M.D. Manufacturing has introduced a new electric attachment kit to the central vacuum industry. The introduction of the Ace Attachment Kit fills the gap between MD’s higher end Stealth Kits and entry level BlackHawk Kits. Ace Kit is an affordable high quality electric brush and tool set for the discerning buyer. The features of the Ace power brush will benefit from every home and make cleaning easier then ever. The Ace power brush features VBelt Power with Overload Protection, Four Position Height Adjustment, “Easy Release” Lower Wand Detachment - allowing you to clean smaller areas in an instant, and a Double Row Bristle roller brush. The kit also includes a crushproof electric hose, 4-piece tool set, chrome wand, telescopic secondary wand, deluxe mesh tool caddy, and a wire hose hanger. The Ace Attachment Kit has everything you need to keep your home as clean as possible. We invite you to compare it in our line up with Stealth and BlackHawk. For the price, this kit may be the one you have been waiting for. Compare the Kits.

Combine central vacuum suction and professional de-shedding tools to groom your pet with NO MESS. Rid your home of unwanted pet hair with the four piece central vacuum PetVac Accessory Kit. Takes minutes, and they’ll love it. This pet kit is specially designed to fit 99% of all central vacuum systems and just about every upright, canister and RV vacuum. The pet accessory hose has an air bleeder valve to alleviate the intense airflow and suction of your central vacuum, making grooming easy and safe for your pet.

The pet grooming kit comes with four tools (Hose, Shedding brush, Small Massage Brush, and Upholstery Lint Brush). Learn more by visiting http://builtinvacuum.com/petvac/index.html.

Vacuums work great on carpet, but they always seem awkward on hard floors like tile, wood, linoleum, and smooth concrete. Even vacuum accessories made for hard floors are missing the pizazz that other tools have for carpet and upholstery.

Well check out the Manta Mop. It isn’t new and nothing has changed since its invention, but there are vacuum users all over the world who still haven’t been introduced to it. It is a 16″ wide “manta ray” vacuum accessory that gently dusts and vacuums hard floors at the same time. It is lined with hundreds of soft woven tufts that allow the user to glide over hard floor surfaces and bump up against the edges of walls, table legs, chair legs, and other furniture.

Manta Mop has a swivel neck that lets the user get under and around objects with relative ease. Originally designed for central vacuum systems, Manta Mop has been widely adopted for upright, canister, and portable vacuums as well. Check out Manta Mop.

MD Manufacturing is proud to announce the release of the new Flo-Master M60 Central Vacuum! Just over a foot tall, this compact unit is absolutely perfect for any tight space or modest application. Here are just a few ideas for an M60 installation:

- Kitchen for VacPan, VacnSeal, Vroom
- Media room addition
- Fits in cabinet, stairwell, crawl space, closet
- New and retrofit RV installations

The RV vacuum boasts 453 Airwatts, which is quite impressive for such a small unit. MD Manufacturing also provides 3 types of installation and attachment kits with this unit (Basic, Deluxe and Electric). This not only makes installation in most small applications easy, but it also makes the vacuum the most effective when in use, especially when it is paired with the Stealth electric brush.
To learn about the whole Flo-Master central vacuum family including the M60 RV vacuum, visit the Flo-Master web site or view this PDF.

Back in 2006 Dave from Aqua Air sent me a carpet cleaning kit as an attachment for a central vacuum and I must admit that I never really thoroughly tested the concept. Yes, I thought the idea had merit but cringed at the thought of using the central vacuum in conjunction with a water extraction system for “washing” my carpets. I only perform this task once or twice a year (because the central vacuum keeps it clean on a daily basis) and I normally rent a high-powered extraction machine from my local rental company. I figured it would be useless to have this expensive system sitting around for just those few annual usages.

Well I stand completely corrected on the value of this system! First, it comes with a 5-gallon stainless steel bucket on wheels with a 3 foot hose that plugs into the nearest central vacuum outlet. The end of the hose also contains a five or six foot hose bib connection and an extra 20 foot hose to connect to the water-heater or washing machine bib. At the other end of the 30 foot suction hose it has a beautiful commercial-grade connection and trigger system. To this you attach a stainless steel wand and the carpet cleaning head.

Although you cannot spray a cleaning solution from the trigger of the hose (with the water) you mix the carpet solution in a separate spray bottle and pre-treat the carpet letting the solution sit for about 15 minutes. You then come back with the Aqua-Air attachment system and spray hot water on the carpet rinsing it and sucking the moisture out of the carpet with the power of your central vacuum. The wet solution is caught by the stainless steel tank prior to getting into the central vacuum lines. I was absolutely delighted with the results! In fact, I think this is the system did a better job than any extraction system I had ever used! The carpet still looks beautiful five weeks later.

One of the key elements is having a strong central vacuum to create the suction power to properly extract the moisture from the carpet. In my case it was dry in less than two hours. The kit also contained a hand-held wand for cleaning upholstery and stairs. This was the absolute best tool I have ever used for cleaning my stairs with a liquid solution. The staircase looked new again even though my carpet is over ten years old. Again, the versatility of the central vacuum with the long hose made this a convenient and thorough method for proper cleaning.

Probably the most difficult part of this system for most homeowners will be locating an adequate place to tap into the hot water system. I believe a key element to the cleaning is the use of hot water as opposed to cold water. I found the bib on the bottom of my water heater worked well and the 20 foot extra hose helped get me there. At the other end of my home I unscrewed the washing machine connection and attached at that point. If you let the system sit too long the water gets cold and I recommend purging it into a sink or toilet. The stainless steel tank holds quite a bit of water and contains a float that will shut the suction off if it gets too full or if it gets tipped. It was quite easy to simply dump this into a drain but I was amazed at the amount of “yuck” that had come out of my carpets!

Interestingly enough, two days later we had a neighborhood party at our home and five minutes before the guests arrived we were pouring a 3 gallon tub of hot wassail into a glass bowl and it broke, pouring two gallons of sticky fluid all over the kitchen island and cupboards. Having the Aqua Air system handy in the garage, I whipped it out and cleaned up the mess in no time. As the first guest arrived right on time, they had no idea of the fiasco that had just been averted.

So thank you Aqua Air for a great new attachment set. I stand corrected asking your apologies that I did not thoroughly test your product when you first sent it to me. MD will likely be offering these soon to our clients.

Ohio State University recently completed experimentation on vacuums and their effectiveness on killing flees.

Read the full article here.

Central vacuums don’t just assist in killing flees, dust mites, and other creepy crawlers. Central vacuums will go a step further by completely removing them AND their eggs from your living space. Imagine a home free from the terror that these insects cause - no more bites, itchiness and rashes caused by bugs, veterinarian bills due to flees, etc.

Imagine a healthier home and you.

One central vacuum dealer recently told MD Manufacturing of a situation where a homeowner went into coughing fits every time the central vac was on. It did not matter that the central vac was in the basement, vented to the outside, or had a caulked muffler. It seemed that the carbon dust from the motor was being stirred up and the dealer was wondering what to do. He had sought out a true measurement of the dust particles, and ventured to think that a brushless motor might be helpful.

In this situation, however, the issue may be one of two things: dirty air from the central vacuum exhaust, or carbon dust allergies.

First, the problem may be dirty air. Just because there is a port on the side of the unit for the exhaust does not guarantee that the motor is housing air tightly and capturing all the exhaust’s dust. With the brand and model number, we can give you a definitive answer about this. Also, if there are any restrictions in the exhaust, it will cause accumulated pressure. This too would cause air to escape around other places of the motor. In fact, it can even force the air back out the exhaust cooling intake vent, possibly creating this particular homeowner’s coughing fits.

Most likely, however, this homeowner is suffering from the carbon dust from the motors. MD has two solutions for this: First we offer our Silent Master Model SR that contains a brushless Switch Reluctance motor from Ametek. The motor has a high-speed computer onboard and sends pulses to magnets evenly spaced around the motor armature. This magnetic force pulls the motor in a circular motion all the way up to 30,000 RPM. It’s absolutely fantastic engineering! The motor does not emit any carbon and is designed to last about 5000 hours. We have been using it for about 4 years. The cost for this motor is a bit more than the normal motor, but has these additional features.

Our other option would be MD’s AirForce central vacuum unit. Although it does contain carbon brushed motors, the motor is totally encapsulated inside the vacuum chamber and so all of the carbon dust is contained in the single exhaust port. You could actually install this unit in a closet and seal the door because it does not require any intake air-cooling.

Harmful carbon dust emissions are not only a problem to allergic homeowners, but they also prevent the home from getting as clean as possible. MD Manufacturing has taken a few steps toward remedying this problem, providing the best central vacuum units available.

Whenever we are asked which central vacuum is our best, we always have a different answer. The fact is that MD has many “best ” vacuums but really needs to know what is the “best” central vacuum for your individual home. We really need to know your needs. Do you have lots of hardwood floors or lots of carpet? Is noise something that doesn’t bother you much, or is it more important that the unit be quiet? Will the central vacuum be used in a commercial or industrial setting? How large is the home where the central vacuum will be installed?

The best way to answer these questions is by a flowchart that MD Manufacturing has designed. After answering 3-5 questions from our System Advisor, you will be notified of which power unit and brush are the best for your application. You will also be given a link for your local dealer so that you can obtain the pricing of their package, including installation. Many of our dealers would also be more than happy to help you get started if you wanted to install the unit yourself.

I am happy to report that I have finally tried the Tornado Power Cloths on my own home. While I am not thoroughly convinced that they improved the power of the system, I do believe that they have marketable value.

Initially the performance of the system did improve because I changed the paper bag. The cloths then did run through the system and did come out dirty. Because I ran the first one through from the furthest inlet, it would come out as dirty as possible. The subsequent cloths were less and less dirty. My system is about 9 years old and the longest run is about 80 feet of pipe.

Because the cloths stay in the filter, they do provide a scent that identifies that they were used. This is a good marketable issue. Of course, Andrew, my e-commerce director used some on his home and he was offended by the smell as he is highly alergic to scents.

One minor problem, I initially put the cloths in with the rough side inwards rather than outwards. This caused me to use a second one to insure the best results.

Did my performance improve? Not that I could statistically quantify. There still may be some sort of anti-static force that opens up the airflow better in the pipes by using these cloths so I recommend that Wincor run a few scientifically quantifiable tests and they will have a winner.

Your central vacuum has functionability beyond your wildest dreams. If fact this was the number one rated feature that a recent survey of ours found. It is simply so easy to use and thus people clean more often and therefore have cleaner homes. Here are a few ideas we’ve heard over the years:

Bloodless fly swatter: Think about it, a fly or moth gets in the house: you hate to smoosh it on the wall or counter; so get out the central vacuum and eliminate that intruder!

Vacuum sealing device: Do you want to store pillows or blankets or winter jackets? Put them in an air tight plastic bag along with the vacuum nozzle and turn the vacuum on to evacuate the air. Pull the nozzle out at the end and seal the bag and they are far more compact and protected.

Raft/matress inflator: If your central vacuum unit has a good filtration system (not a cyclonic unit) then you can take a funnel to the exhaust and use it to fit into your inflatable mattress and then turn the vacuum on. Sure, you may have to awkwardly hold the neck up to the exhaust but it will only take 20-30 seconds to inflate a queen size mattress!

Ant invasion eliminator: Ant invasions are a major breach of homeland security! How dare those pests invade your castle in the middle of the night and proliferate your countertops! You don’t want to spray a chemical all over your kitchen and it would take a few days to get the exterminator out to your home. If you try to smoosh them with a rag they smell the blood of their fallen comrades and they scatter. So simply vacuum them up with your central vacuum hose and they won’t know that their buddies have been eliminated. The first bend in the system kills them instantly and they can’t crawl back through the pipes. Eventually you will find the source of where they are breaching into your home and put some chemicals in that small location or use “Grant Ant Stakes” at that point.

For more tips and tricks visit our www.builtinvacuum.com website.