Reading time: 4 minutes. Published 06/02/2018
A beautiful, high-quality carpet can change the interior beyond recognition. Fluffy flooring will make the room cozy and will become exactly the semantic accent that will successfully highlight the design idea and taste of the home owners.
But if not properly cared for, even the highest quality and most beautiful carpet can become faded. And that's not all, without proper cleaning, this interior detail will accumulate dust and can cause diseases of the respiratory system.
Carpet vacuum cleaners will help keep your home clean and cozy; these useful household assistants will make cleaning quick and effective. Of course, if all the subtleties are taken into account.
Which vacuum cleaner is suitable?
Taking care of the crystal cleanliness of your home, the brightness and freshness of your fluffy floor covering begins with the purchase of a high-quality vacuum cleaner. There are dozens of models on the household appliances market, differing in configuration, appearance and, of course, cost. How to choose the best? The main thing is that the unit is marked “for dry cleaning.”
The operating principle of all dry cleaning vacuum cleaners is the same. The unit draws in air, and with it dust that has settled on the surface of objects and textile accessories. The “dirty cocktail” passes through a system of filters that trap dust. And the purified air returns to the room.
When choosing a vacuum cleaner, you should first of all focus on the amount of work that the unit will have to cope with. For homes with a minimum of textile accessories, a model with a garbage collection bag is suitable. Lovers of long-pile carpets cannot do without
.
Cleaning rules from professionals
Cleaning company specialists and experienced housewives We are happy to share tips that will help you clean quickly and efficiently. And what is important, they allow you to save a dear or expensive carpet from damage.
So, how to vacuum a carpet so that it retains its color and fluffiness for as long as possible?
- Cleaning should be done at least once a week. Carpets and rugs attract dust like magnets; it gets stuck between the fibers and will be much more difficult to remove later.
- Filters must be cleaned after they are 2/3 full. Do not wait for the warning signal from the unit. An overfilled filter retains dust less well, and some of it will be returned to the house.
- Once every 2-3 cleanings, you should move the furniture and remove the dust underneath it. Between such global cleanings, you can get by using a nozzle with a narrow nozzle.
Before you start cleaning, you should open the windows and create a draft. The purified air must exit into the treated part of the room. Otherwise air flow will raise a whole dust cloud.
Secrets of cleaning and caring for carpets
Using a powerful unit does not guarantee high-quality cleaning. Techniques widely used by professionals will help preserve the brightness of the floor covering and the structure of the pile:
- For cleaning carpets from natural materials You should use a brush with long bristles. It is better to clean the carpet using a nozzle with short bristles. Carpets with long pile are cleaned with smooth nozzles without bristles.
- Before cleaning a carpet made from synthetic threads, it must be treated with an antistatic agent. This will make garbage collection easier.
No matter how good cleaning with a vacuum cleaner is, it is not enough. Twice a year, these fluffy interior details should be knocked out. fresh air. In winter - in snowy weather, in the warm season - in dry weather. And once every 2-3 years, have the carpet professionally cleaned at a dry cleaner. Specialists with help suitable formulations They will update the color of the coating and carry out a disinfection procedure.
Procedure
Almost every person has at least once held a vacuum cleaner in their hands and cleaned the floor covering with it. But not everyone has thought about how to properly vacuum a carpet so that the result of the work is noticeable immediately and lasts as long as possible.
After the household assistant is prepared for work and connected to it required nozzle, you can start:
- The room should be divided into conventional square zones. Start from the near right corner. Right-handed people usually feel more comfortable moving from right to left.
- Sequentially clearing square by square, you should move towards the door.
- Constantly monitor that purified air is released into the treated part of the room.
- Movements should be uniform, reciprocating.
- The brush attachment should move along the pile. This technique will avoid deformation of the textile item.
- Particular attention should be paid to areas with the highest traffic: at the door, the entrance to the balcony, upholstered furniture.
- After completing cleaning, you can wipe off dust from surfaces and, if necessary, wash the floor.
If you still have doubts about whether you can vacuum a carpet, you can contact the manufacturer for clarification. The bulk of textile floor coverings clean with household appliances possible and necessary. The main thing is to do this regularly and carefully.
This article is about how I assemble my robot vacuum cleaner. There are a lot of photos and videos here for those who are also passionate about this idea.
December 19, 2014. I began to be interested in robotic vacuum cleaners five years ago in 2009, probably after meeting the Roboforum. All these years there have been attempts to start something, but nothing has been done. A couple of months ago, I actively read articles about a robot vacuum cleaner and finally decided that I would buy a Karcher RC 4.000. Time passed, my wife often began to clean the kitchen and hallway, this began to irritate me, the thought of a robot grew stronger. I again spent a couple of evenings in pictures and forums about robotic vacuum cleaners. Finally I decided that I would make a robot myself!
The goal is to create a robot vacuum cleaner no worse than an industrially manufactured one and get rid of the layer of dust and small debris in the house. In the process of studying the design of robots, it turned out that they are very noisy, about 60 dB, while a stationary home washing vacuum cleaner Noise is about 80 dB. My homemade robot should work as quietly as possible, its dimensions should not exceed the dimensions of factory robots, and it should clean quickly and efficiently.
The first step was to resolve the issue with the suction turbine. I already had experience building turbines, but they all worked poorly. I made it for the garage homemade vacuum cleaner from a turbine from an old Raketa vacuum cleaner. The robot needs a small turbine, so I started my search all over again. Quite by accident I found messages from the user Vovan on the Roboforum, he shared a drawing of his turbine. Without much thought, I redrawn the drawing and glued my turbine together.
I cut out the turbine and glued it from thick cardboard using super glue in 20 minutes. The first tests were successful!
December 20, 2014. I bought a body peeling today :) in general, I only need a transparent jar with a screw cap, I gave the contents to my wife. I also bought a clothes brush with hard bristles, took it apart, and tomorrow I will make a brush out of it for my robot.
In AutoCAD I made sketches of the arrangement of elements in the body. I settled on the size of the basin with a diameter of 25 cm and a height of about 9 cm. It is not yet clear whether all the elements will fit, there is really little space, but I don’t want to make the body anymore. I set the framework for myself :)
Yesterday on the Internet I wrote down the dimensions of factory robotic vacuum cleaners:
diameter * height (cm)
36 * 9
32 * 8
32 * 10
30 * 5
22 * 8
I decided to make my own vacuum cleaner with cyclone filter, so you can’t make the height small, it’s determined by the garbage collection can, but you can win in diameter. Of course, thanks to Dyson for the cyclone, I have been reviewing his inventions for a long time and even made a garage vacuum cleaner based on the cyclone principle. My filter will be simple, without any cones and crazy suction power, it will do for the first time.
December 21, 2014. I sawed off a 15 cm round cutting from a floor brush in the garage and made a round brush from it. The diameter turned out to be about 70 mm. The size is unrealistically large and the bristles are very hard, I don’t know how it will behave, but I’ll probably have to either redo or make the vacuum cleaner heavier, because the bristles will throw it up. I simply inserted the bristles into the holes without glue, and it turned out securely. The entire structure was secured to a pin with a diameter of 6 mm and two bearings at the edges.
I found two wheels in the garage, believe it or not, from a vacuum cleaner! The same handheld vacuum cleaner in which there was nothing electric, only 4 wheels and two brushes driven by these wheels. The wheels have been waiting in the wings for about 15 years :)
Now I’ll make another drawing in AutoCAD for several parts, tomorrow I’ll cut everything out of plywood and try to assemble something based on it.
December 22, 2014. I really want to make a robot vacuum cleaner with my own hands and finish it before the New Year 2015. Last night on YouTube I watched again several videos about robot vacuum cleaners and in particular two videos about Dyson 360 Eye and Fluffy:
After the first video with the Dyson robot, I realized that by making my robot with a diameter of 25 cm and a brush 15 cm long, I would leave dirty places along the baseboard 5 cm wide. After the second video, my brain completely rebooted and thought about making a brush in front of the robot?! I don’t know what I’ll do next, the tests will show.
So today I bought a new dustpan and two brushes with softer bristles. I bought the scoop because of the elastic band that is glued to the edge; it is perfect for my design.
I changed the geometry of the body a little based on new thoughts and a new brush. The robot's size is still 25 cm, but now it is half a circle and half a square. The width of the brush is 21 cm, the diameter is about 6 cm. I cut out the base from 8 mm plywood, attached the wheels and the brush, tomorrow I’ll make a gearbox and try to sweep something up :)
December 23, 2014. I screwed the gear to the brush and attached the gearbox next to it, used an elastic band for money as a belt, and screwed the motor with a screw for testing. Below is a video test at 6 and 9 volts.
Most likely I will redo the brush again, the bristles are too short and too hard. The pile must be without gaps, because streaks of dirt remain. Overall it turned out spectacular :)
I wondered if I had enough space for three motors in the housing. Two motors will spin two wheels and one brush. Plus, gearboxes will take up a lot of space. I came up with the idea of replacing the gear reducers with a worm gear, maybe I’ll do a couple of tests.
The suction turbine was coated twice with a layer epoxy resin, became like plastic. The cardboard no longer bends and if water gets in everything will be fine. I didn't have to center it, it spins perfectly. Meanwhile, I prepare the base for the garbage can. I made a fine filter from the neck and cap of a kefir bottle. I used a disposable vacuum cleaner bag as a filter fabric. While everything is sticking, in a couple of days I’ll screw it onto the base and test everything again.
While working on the robot, the idea of getting a 3D printer constantly comes to mind. With a three-dimensional printer it would be much easier to create the parts I need and with high accuracy. When you drill into plywood with a drill, the drill may lead away or the inclination is not exactly 90 degrees, here about high precision one can only dream. In addition, parts made of plywood are very bulky; everything would be neat on a 3D printer.
December 24, 2014. In the morning I tested the turbine and the garbage can, and in the afternoon I repeated the experiment with a higher voltage. The results are not impressive. I had to unscrew the fine filter for now, because through it the power drops significantly. The garbage in the can spins very effectively, but in reality there is not enough suction power.
High voltage turbine test.
At these moments there was a desire to give up on everything, why did I even take on this. Nowadays it’s very easy to drop everything and forget - it’s the easiest way.
In the evening I took a brushless motor and began to glue a new turbine for it according to the same drawings.
December 25, 2014. I glued the second turbine for the brushless motor, I wanted to test it, it turned out that the motor rotates in the wrong direction. Tomorrow I'll go to the garage to resolder the wires, but for now I'll put everything aside.
December 26, 2014. I re-soldered the wires between the controller and the motor, and got rotation in the desired direction. The turbine started working, but a couple of tests on the knee turned out to be sad again. Maybe I’ll even redesign the turbine by adding a little taper, but more on that later.
The last two days I spent very little time on development, I’ll try to allocate 4-5 hours tomorrow.
December 27, 2014. I decided to try to assemble a worm gear for the chassis of a robot vacuum cleaner. In the photos earlier I showed that you can make a worm from a nail and a piece of copper wire. The problem turned out to be in the process of soldering the wire to the nail. My soldering iron is not very powerful, so I additionally heated the nail for gas burner. However, it was not possible to solder the wire properly, so I took a round piece of wood and wound the wire on it, and covered the turns with super glue. The worm turned out to be quite tolerable. Despite the ovality of the wooden base and, in general, the entire plywood block, the mechanism worked normally, but damn it very slowly.
It would be nice to get ready-made plastic worm gears, but for now let's put that aside.
Regarding the future energy consumption of my robot. Now there is a problem with the turbine, it doesn’t want to suck properly even with the fine filter removed. If you use a regular brushed motor for the turbine and power it with a voltage of 12 volts, then it will consume about 0.6 amperes. If you use a brushless motor, it will consume about one amp. Plus, two commutator motors will be used to move the robot and another one will be used for the brush, each will consume about 0.3 amperes. Electronics will also consume something. In total, the robot will “eat” approximately 1.6 to 2 amperes, in peaks probably up to 2.5 amperes. I don’t know if this is a lot or not, it seems like industrial robots consume three or more amperes.
Again I watched a bunch of videos and photos for the query “the operating principle of a robot vacuum cleaner.” Found a cool photo of a turbine from a regular one household vacuum cleaner. I read on some forum that the longer the turbine blades, the greater the vacuum it can create due to centrifugal force.
December 28, 2014. Today I glued two more turbines, they differ only in thickness. I made the blades as long as possible. In the photo below is the first thin (5mm blade height) turbine, it is very quiet in operation, but it doesn’t suck at all :)
The second turbine is thicker (15mm blade height).
Once again in the garage I tried to drag the brush across the floor, the motor often shuts down under the load, the bristles still turned out to be very stiff, and it wouldn’t hurt to reduce the diameter of the brush. Tomorrow, no matter the weather, I’m going to buy a brush with the softest bristles, I’ll also go to a toy store and look for cars with worm gear for the robot chassis.
In the garage I tested a new turbine with a voltage of 12 volts, I thought that 9 blades might not be enough. At home I glued together the third turbine of the day with long blades and a quantity of 15 pieces, I attach a photo:
Another day has ended. I won’t have time to make a vacuum cleaner as planned before the new year, but I want to believe that everything will be fine :)
December 29, 2014 Went to the toy store today looking for a worm gear. On the way, I remembered my daughter’s toy - a horse. My daughter didn’t really like this horse and, in general, I don’t really like it either :) But it has two whole worms and 4+4 gears inside it.
I still looked into a toy store, then into a second one and bought a topsy-turvy car there. I bought the car not so much for the mechanism, but for its wheels; they climb on any surface. There was no worm gear inside the machine. Wheels are quite possible I use for homemade robot, but for now I gave the car to my daughter - she is delighted :)
During the day the idea came to mind to make a robotic electric broom, i.e. the design is the same as now, only there is no turbine, the garbage is simply collected in the compartment. When I was looking for a new brush with softer bristles in the store (I never bought it), I accidentally saw this:
Of course, I immediately bought this cover. This is a ready-made robot body, transparent in a modern way and even without unnecessary elements. But in fact this is a "Cover for microwave oven"(diameter 24.5 cm), I don’t know what to cover it with and why, but the robot should turn out beautiful :) But more on that in another article.
In the evening I broke the conic, took out the gears and screwed it to my robot, it turned out great! The mechanism takes up minimal space and is strong enough to move the platform. I haven't collected everything yet, so photos will come later. In the meantime, I’m hatching an idea on how to make a new brush, reduce its diameter to 3-4 cm and replace the gearbox with gears with a worm gear.
By the way, note that the worm can be removed from other toys. So we had a broken elephant lying around, but in principle this is not important, the main thing is the mechanism, which is the same in many toys (cars, tanks and others), see photos:
Oh yes, I forgot to write about the new turbine, it turned out to be noticeably more productive than all the others. For better air passage, I also added a cone in the middle of the turbine.
January 05, 2015. Despite new year holidays All the previous days I tried to somehow make progress in my work. I read a lot of information about 3D printers; if I had such a printer in my arsenal, I would have printed most of the parts a long time ago. While in my head I’m making plans for the future on how to assemble a 3D printer with my own hands.
Today I made a new brush. Took it wooden stick 10 mm in diameter and drilled holes in a spiral. I inserted bristles into the holes and sealed them on the back side with a wood burner.
Collected chassis Haven't tested it yet, the glue dries. I also put the new brush in place, it turned out to be a lot of jambs, I couldn’t do without them, after all, this is my first robot. By the way, I abandoned the rectangular back and made a base for a round body. My decision is connected with rethinking the movement of the robot, if you imagine that the robot is moving along the wall and rests against something, then in order to turn it will have to make a maneuver with a backward movement, because its square butt will slide onto the wall.
I spent a lot of time finding a solution for the robot's "vision". The mechanical bumper doesn’t really suit me; it spoils the external one, even though it is the simplest obstacle detection scheme. I settled on the infrared sensor. It is not yet possible to assemble the sensor due to the lack of infrared phototransistors.
January 07, 2015. Yesterday, until one o'clock in the morning, I was assembling a robot to at least somehow test it, play around with it :) An Arduino Pro Mini board + a motorshield on L293E chips with wiring is used as the “brain” (I used this board in my first project for controlling motors online via the Internet). Control is carried out from the TV remote control. Short video:
The design looks liquid, in fact it is, almost all the mechanisms can barely breathe. Today I realized how difficult it is to make a seemingly simple robot. On this moment I have problems in almost all nodes, it is required global rework almost everything.
Wheel drive on worm gear In terms of speed, it turned out to be just right, but its execution leaves much to be desired. Part of the drive is placed in a compartment where there will be air movement with debris; this will not work for a long time. I wanted to drill holes on the wheels that would serve as an additional motion sensor. On one side of the wheel there will be an IR LED, on the other there will be an IR phototransistor. This circuit will pulsate when the robot moves; if there are no pulses, it means the robot has bumped into something and is not moving.
For proximity sensors, I bought IR LEDs and IR phototransistors, but after testing such an IR bumper, it became clear that the idea was bad. The sensor reacts to sunlight, but does not see black objects at all. The design has the right to life, but in more simple homemade products. For those who are interested, I share the diagram:
If you bring your hand close to the sensor, the LED on the breadboard lights up.
I also tried the ultrasonic sensor. It measures distance perfectly, but only using the “head-on” method; if the plane of the object is at an angle, then the readings are distorted. In general, even with such a sensor, the robot’s bumper will not work normally.
For control from the remote control, a TSOP IR receiver is used, I don’t know what marking it is, in principle, you can use any one you come across. You can control it from any remote control, even from mobile phone, but before that you need to find out the codes of the buttons pressed on the remote control. In the sketch simple circuit, which sends the button code to the port monitor when pressed on the remote. Connection example and sketch below:
As for the sweeping brush, it turned out great, its width is almost 21 cm, with a body of 25 cm. There are some nuances: the fibers are not restored if you crush them. The drive mechanism is not covered by anything; it will wind the hair in 3 minutes of operation and stop. The brush is not removable. The motor is very weak, but the number of revolutions is very suitable, it sweeps the table very effectively.
Now this robot vacuum cleaner will be disassembled and rethought. Most likely, the diameter of the body will increase by 3 cm. Initially, I thought of making the wheels on an independent suspension so that they would hide if someone suddenly stepped on the robot. I will still drive the wheels using gears instead of a worm. You need to look for a different bristle for the brush, one that is more elastic and will hold its shape. Apparently the bumper will have to be made mechanical. Lots of questions about the suction turbine.
Despite all the shortcomings, my wife liked the robot, and my daughter was absolutely delighted :)
To be continued. I won’t write about the robot so often anymore, but I will try to publish photo and video reports at least once a month.
March 2015. I bought an electric broom.
The robot vacuum cleaner is still in the project!
When choosing a new bagless vacuum cleaner, you should pay attention to the equipment included with the device. Number of brushes and additional accessories will greatly simplify your work with a vacuum cleaner (for example).
The set of cleaning equipment must include a crevice nozzle, a brush for the floor/carpet and upholstered furniture. An innovation in the world of household appliances is a turbo brush for a vacuum cleaner, which copes with stubborn dirt and stuck hair and fur.
2 Brush “Brownie”
This versatile, battery-powered vacuum cleaner was specially designed to give you the most comfortable cleaning experience around the house. With the help of the Domovenok brush you can easily clean not only upholstered furniture and clothes, but also pet hair.
The small dimensions and light weight of the bagless vacuum cleaner provide maximum ease of use: the model is highly mobile. The Domovenok vacuum cleaner can serve as a crevice nozzle, penetrating into hard-to-reach corners of the apartment.
A universal brush-vacuum cleaner for furniture, carpets and animal hair is an indispensable assistant in the home for... Cleaning carpets from animal hair during shedding always causes a lot of trouble. But the universal brush-vacuum cleaner “Domovenok” will cope with this task very simply. You can buy the product at a price of 750 rubles. Batteries are purchased separately.
2.1 Using attachments
For quality cleaning At home, various combinations of components are used, which are attached to the vacuum cleaner in the following order:
1. The electrostatic brush is used to clean household appliances and indoor plants.
2. Then the upholstery of sofas and armchairs is cleaned using a brush attachment. If it is necessary to remove animal hair, use a turbo brush attachment. A crevice tool is used to clean corners.
3. Next is cleansing hard to reach places, baseboards and corners. To do this, a crevice nozzle is installed on the vacuum cleaner. If you are using a combined model with a crevice nozzle installed, simply switch the cleaning mode using the button.
4. Now you can carry out the final cleaning of the apartment using the main brush. If the carpets are heavily soiled, use a turbo brush.
2.2 How much does it cost?
The price range for components is very wide. The cheapest parts can be bought from manufacturers LG and Samsung:
2.3 How to choose?
1. What to buy?
An important factor when choosing components is brand compatibility, because major manufacturers produce special parts for their equipment. If there are no specialized parts specifically for your vacuum cleaner, you can buy universal-purpose attachments. Universal models are compatible with any brand of bagless cleaning equipment.
2. Consider the diameter of the tube of your vacuum cleaner so that the components can be easily attached: the diameter of the nozzles is indicated in the instructions.
3. If you are going to buy a power-driven turbo brush attachment, consider the power of your vacuum cleaner. When choosing a turbo with electric drive, be aware of the possibility of damage to delicate upholstery fabrics and carpet pile. Turbo will perfectly rid the surface of animal hair, but it can simply pull out all the lint from the carpet and ruin the expensive upholstery of the sofa.
Most likely, your vacuum cleaner was already sold with one or more additional attachments. It is possible that there were instructions with detailed description, but the problem is that the vast majority of buyers do not read the instructions. We understand this very well, and we decided to tell you how to properly use the most common attachments. By the way, if you like something special, you can always buy an additional attachment. They are sold as special ones, for certain models, as well as universal ones, which are suitable for almost everyone. The cost, depending on the type of nozzle, is from 800−1700 rubles.
For tall objects and ceilings
This is an extension tube for a hose, and its purpose is quite clear. It can be used in conjunction with an additional nozzle that is attached to the end of the pipe. Needed to reach hard-to-reach high places. For example, before ceiling skirting boards, the top surface of the refrigerator or kitchen cabinets, and also with the help additional pipe Convenient for cleaning dust behind furniture. You can choose a longer or shorter pipe depending on the height of your ceilings.
For upholstered furniture, mattresses and pillows
To prevent dust from spoiling your furniture and making it dull and gray, don’t forget about the upholstery cleaning attachment. Don't look at the fact that she is so small and inconspicuous. It's great for pulling dust out of sofa cushions, Roman blinds and even mattresses.
For smooth floors
This flat, wide brush is best suited for smooth floors. Its short bristles perfectly capture dirt, crumbs and hair, which are then sucked into the vacuum cleaner. As a rule, such brushes are equipped with wheels or a rotating head, which make them maneuverable and easy to use.
For lampshades, books and household appliances
The brush head is usually round or triangular in shape with long, soft bristles that won't scratch surfaces. It can remove dust from furniture, clean lampshades, blinds, cornices, household appliances and books.
For crevices and corners
This is one of the most familiar - a narrow crevice nozzle for hard-to-reach places that cannot be reached with a regular brush. It is convenient for vacuuming along baseboards and between ventilation holes, as well as in other narrow corners. For example, a crevice tool can be used on sofas and armchairs to remove dust between cushions.
For hair removal
Pet owners will appreciate this attachment. A brush with rubber bristles, creating a static charge, lifts the hairs of the fur and thereby facilitates their suction. Therefore, cleaning is faster and better.
For carpets and rugs
The turbo brush is ideal when you need more power. With this attachment you can comb thoroughly carpet covering and effectively remove dirt from the pile.