Sebo vacuum cleaners extreme heat

[blakaeg]

All,

Been using a Sebo Felix machine recently and noticed how hot it gets. I know it's normal behaviour of the machine to get like that but considering its only 1300 watts, they feel like pushing around a giant Heater in the house.

I noticed the K1 range get very hot too. Can understand as contains a 2100 Watt motor in there.

Never noticed this amount of heat with any other machine apart from a Dyson DC02 that used to get so hot in use. That was purchased in 1997 and as far as I'm aware it still works today but isn't being used as a main machine now.

I read on the Sebo German website about the heat levels, so it must have been noted by others, I can imagine more so with the Felix domestic and Dart commercial machines due to the way the air exists the whole body.

Used an X1 machine which is around 14 years old and its my most favourite Sebo machine, like it more than an X1.1 or X4. It's quieter and smoother in operation and I love the matt plastic finish.

 

[sebo_fan]

My Miele S8 and S6 both used to get hot when used in the highest speed, but I know what you mean about the Felix. I think that is part of its design downside due to the exhaust cover. I don't mind it though because my Felix rarely puts out a lot of heat because I seldom use the highest speed. Infact, the Felix is better than the Dart as the Dart used to give a roasting each time due to its fixed speed - great for cold homes or commercially cleaning lol.

The other vacuum that I used to have which blew a lot of hot air, and not helped by its thinner plastics was my old Bosch BSGL5PRO model. The hottest one I have ever experienced are the types with the exhausts on the rear end of a cylinder vacuum - Electrolux Powerplus springs to mind here. Not much use if you have painted stairs!

 

[suckolux]

Mom's featherweight Dirt Devil gets so hot that the exhaust at a few inches away is painful.Not worn out, no dirty filter or full bag. Yikes.

 

[DesertTortoise]

Modern vacs have their motors in little plastic cocoons or wrapped in insulating foam to reduce noise. Doing this makes it harder for them to cool. Old vacs used to blow hot air out of every seam, now it is carefully contained and routed through a HEPA exhaust filter, concentrating the heat in one spot. Old vacs had lower rpm motors and lot more copper wire in their fields. Today, copper is expensive, the minimum wire is used in fields and while an old Lamb two stage fan motor might spin at 22-24K rpm , many vacs today use single stage fans spinning 34K or more to get the same suction as the old motors using less materials and fewer assembly steps. But that higher rpm means more heat. Then you put that motor in the little cocoon or wrap it in foam, and there you go. You have a toaster.

 

[super-sweeper]

I'll stick to my Toaster-Master for now....found it in a thrift store a week or two ago for $3! 

 


D.T, there was one vacuum that had ALUMINUM for it's motor winding, The Dirt-Devil Featherlite! it was a horror story! Air blowing out of all seams isn't that good of an idea, think about carbon dust! shooting air out of a jet-hole in the back is tried and true, and even better when you throw a filter on there! 

 

[DesertTortoise]

This whole thing about carbon dust from the brushes is way over rated. Most of the vacs I have are two to three decades old and have more than half their carbon brushes remaining on the original motors. In three dedades just how much carbon dust has been generated? On the older vacs most of what goes out through the many places motor exhaust escapes is dust the old fashioned paper dust bags and open cell foam secondary filter (if your old vacuum even had that much filtration!) didn't stop.

I just took apart an late 1990's Kenmore Progressive. It has no secondary filter (I think it disintegrated and went through the motor) and the pleats in the HEPA exhaust filter were pooched out like a Japanese fan. Inside the motor was packed, and I do mean packed with lint and dust, to the point that the armature and even the commutator were not visible. It looked like a floor brush motor. The vac had so much use that there are grooves worn in the bottom plastic from the cord rubbing as it was rewound. There is even a hole worn through in one spot. Ok, this thing has had lots of hard use.

But when I finally blew all the dust out of the motor and the brushes (even the brush housings were packed with dust, I had to push each brush in and blow compressed air through them to force it all out) I found a perfect looking commutator and pretty much as-new brushes. For all my criticisms of these Chinese motors it looks from this example that they wear like iron, and with that little brush wear how much of what came out the exhaust of that thing was carbon dust? Not much.

 

[super-sweeper]

Not much, but still a bad thing for people with allergies! 

 

[DesertTortoise]

I would argue that carbon dust from the brushes is less than 1% of the total dust that makes it's way past the motor and final exhaust filter.

 

[sebo_fan]

From a vacuum cleaner perhaps not much carbon is thrown into the air but from other domestic appliances in the home, carbon emissions are higher than they have ever been. More so in countries like UK and Europe where homes depend on central heating.


 


A lot of home owners are investing in HEPA air purifiers for good reason - the air quality in home in recent years has become dirtier.

Not helped by the probable usage of bagless vacuums spreading dust around...

 

 

[DesertTortoise]

Eh, are you going to try to tell me the air in a modern western home is dirtier today than it was in the day of oil fired lamps, wood stoves and horse manure piled high on city street awaiting disposal (not that I'm old enough to remember those days, lol)?

 

[citroenbx]

if you touch my dc04 after been on for 1hr it will burn you almost

 

[sebo_fan]

<p class="p1">Well, they use oil lamps in India so the air is always full of paraffin - but in a room only and India have ceiling fans so the smell clears away. Or air conditioners, which also produce carbon…</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">The smell of horse manure would probably not enter a home. </p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">As for wood burning stoves - Id rather have that scent in the air. I rather like the smell of burning wood. And, only in the last couple of years due to the high cost of electricity in the UK, many people are changing their stoves to wood burning stoves so that it heats the whole home. A lot of the modern wood stoves have a vent that takes the smell away outside with burning wood.</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
 


<p class="p1">So in far as air quality is concerned, a lot of modern appliances still put out a lot of carbon outwith whatever change from old traditional ways you might add in your modern home.</p>

 

[DesertTortoise]

How much carbon do you think is in that smoke you smell? Just asking. How about the smoke from oil lamps?

I saw some images of the lungs of Eskimos who lived traditional lives burning blubber for light and to cook with. These were from bodies preerved in the snow centuries old. Their lungs looked like those of three pack a day smokers. Indoor air quality in less developed economies and in our own societies a century ago was not good at all. Carbon comes in many forms and smoke from fires is a major source. Where I live wood burning fire places are not permitted in new construction and some places have restrictions on when you can use your existing wood burning fireplace. It's an air pollution problem for us.

I also laugh at smokers worrying about indoor air quality.

The comment about not smelling horse manure tells me you never lived anywhere near horses or livestock. If the wind blows the right (or is that the wrong) direction the smell can be over powering.

 

[sebo_fan]

If you're going to go all anal on this, DT then believe me you won't have a fighting chance.


 


The amount of carbon in a home can be filtered through HEPA air purifiers. '


 


I actually live across from a farm and at one time in the year it is possible to smell the manure in the air. However it is not on a street and the farm is miles away, but close to my home as I can see it from the hill where my home is built on. The smell does not come into the home. 


 


Tellingly, carbon and carbon dioxide is dangerously high in most western countries. The usage of gas and electricity contributes to those factors. Have a look at this table and you'll see what countries use the highest. 


 


 


 



http://whatsyourimpact.org/greenhouse-gases/carbon-dioxide-sources

 

[parwaz786]

Has anybody noticed the cable gets hot with certain vacuums?
BTW My Dc04 doesn't get that hot, I vacuum for 25 mins- 45 mins and they just don't burn you.My Dc01 Detsijl does though for some reason... The HEPA Filteris what you can't touch after an hour of use

 

[DesertTortoise]

Yep. Tight filtration can restrict airflow and make for a hot motor. Also, if the owner of the vac shop I use is to be believed (and I trust him explicitly) the high price of copper has led motor manufacturers to reduce the amount of copper in the field while raising their amperage and rpm to get higher performance, leading to some very hot running motors. Combine this with tight filtration and you see where this is going.

 

[spiraclean]

This is something I've noticed with my Sebo D2, so much so that the air from the exhaust is actually hot rather than merely warm. To be fair, I don't think it's a trait specific to this brand, as I've experienced the same with Miele and other makes too. It's just what happens when you have a motor that pulls over 2kW, coupled with sound insulation inside the motor compartment and several stages of fine filtration.

The fans themselves will also generate some heat; they spin at tens of thousands of RPM, and the airflow through them creates friction. This is why some cleaners such as Nilfisk and the Hoover Freedom cylinder had an ass-backwards configuration, where the air passed over the motor first, and THEN through the fans. Keeps the motor itself slightly cooler than if it were arranged the opposite way round, as is usually the case.

 

[DesertTortoise]

Compressing air most certainly heats it up. The reverse scheme you mention used by Nilfisk and Hoover would require some additional ducting to ensure air goes through the fan but makes sense in terms of cooling the motor. Were these through flow fans or another configuration? I wonder how turning the motor/fan around affects airflow and suction, or if it has any effect?

 

[blakaeg]

I got too used to my Dyson DC24 which has a 650 watt motor so doesn't generate much heat in use. Despite the fact I know machines do get hot in use but the Sebo Felix feels like one big heater being pushed around due to the heat coming out of the motor and the way the hot air exists the body via the fabric filter wrap around on the body. I'm the summer, if I hold the machine a certain way outside, I can see the heat coming from the machine. A little like the heat coming from the hot Tarmac surface when driving in very hot weather.

The Felix is a nice unusual machine.