Canadian Woodworking

WORX NITRO cordless wet/dry vacuum

The new WORX NITRO cordless, brushless vac offers a good blend of power, performance and convenience for all the small cleanup jobs in the shop and around the home.

If you have a dust collector or large dust extractor in your shop, you don’t necessarily need a large shop vac – especially for cleaning up the finer dust and wood chips around shop machinery and the workbench. A small light weight vac will do quite nicely. And, you can user it around the home as well.

I ‘ve been using the new WORX NITRO cordless, brushless vac in my shop for the better part of a month, and I find that it offers a good blend of  power,  performance and convenience.

MANUFACTURER: Worx
MODELWX031L
PRICE: $259.99
SOURCEFind a Retailer
KEY FEATURES:

  • Power: 20V 4.0 Ah battery
  • Motor: Brushless
  • Filter type: HEPA, washable
  • Airflow: 1.0m³/min (approximately 35 CFM)
  • Vacuum: 16 kPa
  • Capacity: 2 Gal (7.5 L)
  • Hose length: 6.5 ft.
  • Weight: 6.8 lbs
  • Warranty: 3 Years
  • Includes: Battery, charger, hose, crevice tool, wide mouth attachment, shoulder strap

The Nitro is available as a bare tool (the vac, hose, crevice tool, wide mouth attachment and shoulder strap) or as a kit that also includes a 20V 4Ah battery and charger.

The shoulder strap is convenient as it frees up your hands and makes toting the vac around the shop quite easy. At just under 7 pounds the vac is pretty darn light. The hose extends out to 6-1/2′ which I found long enough for me to reach into all the nooks and crannies in my shop.

The vac attachments are fairly basic, but they enable you to get the job done. You can also use any other 1-1/4″ attachments with this vac.

Worx Nitro
The Nitro kit

The battery installs atop the vac in it’s own compartment (where the crevice tool is also stored). To the left of the battery compartment you’ll notice an orange button – it enables you to choose between the “HI” and “Eco” power node settings. Select the low speed Eco mode for light duty jobs, as it conserves battery run time. You can expect to get up to 40 minutes of run time using a combination of HI and Eco power settings.

The 20V 4Ah battery, coupled with the brushless motor gives the Nitro a lot of welly – more suction and runtime than you’ll get from most car vacs and a lot of small handheld household vacs (think Dustbuster).

Worx Nitro
Battery compartment

You can quickly convert the Nitro from vac to blower by simply moving the hose to the blower port.

worx shop vac
Vac mode (top photo); blower mode (bottom photo)

The long lasting HEPA filter is washable, so should last years before needing replacement.

Worx Nitro
Washable HEPA filter

I found that the 2-gallon dust compartment didn’t fill up all that quickly, especially since I use the Nitro mostly for cleaning up around shop machinery that isn’t connected to my central dust collector – miter saw, drill press and mortiser.

Worx Nitro
2-gallon dust container

While the Nitro isn’t a replacement for a full size shop vac it is a convenient and practical tool for a myriad of small cleanup jobs around the shop.

Worx Nitro
Practical, convenient, portable cleaning


Carl Duguay - [email protected]

Carl is a Victoria-based furniture maker and the web editor at Canadian Woodworking & Home Improvement.

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