The Thermax AF2 Home Environmental Cleaning System represents a departure from the conventional vacuuming systems of yesterday, today and the future. The AF2 wasn't designed to compete with vacuums cleaners. It was designed to replace them.

Because of the generally poor condition of the indoor air quality made worse by poor carpet cleanliness, many people are feeling the adverse effects stimulated by this phenomenon we have come to know as Indoor Air Pollution.

There are many who are hypersensitive to matter which can produce allergic reactions, such as eczema, asthma, hay fever, etc. This matter is allergen, which is either inhaled, consumed or comes in direct contact with the skin. The inhaled allergen is airborne and is the most common and difficult to avoid. Some of the most predominant allergens and their particle sizes are as illustrated below.

How then do the vacuum and the vacuum cleaning process influence the indoor environment of an allergy sufferer? Many have suspected and recent worldwide testing has proven the conventional dry bag or bagless vacuum cleaner to be guilty of contributing greatly to poor indoor air quality by allowing fine particles of dust and allergens to pass through the pores of the conventional vacuum bag and back into the indoor environment. They can remain airborne for several hours before finally settling back down onto the furniture and floor. While airborne, these particles are breathed into the lungs of anyone present. This explains how vacuuming can reek havoc on an allergy sufferer and other who have respiratory problems.

Current vacuum cleaner manufacturers are running rampant to try and address this new consumer awareness regarding the inefficiency of the filtration of conventional paper bag and bagless type vacuum cleaners. However, because of the basic outdated design of the conventional vacuum cleaner, anything done to improve their filtering capability will decrease the system's air flow. As air flow is decreased, you also proportionately decrease the vacuum's cleaning efficiency. It is estimated that a conventional dry bag or bagless vacuum loses over 50% of its cleaning efficiency when only 1/3 full!

The following diagram illustrates how a conventional vacuum cleaner works:

1. Dirt contaminated with germs and bacteria being extracted from carpet surface through the vacuum head.
2. Dirt contaminated with germs and bacteria entering traditional dry bag or bagless vacuum cleaner.
3. Contaminated air traveling through the pores of the bag or filter media exhausting small particles of dirt, dust, germs, and bacteria back into the atmosphere. Note: The particles too large to escape the dry filter lodge themselves into the pores on the inner lining of the filter media, causing reduction in air flow and cleaning ability.
4. The minute particles of dirt, dust, germs, and bacteria escaping the dry filter where they can remain airborne for several hours.
5. Cross section of dust and allergen particles magnified. These particles are inhaled by anyone present in the room, entering the lungs, reeking havoc to an allergy sufferer or those with respiratory problems.