Horse Power Ratings a joke.

[Epidemic]

How do they measure the vaccum cleaner HP.

Assuming .746 Kw per HP how can you say a household vaccum produces 6 HP which would be around 4476 watts.

I would think you would have a problem running it on your conventional 15 amp circuit. I would figure it to be about 37 amps.

How do they get away with the power ratings on electric motors.

When I run my 3/4 horse grinder next to my fathers 25 year old half horse the .5 hp antique blows the doors off mine.

What rating system are they using because it is not true horse power.

Mine just says 12 amps- maybe 1.5 HP.

[Epidemic]

that is pretty reasonable. But look at the HP rating on the shop vacs in your local do it yourself center. Aka lowes, homedepot...

The new measurement system is used on Shop vacs and home shop many air compressors.

[Gomer]

They use the peak HP.

Poking around the net found me this amongst others:

7. Question:TOP INDEX
I am requesting information on how to convert power unit specifications for central vacuums into horsepower measurements.

Answer:
While I appreciate your desire to do this, for most consumers this can be quite confusing. I assume that you already visited the technical measurement of our CentralVacuum.com website and saw that there are 3 different "Horsepower ratings". The first, peak horsepower is measured when you take everything off the motor that restricts it and then you put as much electricity into the motor until it virtually explodes. Portable vacuums use this measurement and it sounds really impressive. The second rating, Input Horsepower is the maximum watts used by the motor divided by 746. A top-of-the-line portable might pull 700-800 watts or about 1 horsepower. Our Model S2 pulls a max of 1836 watts or 2.5 HP. Lastly, we recommend true usage would be represented by Operating Horsepower which is the watts used at the operating orifice divided by 746. Our S2 would operate at 1770 watts with an electric power brush thus it would achieve 2.37 Horsepower.

Unfortunately many manufacturers provide misleading information regarding horsepower, therefore we do not use it as a standard rating in our industry. Another combination measurement of Waterlift and Air Flow is called Air Watts. This too can be deceptive if you are not looking at the product at the opening size being used under actual conditions. Please see the article entitled "Vacuumology" in the technical section of our website www.centralvacuum.com/vacuumo.html.

[Epidemic]

I wonder how they can get away with this.

I thought the measurement of horse power was defined.
Therefore if you rate something you should have to use the established methodology.

I mean I am sure I could get an impulse power from something by reving it up to max speed and locking the shaft. allowing the sudden impulse power to be the rating. You probably would find the motor in your little shaver puts out like 5hp for a mico second if you locked up the drive shaft.

I hate bs changes made to standards. It means standards mean nothing.

[OuTpaTienT]

Maybe they're using miniature horses.

[Knothead]

Originally posted by OuTpaTienT
Maybe they're using miniature horses.

LOL!!

For shop tools, I only go by amperage @ 110 volts. Although tool mfrs. are usually fairly ethical in their claims.

A SIX HP vacuum cleaner?!? A HAHAHAHAHAHAA!! What's it got behind those rollers, a gas powered Briggs and Stratton? HAHAHA! Boy, I'd just hate to come to your house when it's time to vacuum!

[Epidemic]

vaccums are just the extreme example.

Where they got me was with the bench grinder. I got this 3/4 horsepower Bwahahahahah grinder. I probably could hog the thing with a piece of tinfoil.