Vacpan II

[amtraksebo1997]

I'm sure anyone who's decently knowledgeable on central vacs has heard of the Vacpan. It's quite the neat little central vac add-on in my opinion. Anyways, Plastiflex, the company that I think was the one who produced the OG version, also produced a sequel to it, the VacPan II! The main party-trick to it is that it can function both as an automatic dustpan, as well a conventional inlet. It's a lot smaller than a normal Vacpan, though. Anyways, while I don't currently have a CV installed at my house, I would someday like to do so, and would like to include an automatic dustpan with it. However, I don't think I'll be able to install a conventional one without it being a complicated install. However, I think my ideal CV setup will only require two inlets, one on each floor of my house, and my bottom floor seems like a good place to have a Vacpan II. Although, I have seen next to no reviews or videos on them online, despite the fact that they can still be purchased. So, does anyone here have one or more installed with their systems? If so, are they any good?

 

[panasonicvac]

I believe when these first came out a while ago, I recall they were marketed for very small applications like cottages or RVs' for example. I've never used one before nor have I ever seen one in person but I think they're not a bad idea. A few things that stood out to me about this design. It looks like you have to bend over to turn it on, you don't have to with the regular VacPan. I like that the regular VacPan is much wider to sweep the debris into, this appears to be narrower for my taste. And the inlet valve is non electric, I personally prefer using a central vac that has a direct connect hose. Still nonetheless, not a bad idea. However they may be discontinued already since I no longer see them listed on manufacture sites like MD. If that's the case, it could be because they weren't very popular like the regular VacPans.

 

[amtraksebo1997]

The lack of powerhead contacts doesn't really concern me. I don't really see the benefit of having them over just using a pigtail hose. As for the switch inconvenience, I guess you could try using your foot or your knee to activate it, but IDK how good of an idea that is. And as for the sweep-inlet size, yeah it's pretty small, but I guess it's good for keeping stuff that's too big from getting stuck in it, which I guess might've been a problem according to this Cansweep promotional video. And even though they might be discontinued, I've been able to find them in stock on online retailers (possible as NOS).

 

[panasonicvac]

Personally, I do see that as a plus over the corded hoses. For example, my grandparent's house that's built back in the 80's doesn't have any electric valves. There's one inlet where you'd need to get an extension cord to reach to the nearest outlet for the electric powerhead. To me, it's totally unnecessary and rather useless. Especially if the extension isn't long enough where I'd have to hop the hose and myself over the door in front of one bedroom in the house because the cord is so high up. If I could change some things to that system, swapping out the inlets would be one of them. Only problem though is Hayden no longer makes the metal electric valves cause that would've been perfect, my grandparents have metal non electric inlets all over the house.

I've never had a problem with larger debris getting stuck on the VacPans that I've used including mine. But I'll admit, those Cansweep inlets look pretty impressive! If they make one that's out of metal, that'd be awesome! Luckily Trovac makes a VacPan themselves called a Decovac that's made out of metal, I think I'd like to have one of those for myself.

 

[amtraksebo1997]

PanasonicVac

Yeah. Sounds like whoever installed your grandparent's CV didn't take into account wether or not they'd want to get an electric hose. However, my inlets in my ideal setup would be placed next to electrical outlets, so cord length should be a non-issue. Also, I'm honestly not a huge fan of the Cansweep from an asthetics standpoint, but it probably would be better from a preformance standpoint. I just like the more traditional look of the Vacpan, as well as the recessed look of the Kitvac.