Understanding Vacuum Specifications

Understanding a wide variety of confusing specifications is one of the most challenging aspects of selecting a new vacuum. First, consumers want vacuum cleaners that offer the best cleaning ability. And most consumers generally equate cleaning ability with "power" or "suction."

Cleaning ability isn't just about power and suction, even though these attributes are important elements of vacuum performance. With a little information and education, you will be able to examine the numbers and better understand what the specifications mean and which ones are important to you.

Unfortunately, there is no single rating to indicate cleaning ability. However, there are a number of core specifications that, when clearly understood, allow consumers to make informed decisions about which vacuum cleaner will have the best cleaning ability.

These core specifications include watts, amps, volts, water lift (or sealed suction), power, air watts, and airflow.

There are also a number of other secondary specifications influencing cleaning ability that we will also examine. These include filtration, cleaning tools (agitation), capacity, quality, noise, features, and cost.

To make sense of all this, we must first understand the basics of how a vacuum cleaner works.

All vacuums operate based on air flowing from the opening in the cleaning head or tool, through the vacuum and bag and / or filter system, and then out through the exhaust port. This air flow is created by the vacuum motor, which can also be called a suction motor.

The vacuum motor consists of electrical components connected to one fan or multiple fans. When the fans rotate, a partial vacuum is created and the pressure inside the vacuum falls below the ambient (or existing) air pressure in the room. Because the air pressure is higher outside the  car vacuum cleaner than inside, the air passes through the vacuum cleaner.

Therefore, it is easy to see that the vacuum cleaner motor is the heart of a vacuum cleaner. After all, the more powerful the motor, the greater the pressure differential, and therefore the more suction and airflow, right? And it is for this reason that most of the specifications you see about cleaning ability are directly or indirectly related to the engine.

But this is where it gets difficult. Specifications for components like the motor aren't necessarily related to the performance of the entire vacuum and are therefore only part of the story.

Let's take a look at the main specs one by one:

Watts

The input power of the vacuum motor is measured in watts. Although this specification does not take into account motor efficiency, number of fans, or overall vacuum cleaner design, motor power is a valid way to evaluate and compare motor power.

While the ideal comparison is the motor input power in watts of Product A compared to the motor input power in watts of Product B, some manufacturers do not provide motor input power specifications in the form of watts, but rather They classify the entire vacuum in amps. This can make comparing brands difficult.

However, you can convert amps to watts by the formula, amps x 120 (volts) = watts. Or conversely, you can convert watts to amps using the formula, watts / volts (always 120) = amps. For example, a 1400 watt motor converts to 11.67 amps (1400/120 = 11.67).

Comparison of amp-rated machines to watt-rated machines is not an exact comparison because manufacturers using watt ratings generally rate the motor alone while amperage ratings use the total power consumption of the vacuum, including the motor in the power nozzle (rotating motor brush cleaning head), bulb, etc.

This means that a Power Team (a cartridge vacuum with a power nozzle) with a specification of 12 amps could be quite comparable to another Power Team with a 1200 watt motor that converts to just 10 amps.

This is because the power nozzle motor draws 1.5 amps, the bulb uses additional amperage, etc. So if we subtract the amperage used by the motor from the power nozzle of our 12 amp machine, we get 10.5 amps for the motor and the bulb. In this example, the two motors have ratings of very close to 10 amps, and therefore equivalent motor input power.