ᐅ Central vacuum system – a very large effort?

A few years ago, I installed a central vacuum system, but it broke down within 6 or 7 months. So, I am not really impressed with it.

A central vacuum system has always been a dream of mine. However, after thorough research, I decided against it. The hoses can wear out quickly, and replacing them is quite expensive. Also, thinking about how easily something can be vacuumed up that then clogs the pipe—how do you access it in such a system? Is it complicated? The hoses probably get dirty inside pretty quickly as well. On top of that, they are not exactly energy efficient.

The laundry chute seemed more convincing to me.

We have been considering a central vacuum system for a long time. It is much quieter than a conventional one, very easy to use, and much cleaner than a regular vacuum.

Unfortunately, it’s not exactly cheap. We were almost going to pay 2,500 (roughly $2,500) for it, and with that amount, I could buy 10 really good vacuum cleaners and still have no additional costs for maintenance. We’ll see if we end up regretting it.

A laundry chute is definitely convenient, but it’s difficult to implement since the chute has to run all the way to the basement (at least in most cases! The ground floor would be much easier). Another point to consider is the space lost due to the chute.

Well, with about 35 x 30, planning this shouldn’t be too difficult. After all, a typical laundry basket usually takes up even more space, and everyone probably has one in their bathroom or bedroom, right?

In our case, we really have to be careful about where to place it. But it will probably follow this path: laundry room in the basement, cloakroom or guest restroom on the ground floor, bathroom on the first floor, and then the bathroom on the second floor. This definitely saves a lot of running around, and with a household of four or more people, quite a bit of laundry accumulates.

What fascinated me about the central vacuum system was that you don’t need a cleaning closet. But that’s not entirely true, since you still need a bucket and mop, don’t you?

You’re worrying unnecessarily... a laundry chute doesn’t save you that much effort, because the laundry still needs to be washed downstairs and carried back up (which is actually the more tedious part). So you’ll have to do that anyway. The route you describe is fine, assuming it actually works that smoothly. Especially since you also have other pipes running up and down there, which altogether just take up space. If you have the space, great, otherwise, well...

And you also need a cleaning closet for the hose of the central vacuum system. The hose can be up to 9 meters (30 feet) long and it also has the wand attached at the front, just like the one you currently have on your vacuum cleaner.

Then you could really buy a lot of vacuum cleaners! Dyson and Vorwerk would be options too.
Of course, carrying heavy loads upstairs is difficult, but someone has to sort the laundry, load the washing machine, unload it, and hang the clothes up again. No one can do that for you either, but it still makes the process easier.