vacuflo..

Femelade

Hey,
My Boyfriend is about to start the ground work on his house in January, We went to a self build exp a few weeks back and we were looking at some internal vacuum systems, He wasnt too keen on them before this but after seeing them being demonstrated he decided to go for it and ordered it 2 weeks ago.
The company he has gone with is vacuflo http://www.vacuflo.ie/.

Has anyone here had any experience with this crowd? He is getting mixed reactions from people he talks to about it. Also, even though the system is supposed to be very quiet i was just wondering should we put the unit in the utility room, or would we bet better off putting it out in the garage..? which would be roughly 20 ft from the house.

smashey

Femmy, I've moved this because you'll get a better response in DIY.

Fingalian

We put one on our new build, works well but it is as noisy as a regular vac that you drag around. Our vac is under the stairs and you can clearly hear it whilst it is on. Found vacuflo to be good to deal with. If the noise of it bothers you then I would plan on putting it outside, it'll be easier to vent it too.

Femelade

Thanks you , i was thinking maybe putting it in the garage would be a good idea ..

diydan

There are a few things to look out for with vacuum systems (built in ones i mean).

The first is the filtration system. There are some systems on the market which claim to be bagless and filterless... great...no filters to clean. But what protects your motor. Without a filter you will knock years off the lifespan of a motor. The dust that is exhausted outside your house and destroys your wall ... all that must first go through the motor. Also hairs will build up on the propellors causing an imbalance. Only a tiny imbalance is needed to cause fibrations and kill your motor. Fact is - filters are a must. The modern day filters don't impede suction anywhere near as much as the older generation filters meaning practically no loss of suction.

You never mentioned the size of your house. I'll asume 2,500 - 3,000 sq feet...8-10 vacuum sockets, vacpan in kitchen and power unit in garage 20ft away. You were probably quoted for True Cyclonic 480...First things first...not powerful enough...forget that rubbish on the back of the brochure about it doing up to 5,000 sq ft. Fact is it only generates 477 Airwatts and 121" waterlift.

Without mentioning names I know of other companies who put stronger systems into apartments and town houses. In fact one particular system used in apartments will beat the 580...

You said that you had an issue with noise and with good reason. The decibel levels of some systems are excessively high...in vacuflos case 70.1 dBA for the 480. The 480Q on the brochure isn't available in Europe ~(false advertising I would think). There are other systems offering more power at much lower decibel levels i.e. 59 dBA.

Also, please note that central vacuum systems are NOT to be used to vacuum liquids. Contrary to what some companies will tell you dust and liquid in pipes most certainly don't mix. Well, they mix very well with the end result being a hard layer of dirt inside the pipes and certain blockages.
The other problem with liquids (including accidental vacuuming of small amounts) and true cyclonic systems is that the water vapour will be sucked up through the motor (again...no filters to protect the motor). This vapour will rust the propellors and will kill your motor quite quickly.

Regarding warranty...I don't know how a distributor can give 5 years on the vacuum units when the manufacturers only give 3.

What I would suggest is that you take a look in the golden pages. There are dozens of companies doing central vacuum systems. I wouldn't go taking the first one you come across.

squire1

diydan may have some points there but just to say I have being using a Vacuflow system in a 2000 Ft bungalow for the past two years and have not had any trouble. I found them very good to deal with. I installed the system myself and had some initial issues (my fault). They were on the ball and sent out an installer to sort it out at no charge.

It is a little noisy (maybe a little more than a standard, drag along, vacume) so if you can get it out to a garage, then do so.

The unit itself is very powerful and the suction is fantastic (those small plastic soldiers go throught it like a rocket :rolleyes:). I had reason to use a standard vacume recently and couldn't believe how low the suction was on it. It took two or three times as long to do the same amount of work.

So overall, central vacumes are certainly worth the money. There may be better ones out there than Vacuflo but they do the job well enough for me.

niceirishfella

Hi,

I have a DuoVac system in my house. I installed it myself as a DIY install. Very easy to do really if your handy. It my 3rd DuoVac System - and my house is my third house so i've had 3 so far - that how good this brand is. Its a canadian built system and is excellent quality. I also found it to be better value (cheaper) than others and the service back up is excellent. for instance, my wife has ordered a new crevice tool for instance over the phone and they just post it out. no hassles. very good to deal with.
Quick tip for you - the motor on the duocav does not need to be vented like other models out there - therefore negating the requirement to drill holes for a vent out of a utility room etc.
good thing to do tho' is install it in the garage and then you can have a outlet there in the garage to hover out the car or whatever - very handy.



There is a company in portarlington in laois who imports and installs these called Ashgrove group. Here is the contacts details etc -

Ashbrook Group
Unit 10

Portarlington Enterprise Center,

Portarlington Business Park,

Canal Road,
Portarlington, Co. Laois
Ireland
E-mail: derek@ashbrookgroup.ie
URL: http://www.ashbrookgroup.ie
T: +353-57-8643077
F: +353-57-8643511


Check out www.duovac.com also

overall, whatever uniot you go for, they are a grear investment in a house and add's thousands in value as well as desirability.

good luck.

NIF.

diydan

Hey NiceIrishFella

You dont work for Ashbrook by any chance...:)

niceirishfella

diydan wrote: »

Hey NiceIrishFella

You dont work for Ashbrook by any chance...:)

LOL . no, but recommend them highly. If you investing a few grand into a system, you need sound advice and a good supplier. Thats all. Just trying to help out here.:p

diydan

niceirishfella wrote: »

LOL . no, but recommend them highly. If you investing a few grand into a system, you need sound advice and a good supplier. Thats all. Just trying to help out here.:p

That's good, wouldn't want the moderators kicking you out for advertising now would we?:D

delly

diydan wrote: »

That's good, wouldn't want the moderators kicking you out for advertising now would we?:D

Indeed not, we are watching.......

Femelade

Thanks for all the relpies so far...the main reason i was asking was because one of his friends in particular has beeen telling him he has made a huge mistake etc...( i think he thinks i was putting pressure on my boyfriend to get it, which is totally untrue of course!)
its a 2,500 sqft house. they will put in 6 outlets i think and the vacpan in the kitchen. i think he was told that if he wanted to put it it in t garage they would throw in a socket there too for the car. He was quoted €2,000 incl. installation.

niceirishfella

Hi,

If that price is inclusive of VAT, it sounds good.
Besure you compare like for like on the different brands of systems out there tho'. Take your time to make the right decision.
Enjoy.

NIF

Femelade

niceirishfella wrote: »

Hi,

If that price is inclusive of VAT, it sounds good.
Besure you compare like for like on the different brands of systems out there tho'. Take your time to make the right decision.
Enjoy.

NIF

well we kinda did that at the self bulid thing. beam were there and so were another crowd, cant remember their name..it seemed the best option anyway, they had a longer guarntee and more outlets for the price etc...

Thanks for the info..

Hotblack Desiato

Femmy wrote: »

He was quoted €2,000 incl. installation.

You could buy a good few Mieles for that money...

Femelade

ninja900 wrote: »

You could buy a good few Mieles for that money...

i dont want a good few mieles though..:p

dcom

Hi

I just have a quick question which may sound really stupid:rolleyes:

What are airwatts??? I am getting quotes for a central vac system and the first one I got back stated the unit was 1600 w with an airflow of 190m3/h which of these two relate to the air watts mentioned above????

Its hard to compare like with like when suppliers use different lingo.......

bauderline

Has anyone installed any of the Husky central vac systems at all ?

best rgs. b.

ports best

i havent heard of the Husky Vacuum range, we did install an duo vac one for our house, very easy to install and nicely priced and the sales team are nice, if you want there number i can give it to you ok.

qazxsw

Have a vacuflo installed for 18 months 3000 sq ft house - no probs so far - installed as a diy job.

diydan

Hi dcom,

There are 2 main units of measurement when it comes to central vacuums.

1) Airwatts. The higher the better. More airwatts are needed if you want to run airdriven brushes, i.e a cleaning head with turbo brushes. They do a great job on heavy pile carpets.

2) Water lift (H2O lift): Measured in inches or millimeters. MM are better to use to compare across the board. This is the actual strength of the suction. The higher the better. It is a measurement of how high up a 2" vacuum pipe any one system can pull water vertically, in a sealed vacuum.

The Airwatts you gave, 190m3/h only equates to 112 ft3/m. Problem here is that central vacuum companies all have different units of measurement to express this figure.

Anyway enough of tech talk. The waterlift is what you should use to compare systems. Unless you plan to have carpet everywhere and will need air driven brushes.

Cyclovac are a new range to the market. www.cyclovac.ie

Their range start off way higher on suction than any of the others.

diydan

Hi dcom,

There are 2 main units of measurement when it comes to central vacuums.

1) Airwatts. The higher the better. More airwatts are needed if you want to run airdriven brushes, i.e a cleaning head with turbo brushes. They do a great job on heavy pile carpets.

2) Water lift (H2O lift): Measured in inches or millimeters. MM are better to use to compare across the board. This is the actual strength of the suction. The higher the better. It is a measurement of how high up a 2" vacuum pipe any one system can pull water vertically, in a sealed vacuum.

The Airwatts you gave, 190m3/h only equates to 112 ft3/m. Problem here is that central vacuum companies all have different units of measurement to express this figure.

Anyway enough of tech talk. The waterlift is what you should use to compare systems. Unless you plan to have carpet everywhere and will need air driven brushes.

Cyclovac are a new range to the market. www.cyclovac.ie

Their range start off way higher on suction than any of the others.

PM me for any more info.

dcom

Thanks Diydan.