We have installed the central vac in two different homes, both two stories...Love it...you might think of getting tow hoses one for up and one for down.

Thanks, paso. Can you tell me why you love it? Quality, ease of use, or something else?

I was so happy to see your post starfish24. We're trying to decide the same thing for our multistory home.

Thanks for your feedback paso! A hose for each floor makes a lot of sense.

Question: How long a hose have you found to work best for you? I hear that the hoses can be heavy depending on how long they are.

Looking forward to hearing more feedback from other multistory central vac owners!

Toni in Wyoming

For three grand you could have a rather nice expensive conventional vac on each floor. Wouldn't take any more room to store than the extra hoses and attachments for the built in. More versatile, less trouble, and instant back-up in the event of failure of a single unit.

I agree with asolo. Those BIG hoses are just too bulky for me--and I think that my Dyson ($500) will out-vacuum any of the central vac units that I've used.

I have had central vac in my last 3 homes. I would never be without it. I do have complete hose sets with electric power nozzles and tools on each floor. I have 35 ft. hoses and they have become lighter in the last few years. The old electric hoses were wire supported vinyl and were much heavier than the crushproof they offer today.

Some of the advantages are this makes stair cleaning a breeze as you don't have to balance a vac on the stairs, it makes cleaning high places very easy also, IE tops of kitchen cabinets when you don't have soffits, wall niches and shelves that are way up high, tops of open beams etc. You can climb a ladder with just the hose and the dusting brush and still have a free hand to hold onto the ladder. There is no dust recirculated back into the rooms, there is no pet smell odor from the exhaust as there is with a regular vac, silent just don't put the power unit in the same area with the furnace as the sound will travel through the duct work. Also when trying to figure the inlet locations be sure to figure furniture placement. I have seen people who did't think about it and there is a wall unit or heavy sofa blocking it and unless you want to move it every time you just don't use that inlet. Also purchase a larger unit than the specs state as to the amount of square footage the unit is sized for. I have always done this and have had no regrets. This place is 4,000 sq. ft. and the unit is sized for 20,000 sq. ft. I think it was $300 more than the unit which was called for. Good luck!

Our previous house had a central vac. I bought a second hose from an online dealer for a very reasonable price and stored it in an upstairs closet. It would have been cheaper to buy two vacuum cleaners, but I prefer a central vac to keep down dust and improve indoor air quality.

Our current house does not have a central vac, so I use HEPA filters in both canister vacs, and will probably buy a third to keep in the finished basement. I'd much prefer a central vac, but it would be very difficult to retrofit one here.

I agree with Asolo. For 3 grand you could buy 3 high end vacs with superior quality and filtration.

If you decide to buy a central, buy top of the line. Too many people come into the shop complaining about their central vac and it's usually about the "Builders Specials" that they throw in to SAVE money. What good is a bargin if you don't use it.

I have central vac in my house and love it
I would recommend looking into this product:
http://www.hideahose.biz/
If I were installing a new system, I would definitely get this as well. Definitely.
Right now the plan is in place to install a vac-pan in my rebuilt kitchen.

I put one in our house when I built it. The system is Nutone. I designed the layout so the 30 foot hose will cover all 4,800 sq ft. I think there are 10 outlets, including one in the garage. What I like is that it is quiet, easy to use, all the air is exhausted outside, we have all but 1 room with hard wood or tile. The attachments also make dusting fixtures and the 127 metal spindles on the staircase and balcony much easier than by hand. I have never found a portable vac that can clean as well as this system cleans. I agree, a hose on each level (we have 3 levels) does make he job easier, but our hose weighs less than 5 pounds.

Atinga,

When you have to replace your hose, I think that "Nutone" has a new hose which has a ID 1 3/8 hose. Use your old 1 in your garage. This makes a huge improvement and U would think U had a new machine. Check the bag more often. You would not believe the increase of the air flow & suction!

I think the answer here depends on what kind of house you have. If it is mostly carpet, then I am not sure central vac is all that great of a solution. But if it is mostly wood/tile, then central is clearly superior.

In our house, we have half and half. So we use our central unit for the non-carpet areas and have a standard upright unit for the carpet.

So the answer doesn't have to be either or. An upright is not that expensive to have anyway.

This is very helpful -- thank you all, and please keep 'em coming! amirm, why is central vac better on wood/tile?
Also, has anyone regretted installing one of these systems?

I say yes. I grew up in a 4 story home in the 1970s with a central vac. The hoses never wore out in 18 years of use. Coiling the hoses up to put them away was never fun but it beat carrying a vacuum around, banging corners, emptying bags, getting the vacuum back into the closet... The cannister needed emptying maybe once every couple of months. We lived in the woods and my job was to dump the thing outside away from the house and cover the dirt with leaves. Ah, the memories. Anyhow, rather than getting 4 vacuums, I'd get the central one.

"amirm, why is central vac better on wood/tile? "

'case you don't need any other contraption at the end of the hose to clean the floors. You just have a light hose to take around, and the performance is wonderful and better than an upright in this respect. And you get all the other benefits of external venting, noise, etc.

Maybe we should get a better power head for ours but to me, once you mess around with attachment, half the fun of a central system is out the door :). An upright then is easier to take around since you just have a light electric cord, rather than the big hose to drag around. I tolerate using it on carpet but my wife will not touch it and only uses the upright.

OP, central vacuum is tons better on carpet than an upright

We've put in a hide-a-hose system  ours is Vacuflo  so no hoses to carry. Only one outlet per floor, and, really, just wonderful. It's now so convenient to vacuum that I didn't bother with vac pans, because it's quicker and much more thorough to vacuum than to sweep.

Good luck with your choice!

So, just so I understand this correctly . . . Hide-a-Hose can be installed with any central vac system, and also can be installed after the fact, right? Can i also have a hide-a-hose just at certain inlets (or maybe that would not make sense)?