The Challenges of Creating a Better Vacuum Cleaner Impeller System

As you could hear my vacuum cleaner does not really work anymore and the reason is that my DIY 3D printed impeller suction system thingy I created in a previous video simply broke. The sad thing is that this happened due to only one fall of the vacuum; but the good thing on the other hand is, that I now have the chance to redesign the impeller system to hopefully finally make it better than the original one.

And I better succeed this time because my girlfriend said this is my last chance, before I have to buy a new vacuum cleaner from a specific brand, pretty much everyone suggested in the comment section of the last video. Speaking of comment section, I feel more confident this time because a viewer named Marko reached out to me to do the designing and testing of the impeller system.

Marko's Design Philosophy

The airflow was once again around the same at 6.7m/s, but the distance of the water at 60W was this time around 40cm; which yes, is not yet at the level of the original motor, but still pretty impressive in comparison to the design we started with. This performance can be attributed to Marko's design philosophy, which emphasizes the importance of a more aggressive blade angle.

Now, I want to tell you about the three impellers that Marko designed and built. Impeller number 1 has the least aggressive blade angle, while impeller number 3 has the most aggressive one. We just wanted to find out whether that directly translates to more pressure. Let's attach the motor to the also newly designed motor mount that can lock into the top piece very firmly, hammer on impeller number 1, put everything together and let's go for a little spin.

The Results

Once again, I started with the air flow test and let me tell you that this thing spun beautifully and reached a new air flow high score of around 6.7m/s at not even full power. So time to move on to the pressure test and once again this system performed way better than my design because it reached a distance of 35cm at 60W, which sadly though is still around 10cm lower than the original motor.

The Challenges of DIYing

But I wasn't discouraged yet because we still got 2 impellers to test and let me give you a quick summary here by saying that both performed about the same. The airflow was once again around the same at 6.7m/s, but the distance of the water at 60W was this time around 40cm; which yes, is not yet at the level of the original motor, but still pretty impressive in comparison to the design we started with.

However, I realized that creating a more powerful system is definitely possible, but due to the techniques of DIYing, in my case FDM 3D printing and lots of glue, it is practically speaking very difficult to build a reliable and more efficiently performing vacuum system. So definitely not the positive outcome I was hoping for, but you know, this is what reality looks like.

The Future

Maybe for part 3 I will find a solution for all the problems. Until then, consider supporting this show through Patreon to keep it going. As always, don't forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell. Stay creative and I will see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enAs you could hear my vacuum cleaner does notreally work anymore and the reason is thatmy DIY 3D printed impeller suction systemthingy I created in a previous video simplybroke.The sad thing is that this happened due toonly one fall of the vacuum ; but the goodthing on the other hand is, that I now havethe chance to redesign the impeller systemto hopefully finally make it better than theoriginal one.And I better succeed this time because mygirlfriend said this is my last chance, beforeI have to buy a new vacuum cleaner from aspecific brand, pretty much everyone suggestedin the comment section of the last video.And speaking of comment section, I feel moreconfident this time because a viewer namedMarko reached out to me to do the designingpart and oh boy there were quite a few changesand the results were certainly interesting.So let's not waste anymore time and let'sget started!This video is sponsored by Rohde und Schwarz,your trusty electronics test and measuringequipment manufacturer that I can highly recommend.And today I want to tell you about their freeradio frequency webinar in which you can notonly learn about the basics of electromagneticfields, antennas, digital or analogue modulation;but also about the super complex stuff thatluckily gets explained very well.If that sounds like your cup of tea, thenclick the link below and learn something newtoday.Now first off; let's go back to the originalmotor impeller system the vacuum came withand address the elephant in the room lotsof viewers mentioned last time, known as staticpressure which is apparently more importantthan the air flow I so far measured.Because when it comes to the vacuum suctionfunction then apparently static pressure ismore important, so I will need to somehowmeasure that to properly compare all the impellerdesigns.To do that you can get yourself such a manometer;but since using that is boring, I rather copieda fun looking method from the Rctestflightchannel.For that I simply had to design an adapterpiece, 3D print it with TPU flexible filament,attach it very snugly to the original impellersystem, secure a hose to the other side andplace that into a bucket of water before poweringeverything up.Now I know it is hard to see due to the greenhose, but trust me when I say, that the motorand impeller was able to move the water upwards.And what I did here was basically measuringhow far the water got pulled upwards at whatvoltage and power and these results will bethe benchmark values the DIY designs haveto beat.So let's start this comparison with my oldimpeller design, that now looks a bit differentthough especially when it comes to securingit to a motor.The reason is that I switched from an out-runnerBLDC motor to this in-runner BLDC motor.This way mounting the motor is not only wayeasier, but since all the heat generatingcoils are directly connected to a big heatsink,it will also not have as many problems withoverheating.I could also choose a higher KV rating forthe motor which means that with 20V lateron, it should spin faster than the originalmotor.But of course with a new motor, we also haveto redesign the motor mount and that is exactlywhat Marko did for me and as you can see everythingstill fits perfectly inside the vacuum enclosure.You probably also already noticed that thistime I am using a VESC for controlling themotor and there were quite a few reasons forthat.For one, you can adjust its parameters witha given software and thus fine tune the settingsfor your specific motor.And then you can also set an undervoltagelimit so that later everything shuts off,if my battery gets too discharged and let'snot forget that with this ESC you can simplyhook up a potentiometer, calibrate it anduse it directly to adjust the speed of themotor, awesome.And as you can see this new system works perfectlyfine and way smoother and better than withthe old motor and mount, because this timeI was even able to reach an airflow of above6m/s which I never reached before.But of course a good air flow is not everythingas I said before and thus I repeated the samepressure test, only to find out that at similarpower levels; my DIY design only reached aroundhalf of the distance the original motor coulddo.So no wonder that it didn't serve well asa vacuum cleaner and with that being saidwe can have a look at the 3 new impellersMarko came up with, which after 3D printingthem with PETG filament, do look quite a bitdifferent than my design.His blades are wider on the top because thecore is narrower and on the bottom the diameteris slightly bigger than mine.And then of course we got the curvature ofhis blades and angles which are way curvierand sharper than my design.Combine that with a newly designed top piecethat stays very close to the impeller fora bigger distance than mine and we shouldhopefully get better static pressure.And in case you are wondering why 3 new designs,that at first sight all look pretty similar,then let me tell you that number 1 has theleast aggressive blade angle while number3 has the most aggressive one and we justwant to find out whether that directly translatesto more pressure.But enough with the theory, let's attach themotor to the also newly designed motor mountthat can lock into the top piece very firmly,hammer on impeller number 1, put everythingtogether and let's go for a little spin.Once again, I started with the air flow testand let me tell you that this thing spun beautifullyand reached a new air flow high score of around6.7m/s at not even full power.So time to move on to the pressure test andonce again this system performed way betterthan my design because it reached a distanceof 35cm at 60W, which sadly though is stillaround 10cm lower than the original motor.But I wasn't discouraged yet because we stillgot 2 impellers to test and let me give youa quick summary here by saying that both performedabout the same.Now the airflow was once again around thesame at 6.7m/s, but the distance of the waterat 60W was this time around 40cm; which yes,is not yet at the level of the original motor,but still pretty impressive in comparisonto the design we started with.So all in all here are the pressure resultsfrom all the designs and as you might havenoticed I didn't go up to full power withthe DIY ones because that is something I wantedto experience the first time with the assembledvacuum system.And sadly this was the moment lots of problemsarised with the first one being that the toppiece of the impeller system was a bit toobig for the vacuum enclosure and thus theimpeller stalled.So after cutting out some plastic pieces ofthe enclosure I tried it again and the impellerstalled again; this time because due to theforces it got pushed off the motor shaft.To fix that I simply used some glue and afterthat was dry, it seems like I was able toget close to the power limit of this systemmeaning I tried vacuuming some things.So in direct comparison here is the old DCmotor setup and here is the BLDC motor DIYimpeller thingy which did work pretty wellbut I still think the original one is stillslightly more powerful.And by the way my girlfried aggreed on thissad conclusion.Now we could theoretically cheat though byletting the BLDC motor rotate faster and thuslet it consume more power which as you cansee here reached a peak of around 140W fora short amount of time at which point it wasdefinitely capable of sucking the water higherthan the original DC motor.And in case you were wondering, the ESC shutdown continisouly here due to safety settingswhich I got rid of afterwards.But once again this let the impeller spinso fast that it got pushed off the motor shaftand at this point I was already using my strongestadhesive to secure it into place.So I guess the conclusion of this video isthat theoretically creating a more powerfulsystem is definitely possible but due to thetechniques of DIYing, in my case FDM 3D printingand lots of glue, it is practically speakingvery difficult to build a reliable and moreefficiently performing vacuum system.So definitely not the positive outcome I washoping for, but you know, this is what realitylooks like and maybe for part 3 I will finda solution for all the problems.Until then consider supporting this show throughPatreon to keep it going.As always don't forget to like, share, subscribeand hit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.