Working vacuum test gauge explained.

[vacuumdevil]

I wanted to post a video explaining the working vacuum test gauge.
Since there seems to be some confusion about that.
We can discuss air boxes another time.

 

[meriflower]

What is your opinion of this testing method - "usable suction test"?

 

[ultralux88]

Basically what you're measuring is the working vacuum in the nozzle area, while the head is on a floor. In some ways its a very similar thing. Does the machine maintain good suction with a normal restriction on the system? The working vacuum gage tests the machine's ability to do this in a standardized way, going just on the machine's power. The useable vacuum test, in my eyes is a companion to this test rather than a replacement, as its not testing just the machine's performance, but the design of the nozzle itself. You want a certain balance of restriction and free flow, you want suction and flow being present. Knowing what the machine is capable of and then seeing how the nozzle interacts will give you a good idea, when combined with the agitation, how well the machine can inhale the dirt off of the floor.

 

[mike811]

Airflow/suction through the rug is one way to find out how powerful the vacuum really is.
There is resistance of the rug so it's hard test for the vacuums.

 

[vaclab]

Yet another false narrative based on the almighty SUCTION

Post# 394286 7/3/2018
"In my humble opinion Working water lift is the Most realistic way to test vacuum motors."

Since when did your humble opinion suddenly become fact over the previous two years and where did you obtain 45” as the magic number?
Working water lift is yet another false sales tool seemingly created by Vacuflo in Ohio.

https://www.vacuflo.com/WBA/Content/support/industry-terms

Over the years these fake, misleading so-called tests have also failed so newer ones had to be created in order for certain companies to continue to sell (and eventually dominate) the market.

Amps, Peak Horsepower, Cleaning Effectiveness Per Amp, and Airwatts. When all those didn’t work, working water lift was created.

Working water lift shows up exactly nowhere when Googled except for your posts and YouTube videos. Please give me the ASTM/IEC test number. I’ll wait.

Let me be perfectly clear. The best way to test a vacuum is to measure dirt pickup. Duh. Since everyone has a different dirt consistency, the tests should include some very specific types of dirt (i.e. fine dust, sand) as well as mixtures of debris (carpet fibers, dog hair, large particles, etc.). Gee, I wonder who performs those tests on YouTube?

Static tests are only useful if they can predict high quality dirt pickup. Baseline static airflow, airflow density, sealed suction, carpet resistance and agitation tests have proven to be the most useful and I have the extensive database to prove it.

Of special note is the airflow through the carpet test. If you encounter a situation in which fine dust/dirt has fallen down to the bottom of the pile and clogged the pores of flow though carpet (or have accumulated dirt below the carpet, say on the pad), high CFM through the carpet will pick up dirt from under the carpet quite easily. Obviously, I have endless videos showing this effect.

The most useless new spec is airwatts because the only way to fully understand it is to closely examine the curves, which almost no one does. Motor manufacturers as well as dealers intentionally mislead buyers by quoting the peak airwatts number. Because airwatts represents the intersection of three variables (airflow, suction and measurement diameter), that peak number is mostly useless.

Bill

 

[vaclab]

Saving The Best For Last...

Onto airflow box creation. Once again, you’re completely wrong and pushing a false narrative. You need to familiarize yourself with a Physics/Mechanics concept called “path of least resistance”. For example, water self-levels and air finds the easiest way out (test orifice).

You think I didn’t notice the screenshot you grabbed of my airflow test video from April of 2018? And it also seems that you grabbed one from Vacuum Wars as well. Too cowardly to reference the actual sources? You don’t want people to know exactly whom you are criticizing. Way to “man up” dude.

Again, without any actual lab experience nor quality testing equipment building experience, suddenly your opinion becomes fact. Well guess what? Airflow/Airwatts boxes in the actual vacuum industry are indeed…wait for it, ACTUAL BOXES! See the Dyson lab pictures below. Gee, do you know what that looks like? Mmmmm, I see a Dyson and Shark placed on top of large metal boxes with their handles reclined and the Dyson DC43 is even velcro’d to a pole with papers under the ball. BILLION dollar company and that’s the rig they use for measuring airflow, sealed suction and eventually airwatts.

Your device will measure airflow and suction in a most awkward and inconvenient manner. I noticed that you still had to construct a wooden box and then place the vacuum on top. Very inefficient.

I encourage everyone to build and use my “dual measurement hole” wooden airflow box that I posted a video of back in April of 2019. It will natively handle most small, standard and large nozzles.

Introducing My New Dual Chamber Airflow And Suction Box


Kirby Dual Sanitronic 80 Airflow And Suction Tests Featuring Boring Rants


These two videos also serve as proof that size (volume) and material (cardboard versus wood) did not affect the CFM results by any appreciable amount (less than 1%).

I have been designing and building highly accurate test equipment for about 30 years now and I care more than you’ll ever understand about obtaining quality results.

For the bazillionth time, suction is a pressure, it is not a movement and not a volume. Typical units are inches of water lift or KiloPascals.

Airflow is comprised of two components: Speed and Volume. Hence the typical terms Cubic Feet per Minute or Liters per Minute. Airflow is defined as the speed of a volume of air. That air carries the dirt from point A to point B. Suction merely attempts to maintain airflow when that flow becomes strained (forced into a hose, cyclones, Turbo tool, etc.). About two years have gone by since we had this exchange on Vacuumland and you still haven’t learned the above.

Bill

 

[sebo4me]

Airflow will drop like a stone through the resistance of the carpet unless there is enough suction (pressure) to keep it strong! That's something you still haven't learnt Bill

 

[mike811]

Not so simple:

Dyson DC40 mkII
Airflow through the carpet 21 cfm
Airflow straight from the head 55 cfm

Kirby G6
Airflow through the carpet 50 cfm
Airflow straight from the head 126 cfm

So both lost over half the airflow
despite Dyson's much higher suction

 

[sebo4me]

Yep and it would have lost a lot more if it didn't have high suction

 

[sebo4me]

I'm more than happy with the performance of my cleaners they do a great job.
The Vorwerk kobold is my all time favourite. Even if the Kirby sucks up 5% more dirt I still wouldn't want one. The Vorwerk works great in my carpet it's also very light and easy to manoeuvre around it's quiet too. Then I use either my Miele C3 or Sebo E3 Premium for above floor cleaning.
We're talking about portable cleaners here so I didn't mention my central vac.

 

[mike811]

All those vacuums what you have got very good performance

 

[sebo4me]

Thanks Mike you have some cracking vacs too haha.
I like the Zero G that Alex reviewed. Wish they were available in the UK I'd like to own one.

 

[vaclab]

I Haven't Learned How Suction Maintains Airflow, Mark?

Uh, I even made a video several years ago clearly proclaiming that very fact.



What matters is remaining usable airflow (keeping agitation aside for the moment), especially if you want super deep cleaning. In that arena, low suction high airflow cleaners nearly always win.

Remaining Carpet Airflow (Brushroll ON)
Kirby Avalir = 56.5 CFM
Kirby H2L = 39.5 CFM
Hoover WT3 HP = 27.7 CFM
Dyson DC65 = 25.7 CFM
Rainbow E2 with PN12 = 13.9 CFM

Sealed Nozzle Suction
Dyson DC65 = 64"
Kirby Avalir = 30"

CONCLUSION: Dyson's claim of high suction is 100% true, but the airflow at the nozzle is weak, so airflow drops to a much lower absolute value. The DC65 also uses much more power to produce this lower CFM and that means the vacuum as a whole is dramatically less efficient in terms of CFM per Watt consumed.

Dysons for use on bare floors and low pile carpet are pretty good depending on the brushroll used but for medium pile carpet or taller, denser carpet, they perform poorly. Only the newest brushroll designs like the Ball Animal 2 head and V11 heads have begun to close the gap BUT, the V10/V11 now has too much suction and I'm sure by now everyone has seen plenty of videos showing the brushroll clamping to the pile carpet and the weak brushroll motor grinding to a complete halt.

High suction is not the key to great dirt pickup and I do blame Dyson for the proliferation of this totally false narrative. In order to sell vacuums, nearly the entire industry has jumped onto this bandwagon unfortunately.

Want proof that almost ZERO suction at the cleaner head still allows for reasonable dirt pickup? Here's a video showing the new Rainbow SRX pulling literally AIRFLOW ONLY from the power nozzle. Would it do better with more actual suction? Sure, but that would also increase pushing effort (Rainbow still needs to seal this leaky PN though).

CONCLUSION: Nozzle airflow backed up with no measurable suction picks up dirt. However, high suction with little or no airflow picks up essentially nothing. Why? Because suction is a pressure, not a movement and not a volume.

Bill

 

[desiredname]

Could someone post proof that suction helps to maintain airflow through carpet? (other than "Vacuum Facts" videos)

 

[vaclab]

Check Out My Playlists Called

"CFM Through The Carpet"



"Airflow Box Tests"



Dyson DC65 static CFM and sealed lift:
58 CFM and 64"
Dyson CFM though the carpet:
25.7 CFM or 57% loss

Kirby Avalir static CFM and sealed lift:
150 CFM and 30"
Kirby CFM though the carpet:
56.5 CFM or 62% loss

Rainbow E2 with PN12 static CFM and sealed lift:
58.6 CFM and 12"
Rainbow E2 with PN12 CFM through the carpet:
13.9 CFM or 76% loss

NOTE: Each PN is designed to sit on or "in" the pile differently and these tests were run with the proper settings for each PN. The PN12's outer spinning brushes were removed for reasons as stated in the video.

 

[vaclab]

Somehow the Rainbow SRX link went poof

So here it is again.

Want proof that almost ZERO suction at the cleaner head still allows for reasonable dirt pickup? Here's a video showing the new Rainbow SRX pulling literally AIRFLOW ONLY from the power nozzle. Would it do better with more actual suction? Sure, but that would also increase pushing effort (Rainbow still needs to seal this leaky PN though).

 

[vacfan1982]

There's some very good cleaners available choose whichever best suits your needs.

My advice would be Go German

 

[vacuumdevil]

Message to Mods and all of Vacuumland.

@vaclab One reply for multiple posts.

 

[vacuumdevil]

Mods

I'd like to add that this morning Bill attempted to falsely copyright strike one of my videos.
I have not used any intellectual property of bills any of my videos.
It was turned down immediately by YouTube this sort of harassment should be considered unacceptable by anybody.