i just got the lee's gravel vac from drs fosters - got the 50ft one. used it i think twice now so I am not a pro at it. definitely better than the buckets, but I think I will only use it for the filling process. the empting process did not seem to work very well. maybe not enough water pressure? not sure.
filled my 20 gallon today and had a "learning experience". filled just fine, but when I went to turn the switch to off the valve came off into the tank... water is now continueing to pour into (full) tank, home alone... can you see where this is going?? lucky for me there is an outside door very close by so I just ran to the door with the water pouring out of the hose. then of course ran to the sink and turned off the water. so... a couple of lessons learned today. 1) make sure the connections are tight 2)always have an emergency bucket nearby!
so I did get water on my wood floors, but not because anything was leaking... just pouring out of the hose
I also replaced the plastic connector piece that goes into the faucet area - sorry not good on all my male / female hose terminology. the rest of the plastic pieces seem to be sturdy and just fine!
hope that helps!