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What makes one item a necessity to one person and a luxury to another? In the need for a central vacuum system, I must admit that my wife had a large part in our decision to purchase our FloMaster central vacuum system. We had lived in our home for over 20 years and were in the process of a major remodel when we made our decision. Our home was over 100 years old built out of native stone and had exterior walls that ran from 14 to 21 inches thick. Obviously, we would need to design a system that did not use exterior walls.
Our local dealer was most helpful in assisting us with our design, particularly the rerouting of pipes to the unit. We mounted the FloMaster in our garage by exiting through an old window that had been installed by the original stonemason. We found a couple of problems with routing and consequently installed sweep 90's, i.e. 90-degree fittings that keep a smooth airflow, and have had no problem.
The 5-gallon capacity of the dust bag is a plus in that we change the collector bag every three months and find it still has power. The suction is the same at the end of run as it is close to the unit. We have two hose systems, one downstairs, and one upstairs, so we do not need to pull the hose everywhere.
All the standard attachments work as designed but we have a particular favorite, the dustpan. This device mounts under the cabinets in the kitchen in the kick space. All you do is sweep the floor for crumbs and turn on the duct pan by opening it up with our toe, which turns on the unit. Immediately the crumbs disappear as if by magic.
For the techies our M-80 has a two-stage motor that produces 120 inches of vacuum, enough to hold a bowling ball, and moves 106 cubic feet of air per minute at the outlet port. It is more than sufficient to clean over 3000 square feet of floor space.
We have two dogs and two cats and the FloMaster picks up all the fur and whisks it away. Our M-80 is not as quiet when operating but this is not as problem when the unit is located in the garage with 21 inches of stone to muffle the sound. If you happen to be in the garage, it is quite noisy but I purchased the garage kit and use it for a shop vac for the cars and DIY projects.
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