pro team and fuller brush canisters

[n0oxy]

central vac loudness

Some central vacs are louder than others. My beam is the loudest by far, putting a muffler on it helps somewhat. On the other hand, some are very quiet but very powerful. My purvac barracuda uses a really good Dommel motor, 780 air watts, but you could still have a normal conversation while you are in the same room, no muffler needed. This motor is also used in the Drainvac Viper unit. My other central vacuum units would fall in between these two as far as sound level. I've never had my neighbors complain, and being a vacuum geek, I tend to run them a lot. I would say none of them are any louder than some wet dry vacs. Most central vacuum units also have a switch on the unit that makes it much easier to use as a canister vacuum, you don't have to mess with connecting wires to the utility valve. One of my units does not have this, the vacumaid sr 800. Kind of annoying having to mess with wires, I was considering the purchase of a Galaxie unit to add to the collection, but when I found that it didn't have a switch, I decided not to get it. So, here is how the apartment is laid out. My beam 275c sits in a corner of the kitchen, in the dining room I have an MD manufacturing flomaster M85, in a corner of the living room I have the Purvac Baracuda, in my bedroom I have the Vacumaid SR 800, in my other bedroom that I use as an office, I have a vacumaid garage vac pro, this is actually a vacuum that was not designed to have pipes, it just has a valve built in to the front of it, but it uses an ametek motor that is used in central vacuums, a 5.7 two stage. In my closet I have an Aspria Flomentum unit, I will pull that out from time to time, it's a bagged unit with a good Ametek 6.6 motor. I also have an Intervac h120, this one is not as powerful as the others, only 400 air watts, but it's really portable, again, this one has the valve right on the unit, it's more designed for garages or apartments.

 

[tolivac]

Looks like I will need more central units--one for each room?The NuTones I have arren't really that loud.Not as quiet as regular canisters-but not as bad as you think.The ones I have are 450,550 airwatts.you can only go so high on that before you will need to run the machine from 220-240V.Usually a 15-20A 240V outlet.The 240V machines typically have two motors.My NuToneCV450 has two 6A 120V full bypass two stage motors.These machines generate high suction "pressure" unlike the high CFM the NSS model M1 produces.It draws the same power as my central units-about 13A 120V.I have a Tornado ext filter single motor wet-dry unit that runs at 15A 120V.Like the NSS this one has VERY high CFM.The place where I get my machines from-trade in pile-is a MD central unit dealer.He always keeps an eye out fro units for me as well as regular vacuums.I get first look in the trade ins.

 

[n0oxy]

two motor units

I don't have any 220 volt outlets in my apartment, wish I did, I would get the drain vac twin turbo, it has two motors with a total of 12 fans. There are some two motor units that run at 120 volts, but not sure how powerful they would be. I don't have any dedicated circuits for my central units, but have not had any problems with tripping breakers. I'm wondering if having two motors makes a big difference? If you have two motors in series, you will increase the suction pressure which may make a difference, but if you have the two motors in parallel which is how I think most two motor units are made, it increases the air flow, but that will still be restricted by the hose and attachments. This is why it's always best to have a central vacuum hose with the larger diameter. I've thought about getting the drainvac turbo or the purvac great white, these both use two motors and run on 120 volts, I wonder if this would actually perform better than a unit with a large motor such as the Ametek 8.4 inch motor.

 

[tolivac]

My NuTone CV450 has two 120V 6A 2 stage motors that run from 120V.The motors are in series for the airpath.the machine gives both high suction and airflow.The NuTone 550 machine has only one 5.7" two stage motor.this was the one that had to be cleaned out from a burst improper bag.Both of these machines use 13A.Their instructions suggest running them from a 20A outlet-they run fine from a 15A.they have the same current draw as my favorite "canister" the NSS M1.Liking these central machines,more as I use them.With just the 50Ft hose and no other plumbing-indeed they are more powerful than portable canisters.The NuTone 1000 series machines have 2 motors are run from 20A 240V.I am figuring that is alloted 10A for each motor at 240V.That machine must be a real bear!!BUT------you can only force so much air thru 1.25,1.5,2" hoses-even if you used a jet engine.Like another thing--you can only force so much light thru a 35MM apeture for 35MM film projectors.
The drainvac sounds interesting-but don't want it dumping in my septic tank-guess would have to use it like a Rainbow-dump its water bin outside.This is the self dump one?

 

[blackheart]

Drainvac

they offer different ranges, the Automatik range uses the self flushing water system, they also have a cyclonic series, but most of the units I've seen are bagged.

I used to have a special edition Drainvac, it was powerful, quiet, compact, and used a bag system. It could pull a 7.5 at the end of a 30 ft hanmi hose, for comparison the broan cv40-b, which used two motors pulled 5.5. It was quieter than most portable vacuums.

 

[n0oxy]

drainvac units

The drainvac unit I was thinking of does not flush in to the sewer system, they do make some models that do that, but the ones I was thinking of are hybrid units, they can use a bag or use a bucket that you empty out. Not sure if I could get one of those autoflush systems to work in an apartment, would have to do some water hook up for that.

 

[tolivac]

Interesting machines-the Drainvacs sound good.Glad that you can use a bag in them.there is now no way I want to deal with several gallons of debris a central vac could collect over 6 months.Could e worse than Shop Vacs.I can't allow a machine to dump the debris into my septic tank.Would rather have the trash deal with it.