<p>My wife is interested in a central vacuum system. Says they are “easier”.</p>
<p>Do you like them? Are they worth the expense? Anything you don’t like about them?</p>
<p>There was a recent thread discussing this topic. We recently moved but for 10 years we had a Vacuflo system that I absolutely loved. Since we had a two-story home it came with 2 hose and attachments so dragging up and down stairs was not necessary. It also came with a third set of attachments for the garage to vacuum my cars. It was also a bagless system. I greatly miss not having central vac in our new home, but will not be able to install it since our walls are solid wood construction held together using dowels with no gaps in the walls for ductwork.</p>
<p>Search for the other recent thread.</p>
<p>We have one and it’s great. It’s powerful, reliable, the noise is in the garage (where the power unit is) and it’s cleaner because all of the dust/dirt goes into the power unit that’s in the garage which exhausts to the outside. This is great if anyone has allergies or asthma since it’s even better than a HEPA filter.</p>
<p>Judging from what others have written, how convenient it is may depend on how the house is laid out with respect to the vacuum ports. In our house it’s easier than a regular vacuum would be. </p>
<p>Central vacs are ‘built-in’ to the house. For new construction it’s not a problem but for a retrofit you have to look at what access is available and how much work (cost) it’ll be to do the retrofit.</p>
<p>If I was building a new house I’d definitely put in a central vac.</p>
<p>Note - mine’s a Nutone.</p>
<p>We love our central vac too. We have a Beam system.</p>
<p>I really like mine too. We added it when we were doing a house addition, but it didn’t seem like a big deal to retro-fit in the rest of the house.</p>
<p>Hmmm. The house we bought 18 months ago has a central vac system. I just don’t like it. The hosing and attachments are basically as heavy or more so than my miele upright and canister units. And I don’t like the feeling of all the crud cycling through the walls and collecting in the basement (where ours is installed). I just like my miele vacuums more. I had our central vac cleaned and serviced, used it once and never again.</p>
<p>Everyone is different.</p>
<p>at my house the person who cleans gets to pick the cleaning tools</p>
<p>The main reason why I love a central vac system is not so much they are “easier” but because they are just a lot more powerful than even the most expensive uprights or cannister vacuums. I do happen to think they ARE easier as well, because you have a long hose in which to reach higher places with than the more restrictive conventional vacs.</p>
<p>I don’t really find that they are more powerful. The motor when in the garage or basement is a very long way from the hose when you are upstairs.</p>
<p>My Vacuflo motor was in the garage on the same level as our first floor. The home was very large and I didn’t notice any power loss as we got further away from the motor. I can not speak about units located in the basement and the comparative power versus conventional vacs.</p>
<p>My unit is in the basement. Home is a two story colonial. PLENTY of power. Our cleaning lady has a Miele and when she comes here, she uses the central vac instead of her Miele.</p>
<p>
It makes no difference how far away from the motor one is - the suction will be the same 10’ away or 100’ away. What ‘can’ make a difference is if the ports aren’t properly sealing such that there are vacuum leaks at some of them. If this were to happen then one may be able to sense a difference in suction power depending on which port they plugged into.</p>
<p>All central vacs aren’t all the same. They sell motors of different power levels, just like push-vacs, so one install might be much more powerful than another. A central vac can generally be more powerful than a push-vac though since in a regular vac there’s a compromise between power and weight but in a central vac one isn’t pushing around/lifting the motor so it can be heavier and more powerful.</p>
<p>A key feature, if it’s installed in this fashion, is the ability for it to exhaust to the outdoors and therefore have no stray particles being exhausted into the air of the house. It’s better than HEPA.</p>
<p>Here’s the link. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1394207-central-vacuum.html?highlight=central+air+vac[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1394207-central-vacuum.html?highlight=central+air+vac</a></p>
<p>Ours is in the basement. The power seems the same on first and second floors.</p>
<p>We bought a newly-built house a few years ago that came with a central vac system. I tried it a few times and hated it, so I went out and bought a new vacuum and I have not used the central system in at least three years.<br>
The hoses kept knocking into the walls and I knew there would be marks if I kept using the central system. The suction was not as good. I can get through the house much more quickly with one independent unit than by running to the different closets for the different hoses that the central system used. I really do not understand the appeal…I would never put a central vac system in another house.</p>