ducted vacuum

we are building a new house and were wondering if there were any good or bad experiences/opinions around ducted vacuum.


we are planning to have 3 carpeted rooms downstairs, the rest tiles.
Upstairs is going to be timber/bamboo flooring.

we have been quoted about 4 points ducted vacuum to be $1568.

we have received some feedback that it needs frequent maintenance.

thanks

vpande

Hi

We havent owned a ducted vacuum - but have been in rentals with them for past 2yrs. In that whole time not once was it 'maintained'.

spalen - do tell - if you were building though would you put one in?

Yes, please.
I need to know, too.

My parents have a ducted vacuum (quite old now) and as far as I know the only maintenance is changing the bag. I know they did have an issue with the motor as the bags can't get too full, and it cost them a bit to replace a part, but apart from that, nothing.
I don't know that the cost warrants them, but then I'm happy with my electrolux, and we won't have a large area of carpet.

Ray.

Hia

Yes we've ordered a 4 port vaccumaid in our new 2 story home thats being built for us- cost 1500$

Be careful with hose lenght - the one we're getting has a 9mtr hose - thats a major pain in *** - lugging 9mtr hose upstairs to do hoovering kinda defeats the object of the convenience.

They do work well though in my experience

Hi,

l have owned 2 properties with a ducted vacuum system and l agree with everyone's comments that they are low maintenance. However with both systems we were not able to adjust the suction, it was either on or off. So they were fabulous on floorboards but on carpet l sometimes needed to go over the same spot a number of times. Also if you do go with a ducted system, l would highly recommend a stocking that goes over the hose to protect your walls because when you are lugging the thing around you can accidently bang and scrape the corners of your walls.

In the new home we are about to build, we are not putting in a ducted system.

Hope that helps,
Leonda

Thank you all for your feedback. Do they provide with points upstairs as well. One can then have the openings in areas of poor access and those that require frequent vacuuming. I picked a brochure from Home ideas centre which had a pretty clever design for the kitchen. I will have to compare what Ill get from the builder though.
cheers,
vpande

I've had a couple of rental places with ducted vacuum systems and they sucked - not in a good way. Noisy as, and the suction wasn't as good as a portable vac.

We'll be building soon and there's no way I'd put in a ducted vac, I just think it's one of the requirements that's best served by something that's not embedded into the house. That way you can take advantage of new suppliers and changes in technology etc. I always wondered, what would happen if you got a blockage in a duct - how would it be fixed ?

Cheers,


Justin.

We didn't really wanted v acuum system as we planned the tiles downstairs and wooden floor upstairs but the builder was giving us a package worth $1200 - intercom, alarm and vacuum.

Overall we are very happy. Suction is strong and it cleans really good. You can buy additionally the things for grooming your dog etc. Long hoses are good as you can reach every corner in the house. There are 4 sockets in the house; two downstair and two upstair. As far as I know that's the standard.

With vacuum just be careful not to vacuum the dust after handover as you can destroy the engine. Maintenance is low. No dragging vacuum around the house...

good luck.
kate

Parents put one in their house when they built in '99.

I am looking at building now and would not even consider it.
It is annoying having to lug the hose around and being careful that the hose doesn't scrape on the corner parts of walls even when we had the hose wrapped in sheets (as the sheets would sometimes slip and parts of the hose become exposed).

Can't comment on the maintenance as I never did it.

Good luck with your decision!

We are building soon and we are getting it, but ours was an extra feebie, so I'm not worried if we don't like it

I can't vaccuum cos of allergies so will be intersting to see what it is like (OH gets to do it!!!)

My parents have it already in their last 2 houses and mum is quite happy with it

Dear Vpande,
We have ducted vacuum in our current home (4 years old) and we had only one problem so far when it was under warranty. You may have to replace vacuum bag (cost is ~$10) in a years or so depending up on your usage. It's great to have it, cost for ducted vacuum with 4.5 point (.5 point in garage) is approx. $1300. It's good to have vacuum hose sock, sock will prevent hose any scratch mark on your wall......


Hardy

I am being quote $800 just for the wiring for ducted vacuum for a two storey home.

Not sure how much a unit itself is.

Sounds expensive, so I am still undecided whether to get one. I guess it's good for the value of the house, but not sure if we need one, given we have a good quality vacuum already.

800$???
We have received a package for $1200 that constists of vacuum, alarm system and intercom.

Look for different quotes.

kate

I'll be getting one for sure.

Is there such a thing as "ducts" in the floors that you can sweep the dirt towards and it sucks it all up? Is this still the same system as the ducted vacuum or something different? I don't necesarrily want to carry the hose around but in areas like the kitchen for example it would be nice to just sweep into one corner and everything is sucked up
I may be making this up tho

I decided to get ducted vacuuming on the last house I built. Never again.

After only a couple of months' use a small twig was sucked in and got stuck in the pipes in the walls. We had to pay for a service call for them to come and clean out the pipes. After that we never used the ducted system. The horrible cumbersome long vacuum tube was not as comfortable to use as a normal vacuum cleaner. Also the central motor in the garage was embarassingly loud, so we didn't like using it to vacuum the cars.

I certainly won't be wasting my money this time I build.

No you arent!

Do a search on dust pan:

http://forum.homeone.com.au/search.php?keywords=dustpan&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

We're having a vacpan in the kitchen :




Read these threads - they're helpful :
http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=6609&hilit=vacpan

http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=10568&hilit=+vacpan