cordless vacuum dilemma

[SentinelAeon]

Right now i have a cheap 60$ water vacuum cleaner. It does its job. The problem is that the cleaning and putting away part, plus the cord really makes me avoid cleaning.
I mostly just need to vacuum 1 room in which i sleep and work, plus i have students there daily so dust amount is incredible, i would probably need to vacuum everyday if i wanted to keep it clean. The room is 4 by 4 meters and doesn't have any carpets and there is only dust, not many big particles. It takes like 3 minutes to vacuum it. I thought it would be neat to have some small cordless vacuum to just do that 3 minutes every 2 or 3 days and then put it behind a wardrobe and connect it to charger. Sort of like having a broom in the room. The reason i am in a dillema is that i have a lot of 10A 18650 cells and BMS boards, hepa filters, plus other elements at home. And i love modding things. So it would be a fun project to do even if i didnt need it.

I am deciding between buying a cordless vacuum or converting a corded vacuum into cordless. Here is my dilemma:

1) Cordless vacuum cleaners:
- Really expensive if you want a good one
- Really weak. Most i saw have running time of 45-60 minutes, which means actualy wattage is minimal. I need 5 minutes operating, but as strong as possible would be good
- I saw makita one without battery for 30$, looks good but its 35W !! Another one with battery is 135$ but only about 100W total power with only 25W of suction.

2) Corded vacuum cleaner, probably 12V car one:
- dirt cheap, you can get a 600W model for 10$ second hand
- 600W can be misleading (my water vacuum says 2500W but its actualy using 800W) but still, its a lot more than 35W or 25W.
- Since its dirt cheap, i can mod it anyway i want. For instance i can install a bigger hepa filter for even less resistance and therefor better suction. I can increase the volume of the dust collector, etc.
- i simply add 3 more batteries in parallel if the vacuum demands more current or i want more vacuum time. I can install all the protections i want apart from BMS, like measure temperature of the batteries, measure battery voltage to know how much vacuum time is left, etc.


Alright, so what is your opinion on this. Personaly i am leaning towards doing the conversion thing just for the sake of it being a fun project, similar to other projects i do all the time, oportunity to learn something new, etc. And if it doesn't work as intended, worst case i wasted 20$.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

- dirt cheap, you can get a 600W model for 10$ second hand
- 600W can be misleading

Yes... 600W would be near 60A after voltage drops. A normal car "cigarette lighter " power outlet is only fused at around 8 - 10A so 100 - 120W is the limit for anything running from them.

It could be 60W with an extra zero "accidentally" added?? - I've seen that scam quite a bit.

Or, why not search ebay and go full techno-geek on the problem?

I've got all these as non-working over the last ten years or so, and they all had simple faults & now work.
All but the very oldest one also have interfaces that you can connect in to to monitor or remote control them - the ESP-01 dongle is one I'm using to test software extensions, it already works with my home automation system.

Or just press the Clean button..

 

[SentinelAeon]

Yeah, i thought about those but to be honest, im not to keen on them ever since my friend got them. I just hate the thought of this thing running around my room and then the station and leaning over to pick it up, empty .. im really oldschool in this regard. I guess i need a smart broom of sorts.

My room is 4 by 4 meters, thats 13 by 13 feet. The only non dust particle you can find on floor is the occasional apple seed. No carpets, just laminate.

I was thinking of giving this a try. I can get it new for 100$, how bad can it be ? Cant be worse than now when i vacuum once a month. There are some specs on the link from amazon. What do you think ?

Gorenje SVC216FMLW 736202, Staubsauger und Besen, schwarz/weiß : Amazon.de: Küche, Haushalt & Wohnen

Amazon.de: Küchen- und Haushaltsartikel online - Gorenje SVC216FMLW 736202, Staubsauger und Besen, schwarz/weiß. Gorenje SVC216FMLW 736202, Staubsauger und Besen, schwarz/weiß.

amzn.eu

 

[rjenkinsgb]

It gets decent reviews, but spares seem very expensive.

 

[SentinelAeon]

Hmm, couldnt see reviews on that link i sent on amazon. And thats the only one i found on amazon, others have similar name but look different. Anyway for that money and with 2 year guarantee, even if it dies after 2 years i dont care. Most things i can repair, except obviously motor. If i can still get it at that price, im gonna give it a try ! At least i will be able to see how it performs and see if there are any serious drawbacks or something, that would prompt me to buy a more expensive one.


I will take a close look to this vacuum though. Because most of the ones i found, even on highest performance setting they work for like 20 minutes, which is 15 more than i need. Meaning i could theoreticaly get much more suction power if i were to drive it at such power that it would run out of batteries in 5 minutes. Obviously i cant do that with this one, i need stronger motor. But i might just inspect this one, see the drawbacks and maybe in the future assembly my own unit perfectly to my liking. Like ultra big HEPA surface for less air resistance and a strong motor.

 

[SentinelAeon]

I still didnt buy a portable vacuum but i will just to see if i actualy use it more often, how it works, etc.

But on a side note i have a question. A while ago i bought a cheap AC regulator board that will lower the AC voltage from 240V to about 50-240V range. Or it might go even lower. I used it for a room fan because my room fan had 3 speed options but all of those options used almost the same amount of electricity, even though the speed was very different. And second, even the slowest speed wasnt very slow. I wanted something that would make it so that i could actualy run the fan almost without hearing it. It did the job (even though i read that regulating speed on AC fan with voltage is not the most efficient practice).

1) But now i am wondering if the same thing could also work on a vacuum. The board is rated for about 2400W which is plenty enough. I have 1 of the vacuums in the workshop and it is insanely loud, spooks me everytime i turn it on and i dont need that much suction. Would the vacuum still work, but obviously at lower suction power, if i lower voltage with this regulator ? Then i could just use as much power as i needed at the moment.

2) Could this also work on a conversion from corded vacuum into a cordless one ? So you would run it on batteries and then convert the DC into AC. And you wouldn't have to get the full 240V with those batteries (which would take a lot of batteries) but could maybe just do 50V or 100V ? That would be a lot easier. Would the vacuum still work, but obviously with slower speed and less suction power ? But also more quiet ?

 

[Diver300]

Lowering the speed on an AC vacuum cleaner by lowering the voltage is most likely to work. I think that some vacuum cleaners are made with speed controllers like that.

However, trying to run a 240 V vacuum cleaner directly from batteries is something that would take a lot of effort, and might not work at all well. You would do better to buy a cordless vacuum cleaner.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Could this also work on a conversion from corded vacuum into a cordless one ? So you would run it on batteries and then convert the DC into AC. And you wouldn't have to get the full 240V with those batteries (which would take a lot of batteries) but could maybe just do 50V or 100V ? That would be a lot easier. Would the vacuum still work, but obviously with slower speed and less suction power ? But also more quiet ?

If it has a typical "Universal" series wound, brushed motor, it will work directly on DC.

It may work even at a lower DC voltage for a given power, as the motor inductance could be restricting current when on AC???

I don't know how much effect that would be having, whether it's equivalent to 5% lower DC or 50% lower DC; or more or less!