The size of your central vacuum system is not determined by the size of your home. If your central vacuum system is installed without leaks, you will get the same suction throughout the house. We recommend the same power unit for a 1000-square-foot home as we do for a 6000- square-foot home.

Regardless of the size of your home, you’ll want maximum cleaning power with a central vacuum system. No matter what you buy, your suction will be virtually the same all over. So if you want the most cleaning power, buy a powerful central vacuum system. If you want second best, buy second best.

The design of your central vacuum system power unit matters if you are looking for consistent, uninterrupted power and maintenance-free long life.

• The motor-blower should be “beefy” enough to run well for a generation. That means large enough bearings and brushes to last. It should be able to produce maximum cleaning power without needing to run the fan blades at excessive speed.
• The relay and related components, which turn the unit on and off, should be sized large enough to operate indefinitely.
• You need motor protection that will prevent dust and dirt particles from fouling the motor or fan blades. The “dirty” air that passes through your Budd unit central vacuum system is intercepted by a permanent cloth, which does not need to be replaced. A paddle whose handle is on the outside of the machine is used to shake out the cloth before it gets too dirty. That’s the way all Budd power units are built.

A rotating brush is often necessary for cleaning and grooming rugs and carpets. Some vacuum people will try to sell you a wide range of costly and maintenance-hungry devices.

Our experience has been that you can do a good job with an air-driven rotating brush which is driven by the suction air if you use a strong enough motor-blower in your power unit. Budd carries a full line of electric motor-driven rotating brushes along with current-carrying hoses and wall inlets.

Waterlift and cubic feet per minute (C.F.M.) are the units of measure that an engineer would use to describe the output of a vacuum system.

• Waterlift: The amount of suction that a vacuum device produces is termed water lift. Suction is measured in inches. The original experiments were performed using a “U” shaped glass tube, which held a liquid. Suction would be applied to one end of the “U”. The liquid would go up on the side of the “U” where the suction was applied and the level of the liquid would go down on the other side. The difference in the height of the two levels (measured in inches) expressed the amount of suction. Although the amount of water lift is crucial, high water lift numbers alone are not enough. Old-fashioned auto windshield wipers were powered by suction. But that was a closed system and the volume of air was insignificant. If you produce suction but do not move a large volume of air, you get high water lift numbers but no cleaning power.
• C.F.M. (Cubic Feet per Minute): How much air you are moving? It is not uncommon to have an attic fan that delivers 10,000 cubic feet per minute. Although an attic fan is capable of delivering huge volumes of air, there is no cleaning power if the cubic feet per minute are not combined with sufficient suction power (water lift).
• Air-Watts: If you take the water lift number and multiply it by the C.F.M. number and then divide that number by 8.3, the resulting number is “air-watts.” For instance, a large C.F.M. number times a small water lift number, as in the attic fan example, yields a large air-watts number but no cleaning power. Then, a large water lift number times a small C.F.M. number also produces no cleaning power.

The Budd Vacuum central vacuum system was originally conceived and designed for people who clean their own homes. Everything was planned for installation in lived-in homes. If you clean your own home and do not wish to pay a cleaning person, you will really benefit from the Budd System central vacuum system.

This website describes how easy and how economical a do-it-yourself installation can be. We know you have the ability, but if you do not have the time, let us quote you on the installation of the central vacuum system in your present home.

Even if you use a cleaning service to clean your home, why have them use their own portable machines that carry other households’ dirt and germs?