If you think about it, modern day carpet maintenance, in its most primitive form, was and always has been performed using a vacuum cleaner. At least that is the case since the days when carpet became fitted. And despite all the modern scientific processes now available to effectively clean a carpet, all carpets - all - still get vacuumed on a regular basis. Which makes the humble vacuum cleaner just about the most important piece of equipment in a cleaners arsenal.
The Australian Standards 3733 -Textile Floor Coverings, Cleaning Maintenance Techniques for Domestic and Commercial Carpeting - includes a vacuuming process in its recommended procedure for correct carpet maintenance.
It is now accepted that the vacuuming stage of the carpet cleaning and/or carpet restoration process is of the utmost importance to the successful long term maintenance of any carpeted area. So what type of vacuum cleaner should you be carrying in your van? And which ones are the most effective, or best suited to particular applications? Like all machinery - you get what you pay for.

When it comes to vacuum cleaners, it seems that the claims made by manufacturers are just as polarised as the claims made by manufacturers of extraction equipment.
It is difficult to get anybody to agree on anything - hence it is difficult to set a standard by which the entire cleaning industry can work from satisfactorily.
How do vacuum cleaners work?
Essentially, in much the same way as extraction equipment, without the wet cleaning process - unless of course, you are using a wet/dry vacuum. Vacuum cleaners are very simple units. They consist of an electric vacuum motor or two, a vacuum chamber, a filtration system, hoses to transport the vacuum and to provide the flow of air, and finally, a body or canister to hold the whole thing together!

If the vacuum is an upright model or a back pack with a power head, then the standard vacuum strength which is derived from the vacuum power and the air flow put out by the electric motor will be further enhanced by the beater brush which rotates at the base of the vacuum cleaner on the floor, collecting loose dirt and massaging the carpet pile.
Vacuum performance is determined by the vacuum draw of the motor, the air flow capabilities of the entire unit, and any agitation capabilities. Air flow is dependent - to a very large extent - on the filters, their size and effectiveness.
Filtration
It is the filtration system of the vacuum cleaner that allows the vacuum motor to breath, thereby enabling the motor to continue performing job after job, to its best potential.
If the filter becomes prematurely blocked, or is not serviced regularly enough to ensure that the job is started with a clean filter, then the performance of the vacuum will be greatly reduced -- to the point of ineffectiveness.
All cleaners will know of the frustration of a vacuum cleaner that operates for a minute or so, and then becomes ineffective. Even worse, the air flow is so restricted by a neglected filter, that the machine cannot even pick up cotton.

Filter Size, Rating & condition
The size - and quality - of the filter that is in your vacuum is also extremely important to its efficiency.
Essentially, the filter is designed to filter out all but the smallest particles of dirt, that by necessity, have to pass through the vacuum motor with the air flow, to be exhausted to allow the vacuum cycle to be completed.
If the filter was impregnable, then the unit would not work as no air could pass through.
Filters are rated as to the particles that they will trap - and they can be rated at anything from 0.3 microns up to 10 microns - the smaller being the more efficient.
The problem with reducing the rating down to 0.3 microns is that it also obviously reduces the effectiveness of the air flow, thereby reducing its ability to pick up dirt.

Compensation
Accordingly, the smaller the rating of the filter (which means the greater the efficiency in removing the dirt particles from the floor and therefore the atmosphere), the greater the area of filter material required to maintain air flow.
Manufacturers have to balance off the twin requirements of powerful filtration with continued performance. The answer is to have a small rating filter, in a large size. This requires space in the body of the vacuum for the extra filter material.

Different types
There are different sorts of vacuum cleaners for different sorts of situations. It is therefore unfair to compare the performance of one style of vacuum against another style if they both are suited to different applications.

Uprights
There is no doubt, that for heavy duty and really effective vacuuming, the upright vacuums with beater bar, will outperform any other style of vacuum cleaner on the market.
Simple to use, they are rugged and powerful. The agitation provided by the beater bar or brush is the primary differece between uprights and other types of vacuum cleaner and provides a vastly superior cleaning proces.
The agitation on the carpet breaks up the soil and also greatly assists in the airflow so necessary to transport the soil particles to the vacuum chamber.
All carpet cleaners should - as a matter of course - carry an upright vacuum cleaner with them on the job. Importantly, there are many excellent buys on the market and they are very reasonably priced.

Back Packs
An Australian invention, the back pack is now transported and sold all around the world.
Although similar to a barrel vacuum in both concept and performance, the back pack has the obvious advantage of being carried on the back, thereby leaving at least one hand free, and 2 if required.
Performance - unless a power head with an agitating brush is included - comes from the vacuum strength of the motor, as well as the air flow levels. The absence of a beater bar to agitate the carpet means that the pick up strength of the back pack will always suffer when compared to the upright, but lack of performance in a straight comparison is misleading, as the back pack does its designated job brilliantly. Back Packs are also priced well.

Barrel Vacuum
These are large capacity vacuum cleaners designed primarily for semi industrial or commercial jobs although there are more and more smaller barrel vacuums coming onto the market due to their user friendly capabilities. They can be used in conjunction with a power head, making them a formidable if bulky vacuum unit.

Wet/Dry Vacuum
Is simply a barrel vacuum that has a vacuum motor on board that is capable of drawing liquids - known as a By-Pass vacuum motor. These are not necessary for the carpet hot water extraction cleaner, but may be useful for the professional dry cleaner who has to cope with small liquid spills. Hard surface cleaners require wet and dry vacuum cleaners as a matter of course, for picking up debris and cleaning matter off tiled floors.

How to accurately measure the performance of an electric vacuum motor

When purchasing a vacuum cleaner or an electric extraction machine, many claims are made by manufacturers regarding the performance levels of their machines.
If you put aside the internal (and therefore hidden and unable to be accurately determined) configurations of the machine, which will play a large part in determining the effectiveness of the machine overall, the most important factor is the vacuum motors and their configuration.

Does wattage matter?
Many manufacturers put larger vacuum motors into their vacuum cleaners to increase performance, but then fail to address the other components to ensure a balanced vacuum system. There is no point in simply having a large motor if the filter is so inefficient that it renders the additional power useless.
Whilst it would be foolish to deny that the size of the motor isn't important, it certainly isn't everything, and if it isn't coupled with efficient filtration that assists in airflow, then it is of no real benefit. So, it does matter, but you need to look more closely when assessing performance.
Do not be fooled by advertising that shouts out about the wattage of the vacuum motor. It may well be that the performance is inferior to other models with smaller wattage vacuum motors! It is important to stress again, that motor wattage is only part of the picture. Wattage without efficient filtration and therefore good airflow is no good to anyone.

Vacuum motor technical specs*
Most vacuum cleaners and extractors use either 2 stage or 3 stage vacuum motors and a lot of misinformation gets written about the performance of the machine based on the output of the vacuum motors used. Here are the manufacturers specifications on the two different vacuum motors:
• 2 stage vacuum motor: 183mm Diameter By Pass (48 mm orifice) - 1,281 watts/47.9 litres per second air flow.
•3 stage vacuum motor: 183mm Diameter By Pass Vacuum Motor (48mm orifice) - 1,347 watts/40.9 litres per second air flow.
As you can see in the diagrams below, the 2 stage vacuum motor from Ametek at 1281 watts produces more airflow than the 3 stage (reputably the more powerful) at 1,347 watts. And the 3 stage draws 6.3 amps compared to only 5.9 for the 2 stage.

Air Watts
Ametek call air watts a “useful description of the actual cleaning potential available” – or a cleanability rating. The higher the points, the better the 'cleanability rating.' The higher the air watts... the better the pick up!

Airwatts is a combination of water lift (suction) and CFM (airflow) is is the truest measure of cleaning power. 99% of all vacuum manufactures measure the power of their units by Airwatts. Maximum Airwatts is recognized by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) as the best way to measure the actual cleaning power of a vacuum cleaner. Other misleading terms such as Airflow, CFM's and Waterlift are not a true measurement of power, but rather part of an equation that equals Airwatts.

Airwatts = CFM x Lift divided by 8.5
The most popular vacuum motors used around the world are the Lamb Ametek vacuum motors. The air watts performance of the Lamb Ametek 2 stage 1,281 watt motor is 54. The air watts performance of the 3 stage 1,347 watt motor is only 34!
This shows you the vacuum motor that, at first glance, appears the more powerful and efficient, in fact - when you confront the actual technical data and not the advertising hype - is obviously inferior in performance terms.

UPRIGHT VACUUMING SAVES DOLLARS & MAKES SENSE by Brian Clarke

If you maintain carpets for a living but don‘t vacuum with a quality Commercial upright, then you are losing time and money and not giving your customers the full benefits of what they are paying for.
Most soil in your carpets is very fine dust, fibre and hair which are collectively called dry soil. Dry soil accumulation can contribute to over 80% of the total soil load in carpet. Using ‘suck-only’ backpack or canister only adds to the problem by concentrating fine soil with in the pile, because in most carpets only surface soil is removed.
Vacuuming with an upright also lifts and combs the flattened pile in traffic lanes resulting in an immediate appearance improvement which always generates and immediate and positive response from your customer. If you have one of the Windsor’s clear ‘dirtscopes’, it is an opportunity to show your customer the amount of dry soil that you are extracting and reinforces the benefits of using cleaning professional, like yourself, on a regular basis.

Health benefits
Proper vacuuming will also offer a significant health benefit to your customer. If you don’t have appropriate filtration fitted to your vacuum, the finest dust blows out through the exhaust and contaminates the air in the room. A significant quantity and variety of microflora, including bacteria and fungal spores, can live quite happily in the carpet without causing too many problems. However, when they are sucked up in great quantities and exhausted through your vacuum cleaner, the dust particles act as convenient rafts to carry them to their next home – which could be the respiratory system of you or your customer.

The Australian Standard, AS/NZ 3733:1995 recommends a minimum filtration on vacuum cleaners of 0.5 microns at 99.7% efficiency for commercial buildings. Compare this to the pore size of a cloth bag, which is usually around 10 microns or about 20 times larger that the Australian Standard requirement! Don’t accept the story that filtration suitable for health and safety while cleaning is an option. A quality commercial upright will come standard with 0.3 micron filtration to 99.6%. Dust is a proven Asthema trigger, and by extracting, trapping and removing the dust you are providing a healthier indoor environment for you, your employees, your customer and your customer’s facility or family if you are cleaning their home.

Throw away cloth bags
If you are using cloth bags in your vacuum, THROW THEM AWAY, and get disposable bags. Cloth bags are FALSE economy. They allow much of the dust to pass through them and clog up the really important final filter in your vacuum resulting in poor performance and more cost in pre-mature filer replacement. Cloth bags represent an environmental and occupational health and safety risk. They concentrate and grow bacteria and quite often develop an offensive odour. Furthermore, you, your clients and your staff are exposed to high levels of dust when they empty and shake the bags. All measure should be taken to minimise exposure to dusts in the workplace.

Maintenance & Service
Unlike domestic vacuums, Commercial uprights are designed to go all day, every day. And, occasionally, they will need service. They say a tradesperson is only as good as his or her tools and that applies even more so to the cleaning industry. It is a sad fact that the cleaning industry is its own worst enemy in this regard. The obsession with cost means that many decisions are made solely on price and important decisions such as ongoing maintenance and replacement of obsolete or worn out equipment are based on this premise, despite the fact that they are not doing the job properly or that the cleaning provider has to work harder and longer to give the customer the standard that they want.
The worst thing about this is that the customer does not see a skilled professional in their facility of their home. Instead they see a cleaner with a noisy, dirty piece of junk that is supposedly going to make the building clean! Does anyone wonder why cleaning service providers are most often the least poorly paid service provider and why so many customers change cleaners frequently?
Quality equipment saves time and money and enables you to do the job that you are expected to do properly. The basic requirement of cleaning is efficient dry soil removal. An upright does that faster and more effectively than any other vacuum. What waste your time and labour on anything else?

About the author
• Brian is Australian/NZ Business Manager for Windsor Industries. He has over 20 years experience in the industry and is a frequent contributor of papers at Industry trade shows and author of numerous articles that have appeared in Australian and overseas Industry publications.

History of the vacuum cleaner

There has been a lot of speculation about the date of the first vacuum cleaner and the person who invented it. Some patent dates that appear in literature are 1905, 1901, and 1869.
Patent papers have revealed that a vacuum sweeper was produced by Daniel Hess in 1860 (picture top). Hess, a resident of West Union, Iowa, called his invention a carpet sweeper, not a vacuum. The machine did, in fact, have a rotating brush like other sweepers, however, the machine also possessed an elaborate bellows mechanism on top of the body to generate suction. The amazing thing about his machine was that it incorporated two "water chambers" to capture the dust and fine dirt. He states that the air is cleansed as it passes through the device. It is believed that the Hess machine was the earliest portable vacuum cleaner manufactured and sold in the United States.

In 1901, an inventor named H. Cecil Booth (picture at bottom) built a formidable vacuum cleaner powered by an engine. It was so large that it had to be mounted on a cart and pulled through the streets of London, England where he lived. Suction was produced by a large vacuum pump and the operator would drag a 100 foot hose into the building that was to be cleaned. One of Booth's customers was Queen Victoria. She would have the large machine brought to the palace to clean the floors, as well as entertain her guests. Later, Booth's machine was given credit for ending the "Plague" in the English naval barracks. Dust and dirt were to blame for harboring germs. After the vacuum cleaner had removed numerous truckloads of dirt from billets, the plague ended. News of this miraculous occurrence traveled everywhere, and people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean began to build vacuum cleaners. Even today, cleaners are marketed with the idea of preventing the spread of germs.

In 1907, James Murray Spangler, a janitor in a Canton, Ohio department store, deduced that the carpet sweeper he used was the source of his cough. After reading an article touting Booth's triumph in Great Britian, he decided to build an electric version of Booth's machine. He tinkered with an old fan motor and attached it to a soap box stapled to a broom handle. Using a pillow case as a dust collector on the contraption, Spangler invented a portable electric vacuum cleaner. He then improved his basic model the first to use both a cloth filter bag and cleaning attachments, and received a patent in 1908, and formed the Electric Suction Sweeper Company.

Hoover
One of the first buyers was a cousin, whose husband, William H. Hoover, later became the president of the Hoover Company, with Spangler as superintendent.
When Hoover saw the machine, he instinctively realized its potential for the future. He ultimately bought the patent rights for the vacuum. The Model O, as it was called, set the standard for all upright vacuum cleaners that followed. Thus, the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Company was born in 1908.

Hoover’s improvements resembled a bagpipe attached to a cake box, but they worked. Sluggish sales were given a kick by Hoover’s 10 day, free home trial, and eventually there was a Hoover® vacuum cleaner in nearly every home. The next significant machine to make an appearance, is the Whirlwind vacuum cleaner. It was invented by a Chicago native named Ives McAffey (picture below) in 1869. His machine was cleverly designed and had most of the components of a modern day upright vacuum cleaner, except for a motor. Suction was created by a fan driven by a belt connected to a hand crank at the top of the cleaner.

It is believed that McAffey did add an electric motor to his machine some time later, with no success. Perhaps his invention paved the way for later companies to flourish in the early 1900's.

Regular vacuuming helps householders and corporations protect their investment in carpet

The purpose of carpet maintenance is twofold; to retain the original texture and appearance of carpet for as long as possible and to ensure that it is hygienic. This is achieved by keeping the total soil content, including visible stains, to an absolute minimum by regular cleaning. When conducted regularly and efficiently this will both prolong the life of the carpet and minimize possible health problems due to the accumulation of soils and microflora within the carpet pile.
Prompt and regular vacuuming is the single most important component of the carpet maintenance system in homes and workplaces.

Inexperienced cleaners tend to use small, cheap, high wattage vacuum cleaners that only clean the top surface of the flooring investment. This leaves behind imbedded dirt and grit in the carpet base as well as a breeding ground for allergy causing agents.
Imbedded dirt and grit causes matting, packing or crushing of the carpet pile. With every footstep on the carpet, the fibre is slowly severed at its base causing the once valuable investment to turn soiled.

Rotational brush head
Kristine Collins, Product Manager for SEBO Australia states: A recent study published in the latest issue of International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, February 2007, showed a vacuum cleaner with a rotating brush head removed more dirt and allergen from the carpets than those without.
Therefore, an upright vacuum cleaner will provide a more efficient clean than a back pack or barrel with a standard floor tool.
Sometimes an efficient vacuum cleaner may cost a little more to buy, but it will soon pay for itself in reduced consumable items, energy bills (based on - low wattage with good air flow, agitation, etc.), Workcover claims (correct vacuum cleaner for the application) and the replacing of non consumable parts such as a “burnt out” motor.

Maintenance
Collins, recommends you “Maintain your vacuum cleaner according to the manufacturer’s instructions, as this will not only reduce energy consumption from the equipment but the operators as well. A vacuum cleaner in poor condition usually uses more energy than one in good condition. Cloth bags tend to allow dust to pass straight through them, clogging important final filters, so we recommend a switch to disposable paper bags, they act as a filter and are hygienically better for the operator. Servicing of the vacuum cleaner is vital, regular changing of filters and brush rollers will increase the lifespan of your investment.”

Filters and filtration
Just because a machine has a great filter doesn't mean it has great filtration. Most vacuum companies with high filtration are actually quoting a specification made by the manufacturer of the filter. Their claims do not take into consideration that air can escape the machine through leaks in the machine or exterior bags.

Vacuum cleaners should come standard with extremely efficient filtration systems, and the motor exhaust air should also be independently proven to meet the filtration standard.
Researcher Jason Sercombe from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research said in a recent study published in International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, February 2007, “Overseas studies have found that vacuum cleaners with two or three layer bags performed better than those with a single layer bag.”

Clean air isn't just about filtration. Keeping the air free of allergens also requires hygienic dirt disposal.

The preferred disposal of vacuumed waste is with a sealable paper bag to prevent the release and exposure to dust when emptying. According to Collins, a SEBO vacuum comes complete with a true hygiene system, comprising of a filtration system that removes 99.9% of harmful allergens and hygienically 3 layered sealable paper bag for clean debris disposal. “This means the bag allows you to dispose of the dirt and allergens without handling it. And when sealed, no dust will escape.”

Therefore unlike bagless vacuum cleaners, sealable paper bagged vacuum cleaner means you won’t breathe into your lungs what you have vacuumed up” - important for Occupational Health and Safety Standards. Collins states “The fully developed technical know-how, durability and reliability required by the commercial environment make an upright vacuum cleaner the professionals’ choice.”

About the author: Kristine Collins is Product Manager for SEBO Australia, resellers of SEBO vacuum cleaners, one of the world’s largest manufacturer’s of upright vacuum cleaners. For more information on their vacuum cleaner range, please visit www.sebo.com.au or phone 02 9678 9200.