Central Vac "Hide-A-Hose"

[Kent M.]

I'm in the planning stage of a central vacuum installation. Noticed a fairly new product called Hide-A-Hose

and wondered if anyone had any experience actually using this product.

They claim that up to 50' of hose can be used, which would allow me to use one inlet for our 2000 sf house.

Some of my questions/concerns:

1) While the 50' hose would not be carried from inlet to inlet nor stored in a closet, would it be too cumbersome to actually use?

2) Only option offered for remote on/off is an rf transmitter in handle of wand. Not a trivial issue if you are 50' from the switch at the inlet with a rug, cat or small child attached to the end of the hose! ;-) Guess one could rig up an X-10 mini transmitter and appliance module if oem offering was too pricey.

3) How well does it really retract? Don't want to stand there pushing 50' of hose back into the piping every time.

Kent

[HeatMan]

A tombstone?

In the Kitchen?

[Dr. Hardcrab]

The retractable hose sounds nice. One thing I would get? Check this out:

I plan on installing one in my kitchen once/while I redo the cabinets.

[Joseph Meehan]

I suspect so. The one I have, standard length) is close to max length I would want.

That sounds like something to go bad, and in five years will you be able to find parts?

That was another issue that came to mind. I suspect that would be a serious drawback .

I will be watching to see if anyone who has used it offers any information.

I did not notice it saying anything about AC power for powered carpet tools.

[NickySantoro]

We have a 25' hose and even that gets cumbersome pulling from room to room over carpet. You might want to rethink the single outlet concept. FWIW YMMV

[Jeff Wisnia]

"Moms" Mabley was your girlfriend?

Please accept my deepest condolences.

Jeff

[Dr. Hardcrab]

LOL!!!!

How in the hell did THAT get in there??!!! That was my girlfriend...;-]

Try this one:

[trader4]

I have a regular central vac system and it're reliable and works very well. I'd be very skeptical of this new gizmo. Moving the hose around from room to room isn;t that big of a deal that it's worth being a guinea pig. Among the obvious drawbacks, as someone else pointed out, you appear to be limited to having an air powered pickup unit, as opposed to an electric one. I think the air powered ones are worthless.

Then, there is the issue of where does all the hose go? I would think there would be some limits on installation, like how many turns there could be within the length of pipe where the hose has to go. That may be one reason they are advocating less outlets, because you are limited to relatively straight sections of pipe. And I think at best the tradeoff between moving a medium size hose from outlet to outlet, vs dragging a very long hose farther, is a wash. Plus, the unit that goes in the wall is a lot bigger and uglier than a std one. It sounds to me like there are plenty of possible problems, like hose not retracting and/or getting stuck.

[Kent M.]

I believe I'll pass on "tombstones" and "old, dead comedians" in the kitchen.... ;-)

I was already planning for Vac-Pans in the kitchen and master bath, but thanks for the suggestion.

There is no capability for powering ac tools. They recommend using air powered tools, which is no problem for me since we only have one room with carpet (and it will go durning the next "spruce up").

Parts availability in general is a concern, since this is a new company with only this one product (apparently).

[Kent M.]

Thanks for the input, Nicky. We only have one room with carpet and that will be going away sometime soon.

I guess by "cumbersome", I meant more in the way of getting tangled up and knocking stuff over, rather than the effort to pull it around the house. Pulling a sock covered 50' hose on carpet might make things quite difficult, though.

[PaPaPeng]

I have a central vacuum which I think is more of a nuisance than a help. The long hose is a lot clumsier to move around than a long portable vacuum cord, especially if there is furniture between the wall inlet and the place you are vacuuming. Plus its not uncommon for debris to be caught inside the elbows that require cutting the vacuum pipe open to clear. No snake will reach the blockage through more than one 90 degree elbow.

[Art]

Air powered tools for carpet are useless. The fact that they recommend that already makes me suspicious. I would also think that pulling 40 feet of hose out of each outlet is a bigger pain then carrying a hose from outlet to outlet.

[Art]

We gave up on the sock because they do get dirty and add weight. Check out the Hoover Windtunnel head for central vacuum. It has a light hose. We have had 3 different power nozzles and it is the best at cleaning. Better than a very expensive European one we tried.

[Dr. Hardcrab]

That was from another newsgroup I frequent. There was a thread on "hot female actresses" (or something like that). People were saying "Boy! I'd love to hook up with so and so!" and stuff like that. I posted a link to a picture of Bea Arthur and then the one to Moms Mabley and said I wanted to be the meat on THAT sammich!!!!

(O.K., guess you had to be there...)

;-]

[PipeDown]

Good point, if you are doing a new install, use two 45s rather than one 90 if you have to go round a corner. Also a threaded connection here and there for clearing out clogs would be useful in a new design, not much different than a cleanout in a plumbing drain system I guess.