Central vacs

[n0oxy]

vacuum noise and outside pipes

I also would not suggest putting the vacuum in a detached garage, it would be much more work to run the pipes under ground. Central vacuums these days are not that loud, I have 7 of them throughout my apartment, I use them as very powerful canister vacuums by attaching the hose directly to them, it's awesome. There are mufflers you can attach to the exhaust port to cut down on the noise.
Mike

 

[sebo4me]

You have 7 power units in your home Mike? How big is your apartment?

 

[n0oxy]

my apartment

It's about 900 square feet I think. I have one in each bedroom, two in the living room, two in the dining room, and one in the kitchen.
Mike

 

[tolivac]

I have 5 central machines at my place-use them as standalone canisters as well.Simply use them with the 35 ft hose.I have one at one end of my house-the others in the kitchen area.My place is about 1900 sq ft.Lately no nice condition central units have shown up at the vac dealers trade in pile.2 of mine were bought brand new.Both MD machines-A Silentmaster and an "80" series-this made for the Pot-A-Vac this is mounted on a janitor or maid cart.It has a full bypass 14A motor and a 5 gal bag.This is in the kitchen.The Silentmaster in my hall against the wall near the back of my place.It has an 8 Gal Tru-Seal Filtrete bag.

 

[n0oxy]

central vacuum as powerful canister

This is actually fairly easy to do, some central units have a utility valve built in, but for those that don't, you can just attach a utility valve to the in take, if the unit does not have a override power switch, you can attach a short wire to the terminals. I actually think the vacuflo utility valve works best for this set up, it already has the wires attached, the vacuum turns on when the valve is opened. This means that if your hose has a power switch, it won't work, but if you're attaching the hose directly to the unit this doesn't matter.
Mike

 

[sebo4me]

Do they leak dust from the switch and where the cable enters the unit etc?

Are the units tightly sealed?

 

[tolivac]

Yes,on most of my central units use the utility intake.The others are capped off.In one of my central vacuums-a Nutone VX550have to use the main inledt.It doesn't have a utility inlet.Use the local switch on the machine to start and stop.Have no issues of dust leakage.Most of my machines use bags.No messy bins or filters.

 

[n0oxy]

power switch

The only unit I have that doesn't actually have a power switch is the vacumaid SR800, had to connect the wires for that one to work, that's probably the most powerful unit I have, it has the ametek 8.4 2 stage motor, it's a real beast.
Mike