Home Made Central Vac

[DavidInWilmNC]

I have had a central vac in a house before and I can see the space benefit in a bus, but I have never found straight suction to be as good as a unit with a beater.  Do you find these to be good enough?

My central vac (in the house) has a motorized beater bar.  I honestly can't tell you if it's as effective as a good upright, as I haven't installed it.  The bus has taken priority over lots of other projects!

David

[FloridaCliff]

Ron,

Don't forget to add the floor level dust pan  door.

Just sweep it to the opening and it sucks it in.

For those times when a quick sweep will do.

I put my one inlet and the floor opening in the center of the bus.

It came with the longggggggggg whole house hose, but I may look into on like Nick has for storage and handling purposes. 

Main thing is, get in the plumbing and wires in, a little shop vac would really work for the bus and with the exhaust out of the living compartment you will really cut down on the dust etc from a regular unit.


Cliff

[HB of CJ]

Hey...great idea!  Nothin' much to offer, except (again?) use sweeps and don't forget the clean-outs, like with a house's septic/sewer pipe system.  Who knows what you may end up sucking up, getting stuck and later you may really want to remove, like dirty socks, greenbacks, dead insects, mice, rats (big un's too!) missing small pets and stuff like that.  Nice having a remote/QUIET super vacuum system. 

[captain ron]

I don't have any carpet in my bus at all and don't plan on it but I do have a small dirt devil with a beater bar that I use to clean my futon. I want the central vac cause I work in my bus a  lot and it's a lot easier to just flip a swich than dig out a shop vac and not put it away for 2 weeks and stumbling over it and cussing. I would like to find the soft fabric hose like on an old Kirby so it doesn't beat up the corners of cabinets. I have a 24 inch wide base cabinet that I have not put a toe kick plate in yet so I will make that my storage for the hose. One big question is, will using bigger pvc hose cut down on the velocity of the system or should I stay with the same diameter? The dust pans will be built in at floor level so all I have to do is sweep it into it. I'm going to locate the vac where I can get to it to use the blower attachment to dry my bike if and when I ever wash it  .

[JohnEd]

Guys,

I must have lived a sheltered life...never heard of dust pans except the ones you sweep into and then empty.  Sounds like you have a vac opening on the floor that you can open to suck the sweepings into the vac.  Right?  Got a pic?

Thanks

John

[DavidInWilmNC]

Guys,

I must have lived a sheltered life...never heard of dust pans except the ones you sweep into and then empty.  Sounds like you have a vac opening on the floor that you can open to suck the sweepings into the vac.  Right?  Got a pic?

Thanks

John

Check the link I posted much earlier in this thread.

[JohnEd]

David,

Thank you.  Well duh!  Don'tnow how I missed that.  I read your thread and visited the other.

Thanks again,

John

[Christyhicks]

This site,  www.centralvacuumstores.com ,  has vac fittings that allow you to go from thinwall vacuum pipe to standard sizes of pvc.  The important thing to remember about plumbing pipe is that you can have "steps" or ridges where the fittings join together.  It is really important to ream any edges that stick up, and to make sure you don't have any sharp edges that could snag fuzz and stuff. 

Christy Hicks

[lyndon]

The central vac in our house came with a couple sizes of turbine-powered beater bars. I have used these with the shop vac, where the house hose won't reach, and they do a great job. No extra cords or power to worry about. Definitely something to consider for the bus.

Suction is probably compromised, so you need enough power. The shop vac is 5 hp and I think the house vac is 6.5 hp.

Don