How hard is it to install a central vac system?
mrshenderson
6 years ago
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Can I do a toe kick vac without a central vac system?
Comments (10)You can do the mini-central vac system - which is a shop vac hooked up to a toe kick vac-pan. If you have a crawlspace under the kitchen - it is pretty easy and cheap to do. They talk about it in the kitchen forum. The vac-pan has a low voltage switch so you could use a relay but it is easier to install a wall switch near the pan and just leave the vac-pan open. The vac pans are pretty hard to open anyway if they are in a toe kick. Turning on the switch would be just like hitting the switch for the garbage disposal. You can buy a $50 shop vac for this purpose....See MoreWho designed your central vac system?
Comments (7)I have a garage kit that gets leaves, pine needles. Sometimes it gets plugged at the head - very easy fix. The head on the garage kit is nothing significantly different than the usual head but I restrict that head to the outside/garage. You wouldn't want debris to get stuck in the head and then drag it across hardwood floors. The specific debris I am thinking of is "mortar dust" - the fragments of brick mortar that slowly appear and it is like fine gravel. Our porch is brick so that is a significant issue. I'm not sure why one would need HEPA bags as they are not in conditioned space. I suppose if the person emptying the canister was particularly sensitive it would help. But that would probably be the person that wears a mask when raking leaves/cutting grass. No offense intended if that is your situation but short of that, I think a regular bag is fine. I'm 1.5 years in, 2nd bag. I do empty them however - maybe every 2 months....See Morecentral vac installation
Comments (1)By all means you can still make changes. The brand of outlets rare affect the brand of the unit. I've been very satisfied working with Central Vac in Florida. They recommended Imperium (sp?) which is a Canadian brand....See MoreDIY Central Vac 'Vac-Pan'
Comments (4)Put in a central vac - I had the rough-in when we bought this house and at some point somebody had it hooked up, but the place allocated for the vac was in the furnace cupboard - might have been 'convenient' but a stupid place (and illegal) to put it. With quite a lot of effort I was able to drill some holes in the garage and sneak the pipe through, around some ducts. Now it lives in the basement and vents to the outside, we can vacuum any time of night since it's almost completely silent outside, and really quite quiet inside. I've admired those kitchen sweep things and would love to put one in when I do up the kitchen. We have a dog that sheds like you wouldn't believe, so one of those would be ideal. I agree it would be easy to rig up with a relay, but it'd be dodgy at best - when I was house-hunting, I saw one where somebody rigged up a shop vac as a central vacuum, it didn't fill me with confidence....and it sort of went with the house, half-assed. Looking at it another day, a central vac is a real selling point here where I live. With what we've done with the house since May when we moved in, I think we've added at least $30k value, by spending maybe five grand....See Moremrshenderson
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoLinda
6 years agoJoseph Corlett, LLC
6 years ago
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