What Makes Vacuum Cleaners Suck?

By Collin Fitzsimmons

Instructions

Vacuums and Suction

Step 1:
All vacuum cleaners operate on the same general physical principles, even though marketing would have you believe that not all vacuums suck the same. Most vacuum cleaners contain an intake port, exhaust port, electric motor, fan, vacuum bag and housing that contains all the components. These act together to clean up whatever it is you point your vacuum at. The most important component to understand is the fan, which actually creates the suction used for cleaning.

Fans, Intake Port and Pressure

Step 1:
When you turn your vacuum cleaner on, the fan turns on and the fan blades begin to turn. These fan blades force air forward, out toward the exhaust port. This causes the air pressure to increase in front of the fan and to decrease behind the fan. In the same way that creating a partial vacuum in your mouth enables you to suck things out of a straw, the vacuum cleaner creates a partial vacuum in the housing, sucking up dirt. The ambient air pressure is higher than the pressure behind the fan, and this ambient air pressure then pushes into the vacuum cleaner through the intake port. Vacuums that suck harder have stronger fans and cost more than cheaper vacuums.

Moving Air and Friction

Step 1:
If the debris is light enough, the ambient air pressure pushing into the vacuum (thanks to the partial vacuum inside the housing) will pick up dirt, due to friction between the particle and the moving column of air. This friction between the rushing air and the dirt makes the dirt rush into the bag. The dirt stays there, while the air flows out through the porous holes in the vacuum bag. To increase sucking action, some vacuums use brushes, either rotated by air pressure or by the motor, to kick dirt and other particles into the air, better enabling air friction to sweep these particles away.

Resources

Vacuum Cleaner Last for 70 Years

Photo/Video Credit

morguefile.com

More Puppy Pages

How Does a Wet/Dry Vacuum Work?

Instructions Accessories and Plugs Step 1: Top-of-the-line wet/dry vacuum models come with a set of interchangeable brushes, including brushes for cleaning out grout in tile floors. Brushes include a spin scrubber and wide path head. Wet/dry vacuums are...

Instructions What is a Dyson Animal Vacuum? Step 1: Despite the name, the Dyson Animal Vacuum is not designed to be an alternative to bathing your dog or cat. It's simply made with cleaning up pet hair and dander in mind, along with all the other dirt...

Although carpets look nice and are comfortable to walk on, cleaning them can be a huge hassle. However, vacuum cleaners make the removal of dirt and dust from the carpet fairly easy. Instead of cleaning on your hands and knees, you can simply operate...

Central vacuum systems are the end-all in today's modern world. No more dragging out a vacuum cleaner and all the accessories every time you need to spruce up. What household wouldn't like that? Here are the ins and outs of central vacuum systems.

The vacuum cleaner was created to suck up dirt and dust from floors and carpets. Vacuums have also been created to clean up wet spills and heavy-duty messes. Some have multiple attachments to perform certain tasks. Vacuums have evolved from early...