Experiences/ideas please - Cable-less house vac cleaners

[MikeK]

If anyone can recommend a cordless vacuum that can cope with less than domesticated owners I would be eternally grateful!

I think my wife would tell you that I am the definition of "less than domesticated" when it comes to walking in and out of the house constantly with little regard to what have might attached itself to my shoes. Sometimes, I actually make an effort to clean the soles before I enter, but if I'm carrying tools or bulky items, I don't. The cordless Shark we have does a great job of compensating for my lack of domestication.

 

[AJB Temple]

My son and his g/f insisted in Dyson V11 so I bought that for them. I thin Dyson is basically no better than anything else but spends a lot on marketing and enriches James Dyson immeasurably.

In my house I got rid of all carpets asap. Traps for dirt, dust and mites. I think our Miele with full anti allergy filtering and powered head, outperforms the Dyson V11 for its primary role of cleaning. The cord is no real hardship.

If you really think that Dyson filter to a proper serious allergy level, then I wish you luck. (General comment, not aimed at OP).

I also find, BTW, that a Festool vac is really excellent around the house too!

 

[Sideways]

To quickly answer the question about balancing a battery pack, AS I UNDERSTAND IT (no expert here , there is a small manufacturing variation between individual cells that means that cell capacities and "efficiencies" vary slightly. Over repeated cycles of charge and discharge, the effect of this variation is that cells in the pack can end up in different levels of charge.
When you come to use the tool and the pack discharges, one cell may empty first while the others still contain charge and continue to force current through the depleted cell. This is very bad for them, causes overheating, further reduces their capacity and eventually the failure of one weakest cell makes the whole pack unusable.

Balancing involves connections to each individual cell and charging or discharging them individually to restore them to the same state of charge. I think it relies on matching the voltages produced by each cell.It can be done by a small circuit installing inside the battery pack.

I once read that Bosch take the alternate approach and spend more up front on getting a closer match in the capacities of their cells, their packs have no balancing circuits, but imbalance doesn't become a problem during the typical life of a pack. The costs and lifetimes are similar to saving a few pennies on cells and spending on a balancing circuit.

 

[AES]

Thanks for that Sideways.

Your first para is exactly the same as my own understanding (especially re NiCad cells) and that probably applies to Li-Ion too - dunno for sure.

So far so good, and thanks, but like you, I'm definitely NO expert on this stuff, so how exactly I go about performing the stuff in your 2nd n 3rd paras I have no idea - and re your Bosch comments, "perhaps" I don't even need to bother about balancing at all!

OTOH, if I just directly buy 7 "free" cells (which it seems like I'll have to) then I'll have no idea of how close they will be in tolerances to each other - just that I assume that a quality manufacturer like Sanyo will be holding tolerances more closely than some unknown (to me) cell manufacturer.

So I really do appreciate your inputs, but unless I can get more expert opinions re soldering and balancing I thinking of leaving the job well alone - "we" (SWMBO) has/have after all decided that we'll most probably buy a new household battery vac anyway.

Thanks though.

 

[Droogs]

Andy have a look at the vid below and the other vids on Jehu's channel very informative. They are EV based but still apply

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KSFitqvap0

 

[AES]

Thanks Alan, very useful. Watching (and learning!) now. Quite a group of vids actually (as I'm sure you know). ;-)

 

[cookiemonster]

We've got the Bosch 25.2V Athlet. It's a few years old now and the battery has lost about 50 per cent of its life I reckon. Plus it has this annoying habit of holding a load of crud somewhere in the space between head and collection bin, which is deposited on the floor when you turn it off. I wouldn't rush to buy another one.

 

[lurker]

Our g tech upright plus a totally independent hand one came as a set for £250.
They are brilliant!!
Recommend it to anyone.
Can easily clean a normal semi about four times per charge.

It’s so easy to use that I have taken over vacuuming the house.
Emptying it is strangely satisfying!
The amount of muck and dust it collects never ceases to amaze.

 

[lurker]

I used to work for Sanyo, they went bust about 20 years ago. The decent bits were bought by Panasonic.

 

[Rorschach]

Funnily enough since this thread was started I was given a cordless vacuum that didn't work.

I was told it didn't suck very well and then it stopped charging.

Well the reason it didn't suck was because the filter and tube was nearly blocked solid with cack :roll:
I think this overloaded something in the "smart" battery as it wouldn't take a charge despite the cells being in perfect condition when tested.

I cleaned up the vacuum and tested the motor by applying using jumpers to apply power directly to the motor terminals. It fired up perfectly and has loads of suction for a cordless, really quite impressed.

So I am building my own battery pack in the manner I do for all my gadgets, I use removable 18650 cells in a battery holder that connects to the tool using an XT60 plug with a voltmeter wired in so I can monitor the condition of the battery pack. No need for fancy BMS systems and I can replace the batteries in seconds with fresh ones.
It won't be as slick as the original unit but it will be functional, practical and will a lot longer.

 

[AES]

Thanks for all the inputs everyone. A real big help to get info & own experience from like-minded people - one of the major fortes of this Forum.

It'll take a while for the info (and YT vids) to all sink in, but I'll let you know what I decide and how it went eventually.

Cheers