The motor just died in my central vac and a replacement is $200 so I am going to replace the whole unit.
While it did a great job the filter system was a pi$$ poor design, to put it mildly.
It has a bucket at the bottom to collect the dust. Above it was a felt filter with a weight that just snapped into place with an expanding ring that went into the grove in the cyclinder.
When you took off the bottom bucket to empty it you always got a some dust from the filter falling on the floor. But if you needed to clean the felt filter you ended up covered in dirt and would get a couple of inches on the floor.
Actually the felt did a good job of filtering. The inside of the unit was very clean. But I hate, HATED to have to empty it.
So I am looking for a replacement unit. I was looking at some of the cyclone filtering units (Hayden,VacuMaid, Silent Partner, etec). But I am concerned about how they will work with dog hair. If the hair will filter out or if it will just clog up.
I came across another design from MD Mfg (Flo-Master, Air Force, Silent Master, Modern Day – don’t know why they have so many brands) that looks very interesting. These unit are “upside down”. The blower is in the bottom of the unit and the filter is in the top. It uses a light was paper bag, which is just used to hold the dirt and is not the main filter. The bag sets on top of the a felt bag is the main filter. And then there are a couple of fine filters to protect the blower. Anyway it looks like a nice setup and most of the time to empty it all you have to do is open the top and pull out the paper bag.
But my only experience with these are the cyclone style are based on the manufactures lit.
So any experinece is appreciated.
Replies
Go to or call a vacum store and find the old guy, no seriously.
We put one in for a client a while back, and the guy talked my ear off asking questions and such, one was do they have a dog or cat. I assume this was because of hair?
I can't remember what unit they ended up selling us so I can't help with that.
Bill, I have a Vacuflo. Got it because there are no filters (well, only a permanent metal screen) or bags. Have it exhausting outside, so no problems with it generating dust.
Our house has an old vacumaid system. Works great. It has a cyclonic collector inside, then exhausts the air outside. I suppose you lose some heat this way, but it gets all the really fine dust out of the house entirely. Emptying it is pretty easy. A dust cloud when I dump it into the big garbage can outside. I think you can put bags in if you want to just take the can off the vacumn, close the bag, toss, & replace.
Frankly, with my limited experience, I wouldn't consider a system that had a filter. Even the best filter misses something.
As far as dog hair, I've vacumned up lots of it with no problems, but mostly out of the garage, so it was a really short run to the vacumn unit. My dog sheds enough for 3 normal dogs.<G>
Bill I have 2 Labs and 1 Vacuflo: It's the best! No filters,exterior exhaust of the fine particles that escape the cyclone. It was reccomended to me to install in the basement rather than the garage, because temp & humidity variations in the garage could corrode the contacts. Good luck!