How Vacuum Cleaners Work

This is the same basic mechanism at work in a Vacuum Cleaner, though the execution is a bit more complicated. In this article, we'll look inside a vacuum cleaner to find out how it puts suction to work when cleaning up the dust and debris in your house. As we'll see, the standard vacuum cleaner design is exceedingly simple, but it relies on a host of physical principles to clean effectively.

When you plug the Handheld Vacuums in and turn it on, this is what happens:

1. 1. The electric current operates the motor. The motor is attached to the fan, which has angled blades (like an airplane propeller).

In the last section, we saw that the suction created by a vacuum cleaner's rotating fan creates a flowing stream of air moving through the intake port and out the exhaust port. This stream of air acts just like a stream of water. The moving air particles rub against any loose dust or debris as they move, and if the debris is light enough and the suction is strong enough, the friction carries the material through the inside of the vacuum cleaner. This is the same principle that causes leaves and other debris to float down a stream. Some vacuum designs also have rotating Vacuum Cleaner Brushes at the intake port, which kick dust and dirt loose from the carpet so it can be picked up by the air stream.

In the last section, we saw that Vacuum Cleaner Parts pick up dirt by driving a stream of air through an air filter (the bag). The power of the vacuum cleaner's suction depends on a number of factors. Suction will be stronger or weaker depending on:

• The power of the fan: To generate strong suction, the motor has to turn at a good speed.

• The blockage of the air passageway: When a great deal of debris builds up in the vacuum bag, the air faces greater resistance on its way out. Each particle of air moves more slowly because of the increased drag. This is why a vacuum cleaner works better when you've just replaced the bag than when you've been vacuuming for a while.

• The size of the opening at the end of the intake port: Since the speed of the vacuum fan is constant, the amount of air passing through the vacuum cleaner per unit of time is also constant. No matter what size you make the intake port, the same number of air particles will have to pass into the vacuum cleaner every second. If you make the port smaller, the individual air particles will have to move much more quickly in order for them all to get through in that amount of time. At the point where the air speed increases, pressure decreases, because of Bernoulli's principle. The drop in pressure translates to a greater suction force at the intake port. Because they create a stronger suction force, narrower vacuum attachments can pick up heavier dirt particles than wider attachments.

At the most basic level, this is all there is to a vacuum cleaner. Since the electric vacuum's invention a century ago, many innovative thinkers have expanded and modified this idea to create different sorts of vacuum systems.

So far, we have looked at the most typical types of vacuum cleaners: the upright and canister designs, both of which collect dirt in a porous bag. For most of the history of vacuum cleaners, these have been the most popular designs, but there are many other ways to configure the suction system. We'll look at some of these in the next section.