We have a central vacuum system that was already piped in for an AirVac system. I don't know how it compares to the other lines--I can only speak from experience that ours has worked very well, has had no breakdowns, has had only one clog (from a 10 year old's overloading it) that was easily freed, and has virtually eliminated my kids' indoor allergy symptoms since no dust gets stirred up. When we first started using it, I kept double checking the suction because it was so quiet in the room where I was vacuuming (the canister and motor are in the basement). When first used, because it was a new house with new carpeting, I had to empty the canister every couple of weeks, as ours is bagless. Now, 3 1/2 years later, we can go 6+ weeks between emptying it, and we now have an indoor dog that leaves constant tumbleweeds. One thing I would recommend that our builder did not install was the crumb catchers along the cabinet baseboards in the kitchen. Those are very handy to have--just sweep the kitchen floor mess into vents and it goes into the system!
(OK, two things) I would also advise a hose set for each floor of your home; it's much more convenient than carrying the sets up and down stairs.

Thank you. We are leaning toward a bagless system. Good to know. Your suggestions about two hoses and the crumb "thingy" are good ones. Do you have the standard inlets or the electrical inlets? Just curious-- how did you clear the clog?

We have electrical inlets, but the carpet attachment still has to be plugged in into a standard outlet, with the hose in the vacuum inlet.
My husband cleared the clog simply by placing his hand entirely over the end of the hose, and the force of the motor end pulled it on through to the canister (it's that strong of a suction!)

I ordered my power unit from Galaxie, http://www.galaxie-vac.com/default.htm great product for the past 6 years. About 30% less expensive than local dealers. Highly recommended. I 2nd the opinion of getting 2 sets of hoses and pipes for each floor.

Can these systems be retrofitted into an existing house?

Yes they can be retrofitted into an existing house but the cost of doing so depends on many factors. If you have an unfinished basement or crawl space the tubing can easily be installed to the areas above where you want a vacuum outlet. If you don't have an unfinished basement or crawlspace then it gets trickier, one way is to install the tubing up into the attic and then down thru the walls. So it all depends really on what your situation is.

I have electrolux central.It is the only vacumn I ever had that the suction was great and stayed great.Some are at first but kinda die off.Ive had this one over 13 years now.

I have bagless Electrolux CV in current home and I love it. We are building a new home and somewhere I found some ratings saying that Electrolux was not considered very good. For new house, I went with a NuTone, which had good ratings, I got the electric dustpan outlets that let you sweep the sweepings into a floor level opening and then kick a button to suck them up. Have not moved in yet, but I hope I like the new system just half as well as the old one.

We have Nutone in out 6 month old home. It works great. We got the largest unit they make, even though we could have gotten away with a smaller unit. Make sure you get plenty of vac pans/dust pan/whatever you call them. I didn't know about these and the electrician put one in the kitchen. We love it and wish we had one in each bathroom and the laundry room as well. Just sweep the floor and sweep it right into the pan and the dirt is gone.

Todd

Aircvac system(bagless) is what i have and i bsolutely love it. Of all the upgrades i had in my house the central vac was my favorite. It was money well spent. my builder charged me 1900 for the system. i have 3 inlets and 1 toe kick(under my kitchen cab)

For the second hose and "socks" for hoses, buy ebay. They are very much cheaper than your vac dealer or contractor will cost you.

Has anyone heard anything about the DuoVac central vaccuming system?

We installed a VacuFlo system in our new house. I've used it for 4 years and would not even consider going back to a non-central vacuum cleaner. My friend has had one in every house she's lived in but one -- that one couldn't be retrofitted, so they sold it and moved. Her allergies were awful without the VacuFlo.

We haven't had a single problem -- it will be the first "non-negotiable" in my next house. It has a tank in the garage, right by the door. I have a Golden Retriever, so I have to empty it more often than "standard" but I don't care . . . it's no big deal.

Arlene

By all means---consider a HideAHose retractable hose system if you are thinking of installing a central vacuum for a new home or retrofitting it into an existing home. You can see a video demo at www.hideahose.biz

Mine is 29 years old. We have worn out the hose once and a carpet attachment, but it still works. The unit is in the garage. It is just a basic unit that came with the house.

I have a VacuFlo and I love it. My parents have had them for twenty years and won't have a house without one. Now if only I wasn't too lazy to put the hose away after I use it....

OMG I want one of these so bad! We built 6 years ago and thought about a central vac for about 1 sec. and then the thought was gone. We didn't have a lot of money so we just needed in the house - no extras.
Well, now with DS and I having bad dust allergies I am really trying to keep the floors and everything a lot cleaner.
I can't get the Dyson under our bed or our sons bed and I am getting real sore lifting the matresses off the frames every week.
So....I am trying to find a dealer and there are none in our area. The closest seems to be 80 miles away or so. Do you think that would be a problem?

It looks like Nutone, Flovac are 2 of the places that are far away and I need to see about more options.

I really hope we can get this in our home and soon :)

We have a Broan unit that was installed when we built our home about 13 years ago. We have had a broken belt, but that's about it. I love it. So nice to have all the dust, etc. to go into a huge canister in the basement. Hubby empties it a few times a year. It absolutely does a better job than our old Hoover and Panasonic did. One thing I would recommend - in your kitchen have a small vacuum hole (?) put on your baseboard. It will be pretty much out of site but when you just want to do a quick sweep in the kitchen, you can sweep it right into the opening and not have to worry with a dust pan. I really wish I had gotten this on mine, but I never saw one until after ours was completed.

Does anyone know if there are any smaller systems available? I am really only interested in the toe kick vacuums.

There is a self-contained cabinet vacuum, called the Sweep Away Cabinet Vac. made by Galaxie. Designed to be placed inside a kitchen cabinet, opening mounted in the toe kick.

I saw it on http://marketplace.hgtv.com/ for $299 + 65 installation kit. Haven't seen it in action though.

When this house sells (if ever...), I will be building another home.
Due to asthma, a central vac is one of the things on top of the list- but- I have used my aunts a few times, and the hose on hers is very heavy. Is there a brand that does not have such a heavy hose, or can I buy different weight of hose with some brands?
Thank you.

My VacuFlo hose was sort of awkward -- think 30' snake! -- but not really heavy. The one in the new house will be a bit longer . . . Go visit showrooms and they should have a demo model set up that you can "test-drive."

Incidentally, for those who are building, and want a central vac but the budget won't support it, check with your local installers and see if they will do the piping while your walls are open. You can then add the unit and accessories later when the budget recovers from the building process. We recommended this to someone and the initial investment at time of building was considerably under $500 . . . sure easier and cheaper than retrofitting after walls are in.

Arlene

I'm puzzled that you all seem to have bagless models. How come? When the canister is emptied, don't you get great clouds of dust and mold (from any decaying food crumbs)? I start wheezing just changing the HEPA bag on my canister vacuum, so I have only been looking at brands with bags, figuring it's better to spend $50 /year for bags vs. $$ for asthma inhalers.

But we still have to figure out which brand. :-( Fortunately it seems that there are multiple fine ones. Any that we should stay away from?

I am right there with you infohound_2006. We are only interested in a bag system because I cannot stand the dust when emptying canister vacs. VacuFlo makes one called the Maxum 5 and Maxum 7. I think we are going to go with the Maxum 7 (our house will be 4400 sq feet and this one can handle up to 7000 sq ft). Does anyone have any experience with the VacuFlo Maxum?