Chapter IV
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To refresh your memory, every vacuum cleaner has five elements:
1. Air producer (vacuum is a misnomer): the pump or fan series employed to create the air current.
2. Dust collector: bag, box, pail, etc.
3. Dust conduit: piping.
4. Cleaning tool: brush, felt, etc., etc.
5. Human direction: the hand that steers.
The portable type of cleaner has the first four parts mounted on one unit, so that the whole machine is moved in its chase for the enemy Dust. Besides this the electric wire must be applied to an electric connection in a baseboard or electric fixture.
In the case of the stationary cleaner, the mechanism is larger and the air producer and dust collector are in the cellar or basement, and the dust conduit impartially spreads itself throughout the house through walls and ceilings and politely connects at convenient intervals with the cleaning tool, via the agency of the vents in baseboards. With this cleaner the only thing that is manipulated by the worker is the cleaning tool which “bites the dust.”
[Illustration:
_Courtesy of American Radiator Co._
LOOKING FOR THE DUST WHICH WAS SUCKED DOWN FROM ABOVE STAIRS!]
PROS AND CONS
But why should you have the installed cleaner? Why not have the portable? The fact is that neither of these cleaners is in competition very directly. But let us quote an expert who has given most of his time to the subject of air cleaning:
“There is unquestionably a legitimate field for both types of cleaners, but the stationary type more nearly reaches the ideal.” The next statement of his will explain that: “If we observe the action of the wind in an open field, we find that a gentle breeze will move light material.... If the breeze changes to a hurricane, we find that the moving air has the power ... to move anything in its path, including fences, trees, houses, etc.”
Therefore in considering purchasing a cleaner you must ask yourself first: “Do I want a gentle breeze or a little hurricane in my home? That’s the first and foremost question! Is my home large enough to afford the much more expensive plant which makes the hurricane, at a higher running cost; or isn’t the portable just the thing I need because of its various adaptabilities and small running and installation costs?”
It has been held against the installed vacuum cleaner that it is--
1. Expensive.
2. Unusual skill must be employed in installation.
3. Suction is altered by length of pipe.
4. Cost of operation is high.
5. Wear and tear on the house too great.
6. It must be installed when the house is built.
Of course the stationary type is more expensive than the portables, because of the larger machine, the indefinitely long pipe system and the larger motor. The motor has from six to twelve times and upwards the horsepower of the portable machine. It is, therefore, more costly to run because it eats up more electricity, but it can do heavier work and quicker.
Great skill must be employed in the installation of all machinery. Not long ago mistakes were made when putting in the air system, but now engineers know this department of work as well as they know gas and electric installations, and with the length of hose used there is no lessening of suction because of the construction of the entire pipeage.
The objection that with this apparatus there is tremendous wear and tear because the hose is taken through the doorway from the hall so that the door must needs be scratched when it closes on the hose as it is dragged through, may be nullified by installing double end hose connections in the wall near the door so that one line of hose will connect from the valve to the connection in the hall and another shorter piece of hose used inside of the room.
There is no trouble at all about installing the stationary vacuum cleaner after the building is erected, but naturally it is less expensive to put it in during the building and when planned for ahead than it is to put pipes through a house after it is built.
OPERATION
With the stationary type cleaner you have no machine to move about--you simply move the tool attached to the hose and the tools are just as light as those of the portable machines. There is no electric connection to make, no electric wire to carry unconsciously along. All there is to be done by the worker is to slip the end of the cleaner hose into the suction pipe opening in the baseboard of the room. A patented device prevents the hose from becoming detached accidentally.
The usual tools come with the installed cleaner, such as handle, blower, felted sweeper, book cleaner, duster, etc. Other tools can be made to order to fit any particular need.
One thing delightfully obviated in the stationary cleaner is the noise. The writer has what she considers the best portable cleaner on the market, yet the noise is a great drawback. The stationary cleaner is therefore a boon to the sick room and it is easy to see why the newer hospitals take as readily to them as to the piped water system.
Then, too, having the baseboard vent in each area in large houses, with the consequent needlessness of carrying a cleaner upstairs and down, over hill and dale, is a selling point for the piped cleaner. Also the swiftness of the cleaning, due of course to the tremendous air velocity--a canned hurricane. However, in the small residence the greater cost would be unwarranted because of the great efficiency of the portable machines.
Where there is a garage in the family, and it is piped for cleaning, the machinery, instead of being permanently installed, can be mounted on rollers and can be wheeled and attached to the pipes in that building. Therefore the necessity of two machines is obviated where the other building is piped.
Yet when the buildings are widely separated it is best to have one of the good portable machines which are on the market in so many designs, and are adapted to so many and varied uses. Therefore you see the portables as indispensable and see them filling fields that the installed can never hope to fill.
The fact that the stationary entails no dust-bag cleaning is a time and labor-saving actuality. Then, too, no matter how good the dust bag is on the portable vacuum cleaner, some of the very fine dust must escape through the bag into the room. In the stationary type the cleaner politely does its exhaling in the cellar. This point has been made valuable to chocolate makers who want to save the loss of chocolate in packing boxes, to manufacturers who want to obviate the retaining of poisonous dust among the workers, etc., etc.
In the stationary as well as in the portable vacuum cleaners the suction is caused by the pump or fan type machine. Some manufacturers advocate one, some another. In picking your winner you must go to the best manufacturer of each type and let him give you his tale, and then see whether you come out a pump fan or a fan fan!
The other intricacies of this simple machine need not bother you. Go to the best makers and make them responsible for your purchase. Not all of us being engineers, you have to depend on the reputation of the best makers.
The stationary cleaner can do more work than the portable, it will last longer because the machinery is heavier, yet there are drawbacks to it as to all machinery which is not at all points open to the eye. For example, the pipes may clog. But you must remember that water pipes can clog and that gas pipes do very exasperating things; yet you use them without blinking.
For the very large residence, factory, hospital, hotel and institution, of course the stationary machine is best, mainly because it is difficult to get help to-day to carry about the premises anything that is heavy. To lift, push or carry the lightest portable over a very large residence or institution is a trial, and the stationary type overcomes this difficulty.
In some cases the heavy duty portable is advised with its increased horsepower, but when the purse and area of residence match, the stationary type is really the best, although we know householders who prefer to use the portable and heavy duty portables everywhere.
The stationary plant is only another real “pipe dream” come true, and in addition to piped water, piped gas and conduited electricity it will tend to hasten the processes of home maintenance and free the home-keepers to do more spiritual home tending.
But remember that in the average home or apartment the portable machine is the ideal sweeper and fulfills more than every requirement of sanitary sweeping combined with the least effort. The stationary is for the large house, not the small.
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