comparing suction on my canister vacuums


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Thread Number: 29629 / Tag: Recent Vacuum Cleaners from past 20 years
comparing suction on my canister vacuums

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Post# 330433 7/29/2015 at 12:49 (3,192 days old) by n0oxy (Saint Louis Missouri, United States)
Checkrate/Likes Hey everyone. So, I did a little test and thought I would post the results. This is in no way meant to say that one of these brands is better than another, all 3 of these canister vacuums will clean quite well. I was curious to see which one actually had the most suction. I should mention that I am a blind person so my hearing is quite good and I was blessed with perfect pitch, and this came in very handy for the test. I have a rug rat turbine brush attachment that is spun by the suction of the vacuum. It's mainly designed for cleaning stairs and furniture. The turbine will have a particular pitch when it's running, and of course, the more suction a vacuum has, the faster it will spin and thus will have a higher note for the pitch. I should mention that all of my central vacuum units are by far more powerful than my canisters, but that's to be expected. So, here are the results. The vacuum that came in third was the aerus classic, in second place was the Sebo airbelt D1, and coming in first out of the canisters I have was the Miele c1 Olympus. There is actually more of a difference between the Aerus and the Sebo than the Sebo and the Miele. If anyone is musicly inclined, I will provide the notes of the sound of the turbine for each vacuum. With the aerus, the sound was around E flat. With the Sebo, it was at the "F" note right above that, and finally the Miele spun the turbine fast enough to produce "F sharp" which is right above what the Sebo produced. In contrast, most of the central vacuums I have spin it much faster producing a sound around "A flat" above the notes I just mentioned for the canisters. Again, this doesn't mean one is better than another, I would feel confident recommending any of these canister vacuums, but it was an interesting and fun test. I actually never really use this tool for cleaning furniture, I have a mini electric brush made by Wessel Werk for that, but this little turbine tool is great to have around for testing vacuum performance.

Post# 330435 , Reply# 1 7/29/2015 at 13:01 (3,192 days old) by charleskirby66 (Manteca, CA)
Checkrate/Likes *Musically inclined* Hi n0oxy, I really enjoyed this little thread! I really appreciate that you have perfect pitch and are able to hear the tune of your vacuum motors. Just curious, have you ever heard a Kirby running? I'm wondering if you've heard the difference in pitch between certain models. My favorite Kirby models are Kirby 515, Kirby Dual Sanitronic 50, and Kirby Ultimate G Diamond Edition. To me, the Kirby 515 is a loud beast, but wow the suction is incredible. The Kirby Dual Sanitronic 50 is much quieter, but I've noticed that it does pull the carpet up off the floor, so suction is not bad at all. And of course, my favorite modern Kirby, the Ultimate G Diamond, has a delicate mode switch, which cuts the power to half. I'm curious what the change in tone is between full power and half power? You are so lucky to have perfect pitch! I have pretty good relative pitch, I guess... but your gift is an awesome asset! Cheers, Charles

Post# 330465 , Reply# 2 7/29/2015 at 15:58 (3,192 days old) by kenkart ()
Checkrate/Likes *A Filter Queen* Is QUIET..but has more sealed suction than most anything else.

Post# 330473 , Reply# 3 7/29/2015 at 16:44 (3,192 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)
Checkrate/Likes suction/ air flow, always gets interesting!

Post# 330479 , Reply# 4 7/29/2015 at 17:05 (3,192 days old) by sebo_fan (Scotland, UK, member AKA ukvacfan, & Nar2)
Checkrate/Likes I have never actually tried it - and yet I have Perfect Pitch!

Post# 330497 , Reply# 5 7/29/2015 at 18:33 (3,192 days old) by kirbylux77 (London, Ontario, Canada)
Checkrate/Likes Hans....no offense, but even new, current model Filter Queens pull only about 90 inches of waterlift. Vintage Filter Queens, like the brown Canadian single speed models, will pull 80 inches of waterlift. Even a new Aerus Classic can beat a new Filter Queen on a waterlift gauge. And besides, suction isn't what cleans carpets....it's AIRFLOW running thru the powerhead, carrying the dirt away. That's what gets carpets clean. Rob

Post# 330501 , Reply# 6 7/29/2015 at 19:10 (3,192 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)
Checkrate/Likes I find the suction is good for clearing clogged lines/ hoses, airflow for getting out dirt

Post# 330502 , Reply# 7 7/29/2015 at 19:10 (3,192 days old) by kenkart ()
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Canadian FQ* Was ALWAYS weaker, just like the new FQ is, the 31 and 33s from the 60s thru the 80s will ALL pull OVER 100 inhes of waterlift, my 1984 2 speed pulls 105 inches!But you are right, the Canadian and newer US models are weaker.

Post# 330504 , Reply# 8 7/29/2015 at 19:22 (3,192 days old) by n0oxy (Saint Louis Missouri, United States)
Checkrate/Likes *sound of a kirby and some other thoughts* Hi, yes, I have heard one kirby, it was several years ago, and I believe the model was from the early 1980's, not sure which one. The motor gave off a "C" note. Interestingly, you can tell by the sound some things about a vacuum motor as well, and there seem to be 2 types, at least when it comes to canisters, and perhaps this applies to up rights as well. You have smaller motors that spin faster, and then you have the larger motors that don't spin as fast. In the end, I'm not sure if one is better, but some definitely give themselves away. I've never seen one, but I'm willing to guess that most of the Dyson's have smaller motors, but they spin quite fast, often producing an "F" note that is 2 octives above middle C. Interestingly, when I bought the refurbished Aerus classic yesterday, I compared the sound of the motor to the motor sound of a new model. The suction was the same on both, I did the rug rat test with both of them, but the new in box model actually had a smaller motor that spun faster. One reason I chose the refurbished Aerus classic instead of the brand new one, besides the fact that I saved some money was because I think the motor actually sounds a bit better, it's at around an E flat, where as the motor in the brand new classic was at the "A" note above that. I remember an old Eureka up right vacuum we had when I was little. This vacuum was kind of interesting, when you ran it with the beater bar attached, the motor was around a "D" note. For this vacuum, if you wanted to use attachments, I forgot what you had to do but it was a bit complicated. You actually had to remove the entire brush assembly and you attached something else to the bottom of the unit that the hose would connect to. At that point, the motor sored up to an "F" note, so with the attachments, it was definitely spinning faster. Regarding suction-water lift, and CFM, there is some debate as to which one is better to have more of, but the majority of what I read suggests that if you have the choice of one over the other, choose the higher water lift. Really though, if you want to be able to clean well, you need a decent amount of both.

Post# 330526 , Reply# 9 7/29/2015 at 23:28 (3,192 days old) by n0oxy (Saint Louis Missouri, United States)
Checkrate/Likes *notes and pitches of other vacuums* Hey everyone, if anyone is curious about what note your vacuums are, feel free to send me an audio file and I will be more than happy to tell you. Kind of wondering if a lot of the Kirby's sounded different from each other.

Post# 330530 , Reply# 10 7/30/2015 at 02:16 (3,192 days old) by tolivac (Greenville,NC)
Checkrate/Likes Fascinating way to compare vacuum sounds--related to music.

Post# 330548 , Reply# 11 7/30/2015 at 11:01 (3,192 days old) by sptyks (Skowhegan, Maine)
Checkrate/Likes 2 N0oxy: Suction is measured in inches of water lift. Airflow is measured in Cubic feet per minute (CFM). When it comes to cleaning carpet, Airflow is always more important than suction. Case in point, A Kirby Sentria is known to be one ofthe best deep carpet cleaners there is, yet it has only about 40 inches of water lift (suction). But the Kirby has an amazing 120 CFM of Airflow. It takes lots of airflow moving through the carpet and past the brushroll to clean carpet really well. You can have all the suction in the world, but without airflow you have nothing.

Post# 330555 , Reply# 12 7/30/2015 at 12:39 (3,191 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)
Checkrate/Likes Does this also apply to cleaning with the hose? I was never sure.

Post# 330571 , Reply# 13 7/30/2015 at 15:15 (3,191 days old) by sptyks (Skowhegan, Maine)
Checkrate/Likes 1 I think the suction and airflow is reversed when using the hose. You still need both, but suction becomes a little more important on canister vacs.

Post# 330586 , Reply# 14 7/30/2015 at 18:16 (3,191 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)
Checkrate/Likes Honestly that was my thinking also.

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