Center of mass location of stick vacuum cleaners affects physical demands during floor vacuuming

Abstract

Compact sized and battery powered stick vacuum cleaners are becoming popular as replacements for full-size canister or upright vacuums. While the center of mass (CoM) of typical stick vacuum cleaners is located near the brush, recent products have the main components near the handle of the cleaner, which moves the CoM towards the handle. The aim of this study was to compare physical demands of the two types of stick vacuum cleaners. Sixteen participants conducted push/pull vacuuming strokes on two different floors at two different speeds with stick cleaner models of different CoM while the electromyography of six upper extremity muscles were collected. Results show that high CoM cleaner caused greater (p<0.05) activity of the biceps (28.5% vs. 22.3% of maximum capacity), deltoid (21.1% vs. 19.4%) and shoulder muscles (8.0% vs. 7.1%) compared to low CoM cleaner, indicating that the high CoM cleaners may produce greater physical stress and muscle fatigue compared to low CoM cleaners.