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South Texas | Dear Ray,
Not sure if you want to go this route, but I installed a central vac when building our house about 10 years ago. (Still finishing some trim, but that's a different story.) Fortunately, I thought of it just prior to slapping up the sheetrock. Ours happens to be a VacuFlo, but I've no idea how it compares to others. I think it's a 1.5 HP motor? Controls are all 12 volt. No bag, just a vortex and large dust collector, smaller particles exit an exhaust to outside. No problems with unit, but did replace handle and hose, but only because the on-off switch went kaput. The carpet thingy spins from vacuum and actually works well. We dump the collector maybe every couple months.
For our L shaped house, there are only 2 outlets and a 35' hose. That means that if you want to retrofit an existing house, there's not much drilling and mess. The unit hangs in the utility closet and plumbing is all in the attic. I did add two odd things that caught my attention. Those are sort of "permanent dustpans" built into the wall. You kick the flipper with your toe, which opens the valve and turns on the vacuum. Sweep the dust in there and kick it again to shut it down. Works well. They are a little tougher to retrofit since you have to chew out some of the lower 2 x 4 in the wall that sits flat on the floor. It wouldn't be too bad, since there's a nice plate that hides the inevitable access hole in the sheetrock.
The plastic piping is light, and does not fit any PVC stuff that I could find. It's about 1.5" diameter. All the intakes are smaller so we've not had any plugging--yet. We do let in three cats and find lots of their hair in the collector.
Hope you find what works for you. Take care. Stetts | |
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machinery for the house (any suggestions for a new vacuum?)
