Anyone have a central vacuum system?

[LisaR]

Love it? Hate it? Is the 30 foot hose a giant pain?

 

[wenrob]

I had one in a previous home. I loved being able to sweep the kitchen debri right into the little vent thing. But I hated dragging out that hose and if one was partially open or clogged it meant searching every room to find which was the problem so the one you were using would work. More often than not I'd just pull out the regular vacuum.

 

[morgan98]

I also had one in a previous home and was not impressed. In theory, it sounded great but that long cord was a HUGE pain. I never had any vents clog, but I found myself using the regular vacuum much more often. I wonder if it was more of a "fad" because I just moved into another new home (on the expensive side) and never saw a central vac system even in the expensive models or in any of the homes we have walked through in various stages of construction.

I am not saying they are horrible, I am just saying that while I thought it was going to be great, I did not find it to be the case.

 

[mnrose]

LOVE mine. The long cord is a bit of a pain, but we solved that by also having a shorter cord (maybe 15 feet?) that reaches the areas we need to vacuum most often (such as the kitchen). That one is super easy to use, and is the one we use 75% of the time. The longer one gets reserved for the "big" vacuum, once or twice a week.

It is SO much stronger than any other vacuum I have owned. Plus, we aren't blowing dust around. It goes into the basement collection place. Quieter too.

Had ours for 8+ years now, and not one clog ever. Ever. In that time, I think I've used maybe 10 vacuum bags. They are HUGE and last forever.

 

[wenrob]

The clogging issue could have been because I had toddler twins at the time, lol. I don't know, this house was a mix of super high end on some things and super cheap on others. We were always trying to figure out what the previous owners thought process was. I suspect mine wasn't top of the line. We had to duct tape two of the access points to get enough suction for the others. And I despised that hose.

 

[diznygirl]

Cord is a pain. Especially since most of the vacuuming is done upstairs. So that's my husband' chore! I've been saying we should get a shorter cord for years. Love my little floor vents tho.

 

[gregokdisney]

We have one and I love it. The hose is very light and I find it much easier to maneuver than the bulky regular vacuum. We have all hardwood floors and it works beautifully. I think it's one of my favorite things in our house (we've been in our new house about six months and I torture myself trying to decide what I love best about it!)

Ours is super strong and has never clogged.

 

[xlsm]

We have one and I've never used it, lol!! It was clogged when we moved in, FIL fixed it, but I haven't turned it on since. I know it would be more convenient for my stairs, but old habits die hard. It's just so natural for me to grab the regular vacuum. I usually finish the stairs (sweating, dying, arms on fire - LOL) and think, "WHY didn't I use the central vac??"

 

[LJSquishy]

I've lived in two houses with central vac and hated both of them because of the hoses. They are a giant pain to move throughout the house, especially if you have more than one level. The first house had the kitchen sweeper vent and while it seemed neat, it sounds really loud when you open it, and I'm also not a sweeper...I vacuum and mop only. The second house with central vac...well, I just used the regular vacuum instead. It's a lot easier wheeling a vacuum around with a normal cord than a giant hose. I always hated coiling the central vac hose back up on the hooks also. They do sell kits to have it coil inside the wall but I never had one of those. Also, if your hose line gets clogged inside the wall, it seems like it'd be a giant pain to clear. My in-laws also vacuumed up a tiny nail with their central vac and it punctured the hose so they had to tape it.

 

[LisaR]

Thanks everyone! I'm not sure what we'll do. We currently own a Miele (15 years) which still works great, but is in need of some new parts ($250 - $300). In addition, we are moving to a home with two upstairs. One will be a separate studio apartment for my mom at one end of the house and the other will be all the other upstairs bedrooms. I feel like I am going to want three vacuums and they'd need to be very good quality due to allergies. I know our Miele was very expensive when we bought it, but it also has lasted and we've been able to take it with us when we've moved.

My Miele will do the main floor which is all tile and hardwood. We don't have a power head on it for carpet. We would need something for my mom's area that does carpet and our area which is carpet and hardwood. Seems like a central vacuum would be convenient given the multiple areas, but I can't get past that long cord.

Maybe a central vac with a couple shorter cords stored in each upstairs area would work? I could instead just buy two new vacuums for each upstairs. I feel like I won't vacuum as much if I only have one vacuum and I have to hunt it down everytime I want to do something quick like the kitchen.

 

[SMD]

My parents house has one. The bin is upstairs in the linen closet. Who wants to clean dirt and lint out of a bin that sits with your sheets and towels and then carry it all through the house to throw it away? They haven't used it in 25 years. But I've seen these ones on the floor where you can sweep your kitchen right into the central vacuum. That sounds like it would be great. They had an upstairs and downstairs vac for years, but currently just an upright that gets carried up and down. Doing the stairs with an upright in a pain. The last time I vacuumed the stairs I used a handheld. If you get a central vac, invest in an upstairs and downstairs hose.

I also won a robotic vacuum which has a feature that will do a predetermined square. It doesn't replace a real vacuum for getting close to baseboards and getting around things, but sometimes I will use that near doorways and it works good enough (for free).

 

[minnie mum]

I'm trying to picture these long cords that everyone is talking about. We put central vac in when we built our house 5 years ago. The hose is the usual length, but the power cord which connects to the wall attachment end of the hose ( not the 'business end"), is only 8 feet long at most. Long enough to reach the closest electrical outlet if you don't have one right beside the vac outlet like ours are. Maybe the PPs are dealing with older models? The dust receptacle is out in the garage, which further reduces noise.

I love my central vac (from Sears). Powerful, quiet, good on hardwood/tile, and a power head that cleans our carpets very well. I even have another small power head that is great for the carpeted stairs.

 

[morgan98]

Thanks everyone! I'm not sure what we'll do. We currently own a Miele (15 years) which still works great, but is in need of some new parts ($250 - $300). In addition, we are moving to a home with two upstairs. One will be a separate studio apartment for my mom at one end of the house and the other will be all the other upstairs bedrooms. I feel like I am going to want three vacuums and they'd need to be very good quality due to allergies. I know our Miele was very expensive when we bought it, but it also has lasted and we've been able to take it with us when we've moved.

My Miele will do the main floor which is all tile and hardwood. We don't have a power head on it for carpet. We would need something for my mom's area that does carpet and our area which is carpet and hardwood. Seems like a central vacuum would be convenient given the multiple areas, but I can't get past that long cord.

Maybe a central vac with a couple shorter cords stored in each upstairs area would work? I could instead just buy two new vacuums for each upstairs. I feel like I won't vacuum as much if I only have one vacuum and I have to hunt it down everytime I want to do something quick like the kitchen.

I responded above about the central vacuum. Now that I do not have one, I have three floors and have a vacuum on each floor. I keep my Miele on the main floor which is all hardwoods. It works great. Upstairs, I have some hard surfaces and also carpeting. I bought a rather inexpensive, but very highly rated Hoover upright that is fabulous on the carpet.

In the basement, which is also quite a bit of carpet, I have an old Simplicity canister vac, that we purchased years ago and liked more than the Miele at the time. It has a power head, so it still does a good job on the carpet.

So anyways, I guess what I am trying to say is that I have accumulated enough vacuum cleaners over the years for my needs and they all do a good job and are easier for me to deal with than the hose.

However, I will say, I never had any clogging issues with my central vac. It did a great job at actually vacuuming.

 

[trip]

I have one in the 2-story house that we are living in now. Hated dealing with the 30 foot hose. Only used it for about 6 months then went back to my dyson.

 

[wenrob]

I'm trying to picture these long cords that everyone is talking about. We put central vac in when we built our house 5 years ago. The hose is the usual length, but the power cord which connects to the wall attachment end of the hose ( not the 'business end"), is only 8 feet long at most. Long enough to reach the closest electrical outlet if you don't have one right beside the vac outlet like ours are. Maybe the PPs are dealing with older models? The dust receptacle is out in the garage, which further reduces noise.

I love my central vac (from Sears). Powerful, quiet, good on hardwood/tile, and a power head that cleans our carpets very well. I even have another small power head that is great for the carpeted stairs.

I think people are saying cord when they mean hose. The only cord I remember on mine went from the head into the hose, female/male connection type thing.

 

[MSLRAC]

We had one in the house that we lived in about 8 years ago and I hated it. It was always getting clogged, the suction was weak, and the hose was cumbersome and heavy. I rarely used it. We are currently building a house and it was on of the options offered to us but it is a $4000 option. I literally laughed out loud when the guy told us. DH told the guy no way and then told me to go buy the Dyson and Eye-Vac Evpro that I've been wanting. I would hope that central vacs have gotten better over the years but it just wasn't worth it for us and I'm happy with our choice.

 

[miksilver]

I have a central vacuum. I don't use it. My DH does. I use our Dyson to vacuum the house, he'll drag out the giant cumbersome hose around. We bought our Dyson just so that I would start vacuuming again. I might have gone on a vacuuming strike... Sounded like a great idea at the time when we built our house, but now I never would get one. Plus, I think the builders messed up a bunch with it because there are a few spots/corners in the house where the central vac just doesn't reach.