Ryobi P770 Cordless Wet/Dry Vac Review – A Handy Little Sucker?

This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. When the work day is over, and the last specks of sawdust have drifted gently to the floor, you know there’s one more chore before you can vamoose. That’s right, the job isn’t done ’til the mess is gone – it’s clean up time. Now you have to drag out the big shop vac, untangle the cord, find an open outlet, and vacuum everything up, all while tugging the big vac behind you without tipping it over. All tidy? Great – now wrap the cord back up, and get everything stowed out of the way. Or you could try this: Grab the Ryobi P770 Cordless Wet/Dry Vac, and flip the switch to ON. Ryobi sent us one of their new compact cordless vacs to try out, so sit back and watch us give this vac a whack, Jack.

The Ryobi P770 cordless shop vac is a nice, compact unit. The hose wraps around the top, and there are elastic loops on both sides to keep it from wandering off. The accessories tuck into elastic loops at one end of the vac. It works okay, time will tell how well the elastic holds up…There’s a carrying handle right on top, and another at each end, and at only 15 lbs., it’s easy to hoist up for those elevated cleanups.

There are four wheels on the Ryobi P770, two large side wheels and a caster in the front and rear. This setup makes it easy to tug along behind you and maneuver over cords and thresholds, and around large tools, piles of lumber, or slumbering coworkers.

Here are the specs and features on the the Ryobi P770 wet/dry vac, followed by a short promo video from Ryobi:

• Multi-size no-tip wheel design and 360° mobility for balance rolling over obstacles such as cords and thresholds
• Corded performance with 80 CFM, all with cordless convenience
• Convenient onboard accessory storage and no-mess hose storage dock
• Multiple carrying handles for easy transportation
• Removable top for simple emptying
• Compact design for space saving storage
• Crevice tool, floor nozzle and extension wands included
• Part of the Ryobi ONE+ family of over 100 products

Rolling Through The Specs On The Ryobi P770 Cordless Shop Vac

Getting the Ryobi P770 ready to launch is pretty straightforward. It comes with the filter already installed, so all you have to do is connect the hose, slide on your attachment of choice, and pop in a battery. It’s pretty intuitive; there’s a manual, but if you have even minimal life skills, you’re not likely to need it.

I have to admit, when I pulled the Ryobi P770 cordless wet/dry vac out of the box, I wondered how useful it would really be. It’s pretty lightweight, and not very big. When I hit the “ON” switch and felt the suction, though, my skepticism vanished; I think the Ryobi may have sucked it in.

The Ryobi P770 vac is a pretty basic package. You get the vacuum, a seven-foot section of flexible hose, two rigid extension pieces, a crevice tool, and an eight-inch wide floor nozzle. At first I thought it might have been nice to have more accessories, but I couldn’t really think of anything else I’d use on a regular basis. The only thing I wish it had was a floor nozzle without the ridges.

From Soggy Carpet To Dust Duty With The Ryobi P770 Vac

For its maiden voyage, we put the “wet” capability of the Ryobi P770 wet/dry vac to the test. A friend’s car had somehow taken on a fair bit of water, and the carpeting on the driver’s side was soaked, both front and rear. She had been trying to get the water out with a sponge, but it was slow going, and not very enjoyable.

For wet vacuuming, the filter has to be removed. This was very simple: pop the four latches, lift off the top, pull out the filter, reinstall the top and latch it down. After that, just slap in a battery, hit the power switch, and get slurpin’!

I started out with the wide attachment, but its “teeth” kept it from getting very good suction. I switched to the wand attachment, and it worked much better. The little Ryobi P770 vac has great suction, and it got a good bit of H20 out of the car. Now to figure out where it’s coming in…

I ran the Ryobi P770 for about 20 minutes, until it seemed the carpet was as liquid-free as it was likely to get. I ran one battery completely down, and used another for a couple of minutes. The little vac is a bit loud when your head is down near it, but with me in the car and the vac outside, it was tolerable.

Although the little green vac did a good job slurping up the nasty carpet water, I wanted to see how it would handle a bit more volume. I filled a five-gallon bucket, and as a special treat for the Ryobi P770 wet/dry vac, I used CLEAN water. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay clean for long, since I had used the vac to clean up some sawdust and drywall dust first…

I stuck the hose into the bucket, fired it up, and watched as the water disappeared. The water level dropped faster than the Dow after an announcement from the Fed – it took just under ten seconds to drain the bucket! The little vac got all but about a pint of it before its self-protection safety plug shut off the suction, stopping it from inhaling any more agua. Don’t try this at home, kids!

The Ryobi P770 Wet/Dry Vac Plays In The Dirt

For its next mission, the Ryobi P770 got to stay dry. As part of a kitchen remodel, we had pulled out a pantry, and had to patch in some laminate flooring where the walls and part of the floor had been. There was a good bit of miscellaneous debris on the floor, and we used the vac to clean up the floor before installing the new flooring.

I also fabricated a small bulkhead, to go on the ceiling above the new flooring. I used the Ryobi P770 vac to clean up the sawdust in the room where I did the cutting.

Next it was off to the great outdoors again (almost). I had used a portable table saw to make all the cuts on the laminate flooring in an enclosed back porch, since it was snowing. Somehow, this generated quite a bit of sawdust, both on the saw and all over the floor. Using the crevice tool on the saw, and the floor nozzle on the floor, the Ryobi P770 did a great job sucking it all up.

Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, my wife suggested that since the Ryobi P770 vac had done such an amazing job bailing out our friend’s car, maybe we should try it out on the interior of my wife’s DRY car! Since I long ago embraced the wisdom in the mantra “Happy wife, happy life,” the vac and I spent a little quality time inhaling the contents of her Subaru Forester.

It was actually much less painful than usual, because I didn’t have to fetch an extension cord, and drag the cumbersome corded vac around with me. The little vac did a great job in getting the dog hair and random debris out of the car, all on one battery. Inspired by how painless it had been, I later slapped in a fresh battery, and tackled the interior of my SuperCrew cab. This is definitely how all future automotive cleanup will be conducted. My new detailing buddy!

Emptying the Ryobi P770 when its mission is accomplished is fast and easy. Just undo the four latches, and lift the top off. The filter stays in the bottom, rather than coming off with the top and sprinkling debris everywhere. Just pop it off its retaining nub, tap the crud off of the filter into the bottom of the vac, and empty the whole mess into a contractor bag, trench foundation, or other socially acceptable location.

Wrapping Up The Cordless Ryobi P770 Wet/Dry Vac

I was really impressed with the Ryobi P770 vac. It’s much more useful than I had anticipated, mostly because it’s so quick and easy to get it into action. The suction is very good, especially considering the vac is powered by an 18-volt battery. The little vac has good capacity for normal home/shop cleanup, and would be handy to take along for jobsite use, too. Its ability to suck up almost five gallons of water in ten seconds is a sweet bonus – much sweeter than the water after it’s been filtered through musty carpeting…

The only quibbles I have are very minor. The Ryobi P770 is a power-hungry little beast, and will drain a 4.0 Ah battery in about 15 minutes. That’s not a huge deal, since most cleanup jobs last only a few minutes. It is an excellent candidate for a larger-capacity battery, though, and there are hints that one is due in the not-too-distant future. My only other complaint is that I don’t like the “teeth” on the floor nozzle; I think they reduce the vac’s suction. Two minutes with a grinder will fix that.

The product development team at Ryobi has a knack for coming up with innovative tools and accessories that you didn’t know you needed until you got them, and then you use them all the time. Such is the case with the hybrid Bluetooth speakers we tried out last summer, and such is now the case with the Ryobi P770 wet/dry vac, which is my newly designated quicker picker-upper.

If you’re looking for a way to speed up your end-of-job clean up, give the Ryobi P770 a try. It’s covered by Ryobi’s three-year warranty, and a 90-day return policy gives you a no risk way to see if the little vac is worthy of cleaning up YOUR crud.

Buy from the Home Depot for around $99:

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I acknowledge that The Home Depot is partnering with Home Fixated in sponsored content. As a part of the sponsorship, Home Fixated is receiving compensation for the purpose of promoting The Home Depot. All expressed opinions and experiences are our own words. This post complies with the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Ethics Code and applicable Federal Trade Commission guidelines.