Riccar Gem Review

This is one super little vacuum!

I picked up the Riccar Gem Micro Vacuum a little over a year ago and it’s made its forever home in my sewing room. I love having it handy next to my cutting table (sometimes it sits right on top without getting in the way). I love its convenience and power.

It was on sale and after seeing its ability and power, I bought it and took it home. Before recommending it, I wanted to make sure I liked it and felt it was worth owning. I do and do.

I use it mainly for cleaning the threads and tiny clippings off my cutting mat, especially when working with messy fabrics, like corduroy or toweling. For this purpose alone, it has been well worth the purchase price. It doesn’t take up much room and so it can easily sit out among my tools in my workspace. I love how fast I can clean up the cutting table (and sewing table) mid-way through a project. It also is handy around the ironing station.

This hand-held, mini vacuum has a great design, easy to hold and use. It’s fairly lightweight and very compact. The on/off switch is extremely well-placed for ease of use, which is great for turning it off quickly if needed.

It empties quite easily. Just flip it open and dump out the contents into a waste basket. That’s it. There’s a dust cup and dust filter which empties in a snap.

I also use it to vacuum out the dust in my serger in between yearly maintenance to the shop. I use it to on my regular sewing machine as well. Just be sure to tape threads down or unthread the machines first, because this little guy will easily suck up a bunch of thread off the spool if you let it.

My favorite use is after cutting fleece or batting on my cutting mat. with the crevice tool, I can easily clean out the cutting lines of fuzz and restore that cutting mats smooth surface.

The only things that I don’t like about it are:

1. the cord is really, really long. I don’t need it to be very long, so I keep part of the cord bundled together with a strap. However, I could see this being a plus to some consumers.

2. It’s pretty loud.

Dust, threads, and tiny clipped corner scraps are a big part of my sewing room. I like not having to drag the big vacuum out. Those days have passed. I now have the Riccar to help me quickly get back to sewing 🙂 My experience with the Gem has been only positive and would recommend it as a great addition to any sewing room.