When doing research on purchasing a central vacuum system, you will come across some specifications that may seem unfamiliar to you. When I was first looking into getting my Electrolux central vacuum, I remember not understanding the spec sheets on the different models. Here are some of the more important ones when it comes to comparing central vacuums against each other.
Water lift
Water lift is actually pretty self-explanatory but does require a little explanation. Water lift is a measure of a vacuum’s suction. The metric is to imagine if you were to use the suction of the central vacuum to lift water through a tube. The lift is measured in inches. Since central vacuums are not commonly used as wet/dry vacuums, you wouldn’t actually be vacuuming large quantities of water with your central vacuum. The water lift specification is mainly used as a metric of suction. The greater the inches of water lift, the more powerful the suction of that vacuum unit. However, water lift, or suction is not the best indicator of the cleaning power of a vacuum.
Airflow or CFM
Airflow measures the amount of air movement a vacuum generates. Air movement is measured in cubic feet per minute. Without good air movement, a vacuum does not have effective cleaning power. Air movement generates the force to move particulates into the vacuum. If you have ever vacuumed up a penny and had the penny stuck in the vacuum wand, this is a demonstration of having enough suction to pick up the penny but not enough airflow to move the penny through the vacuum. To get good powerful cleaning, you need good airflow.
Air watts
Air watts is the most effective indicator of cleaning power. Air watts is based on the algorithm of Water Lift times Air Flow divided by 8. This value takes into account both water lift and airflow. If you compare the air watts of one central vacuum verses another, you can get a good sense of which vacuum is the more powerful cleaner.
It took me a while to figure out what these specs meant and how they were important in my research of central vacuums. The Electrolux central vacuum system installed in my home is the dream cleaning system that I always imagined it to be. I hope these definitions will also benefit you in your product research.