Central vac for shop

[Rick Potter]

Sorry if this is a repeat from a year ago. If so I can't find it.

My brother in law gave me a whole house vacuum he took out of his house. He said it worked when he removed it, but I cannot make it run. It has two decent size motors with a toggle switch which I assume turns off the whole system. It also has some low voltage wires hanging off, which I suppose turned it on when a port was opened or a hose hooked up?

I plug it in, turn on the switch, and get nothing.

Any suggestions?

I would like to try hooking this up in the shop as a central shop vac, using 2" PVC and a Dust Deputy. Been sitting on it for over a year now.

Thanks,

[Ralph Boumenot]

Try touching two of the low voltage wires together and see if that turns on the vacuum. It may need that part of the circuit to be closed to run the motor.

[Garth Almgren]

Try touching two of the low voltage wires together and see if that turns on the vacuum. It may need that part of the circuit to be closed to run the motor.

Yes, this is how our central vac is set up - low voltage wires run to each port, and when you plug in a tool there is a switch on the tool that completes the circuit and turns on the motor.

[Jim Dwight]

Yep. On the one I installed in our last house, the wires ran down the hose so a little switch on the end of the hose could turn the vacuum off and on. Mine had a small collection container, maybe half a gallon in size. The filter hung down into it. With a dust deputy up stream it would be OK. The vacuum it provides is stout, more than any but the best regular vacuums. But the airflow is like a house vacuum, not a shop vacuum. I haven't looked up any specs but I think it is less. Before I spent much time and energy on it, I would check the specs. If it checks out, you could use the low voltage trigger wires to hook up a switch at each tool or something.

They sell special thin wall PVC for house vacuums. I think the OD is 2 inch but the id is bigger than it would be if the side wall was like plumbing pipe. I bought it at a vacuum store that sold whole house systems. The fact that the size was kind of small is one of the reasons I wonder if the air flow is equivalent to a shop vacuum. But it still might work OK.

I found specs on one central vacuum of 135 inches and 122 CFM. Shop vacuums will typically pull less than 100 inches of water but will flow 150-200 CFM. So without more specifics on your unit, I still think there is reason to think the airflow will be a little on the low side but I also think it will work better if you want to run piping a long distance - it is made for that.

[Rick Potter]

Thanks guys,

I will give the low voltage wiring a try, as well as trying to find specs for this unit. I am hoping I can run a 2" PVC line down one side of the shop with it. I have a nice Clear Vue mini to use with it, to service smaller tools.

[Charles Lent]

I installed one that was removed from the neighbor's house during a major renovation. Mine didn't work when I got it. The 24 volt control transformer had gone bad. I replaced the transformer and installed it in my wood shop to vacuum the floor, collect the sawdust from my scroll saws, and with an inlet on the outside of my shop, vacuum my cars and my trucks. My vacuum came with three inlet ports, the attachments and hose, and most of the piping from it's previous location. I bought additional pipe and fittings from a local vacuum cleaner repair shop. They probably would have repaired it for me, but I'm a retired EE, so fixing it was easy for me. I added a Dust Deputy ahead of the vacuum and mounted both in the attic of my shop. Nothing seems to have ever made it past the Dust Deputy. The filter in the vacuum is just as clean as when I first started using the vacuum. Originally, I had a 5 gallon collection plastic container (Firehouse Subs Pickle Bucket) under the Dust Deputy and the vacuum collapsed it almost immediately after putting the vacuum into use. Then I realized that the top 1/3 of the plastic bucket was reinforced, but the bottom was not. So I stacked 3 buckets together and used the top bucket to collect the dust from the Dust Deputy. This worked very well, but my son was able to get me a 20 gallon steel grease barrel that I have built a wooden top for and moved the Dust Deputy to it.

What make and model is your Central Vacuum unit? Maybe I can help you fix it. Mine is a Beam, which was made by Electrolux.

Charley

[Rick Potter]

Hi Charles,

I appreciate the offer. I took a look at it this morning, and it is made by VSI Filtex, in Temple City CA. It is model TS-300L, and draws 12.25 amps/120V. It has two motors hooked up in series.

I already connected the low voltage wires together when I first tried it last year. There are a bunch of bad connections with other low voltage wires and I will clip it down to the two main ones and try it again. I don't mind bypassing the whole low voltage setup if I use it. I can just have it on a main switch and it will be fine for me.

I took pics of it with my phone, and I will ask tech support (granddaughter) if she can get them in a post for me tonight. The intake/exhaust setup is kind of interesting. Unless there is an exhaust port I don't see, they are together in one strange fitting.

Rick

[Charles Lent]

Rick,

There is quite a bit of information on line for VSI Filtex vacuums. See this link for the electrical.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...wiring+diagram

Charley