Wow Sis3! Thanks for taking the time to find some answers! :-)

VacufloÂs most powerful unit, the MaxAir, has a water lift of 208". The water lift of the most powerful Imperium unit is 142", yet Vacuflo specifically stated they do not recommend the 60Â hose :-(. You can see my dilemmaÂ

WeÂve not made the purchase yet, and I do hope to hear from a "real" user, but I do plan on purchasing the 60 hose. Perhaps CVS will guarantee to swap it out if I buy everything from them and it does not work! IÂd take that deal  since we are DIY. :-)

The really tough part is that you need to plan your outlet location for length of hose. So if the 60 foot doesn't work that well, you are up the creek.

Now - I've just give my $.02. I have the Imperium unit - I don't know which one but lets say it was $650. I have a 50 foot hose and no problems. Obviously my water lift is 142 or less. So I can not imagine that 208 wouldn't be enough for a 60 footer - unless Vacuflo overrates or Imperium underrates. I might ask CVS if the ratings are on par and see if they have an answer to that obvious difference in lift. They certainly rec their Imperium without reservation on the 50 footer.

David I too have the Imperium with a 50' hose (and two 40's). I was surprised that Vacuflo advises against using a 60' hose. Last night I emailed my very helpful rep at CVS to find out why, and will post the answer as soon as I receive it.

Well Jeri, the news is good!

It think it is likely that Vacuflo won't recommend the 60' hose for reasons of CYA! The CVS rep checked the Vacuflo website and can't find any written statement about not using 60' hoses. She says that she has sold many 60' hoses with no problems! Below is a quote from her Hide A Hose rep.

"I have talked to several of their dealers that use Max Air with 60Â hoses and they tell me it is an awesome unit. This Max Air unit was originally made for Hide A Hose. I have a 60Â hose in my own home with the smallest unit and it works fantastic."

Jeri I hope this helps. Perhaps if you haven't done so already you could try talking to other Vacuflo dealers than your local one and ask them what their actual experience has been when customers buy 60' hoses for use with Hide A Hose, or call CVS for their input. My rep has offered to give me the name of the Hide A Hose rep for my area (South East) if that would help. Good luck!

You are all so nice to help! :-)

Because we are DIY, we are leaning toward the Imperium unit.

David  Am I being naive? We would have to rerun the pipes in the attic to a new location and install the new drop, but other than time (and a new hose of course); this shouldnÂt be too difficult to do if it was absolutely necessary. Fortunately, this location is very close to the unit and attic access is easy. I could simply choose a different location and go with the 50 hose, but I really want the hose in the wall between the kitchen and laundry as I will use it a *lot* in these 2 rooms.

From the many, many posts on these forums and else where, I too believe that the 60 will work and we are willing to give it a go. It will be great to come back here and post my experience so that I could be helpful to others as well. :-)

FYI - My info on the Vacuflo comes from an e-mail I received from them. Below is a cut and paste of that response. Curiously, I also e-mailed HaH and told them that Vacuflo did not recommend their 60 hose  I asked if they could recommend a different CV, but they never respondedÂ

If it was me, I would use air-watts to judge the performance of the different units. For a HaH application, I would think you would want a unit with a high air-watts rating from a high cfm rather than a high water lift (like the FC1550). Although I don't think a high water lift unit would be a problem either.

Fortunately, this location is very close to the unit

Wouldn't being close to the unit be more troublesome, since you still need to have 60+ feet of pipe?

If you have an attic, then no it really isn't that big of a deal. If you were talking 1st floor of a 2 story with a finished basement - that would be a big deal.

Ideally, you should have only 2 90 bends so it would so what Chris says is true. It isn't impossible but being close doesn't really help. Ideally the motor is on the opposite end of the house because that long run gets you close to the required feet but this is not that big of a deal (with good access).

Jeri, my rep at CVS says that she would exchange your 60' hose for a 50' "no problem" so if your rep agrees to it too, and your circumstances are such that if you are not satisfied with the amount of suction you can change to a 50' HAH 'garage' as you suggest, then it seems you have the answer. Hopefully though you will find that the 60' hose works perfectly well for you.

Our house was a less than perfect candidate for HAH as the power unit and canister have to be in the second floor laundry room which is located in the middle of a long house. In addition the 3 outlets had to also be located close to the middle of the house. This meant that the 3 'HAH garages' as I call them had to circle around in the attic and between the floors to be long enough to house the hoses. I am sure the straighter the runs, the better the suction for retracting the hoses. Our system was about as convoluted as it could be! Still it works perfectly with my Imperium vac. And I love the new 'toys' I bought for it yesterday!

It will be interesting to know what you decide to do and of course, how well it works.

The Water Lift of the VacuFlo @ 208 is higher than the Imperium @ 142, but the air-watts are lower. Curiously, the air-watts of the VacuFlo MaxAir is 903 which is lower then their less expensive model which has air-watts listed at 990. The Imperium air-watts are listed as 1268. So I hope Chris is right and the air-watts are more important! :-)

Yes  the "garage" as Sis calls it will be very close to the unit  so a long run out and then back I suppose. If it needed to be moved  it just wouldnÂt come back as far.

Sis  is your CVS the same as the one online? I didnÂt realize they have a brick-n-mortar store. Again  thanks for all your help  you have been too kind. :-)

Jeri, I am glad to help - well at least to try!

Yes, my CVS is the one that started it all in 1948, here in St Petersburg, Florida. CVS is still owned by the Ambrose family. It is interesting to visit as there are always representatives talking at length on the phone, helping customers and potential customers. I am always so impressed by their patience and by how pleasant they all are there! The "About Us" section of their website seems to be a very honest representation of who they are!

I feel really dumb because I hadn't realized until today that there are not CVS's all over the country! My CVS is everyone else's too!! So Mary at my/your CVS knows all about your quest for personal experience of 60 footers and has been trying to help me to help you!
Now I feel very lucky to have the store on my doorstep!

Occasionally sprinkling the rugs/carpet with baking soda before vacuuming will get rid of the dog smell in the hose.

Love my [50' hose length] central vac; good luck with yours!

Hi...wanted to see if I could provide some clarification on the 60' hose question from the Vacuflo point of view.

The key to the performance on the Hide-a-Hose is airflow at the end of the hose. You want to be satisfied that the turbine based (TurboCat) powerhead has enough airflow to spin properly. High sealed vacuum will compensate for the long hose runs and is therefore a greater indicator of performance versus Airwatts in this specific application. The MaxAir power unit was designed specifically with Hide a Hose in mind.

All power units will lose airflow as length of the hose increases. Generally speaking, it is not unusual to have performance decreases 2-3% going from 30-40' and also when going from 40-50'. That is why it s a recommended practice when installing Hide a Hose is to oversize the power unit based on length of hose.

When you increase the length of hose from 50' to 60', the performance can decrease as much as 22%...just with those extra 10'...regardless of the power unit size. During our testing, the Max Air maintained the HIGHEST level of airflow at each length tested (30, 40, 50 an 60') and was the ONLY power unit that maintained adequate airflow to operate a turbine at 60'hose length.

My hesitance to recommend usage for ANY power unit at a 60' length is due in large to the greater performance decrease that occurs over 50'. Will it work? Yes. Do I think it is a compromise to the best functioning system? Yes.

I think it is best to look at your overall application before evaluating. If you have no carpet in your house and can more economically afford one 60' hose, then I am more comfortable with that situation than one that would require turbine use.

I hope this helps.

Lastly....regarding the hose sock getting dirty...

I have had really good success with placing an entire hose assembly, sock and all, in the washing machine with some old towels to clean it. It washes up quite nicely. Simply lay it flat to dry, in the sun preferably.

Hi Chris - Thanks for taking the time to respond. :-)

IÂm trying to understand this and have a question if you donÂt mindÂ

If I only have 30 of the 60 hose pulled out  do I still have a loss of 22%? Or do I only have that loss when I exceed 50 of hose actually pulled out from the wall?

What if someone only needed a 40 hose  but had to run 60 pipe (or more) to reach the location  would they have the same loss?

If IÂm only losing the extra power when a 60Â hose is fully extended I could live with that.

Thanks!

Jeri - to answer your questions think of it like this - the HAH hose is much smaller than the pipe. So a long run of pipe is not a big deal and the 60 foot hose will always be a point of resistance even if only 10 feet is out.

Hi Jeri

David's post is correct. Regardless of how much hose is pulled out you would still experience the same amount of loss since the air would have to travel through the entire length of the hose. The hose size is smaller and has less smooth interior than the vacuum tubing therefore the hose will account for much more frictional loss than will the extra tubing. Hope this helps.

Darn  not what I wanted to hear (of course). So HaH blew it when they started offering the 60 length? I guess thatÂs not so surprising. ItÂs just that it would have been perfect in my homeÂ

As far as problems go though, this is not a bad one. :-)

Thanks everyone.

Just wondering if anyone has installed the 60' hose and how they like it.