Central Vac

[Parrothead]

Jim
I'm wondering if you have the correct hose. We have a 3400 and ours gets into the bedroom just fine. Also goes in the basement and if you park your TV right by the door of the Monty, you can do the TV also.
Happy trails........................

[JimF]

That is possible. I stretched and stretched that darn thing and cannot get to the closet side of the bed, it's just to darned short. The vac head is really crap, need a power head for the pet hair. I am really used to a self-propelled unit and this vacuuming is like work. I didn't retire to do that. Anyone know anything about a self-propelled attachment for this vac system??

[dsprik]

Jim, we have a 2007 3400 also. Cheryl had to stretch and stretch when new, but she says it will loosen up. She says she has no problem getting to the closet now with the hose.

Before anyone says something... I don't vacuum (too much anyway) and Cheryl doesn't climb up on the roof... It's a trade off, but our marriage works great...

[deadeye]

Here is the brand of central vac that we have in our stick home. I haven't purchased one for the camper, but I am going to this summer. We have had it in the stick house for 13 year. Lifetime guarntee to original owner on motor. We really love this brand and they have a lot of accesories. I installed the original unit in the stick house and it was real easy to do, I thought. This brand is made in Webster City, Iowa. I picked mine up at the factory. That was before internet came along..See attachment. JB

http://www.beamvac.com/products/boatsRVs/on_board.htm

[richfaa]

Well I am glad to hear that other folks think the hose is a bit to short. We can reach up into the bedroom closet area in our 3400 but it is a "stretch" We also do not care for that "bend" in getting around the island. The vac is great and the power head improves performance and we do have the right hose.We are attempting to " stretch" the hose..hope that will work.IMO it is too far to the rear of the 3400 (at the bend of the island) If I could find another place to put it I would move it..

[JimF]

I agree with you Rich. What power head do you have? Was looking at them on line and they all have mixed reviews..

[Rocky2]

I'm with JimF and richfaa -

The hose is to short and with three long haired dogs we need a good beater brush and lots of suction.
We still use our upright that we had in the stick house - kinda a pain but it works loads better. We have been looking for a good canister vacuum but have yet to find one that does the job of the Riccar upright.

The suction is okay on the built-in and I use it for quick pickups but tryng to stretch the hose around the counter etc tears up the thin covering on the corner mouldings.

Laura

[richfaa]

http://www.thinkvacuums.com/drainvac...FQVvHgodQQjyZQ

This is what we have..It is pricey but Helen says it works really well. We are told that Wall mart has one for a lot less money..We can not verify that, have not seen one and can not attest to its quality. The vac is a very good vac and has plenty of suction. Dog hair is hard to deal with...Our dog has been gone for 4 years and we can still find dog hair in the home vac bag.

[JimF]

Thanks Rich, that is the one we were looking at.

[dsprik]

Rich I looked around, I don't think you are going to pay too much less than $129 - maybe $10 less, but I didn't check eBay. One thing to watch is that there are TWO Turbocat versions of this powerhead. Have to make sure that one gets the NEW version over the cheaper older version, which they still advertise and sell. So if you start seeing prices near or under $100, you are not getting the newer version that Turbocat makes.

[Parrothead]

We have the Shop Vac one. $29. 6" wide.
Happy trails.................

[richfaa]

We also have the 6" wide one and it also works very well. Use it for the upholestry and steps.

[Carl n Susan]

We too bought the TurboCat Ex and Susan loves it. It gets all the fur dropped by our Golden Retriever mix. The 6" brush is O.K. for furniture, but the TurboCat is the answer for the carpets.

Carl (& Susan) Youngren

[rickety]

Ditto on Parrothead. We have the shopvac one and it works great. DW loves it.

[Rocky2]

Richfaa, Thank you for the link to the turbo head - thats what we have been looking for but could not find.

Laura

[sreigle]

Ours reaches to all corners with no trouble, including along the closet beyond the bed. We added the aftermarket beater bar and the vacuum works great. We've used a lot of the stick type vacuums over the years and were never satisfied. We're happy with this central vac. A true home style vac might be even better but when we tried that we found storage an issue.

[richfaa]

I wonder if the hose is now a bit longer.ours is definitely a stretch to the bedroom closet area, another foot of hose and it would be fine. We did find a company in Calif that sells hose extenders for these vac's at the local flea market.....If I could only find their card??

[sreigle]

Rich, I should probably clarify. I do have to pull the hose a bit to stretch it but it's not a difficult task. Maybe ours is longer, as you suggest it might be. I think the bag it came in said it stretches to 30 feet, if I recall. Our vac is in the cut corner of the island.

[richfaa]

we have the same thing.. Our Hose, after a few months of use is 10' 10" long .. not stretched. The distance from vac, around the bend(3400) to the closet is 23 feet(inside the closet) the hose says will streatch to 30 feet so the numbers say there shoud be no problem.. Perhaps the solution is to get the hose stretched.

[yvonnenid]

We love the vac also! We use the beater bar from our house central vac. I read this suggestion on the forum a while back. I love this forum!