70's Central Vac Inlets?

[vacuuman101]

Hello everyone, My grandmothers friends just bought a summer cottage. The Cottage was built in 73 and ha(d) a central vac.(The pipes are the only thing left) But, I was looking at it and I can't tell if it was a retrofit or not? The pipe comes in at a 45 degree angle under the stairs,and The inlets are modern inlets with the low-voltage that can be used with a modern low-voltage ON/Off hose. The house is a split-level and both inlets are on top of each other. But who ever installed it didn't know what they were doing, Because there is stuff in the bottom inlet, and the person who in stalled it but the inlets upside down and way to high up on the wall.

 

[vacman1961]

Those are Beam inlet valves, pretty much a generic universal inlet that was mainly used in low priced installations. They weren't very good, the doors broke off all the time, the gaskets inside the doors pulled off, pretty low end, the good thing is that you can replace them with Hayden or any other universal type inlet valve on the market.

 

[ultralux88]

Could have been anything, Beam sold those inlets to the entire industry. Sort of the beginning of "industry standard" central vac plumbing and inlets. My grandma had those inlets in her house from 1989 until she moved to a nursing home after her stroke in 2015. She had a Broan unit with two 5.7in motors in series.