Like a floor buffer machine, one of the most important pieces of equipment in a professional cleaner’s arsenal is their commercial wet and dry vacuum.
It helps keep your workplace clean, makes it easier to deal with spills, and can even make your work go exponentially faster if you’re using the right one for the job.
That being said, there are many different types on the market so how do you know which one will be best suited for your business?
What is a Wet Dry Vacuum?
Simply put, wet dry vacuums are vacuum cleaners that clean up both dry and wet waste.
There are two types of wet-dry vacuums, those geared for the commercial market and residential use. This section will focus on how they differ in terms of design features tailored towards each respective type’s needs.
The first thing to note about commercial wet dry vacuums is that they are significantly more powerful than residential models. This additional power can really make a difference when it comes down to sucking up large quantities of dirt and debris from larger areas, such as ones with high ceilings or in places where the flooring has been heavily soiled by liquids like water due to spills.
Second, commercial wet dry vacuums are designed for the rigors of commercial use which means they have a higher duty cycle where they’re meant to work several hours per day every single day!
The third key feature is durability. Commercial vacuums can take the wear and tear that comes from working in various environments such as schools, hospitals, hotels, office buildings, car washes, farms, construction sites… Not to mention how often they’re used on an average day.
When it comes to your average vacuum cleaner, the commercial models are often more expensive and durable than their residential counterparts. One of the reasons for this is that if a household vacuum breaks down, you can usually just replace it cheaply rather than spend a lot of money on repairs or replacement parts.
Whereas in commercial situations, where equipment needs to last a lot longer you may want to consider investing more money for a quality vacuum instead of replacing them every few years.
What Are Some Situations Where Wet Dry Vacuums Are Used?
There are a wide range of uses for commercial wet and dry vacuum.
A first example is the construction site, where there’s all kinds of dust, and small and big debris on the floor, on walls and even on ceilings. An industrial-strength wet-dry vacuum cleaner is the ideal floor cleaning machine for such environments!
Another use could be something like if you were working at or managing facility such as school or hospital where people come in regularly, which means it can get messy with slush, snow and salt coming in from outside during wintertime. A commercial grade wet dry vac does wonders to clean everything back up quickly, so people don’t track any more mess into your space.
Floor care technicians and custodial staff also use wet vacuums when doing jobs like stripping the wax off floors or baseboard cleaning.
A wet dry vacuum is perfect for any job, from construction sites to the workplace.
How Do Wet and Dry Vacuums Work?
The principles behind how a wet dry vacuum works is no different from every other vacuum.
All vacuum cleaners have high-speed electric motors attached to a fan with blades (similar to an airplane propeller).
When the motor (fans) turns, they push air outwards (towards the vacuum exhaust). This causes a pressure drop behind the fan which is lower than the air pressure level outside the vacuum cleaner (especially creating a partial vacuum within the vacuum cleaner).
This difference in vacuum pressure creates the suction power, as air outside the vacuum rushes into the vacuum cleaner through a hose or intake port.
Similarly, in as wet vacuuming situation, when the motor runs, the pressure drop creates the suction that pulls the liquid in through an intake. The difference is that when liquid or water is sucked into the vacuum cleaner, it stays in the vacuum’s reservoir, whereas the air that’s sucked in get pushed out through a vacuum filter through the exhaust.
Since water can easily damage a motor, wet dry vacuums also have a number of safety features and shut-off mechanisms to protect the water from getting into the motor.
In addition, the most commercial wet/dry vacuums are equipped with filters to make sure that any bits of dirt or debris picked up by their powerful suction gets trapped in the vacuum cleaner.
The type of filtration you choose may be an important consideration if you are using the vacuum in places like laboratories and food processing plants where the air quality needs to be clean. In such situations you may want to consider a Wet/Dry vacuum with HEPA filtration.
For a deeper explanation on Wet & Dry Vacuums, watch this short explainer video: 5 Things To Know When Choosing a Commercial Wet and Dry Vacuum