subject: How The Simple Vacuum Cleaner May Be Harming Your Family's Health [print this page] What features are essential when selecting a healthy vacuum cleaner? The three main stages are agitation, suction and capture.
The agitation is the first stage and means how well the machine dislodges the dry soil (dust etc). The best for this are the upright vacuums which have one or two sets of brushes for agitation Some use a brush driven by the same motor as the vacuum motor but the best ones have a separate motor.It's what gives them more "oomph" to shift the dirt. You can often see the difference when you compare a machine with a separate motor to one without. Most people agree that the fibres are raised and separated more with a dual drive system
Once it has loosened the dirt, the machine has to remove and catch it.In other words, how effective the vacuum system is.The two commonest filtration systems are bags or cyclones.
Bags, whether paper or cloth tend to work well for a short period. Once they start to clog, their performance drops considerably.Their suction drops dramatically, after the bag has started to fill with dust.
The next type is the cyclone. These are very effective, specially when they contain multi stage air cleansing systems.You must use a purification procedure that gets shot of dust and dirt without obstructing the bag or the filters. The remedy is a spinner or cyclone system.This gets around the problem of the bags clogging up.
In my years carrying out work with carpet cleaners Birmingham, I have found the next aspect to be the most critical, filtration.
Once we have solved that problem, we have to look at how it holds on to the dust and dirt that has been removed.Many machines throw a good percentage of the dust back out into the atmosphere.This fine dust can cause all sorts of breathing problems.
It is critical that you stop this dislodged dust from escaping back into the air in the room.A simple yet incredibly effective approach is to use water in the filtration process.This method works by directing the dirt filled airflow down on to the surface of the water where it is captured and cannot be sent back up into the air.The best type of vacuum cleaner to take advantage of this system is the tub. The machine has to be kept level to make the most of this really effective filtration method.
The tub vacuum holds a small amount of ordinary tap water (a couple of litres). The dirt that has been sucked from the carpet is directed at the water so that the dust and dirt falls out and hits the surface. Once there, it is captured and held until it is ready to be thrown away. The air going through the machine is effectively cleaned and passed back out into the room.
In conclusion, what is the best combination?
You would be looking for the best combination of agitation and suction.Having a water filtration system on an upright is fraught with danger because the water has to be kept level. If you do not, the water will enter the vacuum motor and destroy it in seconds. The very action of moving the handle backwards and forwards means that the water rocks back and forth. This effectively rules out a water filtered upright. Or does it?
If you really want the water filtration but also want the high agitation, you can actually achieve this. One well known manufacturer provides an electrically driven power head that fits onto floor wands supplied with it's tubs. That way you could twin a water filtered tub vacuum cleaner with a mains driven power brush and you would have pretty much the ideal combination.
Whatever you decide, please take the filtration aspect seriously. It could, in the long run, be a life saver.
How The Simple Vacuum Cleaner May Be Harming Your Family's Health
