Vacuum question

[Steve B]

How much does the length of a vacuum hose affect its performance?

Steve

[Ed Pawlowski]

In theory, it should only affect the time it takes to draw down the vacuum as it has more volume. If, however, the hose is porous or has a leak, it would affect the vacuum.

OTOH, my wife says a longer hose would be better.

[steve robinson]

not very much unless its several hundred meters long then you start to get losses through friction, weiught of the air to be moved and heat build up

[Puckdropper]

"Steve B" wrote in news:kjdiu7$n5r$ [e-mail]:

I haven't noticed much of a difference between a shorter shopvac hose (about 4') and the much longer Fein hose (about 16'.) I like the longer hose, as vacuums are generally useless at following you around.

Puckdropper

[-MIKE-]

Hmm... I wonder what acorns run. Maybe I need to start charging the deer.

[clare]

The only problem MIGHT be the restriction to the PECANS, not the air.

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------------------ You won't get there from here.

A Shop-Vac just doesn't have the horses.

What you have to factor in is the line drop of the 25' hose as well as the "plugging" caused by the pecans as the hose gets longer.

May work with a 6'-10' hose depending on diameter of hose.

You need a gasoline powered vacuum sweeper like a landscaper uses.

Lew

[EXT]

Not to mention dirt, grass, leaves, pebbles and who-knows-what!

[Keith Nuttle]

I am not an expert but I believe this is a fluid dynamics problem. Theoretically the only loss on the longer hose will be the loss due to friction between the air and the hose. Practically there will be loss due to leaks, and such.

However the ability to move pecans through the hose will be dependent on the the volume of air that the vacuum is able to move. Between the volume of air and the weight of each pecan, I don't believe you idea will work.

But if it did it would sure beat stooping over to pick them up.

[woodchucker]

Not as bad as you would think. My whole shop has 2" pvc for vacuming up the sawdust. It is not a dust collector certainly.

I have 4 lines off the trunk. And only one of them suffers really bad, the longest of the bunch. It is traveling a little more than 50 feet. It's diminished, but still useful.

I also have 25 feet of 2 1/2 inch hose that I got from Woodcraft, and you don't notice any loss with that hose. That is a flex hose. Certainly not the same type of flex hose that comes with the units. This is smoother.

[Swingman]

You're experience is correct, IME. :)

I can tell you from taking bids on "whole house vacuum systems" that, for all _practical_ purposes, the overall _length_ of the system vacuum hose/pipe is pretty well discounted as a huge factor in efficiency.

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------------------

"Lew Hodgett" wrote:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Steve B" wrote:

------------------------------------------------------ I guess you can define picking up 22 galons of "stuff" in an hour "working".

Seems a tad slow to me.

A rake and a shovel would probably take less time.

Lew

[Joe]

WHERE? That's worth the gas to get there. They started at 50 cents a pound and went to 40 here. Using a vac, something like a dust collector chip separator in between would be helpful to keep the leaves and pecans separate. A leaf sweeper works if the pecans are not buried in the grass too far - then you shake the basket to get the pecans on the bottom. A dedicated wife and 5 galllon buckets is what I use. On the original question: Theoretically, the ribs on the hose create friction and there's loss. I got some plastic ribbed extension hose from the plumbing section of Big Orange thinking it would go on the vac and DC. The flowing air sounds like a train whistle. Not a good idea. J