster VOC508S spells out that both are needed — “a cartridge filter for dry pick-up and a foam wet filter for wet pick-up” — and the Armor All AA255W supplies both.
No blower. Six machines here convert; this is not one of them.
No detergent specification. An extractor needs a low-foam solution: ordinary washing-up liquid foams enough to fill the recovery tank with bubbles and carry them into the motor. No listing says so.
No warranty. Both Craftsman machines publish 3 years and both Giraffe Tools machines 24 months. The other eight, this included, publish none.
And no gallon qualification — only the Craftsman 17250 admits on this shelf that “gallons indicated reflect drum volume, not necessarily” the usable capacity.
Read on the day this page was built: $140 at the American Amazon shop.
Read from Keepa on the day this page was last revised; stock and price both move without notice.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 2026-10-04. The live price is at the top of the page.
| What it is | A carpet extractor — it sprays and recovers, which nothing else here does |
|---|---|
| Clean water tank | 4.5 liters, separate from the debris tank |
| Drain | A bottom drain outlet — the only one on this shelf |
| Spray control | A trigger built into the handle |
| Debris tank | 5 gallons |
| Nozzles | Handheld shampoo, upholstery, carpet shampoo, crevice and floor brush |
| Reach | 6 ft hose + 10 ft cord = 16 feet |
| Rating | 4.5 peak HP, which is 3356 W — see the FAQ |
| Weight | 6804 g (240 oz) |
| Dimensions | 361 × 381 × 509 mm (14.2 × 15 × 20 in) |
| Air watts | Not published |
| Filtration | Not published |
| Blower | Not published |
| Amazon reference | B0D9NVV6ZN |
| EAN | 0026282544315 |
It washes rather than lifts, and this is the only machine on the shelf that does it. The listing publishes: "Combines vacuuming, spraying, and water extraction in one unit", with a "4.5L clean water tank", a "Remote Control Spray Handle" whose "built-in spray trigger on the handle enables easy switching between spraying and vacuuming", and both a "Handheld Shampoo Nozzle" and a "Carpet Shampoo Nozzle". The mechanism: detergent solution is pumped from the clean tank, sprayed into the pile, and immediately sucked back into the debris tank with the dirt it has released. A vacuum removes what is loose on the surface; an extractor removes what is bonded into the fibers — a spilled coffee, a pet accident, years of traffic on a stair carpet. The thing no listing on this shelf mentions is the consequence: extraction leaves fabric damp for several hours, and carpet that is left wet in a cold room smells. Work in warm weather or with a window open, and go over each pass twice dry to pull more water back.
Because five gallons of dirty water weighs twenty kilos and you would otherwise lift it. The bullet reads: "Bottom drain outlet allows for quick and mess-free disposal of dirty water without lifting or tilting the machine." This is the only drain on the shelf, and it is the most practical feature on this page. Five US gallons is about nineteen liters. Emptying a wet vacuum without a drain means unclipping the motor head, lifting the drum, carrying it to a gully and tipping it — and the hard part is that the weight shifts as it pours. Four other machines here hold four to six gallons: the Vacmaster pair at 5, the Craftsman 17040 and Bissell 18P03 at 4, both Giraffe Tools at 4.5, and the Bissell 2035M at 6 gallons — which is twenty-three liters and the largest drum here. None of them has a drain. The Giraffe Tools pair offer the nearest alternative: "orange quick-release latches to detach the heavy-duty tank. Slide it out, empty debris, and click it back" — which is better than unclipping a motor head, and still means carrying it.
No. Four and a half peak horsepower is 3356 watts, and a 120 V American socket on a 15 A breaker supplies about 1800 W at maximum, so the figure cannot be sustained — it is measured at stall or across a fraction of a second. What exposes the scale is that Vacmaster publishes both on its two machines here: the VFB511H gives "5.5 PHP" with "320 Air Watts of Power, 20kPa", and the VOC508S gives "4 Peak HP" with a "135 air watt motor". So +37 per cent in claimed horsepower corresponds to +137 per cent in real power. Air watts — airflow multiplied by suction, the work at the nozzle — is the figure to compare, and seven of twelve listings here publish peak horsepower alone. On an extractor specifically, the figure that matters most is not raw suction anyway: it is water recovery, how much of what you sprayed comes back. No listing on this shelf publishes a recovery rate, and this one does not either. Two passes per stroke is the practical answer.
Measured against the median of its own aisle here — not against everything on sale.
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 | Weight | Blower |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shop-Vac SV5430186 | $140 | 6804 g (240 oz) | Not published |
| CRAFTSMAN CMXEVBE17040 | $120 | 7257 g (256 oz) | Not published |
| BISSELL 2035M | $175 | 7303 g (257.6 oz) | Yes, including inflating air mattresses and toys with the included tools |
| KÄRCHER 1.198-307.0 | $175 | 3629 g (128 oz), without a battery | Yes, for loose dirt and leaves |
Details checked on October 4, 2026.
Car interiors and a stained stair carpet, where lifting dust is not the job
Amazon reports what buyers took in the month before this page was last checked: at least 300.
The figure is a floor, rounded by Amazon, and read through Keepa — it says what buyers picked, not what a maker claims.
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
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
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
