I have been using a shop vac as a central system for about 15 years and I
would not trade it for nothing. Somebody mentioned fine dust getting
throught the filter. That has not been a problem and my system is not
vented to the outdoors like the central vacs are. The only problem I find
is that when the filter is clean it is hard to clean the floor the brush
wants to glue to the floor. On carpet you can lift the carpet off the
floor. Once the filter is dirty it seems to work just fine. It was a lot
cheaper and I did use the proper piping and fittings with an adapter on the
end for the shop vac.
Eric

"jim rozen" wrote in message
...
In article , Harold and Susan Vordos says...

Having personally installed a commercial central vacuum system, I'd have
to
suggest that at best, a shop vac is a joke. The best one I've seen
doesn't
come close to the level of performance the purpose built units have. I
was
going to do exactly as you suggest, but checking into the commercial units
changed my mind, in spite of the fact it was expensive. A poorly
performing unit would serve no real purpose. That made making the right
decision easy.

I've found that doing the reverse of this is quite nice.

I've scrounged a couple of true "whole house vac" units
and use them to clean chips off machines in my shop here
at work, and also at home.

(the one at work was in the warehouse here, free for the taking,
and the one at home was snagged during one of the local trash
pickup days. It didn't work because it was clogged with
dust and hair)

Those things develop a huge pressure differential and will
suck the chrome off the proverbial trailer hitch. The only
thing I haven't done yet is to discharge the one at home
to outside, and find some spot on the wall to hang it.

Jim


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