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0:00
This video is all about giving you an overview of how central vacuum systems work
0:07
Now the reason I'm talking about this in the context of a basement course is
0:11
because of a lesson I learned a long time ago. Back in the late 1980s I was building our house from scratch and I grew up in a house without a central vac
0:23
I always thought that central vacs were for rich highfalutin people and it wasn't really for
0:30
ordinary folks and wasn't worth the trouble. So I didn't plan to put any central vac pipes in my house
0:37
My wife had grown up in a house with central vac and she really liked it
0:43
She quite wisely and gently suggested. She said, well, you know, you don't, we don't need to put in a
0:49
central vac yet. We don't need to shoulder that expense. But, you know, for the few dollars it's
0:53
going to cost to rough in the pipes, then now's the time to do it before you close everything up
1:00
And I guess that's my advice to you, too, because if you've got an unfinished basement
1:04
you're facing the last opportunity you have to install a central vac with reasonable ease in the rest of your house
1:14
or at least the level immediately above your basement. And even if you don't think you want central vac right now
1:22
it doesn't take a lot of work to rough in the pipes while the ceiling of the basement is still open
1:27
And that's kind of what we've got going on here. So all central facts have a central unit like this
1:36
They're usually cylindrical in shape. They mount on the wall. They need an outlet
1:42
And they also have two, they need an electrical outlet. They have two plumbing outlets, usually on the top
1:52
One, this one here is the incoming vacuum stream. So this is the pipe that the central vac will apply a vacuum to
2:03
so that dirt flows in and gets stored inside the unit and cleans your house
2:08
This other port is for the air that the vac has sucked in to be ejected
2:16
after the dust and dirt has been removed from the airstream through a filter or a cyclone arrangement or different systems use different approaches
2:27
The first thing I want to mention to you is that it makes a lot of sense to vent this central vacuum outlet port outdoors
2:39
Because no matter how effective the unit a filter that the unit has or how effective the cyclone is there always going to be some dust remaining in this air And you might as well send it outside because if it doesn go outside
2:56
it's going to be recycling some of the dust that you worked so hard to vacuum
3:02
And that kind of recycling is no good. So this is one tip here
3:08
And in this illustration I've drawn, you can see the suction pipe is going up
3:14
and it's traveling through the floor frame in some way. This is just a schematic drawing to give you an idea
3:22
And any upstairs outlets that you'd want to add would sprout off vertically from this pipe
3:30
And they don't need to go very high. They just need to go into some sort of a partition wall
3:37
and then exit the partition wall. That's where the outlet is that you actually plug into
3:43
So, I mean, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do, but it's certainly going to get a lot harder if once your basement's finished
3:50
So you, I've done this sort of work before. You can you can burrow your way up through here using the right size of hole saw or a big auger in right into the partition wall and then exit the wall where the outlet connects
4:07
And I'm going to show you what that looks like in a minute. So we've got the upstairs portion of the run here, and over here, anything that you might want to drop down to floor level in your basement
4:22
so that you can clean your basement as easily as possible. The main advantages of central vac are power, first of all
4:29
You can get a lot more suction action than you can with really any portable unit
4:34
because the central vac unit can be large enough that it would be too head
4:39
to move but that means it also can deliver a lot of suction so you're moving a lot of air
4:44
the the suction pressure is strong you just clean things better and and that's one of the advantages
4:52
the other advantage is that it's just physically easier to move around a hose that's about 20 feet
4:57
long and compared with lugging a vacuum all over the place so lighter work and more effective
5:07
That's really the central vac promise and it does deliver. So cast your attention over here to this outlet for a minute
5:18
In every central vac outlet there are two small metal nubbins, I guess you could say
5:26
Just get things going here. So the nubbins right here. When you insert a vacuum hose into this all the vacuum hoses have metal on them either a metal ring or the thing you plug in is metal
5:47
And it completes the contacts. It completes the circuit, the electrical circuit here. And that controls, that sends electricity flowing through these 12-volt control wires
6:01
So built into every kind of central vac is a 12-volt switching system
6:09
So there's a relay in there, there's a transformer, and it generates 12 volts, which is very safe
6:16
And when you plug the hose in, it completes the circuit across these two nubbins
6:22
and that triggers a relay which energizes the central vac unit. So that's the thing that shuts the central vac on and off
6:30
when you plug in a hose. So essentially the job of roughing in for one of these things
6:38
involves a kind of plumbing work using a two-inch PVC vac pipe
6:46
There's pipe that's made especially for this. It's a thin wall PVC pipe
6:52
so you can cut it with a saw. It joins with PVC solvent
6:57
If you look up here, you can see there's elbow, and T's, there are tighter elbows and long sweeping elbows as well
7:08
You'll want to use those whenever you can because it reduces the possibility that these
7:13
pipes might get plugged up when the elbow is of a larger radius
7:19
Now over here, this is a side view of what you see going on here
7:24
So wherever that you want an outlet, you'd have a pipe coming in this
7:30
case down because we're going down to the basement floor you could also be coming up if you're
7:36
working above the first floor level coming up from the basement but this run where you want the
7:43
outlet it always stops with an elbow so this is a pvc elbow here it's glued on to a main
7:50
length of pvc backpipe and that's basically what sits you know at your wall level there's also
8:00
out there's a there's a fitting that fastens here and the fitting is made to accept this central
8:09
vac outlet door that's the thing with a little flap on it that you that you lift up to stick the
8:16
hose in so the outlet door has its own decorative flange on the outside and it goes on last after
8:23
everything else is done so drywall is up it painted you do this sort of work when you installing switch plate covers and plug outlet covers It happens at that stage of the game And there no glue involved
8:37
The outlet door assembly fits into this pipe arrangement here. And there's an O ring that seals it
8:47
And the thing that holds the outlet door in place is a couple of screws, top and bottom
8:52
I've kind of penned in the top and bottom screws here. So that means that you can undo those screws and take off the outlet door and replace it if you ever need to do that
9:05
So that's how it works. It's very simple. This is simpler than running drain pipe for regular plumbing
9:14
It's the same sort of work, but it's simpler because the stakes aren't as high
9:20
You know, you're not going to have a catastrophic leak somewhere if you don't get it quite right
9:24
And it's easy to get it right too. You're essentially running these PVC pipes as you need to
9:31
You're running some 12-volt control wires alongside. Just tie-wrapped every so often to keep it straight and from flopping around
9:41
Maybe the most difficult, most challenging part is going to be to punch a hole through the basement wall in order to get this exhaust pipe outside
9:50
You're also going to need power, as I mentioned. Now, when you're thinking about all this too, you need to realize that a central vac needs to be cleaned
9:59
Of course, the dirt goes there, but you're going to have to take it outside eventually
10:04
And it's not a terribly dirty process, but it can be kind of dusty
10:11
You know, you take off this bottom part to reveal where the dust is stored
10:17
and some dust is going to fall on the ground, and some might get a little airborne
10:21
So when you're figuring all this out, try to locate your central vac unit in a place where it doesn't really matter if some of the dust escapes
10:31
Ideally, it would be located in an unfinished utility part of the basement near your outside entrance to the basement if you have one
10:43
I hope you put one in because they really are a big help in lots of ways, not just during the building process, but afterwards too
10:50
It's really nice to be able to just take your dust-filled canister outside through a door
10:57
that's a couple of steps away from where the central vac is mounted
11:02
So, you know, think about this now before the ceiling goes up in your basement
11:09
because that's really the last chance you have to extend the central vac system to the upstairs
11:15
But as I've learned over the years, it's a great addition, and I would strongly recommend
11:20
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