This upright vacuum uses a spinning brush and moving air to lift dust off the floor and trap it in a bag. Use the buttons to look inside it and follow the air step by step.
An upright vacuum cleaner lifts dust, crumbs and hair off the floor and traps them inside the machine. It does that with a spinning brush at the base and a stream of moving air that carries the dirt away. On a carpet the brush does most of the loosening; the airflow does the carrying.
Inside is a short chain of simple parts. A motor spins a fan, the fan moves air, a dust bag holds the dirt, and a filter cleans the air before it leaves. The outer shell simply wraps it all into one tidy machine.
From the outside it is just a plastic body on wheels. Almost everything interesting happens inside, so hiding the shell shows you where the air goes and what each part actually does.
The key idea is pressure. The fan pushes air out, so the pressure inside drops below the pressure in the room. Air — and the dust in it — is then pushed in from outside. The cleaner is not pulling dirt with a magnet or a vacuum in the science-fiction sense; it is using a pressure difference and a moving stream of air.
At the floor head, a brush roll spins and loosens dust, crumbs and hair from the surface. It does not carry the dirt away by itself — it just frees it so the moving air can pick it up.
The fan has lowered the pressure inside the body, so air from the room is pushed in through the floor head and up the hose. The dust rides along with that air.
The air and dust reach the dust bag. The bag is porous: air passes straight through it, but the dirt is caught and stays inside. This is where the bulk of what you pick up ends up.
Very small particles can slip past the bag, so the air next passes through a filter. The filter catches that fine dust so it is not blown back into the room.
Finally the motor-driven fan, which created the low pressure in the first place, pushes the cleaned air out through the exhaust. Because the air keeps being pushed out, fresh air keeps being pushed in — and the vacuum keeps working.
The spinning brush roll frees dust from the floor, and moving air carries it away. The air moves because the pressure inside the cleaner is lower than the air around it, so outside air rushes in and takes the dust with it.
It is trapped in the dust bag. The bag lets air pass through but holds the dirt, so the dust collects inside while clean air keeps moving.
The bag holds the bulk of the dirt, but very fine dust can slip past it. The filter catches those fine particles so they are not blown back into the room.
A motor spins a fan inside the body. The fan pushes air out, which lowers the pressure inside, and the higher outside pressure pushes new air and dust in. So the cleaner does not really suck — it makes air move.
The brush roll sweeps and loosens dust, crumbs and hair from the floor so the moving air can pick them up. It does the loosening; the airflow does the carrying.
When the bag or filter is clogged, air has a harder time passing through. Less air moves, so the suction drops. Emptying the bag and cleaning the filter restores it.