Rumor Buster

Science Program︱24’25”︱2014︱Taiwan︱HD︱NTSC︱Color︱English Subtitles

Can a vacuum cleaner be used as fire extinguisher?

A video circulating online shows a man putting out fire with a vacuum cleaner. Ting and Ben try to replicate the process but end up turning several expensive vacuum cleaners into flames!

This is resulted from the vacuum cleaner sucking in the burning fluid and flame. When fluid is burning, it vaporizes and the heat produced was hot enough to melt the vacuum components. This is why the vacuum cleaners are damaged.

However, experts speculate that a ‘fire sucker’ involves the use of cool flame, and it’s done by mixing the right amount of water and ethanol together. Water vapor can absorb the heat emitted by ethanol combustion, thus reduces the temperature of the flame. 

After switching to cool flame, the fire is put out in 30 seconds! Let’s look inside the cool flame and see how Ting and Ben bust the rumor!

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