YES

Yes! We put one in and a sweep area in kitchen

YES, but also check out Hide A Hose. We have had one for 12 years, one of the best decisions we made. We have all hardwood and stone floors with rugs. We have a vac pan in the kitchen that we don't use as one of the HAH outlets is also in the kitchen. We won't build our new house without a central vacuum and we won't have a central vacuum without Hide A Hose.

No.

I'd rather wheel a vac than drag a hose.

I'd rather have a modest investment in my vac that makes it more easily replaced if needed rather than have a built in part of my home with the potential to go bad just as I'm considering selling.

Agree with sis33. I've never owned a home with out a central vac. My parents built a year ago and I told them about Hide-a-hose. They are very happy with it and glad to not have to store a hose, carry a canister or push an upright vac.

If you buy a good quality central vac it should last a long time and have few, if any, issues. This is my third home with a central vac and I have only had to have one repaired once.

We had central vac in our last house and chose not to install in this house renovation. We were trying to save money and figured having the flexibility to buy whatever vacuum we wanted was an asset. Now, husband (who is the primary cleaner of the floors), wishes we had gone with central vac. He misses the suction vent (not sure of proper term) we had in the kitchen. I’m fine either way. We don’t have any carpet and a cordless stick vacuum works fine for me. If we had carpet, I’d lean more towards the central vac I think.

Yes, to having a central vacuum. We love it the motor and catch bin are in the basement much quieter than dragging a motor around. It was a bit more money, but I bought two hose sets one for the main floor one for upstairs no dragging items up and down. The ability of the larger motor to really pull up the dirt and dust is my favorite.

We have a vacuflo very quiet compared to most and I love it we have a hose on each floor

Hide a Hose for sure! No one likes to haul around those big hoses. Loved our hide a hose system!

I opted not to put one in. I've never had it so don't know what I'm missing. Plus I have a great housekeeper, it's only the 2 of us and a small hairless dog and I rarely need it when the housekeeper is not here.

We are getting a central vac by Beam Vac. Is the Hide a Hose system that can be added to any Central Vac. It looks pretty cool.

I see that it works with any system after watching a video on the Hide a Hose Website.

Must depend on where you live -- I've lived in several states and I've never known a soul with central vac; people would consider it bizarre. However, in the west it appears to be relatively common and occasionally beloved. Maybe ask somebody to try theirs out before committing?

Hi! Also building a house and after reading all sorts of threads on central vacuuming and headaches people had with hoses, we decided not to. However, thanks to Houzz, I also learned about Sweepovac and are having that put in the kitchen. That could be an option for you too if you decide to forego central vacuuming for the entire house.

Quoth my builder: Well, I will say that one issue I had with mine was that the receptacles are exactly the right size for matchbox cars. That caused problems more than once. Take that into consideration. Maybe just a small kick plate unit in the kitchen?

With my kids... I'm going to take his advice.

Loved my last 2 homes that had central vac - we are having it installed on our new home. Awesome suction/power, no bags, no frequent emptying of canisters, and dust debris are sucked out to garage.

Just had a look at the hide a hose website (building a new house) and it looks very interesting. I'm deciding on central vac or no as well. Have had it in the last two houses but like everyone hate hauling the hoses around and once or twice have nearly fallen to my death tripping over the darn hose while going up or down the stairs.

Anyone have the hide a hose that wants to share their experience? When you pull the hose out is it vacuuming already or does the attachment have a button that activates it? Is the pull back into the wall violent? lol Does it take up a ton of space to install? I'm curious! Thanks very much!

We were told we couldn’t get the hide a hose because we don’t have many straight runs. Our hvac etc is super complicated and made the central vac tricky too.

The Hide A Hose is controlled from a handle that is attached to the end of the hose so is switched on and off when needed. Retraction into the wall is quite rapid but not violent, depends on the amount of suction but you can also control the speed by the amount of the end of the hose you cover with your hand. The hose or hoses retract into regular 2" pvc plumbing pipe that is the length of the hose.

Our Hide A Hose is 12 years old with no problems whatsoever. There are many scare tactics used by builders who are ignorant of the benefits to homeowners of Hide A Hose or who are not willing to learn what is entailed in the (simple) installation. Items are not sucked up to get jammed inside your walls...worst case scenario something could jam inside the hose which is easily pulled out of the wall to be cleared. We have never had anything get jammed inside our hoses.

FYI there are several earlier threads that have dealt with Hide A Hose. I hope they are still available as they may answer many of your questions.

Matchbox cars? Really. Somehow I survived childhood without that issue - my son is eight.

Alison - that is crazy. Sounds like someone was being lazy or was uninformed or you didn't have a good framing plan. I would never ever want a "super complicated" HVAC. But honestly what was so super complicated about it? I admit that if you were cramming 2 floors of ductwork into a single 16 in open web, you would not leave much room. But a pipe is 2 inches - that should be peanuts. I would never want to cut HVAC that close. Straight runs come by design - of course they aren't there if they weren't planned.

Out last house was somewhat violent but that is a matter of perspective. We lived there 8 years without an issue. Roughed in 3 HAH for the new build.

ACM - I am in NC. The last 2 resales I purchased had central vacs. And then I installed 2. I grew up in LI and my neighbor had a CV. So that is 2 data points east of the MS. They are super uncommon in spec houses.

Well our house is on a slope. There are four steps down from the front entry level to the great room. In order to maintain an open concept main floor with no drops and clean lines we embedded all hvac in discreet ways making it more complicated. Looks amazing and well worth it. When I say hvac complicated I mean hidden appropriately in well planned ways to create the space we want. We have a central vacuum just not the hide a hose feature.

We also had a building height restriction so didn’t want to go higher or make the ceilings lower on any of the levels. So yes almost all of our ductwork runs discreetly through one floor of the house.

I live and grew up in the DC metro area. My parents house was built in the late 80's and I'd say central vacs were pretty popular in their neighborhood. This was back when they also had those Nutone intercom systems that in hindsight, were kind of worthless. Anyhow, despite having a central vac system my parents also had a stand-alone vacuum on each level of their house. I tended to use the central vac because of the novelty factor and it was easier to do the stairs.

When I built my first house I didn't get a central vac system because I had a Miele canister that worked fine. I regretted that decision and when we moved 4 years later central vac was a non-negotiable. In this house I have a hybrid system in that I have vacpans, electric outlets for the electric central vac hose as well as a "hide a hose" outlet. In the 30 years I've used a central vac system I've never had a clog. My parents central vac system was replaced after about 15 years with a MD Silentmaster and that puppy has been running for about 15 years trouble-free itself. In my current home, the builder grade unit crapped out after a few years so I replaced it with a MD unit which cost less than a Miele canister.

I do love the idea of central vacs when you want to do an all out, thorough clean but for my day to day upkeep I do tend to grab my Dyson V8 stick vac or I run my Neato robotic vac. My cleaning lady uses our central vac every week for more thorough cleanings. If you can design your own system, definitely go with the hide-a-hose outlets. They are incredibly convenient and you can now use a battery-powered electric nozzle for carpeting. You used to only be able to use air powered Turbocats which didn't do as well on rugs as the new battery powered nozzles.

Ocscott how east was it to go from one system to another? I wonder if we have been duped into going with a system that isn’t as good when we could have had hide a hose! If there are pipes for the vacuum, which there are, wouldn’t the hide a hose have worked? Argh.

Alison, when I built my current home six years ago my option with the builder was to either say "YES" or "NO" to central vac. They installed their builder grade special, vacpans and the standard electric outlets. After about two years of reading posts on here praising Hide a Hose I reached out to a local dealer and he came out and retrofitted an outlet on the main level of my house. I hadn't finished my basement so it was really easy for them to make it work. They were done in 1/2 a day. If I build again, I will use all hide a hose outlets. I just am not a big fan of wrapping up the hose to just clean one room. Again, not a big deal when you're doing the whole house but for quick cleanings I prefer the HAH.

YES! i don't mind the hose. But I'd invest in a hose for upstairs and down so you don't have to drag it up and down the stairs.

I just use a iRobot Roomba. One does have to empty it after cleaning, but there are no hoses to trip over. It even sends a text message if it gets stuck!

I will say I do like having my Neato D7 robotic vacuum. It helps keep up with the tumbleweeds of dog hair without requiring any effort on my part. However, in terms of deep cleaning, robotic vacuums cannot hold a candle to a regular vacuum. I actually clean out the bin with my hide a hose outlet.

Despite having Hide A Hose I also have a Roomba so that the floors can be vacuumed while our frequent house guests are sleeping (unfortunately our central vac had to be installed in our 2nd floor laundry and is too close to guest bedrooms to be run at night). However the Roomba does not clean our stairs, baseboards, furniture, shelves, window sills, mantels, tvs, refrigerator and air conditioning grilles, walls, drapes, ceilings, the porches, the garage, or the interiors of our cars. It also requires emptying after each use and does not vent small dust particles outside.

No, to me they are annoying...

Yes.....We had one in our last home. I did most of the vacuuming and hauling the upright around was a PITA! I installed it myself....ranch. Not hard at all. It's not rocket science. It does add value. I did oversize it. Our house was 1700sf,(on slab so had to run hoses in attic. The vac I bought was rated for 4000sf(because of slab....everything had to go up instead of down). It was very little more in price.

One of the best benefits of the central vac, which has not been mentioned so far I think, is that you can have it exhaust to the outside. You know all that talk about HEPA filters in vacuums? Not needed with a central vac when it discharges to the outside. No dust getting around the filter and spread around the house.

Our house has a central vacuum (no hide-a-hose), and in the year that we've lived here I think we've used it once. We have a Dyson vacuum that we really like, and find it's just as easy to drag around the house as the central vac hose.

Yes, but definitely get hide a hose! I can't imagine having to carry a hose (or vacuum) all over the house.

Are you doing all carpet? If so, I'd consider a central vac. If you're doing hardwood (or fake hardwood) like most people, I don't see the point.

Also, consider a Roomba. I love mine, and it does the couple-times-a-week job. For the occasional heavy cleaning, I don't mind bringing out the vacuum from the closet.

Yes! Get vacuflo!!!! Great for people with allergies, as mike lamb said it is vented outside. Way less dust in the house. We added it to our first house and then to our forever home when we bought that. No more buying bags & filters or emptying canisters often. We make a lot of dirt (family of7) and only have to empty the canister maybe twice a year. Dragging a hose is less work than pulling the canister or upright around. IMO

Go for it. I’d give anything to have one!

I have a family member with 8 dogs. Last I knew, they loved it!

We're not getting one. I don't like using them any more than a traditional vacuum (or better yet, a powerful cordless, which is what we primarily use), and I'm not convinced that vacuum technology is going to keep being hoses in walls, particularly as Roomba and its clones are getting better all the time.

We just built and have the Hide a Hose. For all the reasons that have already been mentioned. Totally worth it!

ditto what Mike said. I'd forgotten about that.

We are adding it to our new build that is mostly hardwood. Have it in our current house. With two giant dogs our dyson doesn’t clean hardwood as well as the central vac, it makes a huge difference on how clean our floors get.

Yes, I adore my central vac. It's 35+ years old and I can still astound handymen by showing them how it gobbles up their debris. The suction is far more powerful than any unit you can push around by hand. All the noise is in the garage, and the dust exits the house instantaneously.

YES! We just moved into our new home in July and the CV with HAH is one of our favorite things. We don't use the VacPan in the kitchen as much as we expected - we just pull out the hose instead (an outlet is in the adjoining mudroom).

Yes. We just build a new home and have The hide-a-hose with a 60 ft hose. I put it out and vacuum the entire great room. We also have two outlets in the other areas for bedrooms. Very happy with it.

We have central vac but I can’t stand dragging the hoses. We use two Dysons instead. Dyson Ball for the upper level and cordless for the kitchen/dining room. I love the cordless so much we put in a new cabinet for it.

Hide-a-hose sounds interesting.

Definitely yes. Our air quality was better in the house we sold to build this new one. I am convinced central vac contributed to that air quality. I was talked out of hide-a-hose by my central vac guy who also convinced my dh.

Cant remember his rationale. Still having second thoughts about that one.

You should have second thoughts. Just about everybody I know who doesn't have hide-a-hose is ambivalent about having central vac. Everybody I know who has hide-a-hose loves there system. I told the builder I didn't care WHAT unit he put in as long as we had hide-a-hose.

There's not much point to a central vac if you've got to lug hoses around with you. You might as well lug a vacuum.

I hate my central vacuum. If I had hide a hose, I might like it better. I hate lugging the hose around, storing it is a nuisance as well, it takes up so much space! I bought and use an Oreck upright that i prefer to my central vac, and a Dyson cordless for my hardwood floors.