Dry Dental Vacuum Systems - The Ram Vac - The Dental Equipment & Dental Office Blog

Wet ring dental vacuum systems (suction machines) are quite simple: an electric motor spins an impeller into which water is injected. As the impeller rotates vacuum is created.

This system has been used in dental offices for decades with good results. The downside however, is water use. The water is generally supplied by a 3/8 inch water line that runs unrestricted anytime the pump is on. An average dental office with a wet ring vacuum pump can use as many as 57,000 gallons of water per year! Some doctors may be concerned about the environmental effects of this, but all dentists should be concerned about the financial effects.

Dry vacuum machines, which don’t use any water, have been around for a while in the dental business with mixed results. Initially, the machines were nothing more than beefed-up Shop Vac machines. They were expensive, difficult to maintain, and had poor vacuum performance.

That has changed with the introduction of the RamVac in recent years. Still expensive, but now ultra reliable and easy to service, the RamVac has incredible vacuum performance. RamVac is a new style of dental vacuum pump system with its inspiration coming from the agricultural industry. The pump is separate from the actual vacuum line, which dumps waste into a holding tank, and then into the drain.

These new machines do require more floor space, and have more stringent installation requirements. However, these costs are more than recovered by the savings in service costs, the savings in your water bill, and improved performance.

Other manufacturers are now releasing machines which emulate the RamVac formula. This is a good thing, as competition will trend prices downward. Given the cost of utilities today, any dental office must do its due diligence and thoroughly investigate this option before purchasing another vacuum system.