My wife and I recently refloored our house with maple flooring. When it came time to move the refrigerator back into place, we had the bright idea to use one of those sets of wheels you place under the appliance. They worked all right, but the little pebble that was embedded in one wheel left a permanent record of its passing in the new flooring for all to see afterwards. This got me thinking about the idea of an appliance-moving hover-plat(form).

It would consist of a small platform, upon which the appliance sits, made of thin plywood with a rubber hovercraft skirt around the perimeter and a place to connect a household vacuum cleaner to. Simply set the vacuum cleaner to blow instead of suck, and off you go. With a large surface area it could provide a lot of lift with just a little pressure from a vacuum. Plus it wouldn't mar the floor. The appliance could be left permanently on the platform.
-- riccoman, Feb 20 2004

Debris can still be projected by a fan having to support X-hundred pounds X distance off the floor. Ever notice that the skirts on hovercraft aren't necessarily the cleanest things. Also take into account that the material of the skirt may mark, scar or otherwise damage the floor depending on the amount of friction that extists between said surfaces.
-- Letsbuildafort, Feb 20 2004


Avoiding marring the floor would be the main point. Bear in mind the thing probably wouldn't be driven through marshes and the like. I've played around with making small hovercraft with green garbage bags for skirts and it works quite well. Never placed a fridge on them though. Cleaning the floor before moving would be a good idea. My fridge is in a little nook, and to get it out to clean the radiator coils on the rear is quite a proposition. We usually break our backs trying to lift it and place clean towels under it to slide on. This could possibly still mark the floor though.
-- riccoman, Feb 20 2004


These are quite baked my friend. I use them all the time [link]. I think they can lift up to 1800 Lbs, although an air sled uses perforations rather than a skirt.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 20 2004


Darn. All my good ideas seem to be someone elses.
-- riccoman, Feb 21 2004



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