I waffled between being extremely busy and then unrequitably bored repeatedly over the last few weeks. Perhaps many, many of you noticed the distinct lack of postings from this general vicinity, and saw the outright lies perfectly reasonable explanation offered up by Techie. Well, I am back, baby! and here to tell you all about the…or at least talk about…okay, well, to entertain you this weekend!
In one of the moments of sitting around boredom, I was thinking about how much the lack of weekend content sucked. I mean, the weekend before, you got to think about what had happened to in home intercom systems, systems installed throughout a house. Really sucks; installed throughout the house. And there went the light bulb! Central in-home vacuums! Where did those things go?
A good buddy of mine in high school had one of these gizmos built into his house, well, his mom’s house I suppose. They never used it, instead they simply used a plain, mortal vacuum like the rest of us. The only reason that I ever realized there was such a thing was that one day we were in the garage working on his car, and I noticed this giant metal shop-vac looking think over next to the hot water heater, and then realized it was piped into the house. My buddy said that he thought maybe it still worked, but dragging the hoses from room to room was more trouble than it was worth. Knowing that the vacuum system existed brought the little outlets into my awareness, and I will admit that I always had some curiosity to see it in action. Somehow it seemed interesting in a bank teller tube machine sort of way to have a suction system throughout the house. But what ever happened to the central vacuum systems?
Images, in order of appearance, from omahadoor.com, nationwidenowbenefits.com, certifiedalarms.com, and wikipedia.org.
My grandmothers 1970's house still has it and I believe it still works have I know she used it about 6 years ago.
We just built a new house, and as standard-issue, without even asking, the whole house was plumbed for central vacuum. We said the same thing: "Do people still… use… those things?"
The contractor said that people request them so frequently, they don't even bother to ask anymore, and just install the plumbing for free.
Use it for a pneumatic messaging system.
It does not work like that.
One of the houses that my family lived in while I was growing up had a central vacuum system. I remember it being rather useful as the previous owners had purchased a set of hoses and attachments for the basement, first and second floor each. Since we didn't have to lug the equipment up and down the stairs, it was pretty convenient. However, I remember emptying the dustbin/barrel was a huge hassle.. Also, I remember our mother having a horrible time keeping us from playing with the system…
Mom had one installed in the new place, back in the '90s. The best improvement over the system in the old house is the kick panel dustpan, no hose needed!
<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YxJKpWIEiJo/TpXSnMP2HTI/AAAAAAAAAsk/8Q5DyZPq7bc/s1600/vacpan01.jpg">
I have a hard time believing your pal thought dragging one hose from room to room and plugging it into the wall was more of a pain than dragging an entire machine from room to room and plugging it into the wall. Maybe living in a one-story shoe box you could plug it in once and get the whole place done, but in a place that small even an Electrolux would take up a lot of space.
That is brilliant, but needs to be recessed into the floor to eliminate the "line" problem.
the house we lived in with central vacuum (see comment above) had one of these in the "living room", dining room, and kitchen— we had to put covers over all of them due to pets (dog toys, hamsters, etc.)….
Shut up and take my money!
When we had this house built back in 1990, a central vacuum system was an option, but we passed on it. I didn't want another appliance that could break and I had visions of getting one of the tubes in the walls plugged with cat hair. Plus I didn't want the main unit out in the garage.
Some friends of ours had one installed in their house when it was built, about 15 years ago, and evidently they still like it.
I'm not sure I understand these systems. If you can afford one, why not just hire a maid?
If maids were as cheap as a vacuum system, I'd have a brace of them for my wife.
The built-in systems aren't that expensive (as I recall, anyway) when you're building a house. Installing them after you build your house can be rather spendy however.
Around here, a housecleaning for a modest house costs around $100. If you do it twice a month you are spending $2400 a year. And you don't have to clean the toilet yourself or dust the furniture either.If a central vac costs $5k, it's a 2 year payback if your time is free and you don't want to give up your precious toilet cleaning experience. Add in your bill rate and you may be looking at a 4 or 5 year payback or even more.That's generally not considered a good ROI in the business world.Then again all those business folks don't always know how to run things either…
$100? It must be nice. If we could get one that cheap around here, my wife would have one out weekly.
/besides, they'd need earthmoving equipment to make a dent in this place….
Here's a site for them…. .http://www.beamvac.com/usa/
My parents have one in their home. (Built in 2001.). Actually, technically, they have two.
My perspective is that because you have to have a hose that is big enough to reach anywhere in the room, it's easier to just carry around, say, a little Miele than it is to deal with the gigantic and unwieldy hose.
I do love the kick panel dust bins, though. Those are superb.
My parents installed one in their house back in the late 80s (house was about 13-14 years old at the time). They still have the house, it still has the central vacuum, but I don't think they use it.
I do remember hauling the hoses around from room to room, and up to the second floor. It came in a metal wire basket on wheels, about 2 feet on a side.
Have one and it is amazing. Nothing is better for allergy sufferers then piping dust OUT of the house!