Proteam Provac FS6

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blackheart

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Messages
1,817
Location
North Dakota
I've always wanted to own a backpack vacuum. I use them at work quite often and I knew they were pretty powerful. I came across a listing on Ebay for this one with a power nozzle for a reasonable price. The listing said it's 3 or 4 years old but with the motor having a date of 09/12/2017 it's not quite as old as they thought.

When it arrived it was clearly not maintained very well the Filters (example seen in the picture) were filthy, the inner cloth bag was dirty and incorrectly installed leading to a loss of both airflow and suction initial hose measurements were much lower than I had hoped and it's suction measured about 60" Removing the filters improved the numbers but it was still not great.

So I gave the cloth bag a wash tossed out the filters and put in a new paper bag and then tested it's power again to see how much better it would do. Those numbers were a little more in line with what I was hoping for.

I then wondered if the extension cord I was using (and the only one I had at the time) was impeding it due to resistance it may encounter in such a long path, i also found that it was only rated for 10 amps So i went out and got a shorter cord with a higher 15 amp rating. It did increase it's power but not by too much.

The hose appears to be similar to the Wessel Werk fit all hose only shorter and with non standard connections, while the stub is a standard 1.25" the machine end connection is much wider and has the connectors space far apart. On the tool eh it has a short pigtail that emerges from the hose with a connector shaped like a computer plug but it has slanted plugs

The power nozzle got torn apart and cleaned while it is a wessel werk nozzle it's a little bit different from the standard home versions, it uses a 1.5 amp motor, lacks a headlight and has a non standard pigtail.
It's also got a strange venting pattern (also present on the home versions) where air is drawn in through the nozzle chamber, pulled through a filter, then passes through the motor and then into a duct above the motor then back into the nozzle. It's an odd setup.

The filters should be in next week so when those show up I'll re-test it again and provide nozzle flow test then. I was hoping this machine would get about 125-130 cfm at the hose and it got pretty close to the 130 CFM mark I have to wonder how it would do with the standard 1.5 hose. 150? Who knows?

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Motor

I've seen motor for protea.s range from 115-130cfm. The royal backpack vacuum with 8.5amp motor does 118-120cfm.
I know pro team is the best commercial backpack vacuum. Pretty sure prolux,/TriStar use same motor and I've not seen over 130cfm on specs.
I did work with huge shop vacs. I do want a program vacuum. I think what makes them great is the.hose doesn't clog. The vacuum cleans twice as fast as other commercial vacuums.
I'm just going off research not experience.
Congrats on the vacuum. It's amazing how much people neglect vacuums just by pure stupidity.
Les
 
I have a model similar to the one shown-FS-6.Mounted on a janitor cart as a HEPA Port-A-Vac that was made up for a customer for Greenville Sew& Vac-the customer never picked up the machine-was sold to me.All of the original backpack parts are with the machine-stored on the cart.The vacuum even works well with the 35Ft hose.
 
The motor

122341-07 Motor's specs are as follows source: (https://www.thevacuumfactory.com)
Motor Type: Thru Flow
Discharge: Peripheral
Bearings: Ball Bearing/Sleeve
Sealed Vacuum: 98.1 inches
Maximum Air Watts: 440
Maximum Air Flow: 147.3 CFM
Maximum Amps: 11.6
Motor Speed: 35,510

Oddly the Proteam website lists the specs as
Airflow (CFM)
153
Static Lift - in
91
Motor
1108 W/9.5 A/120 V

I have no idea what a prolux uses but i've seen a spec on their bagless for 125 CFM most likely meaning it's not the same motor. I don't believe it was used on tristars either. All the older models would have used a dual stage ametek the EXL uses a motor very similar to the lux 6500, the MG1 and MG2 used the VM3 and the CS uses a JEI motor.

Rex,
I can't say i'm surprised by that they have pretty good power. I may have to try attaching my 30 ft central hose to it, just to see how it does.
It is a 1 3/8 hose, so I'm going to guess it'll have about 90-100 CFM at the end of that hose but who knows it may surprise me.
 
backpacks

I have several backpack vacuums, I list them in my profile. My favorite is the Sanitaire 535, very quiet and powerful. I also have a proteam super coach, I'm not sure if that uses the same motor as the one mentioned here. At one point I had heard that Proteam was considering a switch to Domel motors but I'm not sure if that ever happened.
Mike
 
Sanitaire and central hose

According to Partswarehouse the Sanitaire 535A uses a 440.3.607 Domel motor. Here's the data sheet on it.

I tried my 30 ft central vac hose on the backpack today. I don't really have enough space to lay it straight so I had to create 2 turns, at the end of the hose I got 3779 FPM or 98.63 CFM, keep in mind it still has no post motor filters. While i've only got baird numbers to go by for most of my older central the proteam has more flow than both of the broans, the Beam 2100, the Silent Master S4 but it's about in the same range as the Drainvac. which pulled a baird 7.5 which is about 100 CFM at the end of a similarly sized Hanmi hose.

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central vacuum hose

I should try connecting my central vacuum hose to a backpack and see how it works. The Sanitaire backpack is very powerful, whenever I'm in the mood to clean with a backpack, it's the first one I grab. The good thing is, most backpacks can use the same hoses and bags, and most of them have pigtail cords so you can connect your own extension cord. The one backpack I have where this was not the case was my powr-flite comfort premium. I have no idea what they were thinking when they did this, but the 50 foot cord was hard wired to the vacuum, that is just nuts. Fortunately it was a simple fix, cut off most of the cord, strip the wires and attach a new plug, problem solved. I also have a kit that allows you to connect an electric power nozzle to just about any backpack, works great.
Mike
 
Correct

Your correct I was thinking of the 2 speed tri star motor. I see these for sale every other week for $300. I got a person down to $200 but it was a family members vacuum and it was already sold.
Im pretty sure Emerson makes these vacuums. The upright reviews are average cannister is mixed but this is the best commercial vacuum in the business. 150 cfm dang that's double 75% of commercial vacuums cfm.
I've read people are mixed with extension wands. I've also read the people complaining don't use them correctly.
Ya you were right on wrong motor.
If I were to guess 2 vacuums nearing 150cfm would be avalirs, NSS pig vacuum I believe a couple shop vacs come close.
Les
 
Hmm.

I was hoping to get the motor model number from that 2 speed So i called tristar and I was given the model 119539-00 which leads me to a 5.1" kenmore motor so either the number has been repurposed or I was just given the wrong number the latter is more likely. They did say that those 2 speed motors were made only for Tristar though.

Now back on topic. Yes Emerson owns/makes them. You can see part of their name on the model sticker.
The uprights are very much like an electrolux upright with an onboard stretch hose they've been selling fairly well at the shop. Unlike many commercial machines you do have a brushroll control on them.
I've used one of the canisters, I believe it was a runningvac I didn't care for it too much.
Yeah a backpack is an invaluable tool, they allow you to get vacuuming done at a quicker pace and allow you to get under and around objects much easier. It's a shame that more people don't embrace them. They do struggle with fibers but other than that they're great.
 

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