Switched them on, the motor whirred into action, sucking in air and The front, a motor in the middle, and a bag at the back. Vacuums were simple sucking machines with a brush and suction head at Invented in 1901 by a British engineer, the first electric Photo by Arthur Rothstein, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, I can remember seeing machines similar to this This is a Vintage Singer photographed in 1942. They had a suction head at the front and a giant inflated bag at the back. Photo: Vacuum cleaners looked and worked much the same way for most of the 20th century: This is a problem that plagues almost every type of vacuumĬleaner-even the bagless, cyclonic ones that are now so popular.
#How does a rotary vacuum filter work full#
If its bag is full or its filters are clogged up, its airflow will be dramatically reducedĪnd it won't pick up dust. This is a very important point: forĪ vacuum cleaner to work effectively, it has to maintain powerful airflow the whole time. Human vacuum cleaner-would be greatly impaired. Eventually, the dirt would build up on the tissue paper to such anĮxtent that air would no longer flow through it properly. Now imagine what would happen if you could keep this trick up for hour upon hour, just Take the comb away from your mouth and inspect the tissue paper. Sharply so, effectively, you are breathing straight through the comb. Now lean against a dustyĪrmchair and press your mouth and the comb against it. Place the comb and paper against your mouth. Breath out as far as you can and hold your breath. If not, try it now! Wrap a piece of tissue You'll know how effective suction can be for removing dirt. If you've ever tried that cleaning trick with a tissue paper and a comb, There is a difference in air pressure, but nowhere is there is an absolute vacuum.) ("Suction cleaner" would be a better name than vacuum cleaner, in fact, because there's no actual Understanding how your machine works: vacuum cleaners work by suction. The name "vacuum cleaner" is a bit of a giveaway when it comes to All this machine has to do is spin the brushes, so it can get by with a tiny 7.2-volt electric motor (much smaller and less power-hungry than the motors in large vacuum cleaners, which, as we'll see below, also act as suction fans). It weighs just 1.6kg and runs for 30–60 minutes on a full, 16-hour charge. Turn it over and you can see the main brush bar (with its purple bristles) and a smaller rotating brush (with black bristles) for cleaning edges (middle right). This cordless Gtech SW01 sweeper has two rotating nylon brushes at the front that flip dust and hair into a slide-out plastic dirt bin (which I've opened up slightly, top right). Photo: Not all floor sweepers use vacuums. How does a cyclonic vacuum cleaner work?.Other popular makes of vacuum cleaner (including Hoover, Miele, and Electrolux) also now make bagless cleaners, though they tend to work in a different way: they generally use internal filters to separate out dust and dirt, which is deposited in a plastic bin, while the air returns to the room through a grille in the back of the machine. The dust and hair tends to swirl around thanks to the machine's "cyclonic" action. Photo: A Dyson cleaner, like this one, shows you just how much dirt it's picking up in its transparent bin.
We all know vacuums suck up dirt-but how exactly do they work?Īnd what makes a modern-style cyclonic cleaner different from an old-style bag cleaner? Gadgets, but vacuums are one of the few most of us simply couldn't live Twenty-first century homes are packed with dozens of appliances and Fortunately, most of us can live without knowing this kind of truth about our homes Ī quick run around with the vacuum cleaner is enough to keep us happy. Last updated: August 18, 2021.Ībsolutely filthy! That's because most of the dust and dirt in your house is way too small to