Someone here was told that the hoses can develop a funny smell. Mine never has, but CVS said that if you have dogs, especially large ones, the hose sock can pick up the doggy odors! There are a few simple fixes. You can lay the hose with sock out in the sun to naturally deodorize it. You can run the hose and sock through dryer sheets or you can use Febreze. Also CVS said that if it is a real problem, hoses less than 50 feet do not need to have the sock on at all, which should solve the problem.

I know Jeri has been asking forever for input on 60' Hide A Hose. My CVS has several customers with 60' hoses and feel that as long as the power unit is correctly sized (it is the water lift number that is most important) to be able to vacuum in that length of hose, you should be fine. They also feel that having one outlet rather than two will be very convenient, as well as significantly less expensive for you. I know it's not actual personal experience, Jeri, but I hope it helps.

Vacuflo’s most powerful unit, the MaxAir, has a water lift of 208". The water lift of the most powerful Imperium unit is 142", yet Vacuflo specifically stated they do not recommend the 60’ hose :-(. You can see my dilemma…

We’ve not made the purchase yet, and I do hope to hear from a "real" user, but I do plan on purchasing the 60’ hose. Perhaps CVS will guarantee to swap it out if I buy everything from them and it does not work! I’d take that deal – since we are DIY. :-)

Now - I've just give my $.02. I have the Imperium unit - I don't know which one but lets say it was $650. I have a 50 foot hose and no problems. Obviously my water lift is 142 or less. So I can not imagine that 208 wouldn't be enough for a 60 footer - unless Vacuflo overrates or Imperium underrates. I might ask CVS if the ratings are on par and see if they have an answer to that obvious difference in lift. They certainly rec their Imperium without reservation on the 50 footer.

It think it is likely that Vacuflo won't recommend the 60' hose for reasons of CYA! The CVS rep checked the Vacuflo website and can't find any written statement about not using 60' hoses. She says that she has sold many 60' hoses with no problems! Below is a quote from her Hide A Hose rep.

"I have talked to several of their dealers that use Max Air with 60’ hoses and they tell me it is an awesome unit. This Max Air unit was originally made for Hide A Hose. I have a 60’ hose in my own home with the smallest unit and it works fantastic."

Jeri I hope this helps. Perhaps if you haven't done so already you could try talking to other Vacuflo dealers than your local one and ask them what their actual experience has been when customers buy 60' hoses for use with Hide A Hose, or call CVS for their input. My rep has offered to give me the name of the Hide A Hose rep for my area (South East) if that would help. Good luck!

Because we are DIY, we are leaning toward the Imperium unit.

David – Am I being naive? We would have to rerun the pipes in the attic to a new location and install the new drop, but other than time (and a new hose of course); this shouldn’t be too difficult to do if it was absolutely necessary. Fortunately, this location is very close to the unit and attic access is easy. I could simply choose a different location and go with the 50’ hose, but I really want the hose in the wall between the kitchen and laundry as I will use it a *lot* in these 2 rooms.

From the many, many posts on these forums and else where, I too believe that the 60 will work and we are willing to give it a go. It will be great to come back here and post my experience so that I could be helpful to others as well. :-)

FYI - My info on the Vacuflo comes from an e-mail I received from them. Below is a cut and paste of that response. Curiously, I also e-mailed HaH and told them that Vacuflo did not recommend their 60’ hose – I asked if they could recommend a different CV, but they never responded…

~~~

I spoke to our engineer, Chris Slackford, and he does not recommend using the 60 ft hide-a-hose due to the huge loss of suction. He definitely recommends no more then a 50 foot hose. He recommends the FC 1550 or the 9050 Max Air if you are able to exhaust the unit outside, He said you can email any questions to him (cslackford@hpproducts.net and he will gladly answer any questions you may have. Chris has vast knowledge of the hide-a-hose and installing these units. Chris is not only an engineer he is also our Field Trainer.

Thank You,
Shelly Swierz
VACUFLO Customer Service

Fortunately, this location is very close to the unit

Wouldn't being close to the unit be more troublesome, since you still need to have 60+ feet of pipe?

Ideally, you should have only 2 90 bends so it would so what Chris says is true. It isn't impossible but being close doesn't really help. Ideally the motor is on the opposite end of the house because that long run gets you close to the required feet but this is not that big of a deal (with good access).

Our house was a less than perfect candidate for HAH as the power unit and canister have to be in the second floor laundry room which is located in the middle of a long house. In addition the 3 outlets had to also be located close to the middle of the house. This meant that the 3 'HAH garages' as I call them had to circle around in the attic and between the floors to be long enough to house the hoses. I am sure the straighter the runs, the better the suction for retracting the hoses. Our system was about as convoluted as it could be! Still it works perfectly with my Imperium vac. And I love the new 'toys' I bought for it yesterday!

It will be interesting to know what you decide to do and of course, how well it works.

Yes – the "garage" as Sis calls it will be very close to the unit – so a long run out and then back I suppose. If it needed to be moved – it just wouldn’t come back as far.

Sis – is your CVS the same as the one online? I didn’t realize they have a brick-n-mortar store. Again – thanks for all your help – you have been too kind. :-)

Yes, my CVS is the one that started it all in 1948, here in St Petersburg, Florida. CVS is still owned by the Ambrose family. It is interesting to visit as there are always representatives talking at length on the phone, helping customers and potential customers. I am always so impressed by their patience and by how pleasant they all are there! The "About Us" section of their website seems to be a very honest representation of who they are!

I feel really dumb because I hadn't realized until today that there are not CVS's all over the country! My CVS is everyone else's too!! So Mary at my/your CVS knows all about your quest for personal experience of 60 footers and has been trying to help me to help you!
Now I feel very lucky to have the store on my doorstep!

Love my [50' hose length] central vac; good luck with yours!

The key to the performance on the Hide-a-Hose is airflow at the end of the hose. You want to be satisfied that the turbine based (TurboCat) powerhead has enough airflow to spin properly. High sealed vacuum will compensate for the long hose runs and is therefore a greater indicator of performance versus Airwatts in this specific application. The MaxAir power unit was designed specifically with Hide a Hose in mind.

All power units will lose airflow as length of the hose increases. Generally speaking, it is not unusual to have performance decreases 2-3% going from 30-40' and also when going from 40-50'. That is why it s a recommended practice when installing Hide a Hose is to oversize the power unit based on length of hose.

When you increase the length of hose from 50' to 60', the performance can decrease as much as 22%...just with those extra 10'...regardless of the power unit size. During our testing, the Max Air maintained the HIGHEST level of airflow at each length tested (30, 40, 50 an 60') and was the ONLY power unit that maintained adequate airflow to operate a turbine at 60'hose length.

My hesitance to recommend usage for ANY power unit at a 60' length is due in large to the greater performance decrease that occurs over 50'. Will it work? Yes. Do I think it is a compromise to the best functioning system? Yes.

I think it is best to look at your overall application before evaluating. If you have no carpet in your house and can more economically afford one 60' hose, then I am more comfortable with that situation than one that would require turbine use.

I hope this helps.

Lastly....regarding the hose sock getting dirty...

I have had really good success with placing an entire hose assembly, sock and all, in the washing machine with some old towels to clean it. It washes up quite nicely. Simply lay it flat to dry, in the sun preferably.

I’m trying to understand this and have a question if you don’t mind…

If I only have 30’ of the 60’ hose pulled out – do I still have a loss of 22%? Or do I only have that loss when I exceed 50’ of hose actually pulled out from the wall?

What if someone only needed a 40’ hose – but had to run 60’ pipe (or more) to reach the location – would they have the same loss?

If I’m only losing the extra power when a 60’ hose is fully extended I could live with that.

Thanks!

David's post is correct. Regardless of how much hose is pulled out you would still experience the same amount of loss since the air would have to travel through the entire length of the hose. The hose size is smaller and has less smooth interior than the vacuum tubing therefore the hose will account for much more frictional loss than will the extra tubing. Hope this helps.

As far as problems go though, this is not a bad one. :-)

Thanks everyone.