Are these mainly installed in new homes i.e. into the walls? I don't know much about central vacs but after reading a little, I see they're great for allergies, people with dogs, and I'm sure it will make my life easier (knee injury).

Would this system work with a remodel? I don't understand the closet idea or garage location...must the CV be vented outside like a venting system in the kitchen?

Appreciate any feedback to my questions.

I don't have a central vac yet, but from what I've read they can be retrofitted into existing homes. However, it would cost more to retrofit than it would for new construction. If you're remodel includes exposing the studs, then it should be relatively easy to do. I'm not sure I know what you mean about the closet idea. Just like the motor and power head are separate in a canister vac, the central vac's motor is located in a remote location (i.e. the garage). This is what makes the central vac so appealing because you aren't dragging the motor around with you like you would with a canister vac. They don't *have* to be vented to the outside, but it is the preferred setup. You can use a filter on the exhaust when it is not vented to the exterior.

Hope that helps!

I am going to have a central vac! AND Hide a Hose! Thanks to the info I gathered from this site! DH was totally uninterested in the vac idea at the start of our project, but when I finally managed to drag him kicking and screaming to a vac store last week and he saw the systems demo'd - he was SOLD! Instantly! We will DIY the system (it's not rocket science) this week. There will be two 40' hoses on the first floor and one 50' hose on the second floor. This will be perfect for cleaning our very long house and attached 2 car garage. Our power unit will be in the 2nd floor laundry room and will vent to the outside. It is impossible to install it in the garage due to the construction of the house. I will be glad to report back on how effective the system is (probably won't be until the New Year as there is still much to finish on the house!)
Sad I know, but I am so excited about this vac!
Oh, I almost forgot - ditto everything dannie gal said. Central vacs can be retro fitted, the pipes may be 'fished' inside the walls.

That's great sis3!! I share your excitement and I haven't even seen the darn hide-a-hose IRL yet! Please let us know how the DIY goes and share any tips or tricks you learned while installing it. Thank you and can't wait to hear a full report after you get to use it! :)

Hi again, everyone :-)

We finally got our central vac system with Hide-a-Hose installed yesterday so here is a very short term review.

The system works exactly like the video-demo available on the Hide-a-Hose website. (Call me a skeptic, but I always figure they're *not* telling you something :-) In this case, it is just as simple as the video makes it look. The installer demo'ed it for us before he left-- ds and I were vacuuming the rugs before he pulled out of the driveway-- extremely simple.

We have 7 HaH, a vac-pan in the laundry room and a conventional outlet in the garage. After messing with that unwieldy hose out there, I'm extremely glad we went with the HaH-- it makes things so convenient.

We've been in this house for about 3 weeks now-- first time with hard flooring and wool rugs. I was beginning to second guess our decision... thinking maybe the central vac money could've gone elsewhere. Using a dust mop really wasn't that difficult on our laminate flooring... okay, now I'm sold :-) This central vac/HaH system makes cleaning the entire downstairs flooring as simple as wiping the kitchen counters.I can get all the fuzz (mostly dog hair) from the perimeter of the rooms in nothing flat and it only takes a few minutes to give the rugs a quick vacuuming.

If anyone has any specific questions, I'll try to reply... can't think of anything much more off-hand :-)

did you get the remote switch on the HaH? How long are you hose sections?

Hi dixie--

No, we didn't. Our downstair hoses are 40 ft, upstairs are 35 ft.

As requested earlier in this thread, here is my first update on installing the Hide A Hose system.
Using a piece of string 50 feet long with knots at 30 feet and 40 feet, we determined that we can reach every corner of our 2nd floor with one 50ft hose, and the first floor including the garage with one 40ft and one 30ft. We will have a vac pan in the kitchen. The 'plumbing' is done and was pretty simple. We used schedule 40 pipe with transitions. Since each hose needs its own length plus about 2 feet of piping in which to be 'garaged', it is necessary to plan piping routes to provide those lengths.
We pick up the Imperium power unit tomorrow so that we will be able to test the system. More later.

If anyone is still reading this thread...help me out. Our GC quoted $3800 for a Hoover system with only one hose, one vac pan and six outlets. Seems really high to me. Also, can't find any feedback on Hoover.

$3800 sounds very high to me! Our system cost about $3000 (I don't have the paperwork with me at the moment) but that includes the Hide-A-Hose which probably costs about $1000 and a very powerful cyclonic power unit. The system has 3 outlets, so 3 sleeved hoses 120' in total length, and a vac pan. We have installed it ourselves, so saved the installation costs, but there is much more pipework needed for a Hide-A-Hose. The piping for a regular CV is relatively easy.

denise-- That quote sounds very high. Is there another dealer in the area that can give you a quote?

Our quote for $2500 included installation of 7 Hide-a-Hose outlets and one Vacpan. I just can't imagine why your bid would be that high.

free at last

7 hide a hose outlets + vacpan + installation for $2500? That is a good price. If it came with a vacuum power unit and remote control the guy lost money for sure.

Here is the costs for Hide-A-Hose.

1) Vacuum unit: Get a 220 volt unit with 1000+ "air watts" if possible. Hide-A-Hose uses an air powered brush so you need the power if you have thick carpet - no carpet....you dont need the power brush and can opt for the 110 volt unit. (A 110 volt unit will work fine with the power brush but the more power the better. Vacuum units are measured in "air watts". Get one with 500+ air watts or you may be disappointed.

Price for 220 volt power unit $600 - $900
Price for 110 volt power unit $300 - $700

2) Hide-A-Hose outlet: Each will cost you $280 minimum. That is for a 30 foot hose, wall outlet, trim door & pipe.

Price for needed parts is -
$280 (30 foot) per outlet
$310 (40 foot) per outlet
$335 (50 foot) per outlet

3) Optional items:

Price for vacpan, wire & pipe: $35-$60
Price for remote control handle: $185
Price for Turbocat Zoom power brush (recommended power brush): $110-$130
Price for wired "manual valve" option: Add $25 per outlet (this option includes wire and a lever inside each outlet to turn power unit on and off without the remote. This option is nice (even if you have the remote control) as you dont have to run and get the remote to clean up a quick little mess near the outlet.

Labor costs will vary greatly throughout the US. Also the level of difficulty to install would be a factor to the installer. (New construction would be less expensive than a home that is already being lived in) And obviously the number of outlets and if they are wired or non wired are factors.

If you get a bid...simply add up the material costs with what I gave you above and you will know what the installer is charging for "labor and profit"

My home has 4 - 50 foot outlets. 3 in the house and 1 in the garage. (For the garage unit I purchased an orange garage 50 foot hose. I didn't want a hose with a sock in the garage) - I have a Beam 2900 power unit, remote control handle, vacpan, Turbocat Zoom, all manual valves and used schedule 40 pipe. Installed it myself and the total was $2650

Hope that helps

Hi Everyone,
I have been researching central vacuums for awhile and I am very overwhelmed. There are so many choices. What brands do you recommend? Has anyone had any experience with cyclovac?
I love the idea of a hide-a-hose but does a 50 foot hose lose a lot of suction being that long?

Dear Overwhelmed:

I asked a similar question a few weeks ago and have narrowed down my choices and have another quote now. I got a quote for a Beam system with 8 outlets, one hose,power head, one hard floor tool kit and and one Vac Pan for $3076. I have another dealer due to give me a quote on a Dirt Devil unit, but don't have it yet and haven't been able to find anyone who's ever had the Dirt Devil product, which is a cyclonic system. I'll follow along here and see if anyone else can give us both some info.

overwhelmed 2007 - We are still at the drywall stage so no chance to properly test the vac yet. However there seemed to be no noticeable loss of suction when we tried the system prior to drywall. It easily picked up a large steel nut with the 50 foot hose. I do think the power unit should be selected with HAH in mind as there are systems out there with quite weak power units (which may be why some owners say they are less than satisfied with the amount of suction?)

We visited the Seattle Home Show over the weekend and tested the HOSE GENIE on a Cyclo Vac Central Vacuum. As opposed the the HIDE A HOSE, the HOSE GENIE is electrified and supposedly gives the option to use more powerful attachments because as I understand it the HAH only operates on the suction. The owner, salesman, installer (all the same guy) was there to talk to us about the product and give us the demo and we really liked him. He gave us a prelim bid of $3,500 for 3 Hose Genie outlets with 45 feet of hose in the wall, unit itself, and all the attachments for out 3400 sq. ft. new construction. We had figured on about a buc a foot, so he's right there in the ballpark. Of course we'll check him out with the BBB and his license and bond all that stuff before we use him, but we were really impressed. He also told us that he has been using the Hose Genie in his home for nearly 11 months as it was new last year. No problems so far.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hose Genie Link

denise,
We paid $1350 for one hose (with all attachments), one vac pan and 6 outlets. (VacuFlo) That's rough in and trim out. The bid you were given does sound high.

We had one so far in all our homes we owned.I would not go with anything else.I have an elecrolux and its nice.I bought this one 15 years ago it sucks as good as the day we bought it.

I haven't read all the responses but did want to mention that you might want to get a hose sock for your hose so that you won't scratch your floors or wood work. I haven't put my sock on yet but I think it has to be better than not using it.

Does anyone have the Aqua Air - Wet Dry system that oruboris mentioned on May 4, 06? We're thinking of putting one in our new home. We've had central vac (Beam) in our current and last home and absolutely love it! However, with pets and lots of travertine flooring going into our next home, the wet/dry system would be better for us.

Are there any other wet/dry central vacuum systems out there in the market, or is Aqua Air the only one?

Here is a link that might be useful: Aqua Air - Wet Dry

bobleilani

I too considered a wet/dry system but the hose management issue kept me with Hide-A-Hose (Beam for the power unit because of the large dealer network).

Go to the link I have pasted below for the unit I considered (DV2A 310). Do not purchase the small unit because of the low "air watts". The larger unit is $1535 shipped which is a fair price for 600+ air watts of wet/dry.

-------------------------------------------------------

coysmum

The Hose Genie is a retractable hose system which causes more problems than the one it solves. ie. bulky outlet that you'll want hidden, bulky heavy hose, no sock capability, lots of moving parts to wear out.

Also, if your going to spend $3500...dont settle for a 120 volt power unit. Get a 220 volt unit because the suction power is the most important dollar spent.

Here is a link that might be useful: DrainVac

We had one in our old home but did not put one in our new home. We hated the central vac because of the long hose. It always seemed like a tug-of-war with the thing. I tripped on it several times. It was hard to store and just didn't seem to have the power I wanted. We purchased a Dyson for the new home.

kelsey grow

LOL...it sure is tempting when building a new home to forget the expensive central vac system and go with a $150 canister/upright.

Most people who have a central vac love them except for the darn bulky hose. Even so, they are being put in more homes than ever before. The main advantages are: quieter, more powerful, lighter weight, less dusting and certainly better for allergies.

In my case its also much quicker. I rarely use my vacpan which people swear by once they have one of those. I installed a hide-a-hose outlet next to my kitchen table. Rather than grabbing a broom and sweeping everything to the vacpan, I grab the vac handle with mop head and in about 20 seconds the hose is back inside the wall.

With the kids I have, everytime they eat the floor becomes filthy :-)

Reiehaxm,

Where did you get the hide-a-hose for only $280 for the all needed parts per outlet? It seems like it costs that much just for a hose.

overwhelmed_2007

Hide a Hose (30 footer):

Valve = $143.00
Door assembly = $28.00
Hose = $83.00
Pipe = $25.00

Here is a link that might be useful: Hide-a-Hose

While I'm far from choosing if I should go central vac or not, this thread helped me because it made me actually find out what the heck a "vac pan" was. We'll be putting mostly hardwood in our new home and it looks like a vac pan would REALLY be handy in any kitchen or high traffic area.

Does anyone know about Imperium? Are they a good brand for central vacs?

The only mistake I made was putting a vac pan only in the kitchen. I wish now I'd put one in the laundry/utility room as well.

You can get pan vacs cheaper on Ebay....around $25 (I'll install them myself). I am going to put one by each entry door for easy clean-up of dirt that is tracked in. I will also include one in each bathroom and the kitchen. They are SO handy!!

overwhelmed 2007 we have an Imperium CV. Imperiums have Lamb motors like most of the other CVs. The model we chose has sufficient power for our needs and a 7 year warranty. I can't tell you how it performs as we are not yet living in the house. Sigh.

reiehaxm, do you regret not having the wet vacuum capability? Does emptying the canister bother you at all? My husband likes the idea of washing the dirt down the drain, but the Hide-a-Hose seems like a tremendous advantage.

Thanks,
-- Amanda

We put a VacuFlo system in the house we built 5 years ago. We have a dust pan in the kitchen. I can't imagine going back to a "normal" vacuum cleaner.

This was to be our "forever" house but we're moving to another state in the spring - just about ready to start the building process. My new house WILL have a VacuFlo - no question. The only changes I'll make will be to use the disappearing hose - it wasn't offered when we built this house. Hanging up the hose is the only thing I don't like about the system. A friend says hers works well.

What I love about the Vacu-Flo: Dust really goes away - no more dust motes in the air when vacuuming. The noise is in the garage - I can direct-vacuum my Golden Retriever during shedding season without him freaking at the noise. Quick sweep-ups in the kitchen dust pan. Plenty of power. I love not pushing a heavy appliance around the house and not carrying it upstairs.

What I don't like: Hanging up the hose -- which will be eliminated with the new system.

Resale: The people who bought our hose are excited about the system!

Amanda,

No regrets on not getting the wet vacuum. I have 4 women in the house and 90 percent of whats in the canister is hair. I slide the trash can right under the vacuum unit and dump it in. With a wet vacuum, I may be calling a plumber to unclog all the hair.

hostagrams, You will like the HideAHose as reasons mentioned above. They have a new smaller valve available now that looks better on the wall. I will stress again to get a 220 volt vacuum unit.

BTW, i have a small area with high pile carpet and do not like the air operated brush on this carpet. If you have lots of this, reconsider the hideahose. I may purchase the meile battery operated brush if we end up putting more of this type of carpet in the basement. Not sure how well the meile works though but its an option.

The air operated brush seems to work OK on the high pile carpet, but my kids leave small objects (mini toys, hair pins, etc)on the floor and it gets jammed in the turbine of the powerhead. I vacuum over these hidden things and by then its to late and I have to disassemble the unit to remove the debris. An electric powerhead would most likely just send these things to the canister to be found.

If you have hardwood floors, tile, short carpet ---- hideahose is great. Hope this helps.

Well, this thread popped back up at the right moment!

Back in November I posted to say that I was excited to be getting a central vac with Hide A Hose and that I would be able to report back when we had finished the house in January. We got our CO....YESTERDAY!!!!! 18 months for a remodel/rebuild that was estimated to be finished easily within 6 months! I am not even going to touch on the costs overrun!
Back to the central vac - I was able to give it a good workout today for the first time, and I love it!!! It isn't strong enough to pull up the ceramic tile... but everything else goes up that hose with a whooosh! It is so light and convenient and then it disappears like a snake up a drain! Another thing I appreciate is the lack of noise. The Turbocat does make a noise but much less than my other vacs did. It works really well too, especially along baseboards where no speck of dust is safe.

All those years that I struggled with a heavy Kenmore vac that loves to trap itself on every piece of furniture, and a Hoover Windtunnel that picks up particles just to spit them out backwards, sandblasting my legs and feet in the process!!

I love our almost finished house and the central vac with HAH may be one of the best things we included!

Glad to "hear" your excitement, sis3! I'm counting down the days until we're in the new house with our HAH!! Can't wait!

This is exciting! Because of this forum we added a central vac to our new construction. It was recently installed. I'm hoping it's as good as we've been told. The builder suggested we add a "vac pan" to the master bathroom under "my" sink, because he says if I "shed" as much as his wife does, this vac pan will come in handy!!

Good for you, Denise!! I'm sure you'll love it . . . my kitchen vac pan gets used every couple of days -- because of my Golden Retriever shedding! Good idea to have one in the bathroom . . . I'll keep that in mind for my new house.

We did a Broan in our house. Had to put 2 units on each end of the house because of a 2 story- 22ft ceiling- GR smack dab in the center of the house. The company thought if we only used one unit and ran the system over the GR that some day we'd have trouble fixing it if anything ever got sucked-up in it. I made a mistakes on my kitchen vac-pan by putting it under the cabinet. It's hard to reach it there. But I have to say in building a home there are a lot of decisions your not sure about. But, central vac is one of the good ones...

Vacu flo owner here and I love it. We have had ours for about three years. I, too, wish the hide a hose feature was available when we built but that is all I regret.

Be sure they put an inlet in the garage for car cleaning.

Our current house is almost 16 years old. We installed a Vacuflo with the cyclopic motor way back then. I LOVE it. My husband has had to replace a switch on it once in all these years. Like everyone else, the hose is the biggest complaint. We definitely are getting the HiHo in our new house. The only thing I was concerned about was the suction of the 50 ft. hose or if we should get two 30 ft. hoses with maybe more suction.(Just wondering out loud.)

kats: If you don't put your vac pan under a cabinet, where would you have put it? In the floor in front? I need a picture!

smoothtalker, ours was just estimated today (should get the price tomorrow -- expected it this afternoon!) & the guy said that the attachments (handles? heads?) would be upgraded to provide more suction for the 50' hose. I'll know more (and post it, too) tomorrow, but hoped I could spare you wondering. (You probably have other things to wonder about!)

Thanks happykate, I think you're right about upgrading to accomodate the 50' hose. The hose in my house now is 35' but it would be nice to have 50 and less outlets. I think the HideAHose is definitely the trick.

Here's my HideAHose bid:

Two story house, c. 2500 + garage.

Vacuflo 760. This unit covers up to a 12,000 sf house on regular valves; this is almost five times the size of my house, but is apparently necessary for HAH.

Two HideAHose outlets ($500 per outlet as opposed to $100 for a REGULAR outlet!! This is, to me, a shocking difference.) One on each floor, each fairly centrally located.

Each outlet comes with a 50' hose, each of which comes with a hose sock. Given the price of the HAH outlets, it makes a world of sense to go with fewer outlets and longer hoses, unless you're a better negotiater than I am (clearly, quite likely.)

One vac pan.

One regular outlet in the garage, with a 'garage' hose & kit.

A 'Deluxe Tool Kit'; have no idea what that includes. Website is pretty useless; will continue to ask for further information.

Total price: $2560.00. I do think we'll do it.

And thanks to reiehaxm, above, for the specs. You're why I didn't question the size of the unit.

I'm sure I'll like it, but I certainly don't like paying for it! Kate.

One of the reasons the HAH outlets are more expensive than the regular ones is that EACH hose has to have slightly more than its own length in pipe to 'garage' the hose. So in our case with two 30 ft hoses and one 50 ft that means 110 extra feet of pipework to 'plumb'! With a regular system the hose is stored outside the system so no extra pipework is needed. This is also the reason that the HAH power unit has to be powerful - much more length of pipe.
All that said, the HAH is so worth it IMHO!

I have a vac pan in the kitchen only but I agree that a vac pan in the bathroom would be a great idea.

My Hide-a-Hose was installed today!!!!! I haven't gotten to use it too much, but I can't believe how quiet it is. Even when I'm in the garage with the unit running, it is much quieter than the shop vac. I got 2 50' hoses (one on each side of the house) and 1 vac pan in the master bath. The vac pan is pretty noisy in comparison, but so worth it. I can't wait to get rid of all this construction dust and move in!

Congratulations dannie gal! The central vac with HAH is my single favorite thing about our house rebuild! Sad but true!
I read today that the rugs I have just ordered are likely to shed. Who cares! I have my CV with HAH and Turbocat!!!!LOL!

DH brought this up and I dismissed it saying it would be way too expensive. Then I came across this thread and looked up what a vac pan is and now I want one. We are planning on all hardwood and the vac pan makes me drool.
I also figure it should be pretty inexpensive for our 1500 sq ft house that doesn't have a dimension longer than 40 ft.

I've been shopping for a central vac system. I think the HAH seems cool, but, besides not having electric power to the head, I've heard (from salesmen of non-HAH products) that the hose sock can bunch up and cause the hose to stick in the pipe so it won't retract, and your stuck with the hose hanging out of the wall. I was also told that the hose sock can pull dirt out of the pipe and bring it into the room. Have any of you experienced either of these problems?

And I had another question... We're planning to have a wood-burning fireplace in the living room, and they can be messy. Are there any products (mini-HAH?) that is available to to quick cleanups around a fireplace without having to bring out the 'big' hose to clean up the mess? I thought about a vac pan, but there will be some hard surfaces (hearth) and some carpeting around that.

Thanks

Hello all, glad for your postings. I am looking for a wet/dry central vacuum and would like everyone's feedback on which unit is the best and quietest, from DrainVac, Beam, Electrolux, or Vacu-Flo? Has anuyone had trouble with the wet/dry system clogging? Also, which is the best brand for thick carpets and long hair and frequent food and liquid spills? Any information would be helpful. Thanks.