The Dyson Vacuum--how does it work?

It's quite simple when you see one. The dirty air is blown into the dirt cylinder tangentially so it rotates inside it. The dirt is centrifuged to the outside being heavier than air. The clean air is then exhausted from the centre of the cylinder.

John

That's commonly known as a "cyclonic separator", and has long been in heavy use in industry for things like dust collection and classification and separation of fine particles. We have used "cyclonic magnesium" in the past, the particle size of which is less than 2u. It's a by-product of a sputter-coating process, and the fines are collected by cyclonic separator for use in other products.

You'll also see a very large version on almost every commercial woodworking factory.

LLoyd

My guess would be centrifugal -- but however it works, it works really, really well. Sort of annoying to have to keep dumping the cannister because it fills so quickly -- but that's a *good* annoyance!

"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:%AMki.2887$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.lga...

It's an old principle. In the oilfield, they were used for spinning the drilling mud, and separating the sand and small cuttings from the drilling fluids. They were just rows of inverted cones, and the separations dripped out of the holes on the bottom.

Steve

You can find a lot about cyclone design on the internet. As you scale down the size they become better at removing smaller particles. I think the Dyson uses 7 cyclones in parallel in order to have the right volume and catch small particle. Dan

Cyclones suck!!

woodworking

I checked out Dyson.com, an interesting site, esp. About dyson. He claims to have developed the larger commercial cyclone ditty mentioned here for a commercial paint shop for one of his other inventions, and then applied it to a vacuum. Some other inneresting stuff, in particular an unheated air hand-dryer, which you will see absolutely nails the problem on the head, elegantly.

Interestingly, they don't give motor data, saying it's irrelevant. They prefer to give suction power ito "airwatts". I wonder what the true wattage of the motor is, and what its rpm is.

"de-sanders" are in common use all over the place where water is pumped. Water companies, factories, sewage plants and agriculture.

Gunner

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I just can't stand the awful high pitched whine they make. My wife can't hear it, but I have to leave the house when she turns the thing on. She loves it, so that's all that really matters.

I can hear cheap electronics cap squeal too. Those drive me nuts too.

It does do a pretty good job at vacuuming. Not sure if it's worth the hype, but it seems to be a decent machine.

JW

"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:E4Tki.36$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.lga...

-snip-

i just put it on a kill-a-watt, it fluctuated between around 1172 and 1200 watts. i always thought the "..only vacuum that never loses suction." thing was just marketing. i never believed his claims were true. (i mean, i KNOW cyclonic separators work, but for larger particles, sawdust, wood chips, not household dust.)

b.w.

Now, *that's* interesting -- this is the first vacuum we've had that the dogs haven't gone nuts every time it was turned on. I'd assumed the others made a high-pitched sound I couldn't hear -- maybe the other way around?

I was able to do that... long ago... I suggest lots of ELP and Grateful Dead, at really high volume, and also a cheap car with an inadequate muffler (in my case, it was a 1975 Toyota Corolla I owned in the early 1980s). Even better is having the car radio up loud enough to hear it over the exhaust. The problem of hearing annoying high-pitched noises just seems to go away after a while...

After our last Eureka (switch on... new belt. switch on... new belt. switch on... ), the mere fact that we've had it for several months without any repairs justifies every bit of hype I've heard and every dollar (ouch!) we paid. That it cleans well is a bonus.

I haven't seen that particular claim. However, the motor data that I've seen on vacuum cleaners is completely irrelevant; the more inefficient a motor you can make, the better the vacuum!

It isn't true. When the canister is completely full, it loses suction.

if you do a search for cylone separator and look at some of the links, you will find all the theory and equations you can stand - basically it's inertia. nothing new except household use, cyclone separators go way back "Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:%AMki.2887$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.lga...

Mine has never lost suction even though full of dog and cat hair (I really don't know why they aren't bald, as much as they shed in a couple of days) and sand tracked in from outside. I like the fact that it doesn't have any bags to fool with. I just take the canister to the trash can, pull the trigger and the crap drops out the bottom. I didn't think it was worth it when we got it but the first useage convinced me.

Jim Chandler

Actually, the best way is to invest about six hours of hard sweat, and about $300 in an "accessories kit", and install yourself a built-in vac.

I have done it several times on different homes; both new construction and existing. It's a pain, but not all that hard, even when the walls are up and covered.

I use my own design low-voltage actuated relay, and a common shop-vac for the "head". Works great, and it'll suck the hair off a cat.

And it's QUIET in use!

LLoyd

Eventually the foam filter that goes between the cyclone outlet and the motor inlet will get blocked and it will lose suction. It takes a while and creeps up on you. The filter is easily removable and can be washed.

The other way they lose suction is that the motors fail. Replacement motors cost a substantial fraction of the cleaner's cost :-(

Mark Rand RTFM

They seemed to be quite reasonably priced on ebay compared to the new cleaner price.

Planning on that in the new house. I didn't really want to invest that amount of time and money on a house that will only be standing another year(if things go according to plan).

JW

Hmm, the prices seem to have come down quite a lot from when I last looked. I think I'll get the clapped out DC07 inside from where it's standing in the yard and see if it's rebuildable.

Mark Rand RTFM