Thread: Using a Dust extractor as a house vac

Smidsy. You might need to nail your carpets down more securely and tie-down any pets but I don't see why you couldn't use it if you gave yourself some means of adjusting the vacuum. After all, it's a similar system to the 'Beam' central vacuum system which has been around for years. That's the one where you have a central vac with pipes concealed in the walls and serving quick connections around the home. See here;

https://www.beam.co.nz/wp-content/up...ion_manual.pdf

Pete

Hi Smidsy,

Unfortunately it’s not going to work. A vacuum is a high pressure, low volume system, whilst an extractor is a low pressure, high volume system. If you do some searches of those terms, there is plenty of information explaining the differences far better than I could.

Originally Posted by LanceC

Hi Smidsy,

Unfortunately it’s not going to work. A vacuum is a high pressure, low volume system, whilst an extractor is a low pressure, high volume system. If you do some searches of those terms, there is plenty of information explaining the differences far better than I could.

Here is one way of looking at it.

Most household vacs have about 15X more vacuum sucking pressure than that 1HP DC. This means the house vac has some sort of a chance at sucking up dead skin cells, the bugs that feed on the dead skin cells, and the poop excreted by the bugs that feed on the dead skin cells, that are embedded in your carpets, stuck on surfaces and down inside various gaps etc.

When its unrestricted, that DC will have about 3 times more air flow than a house vac. This makes it suitable for collecting large volumes of loose sawdust and fine dust. However, when it's restricted with any sort of narrow nozzle the flow will drop to less than a household vac will collect , ie basically useless.

Another reason I would not use that DC inside any building is they leak and will cover your house with fine dust. Many house vacs do that as well.

I do use my DC in my shed as a vac but its a 4HP DC and I only use it to suck up loose sawdust and the leaves that the dogs drag in from the garden.
It is useless on anything else.
Even if the DC vac worked I would not recommend using it as follows, but to clean up oily swarf on my metal mill and metal working lathe I use a Ryobi shop vac and a narrow nozzle that can get into various crevices etc.

Dutwandp2.jpg

My wife being Canadian insisted when we did the house reno we install a central vac system.
The unit is outside with a weatherproof housing.
1 plug in point upstairs and 2 down plus a kitchen floor pick up with a foot switch.
There are low volt start/stop switches on the other 3 plug ins which auto start the unit when the hose is plugged in.
PVC fittings are an odd size from memory.
Its 20 plus years since installing it and so far no probs.
We have no carpets but the hoses are so long it’s a pain in !? to use.
As we both are a bit dust sensitive it it sure beats our old vac which although being Choices best, spewed dust out the back a storm.
H.

Originally Posted by LanceC

Hi Smidsy,

Unfortunately it’s not going to work. A vacuum is a high pressure, low volume system, whilst an extractor is a low pressure, high volume system. If you do some searches of those terms, there is plenty of information explaining the differences far better than I could.

This
Not gonna work

Originally Posted by BobL

Here is one way of looking at it.

Most household vacs have about 15X more vacuum sucking pressure than that 1HP DC. This means the house vac has some sort of a chance at sucking up dead skin cells, the bugs that feed on the dead skin cells, and the poop excreted by the bugs that feed on the dead skin cells, that are embedded in your carpets, stuck on surfaces and down inside various gaps etc.

Thanks for that Bob we all need to be reminded about how disgusting we, and our houses, are. You should have posted a 'DO NOT READ' warning for germophobes.
Interesting that you are able to acknowledge that vacuum cleaners can remove these contaminants for us but regardless you loathe them and would like to see them banned.

Thanks for all the input guys, it was just a thought - I shall pack the dust extractor away until I need it again in the garage.
Cheers
Smidsy

Originally Posted by aldav

Thanks for that Bob we all need to be reminded about how disgusting we, and our houses, are. You should have posted a 'DO NOT READ' warning for germophobes.
Interesting that you are able to acknowledge that vacuum cleaners can remove these contaminants for us but regardless you loathe them and would like to see them banned.

Many vacs just mince some of the dead skin cells, skin cell bugs, and their faeces and spray them all around the place. Its not all human skin related, even in low natural dust zones there's lots of fibres (carpet, clothing bedclothes) and if you have pets, their hair, skin and faeces (they track it in on their paws) and loads of cooking and combustion products.

When finishing up my plane parts bluing yesterday I left the final oil bath on the hot hot plate and came back to find the shed stinking of motor oil. The Dust dust monitor showed PM2.5 of >150 g/m^3 which is right up there

Originally Posted by BobL

Many vacs just mince some of the dead skin cells, skin cell bugs, and their faeces and spray them all around the place.

I suppose it would less of a problem when the filter is before the motor (assuming it's a proper HEPA filter), but most household vacs have the filter right at the end after everything's been chopped up even finer.