Suction: Up the side or straight up the middle?

[georgect]

What's everyone's view on this?

I'll see a upright with the suction hose/air port on either end of the beater bar or it favors the right or left side significantly.
Some even have the suction port right up the middle (pretty much canister power heads suction ports are right up the middle).

Wouldn't the suction port that goes up the middle of a rotating brush give a more uniform pull of dirt than one that favors a right or left side?
Is a center pull more efficient or effective?

I've always been turned off by air flow that favors a side instead of the middle.

Does it matter?

 

[sptyks]

In my experience, airflow and cleaning ability is almost always better when the suction comes from the middle.

 

[dysonman1]

The fact is, when the machine is operating on the carpet, the carpet forms a 'seal' with the soleplate. It actually makes no difference to the deep cleaning ability of a vacuum between side or middle intake. At the Tacony Factory, we have a testing room for durability and cleaning ability. I specifically recall the test between a 7850 Simplicity (side intake) compared to the Royal PowerCast (middle intake). The side intake Simplicity actually removed more than 10% more test dirt from the test rug using the same mechanical arm that takes 8 passes.

In fact, the testing room (also called the 'treadmill') is my favorite part of the factory. There are, on the average day, between 20 and 30 vacuums running constantly, 8 minutes ON and 2 minutes OFF until the motors die. We can tell exactly how long a certain brand and model will live. Sixty hours (about 1 1/2 years worth of vacuuming) is standard for most Wal-Mart vacs. The Shark Rotator burst into flames after 71 hours of running. Yes, there are automatic sprinklers and fire detectors because the vacuums run constantly, even when no one is here.

 

[panofan]

Fascinating!

That is super cool about the testing. I'm loving more about what goes into the research of a Tacony vac the more I read on here!
Man oh man, I wish the test results were all published - it would be fascinating to pour through the data - repeatable and objective data seems to be harder to find than a Norwegian Unicorn when researching vacuums

How do brands like kenmore (better ones like the bagged intuition or progressive) or miele do at those test?

 

[parwaz786]

Side Suction spreads out once it's sealed to the floor

 

[eurekaprince]

I think centrally-located suction channels in an upright or power nozzle are better for faster removal of dirt from carpets because it provides the shortest route to get to the concentrated air flow that will bring it smoothly into the cleaner. No matter how powerful the motor, picking up dirt from an edge or end that is 12" from the suction channel will require more passes to get it picked up. The Hoover WindTunnel 3-channel configuration does a lot to spread the suction source across the width of the nozzle, but still is not as efficient as a good old-fashioned fan-first configuration with a central suction channel. With those classic fan-first Eurekas, Hoovers, Kirbys and Royals, you don't need 12amps of power to pick up dirt across the 12" width of the power head.

I would also bet that the dual-fan vacs such as the old Singers, and the dual channel vacs like the newer Hoover Savvys would also spread the suction to both ends better than those with a single side channel.

 

[eurekaprince]

Just an addendum: the issue here is not really the comparitive quantity of dirt picked up - it's actually the "evenness" of the dirt removal. The only way you could test this is to strategically place dirt only at the edges of a test path and see how each vac did picking up the particularly-coloured dirt at the far end of the path. Or perhaps stripes of differently-coloured granules could be ground into the carpet to see how each vac's nozzle faired in removing the different stripes across the width of the cleaning path.

It's the evenness of the cleaning that we need to evaluate, not the relative amount of dirt that is in question here. Often with side channel cleaners, you have to make a "u-turn" with the vac and clean with the more powerful edge of the nozzle to get at a stubborn piece of dirt.

 

[electromatik]

I must say I come down on the side of the center suction crowd. I've used a few side channel vacuums in the past. Back when I used Carpet Fresh (I didn't know I was a fool at the time), I always noticed that it sucked up the powder faster on the suction side and more passes were required to remove the other side. Now, this is not to say that this is the best way to judge cleaning performance, but it does give one pause when this held true even when starting with a clean bag.

 

[eurekaprince]

You know, even the top-performing Hoover WindTunnels have a strong side and a weak side: the side of the nozzle housing the drive belt is really weak because the belt is set in from the edge supposedly to provide brushed edge cleaning on that side. There is a really short stretch of brushroll exposed between the edge and the belt, supposedly to provide edge cleaning. But the small housing protecting the belt really hinders the smooth movement of dirt over to the main part of the nozzle. You often need several passes to get dirt on that side of the nozzle. Keeping the WindTunnel channels clean helps though.

 

[sptyks]

I would have to agree with eurekaprince...

I own both: a Hoover bagged Windtunnel  and a Kirby Sentria. The Kirby out cleans the Hoover every time, especially when picking up loose kitty litter on carpet next to a wall. The kirby gets it in one pass every time when the Hoover takes 3 or 4 passes even with the suction side next to the wall. The Kirby has a 7 amp motor and the Hoover has a 12 amp motor.

 

[suckolux]

I would more attribute that cleaning ability to being a dirty fan model with high air flow.Just my opinion.

 

[ctvacman]

Carpet type

Also matters, if you have multilevel Berber or the like it might not be as effective at creating a seal in my experience.

 

[durango159]

I recognice that top picture!!!

The power nozzle picture you used for your example of center duct path would belong to me. That's a VGII Eureka Rotomatic 1784B canister cleaner. You've just cropped the photo and put a circle in it. I can't blame you, it's a gorgeous power nozzle for a terrific performing machine that I love using!!

I only know of one canister vacuum power nozzle with a side mounted air duct and that is a Panasonic Jet Flo canister the MC9510- MC9540 series to include the Dual Sweep lines. All other canister power nozzles use a central located duct.

The majority of uprights with center air path do not have onboard tool storage and all would be considered Direct air fan first systems. To allow for onboard tool storage convenience manufacturers relocated the duct to the side of the machine changing the motor style to have fan on far end of motor for a direct air machine. Or a hose hookup connection into the nozzle on far end of machine with air leading from the bag compartment through the hose as a Clean Air Design machine.

Cleaning effectiveness varies. Most middle located ducts work better but it generally depends on the brush roll design and how narrow the agitator cavity is. Some agitator cavities are extremely narrow hindering the airflow and travel path for dirt in machine to reach the air duct leading it towards the collection filter. But there are quite a handful of side mounted air duct machines that clean just as well if not better than centrally located ones. Once nozzle is on rug, the air spreads out well. Find a machine where brush roll can be turned off and place papers along bottom of machine across the entire brush roll opening. It's interesting to see what the airflow and suction power do.

 

[alexhoovers94]

I don't think it makes that much of a difference to be honest.

 

[georgect]

Picture Credit, Rob...(thank you)

Yes Rob I have to give you credit for posting that picture and thank you.
I did an image search in Google to explain what I was trying to get across and your image was the best.

So many different views on what people think in regards to suction efficiency from point of origin.

Some say it makes no difference when some say it makes a big difference.

It makes sense that you get the most "suction" from where the air velocity is the strongest.

 

[dc]

My old Dirt Devil Featherlite has side suction from a dirty fan, and it sucks crumbs into it from the opposite side. My Miele S7 is on the side, but the little tubing is angled to point towards the middle, and it sucks the dirt quickly from either side of the power head. Whether its suction comes from the side or middle, it will get whatever dirt lurks in your carpet in my opinion.

 

[durango159]

You're Welcome!!

Glad you liked that photo so much for this!! That machine is a favorite of mine and the hose seen from the underside gives a terrific visual for the center airflow duct to the nozzle!!

Yes views on this subject seem to be a mix. I think a huge part of this whole theory is the brush roll. With air path in middle a chevron design brush is best. If air path is on end, then brush should steer everything that direction. Agitation, Air flow and Suction the 3 key factors of cleaning.

 

[tolivac]

I go with the CENTER suction--wether it be an upright or a powernozzle for a canister-that way you have the balanced airflow and can edge clean from either side of the nozzle-with the side suction-you have NO edge cleaning on the side furthest from the suction inlet-but EXCELLENT edge cleaning on the side where the suction is-Remember a Kirby salesman saying-"with those side suction machines you are only cleaning a path only 2" wide"So right in my book.Pit a center suction machines such as Royal,Kirby,or even Sanitaire against the side suckers and the results are MUCH better for the center suction models-no fancy lab tests required-just the floors and carpets in your own house.Lab results aren't always conculsive-its what is in the FEILD that really counts!You have to take the machine and use it in a real house on real carpets to see how the vacuum will perform.

 

[ralph123]

Just curious

tolivac - So do you really believe the Kirby salesman's line that a side suction machine will only clean a 2 inch path?



tolivac said: "I go with the CENTER suction--wether it be an upright or a powernozzle for a canister-that way you have the balanced airflow and can edge clean from either side of the nozzle-with the side suction-you have NO edge cleaning on the side furthest from the suction inlet-but EXCELLENT edge cleaning on the side where the suction is-Remember a Kirby salesman saying-"with those side suction machines you are only cleaning a path only 2" wide"So right in my book.Pit a center suction machines such as Royal,Kirby,or even Sanitaire against the side suckers and the results are MUCH better for the center suction models-no fancy lab tests required-just the floors and carpets in your own house.Lab results aren't always conculsive-its what is in the FEILD that really counts!You have to take the machine and use it in a real house on real carpets to see how the vacuum will perform."