Can’t speak to start up costs because we moved into a house with central vac. I LOVE it. It’s so easy, lightweight and I can cover a lot of ground from one plug. I usually hate vacuuming but don’t mind it with this. Seems to be quicker. I have hard wood floors and rugs so can’t really speak to performance on carpet. It’s fine on our rugs tho.

What is your cost?

I feel like robin on here because I am often shock and appalled by the markup on central vacs. They generally last forever so the cost is mitigated somewhat by that.

If you have solid floors - they are really really helpful. If you have wall to wall carpet everywhere, I don't think they are worth the cost. They are still good on carpet but so are other vacs.

The Hide a Hose makes "cumbersome" go away. There is no "special precautions" you need to take with a socked hose. Don't worry about criticism of a 20 yo system as compared to new. Dyson wasn't around 20 years ago either (well maybe in Europe).

They are quieter by a lot. They are lighter to move around which for stairs is very important. They carry dust and allergens out of the house and don't rely on a filter that loses full performance very quickly. Any allergist will favor a CV. For fine dust particles, they can't be beat.

Are they magic and you will never have to dust again - no. There are so many variables on dust formation I think it is really hard to say whether there is less dust around...

David Cary - my current central vac is only a few years old and yes is a hide a hose. Previous owners put it in, not us. Still despise it and prefer my cordless Dyson. Yes, not as bad as dragging an entire bulky hose around from outlet to outlet but I still am trailing a hose as I walk around rooms, furniture, and even with a sock it can add friction on drywall corners. Experience likely varies though depending on length of hose, number and location of outlets, layout of home, etc. I just know I still end up with a long (albeit lighter than a non-HAH) hose attaching me to a wall.

Stairs are actually one of my least favorite parts for central vac compared to my stick (though still much better than an upright, etc!). I think just do not like having a cord/being attached to a wall at all!

I have both carpets and hard floors, I agree it is less great on carpets as you mentioned. Maybe that is part of why I am less impressed with my current one. The heavy “traditional” system I had growing up was much better on carpets as it had its own electrical supply (can use electric powered brush attachments). I know you can get an electric head or something for the HAH with its own power supply but we did not bother. Also emptying our (bagless) system is unpleasant.

I also like my cordless Dyson as I have an excuse to only vacuum for maybe 20 minutes at a time before I need to recharge both my vacuum and me LOL.

I know many love, love their central vac systems and I am not a common voice. But I am one of those rare ones who does not like them :)

FYI Dyson has been around since the 1991...licenses in North America since prior to 2001 but directly marketed after that, but yeah certainly the cordless stick is more recent (~2015) :) You get a little history of Dyson pamphlet when you buy a Dyson (at least I did!).

Central vacuums exhaust to outside of the living space and so are much healthier than stick, pull-behind, and other options that exhaust in to the living space. They've been working on better filtration to get closer to central but likely never will since the filtration system and power required to run it are quite huge.

For us the cleaner and healthier air are the most critical bit.

Yes central vac is worth the cost!!! Who wants to be emptying bags and changing filters all the time. And if you are in a dusty environment CV takes the dust outside while others just blow it around in your house. And not sure what you mean about not doing a good on carpets. My CV is WAY more powerful than any unit I had before. Maybe has the do with the size. (We have hardwood and carpet) we also have the vacpan in the kitchen for quick cleanup with a broom.

PS there are no maintenance cost so to speak. Ever 1/2 yr or so we empty the canister, and get the dust accumulation off the screen. Otherwise it is maintenance free!!

I am currently on a quest for the perfect vacuum. (Mostly because I am not a big fan of housework, but like a clean house / floor.)

My current thinking is to ditch the central vac that was planned (long hose PITA) and new house has many more rooms on the first floor. I don't want to be going in, backing out, going in, backing out, etc. And I like the sock - but then the sock picks up fuzz and hair - so that's a PITA too - unzip, wash, reinstall...

Had through about a fleet of Roombas, but that seemed excessive when I priced them.

Now looking at batter powered things. First step - trying to find a decent stick vac (no carpet, HW / hard floors only) Mostly for pet hair and my hair and the cat is a litter flinger. Quick things - not "full on" vacuuming.

Longer term - thinking about the batter powered backpack vac for "heavy" cleaning. I like the idea that I can just wander around with no cords and no long hoses. These are mostly commercial, so they are fairly quiet, and run for about 45 minutes. Come with a host of accessories. Looking at pro team and GV.

I have a built in system in our Florida home. Can't remember what I paid for the parts my husband did the install. I LOVE it., There is no maintenance except emptying the canister.

The Utah house has no built in system. I bought two dyson vacs, one is cordless which is nice for kitchen tiles but if you use it on carpet, it dies quickly and the recharge takes I think 3 hours; a real PITA. The Dyson Animal Ball or something like that has a long cord you have to drag around and is so big it won't vacuum under the bed. Another PITA. Unless you go cordless, you either drag a cord or a hose.

I'm hoping we can somehow retrofit this house with a central vac. I agree with Opaone, it is cleaner and healthier. We never purchased the power head which is intended for wall t wall carpet; has a power beater and more power. . Since we have tile and oriental rugs, we didn't need the power head.

Inga

Annual filter (to capture motor dust?) is $10. A package of 4-5 bags was $30. Not excessive, the bags supposedly last quite a long time.

Ours is a non HAH, oversized for our 1300 sq ft per floor x 3 floor home. It exhausts to outside.

We just moved in, and construction dust still floats around...we are changing HEPA filters regularly but it takes a while to get out of the ducts (or we could pay for duct cleaning :P ).

If dust settles on trim, I just vacuum it with the CV. Love it!

We have a Vacuflo. Love it. Bullit proof. Maintenance? Besides emptying the bucket 2-3 times a year, you also have to clean out the outflow screen. I do this with a small portable canister vacuum in the basement. When we finished the basement, I actually did the install of that floor into the existing system. Easy to do, basically just fitting pvc parts together and inexpensive. Guessing most of the cost is labor.

Ours is a Vacuflo as well. Practically no maintenance. Our house is small by "normal" standards we have no pets so I think if we empty the tub once a year and we're good. My husband started using it to vacuum the courtyard of leaves dirt etc. I was not pleased as it's hard on the brushes so I bought a new set for the main house and used the old hose and brushes for the courtyard. If we had a basement here it would be pretty easy to retrofit the house but alas, there are no basements around here just like in Florida.

Inga

Aerus Electrolux

I have ben in the cleaning industri for more then 20 + years. Centralvacs are the best at keeping dust levels indoors to a minimum due to no air being blown out of some tyoe of vacuum, sitck, upright, cordless, canister.

When some talk about cordless vacuum and how much they love them and they only use them I get horrified. The are NO cordless vacuum that can replace a corded one totaly, they are fine for inbetween cleanings but not as your only vac. Carpet need strong suction and a powernozzle driven by an electric motor not an airdriven one that might be fine if you only have a few area rugs.

Bagless vers baged is a great debate also. Baged you just take it out and put a new in, done. Bagless needs alot more maintnens of filters to keep it running at full suction and even then as on can se on youtube baglesscleaners clog up with dirt.

But it alls comes to how much do you want to spend on your vacuum, time when useing it, do you have allergies, do you have any fysical limitaitions.

A cordless cleaner can be your only cleaner if the are only hardwood or no carpet then you dont need that much power to get it clean.

Just my thoughts, good luck