There has been some debate about the use of Schedule 40 PVC plumbing for central vacuum installations. Roger Ambrose, President and CEO of Central Vacuum Stores, has more than 32 years of experience installing vacuum systems. Roger’s company sells thousands upon thousands of feet of central vacuum ASTM certified tubing each year, but also sells a proprietary adapter that allows customers to use 40 schedule PVC plumbing pipes to install a central vacuum.
“The industry standard is central vacuum tubing and manufacturer’s recommended vacuum tubing in residential installations.” Says Roger: “Every industry has to have a standard, but there really is no difference between vacuum tubing and plumbing tubing, except for diameter. Because many engineers in industrial jobs were requesting Schedule 40 PVC plumbing tubing , we decided to develop an adapter that would allow our residential customers to use the same product that our industrial customers were using. As of January 2011, we have sold more than 70,000 of these adapters. “
Some websites claim that building inspectors will not approve the 40 PVC plumbing program for central vacuum systems. “We haven’t had a single customer have a problem with building inspectors approving their central system installed with plumbing tubing since we started selling the adapters 8 years ago. In fact, we recommend that our customers call the building department. local to your area to verify What We’re Saying. In fact, we’ve spent a considerable amount of time calling building departments in major cities around the country, and many just laughed when we asked if they would approve the PVC 40 program for plumbing for central vacuum installations. The answer was always ‘yes’. “
The adapter developed by CentralVacuumStores.com allows PVC plumbing tubing to connect to PVC vacuum tubing. The patent-pending adapters are designed in such a way that the plumbing tubing and vacuum tubing fit snugly at each end of the adapter creating a smooth interior wall. This means that the possibility of interference is eliminated from the connection. The adapters are actually attached outside of the pipe, allowing efficient airflow to move dirt and debris through the system and into the dirt container without interference or potential clogging.
Engineers at Murray Company, Mechanical Contractors in Compton, California, requested Schedule 40 PVC for a vacuum system when they called Central Vacuum Stores. “Since these are the guys with the education and the experience, we decided to ask for their professional opinion,” Ambrose explains. “We wanted to know if they knew of any disadvantages to using the 40 plumbing program instead of vacuum tubing and Murray’s engineers agreed that there were none. They told us they couldn’t find any reason why 2’s PVC “Schedule 40 would affect the system in a negative way. “
In the end, it all comes down to customer preference. Central vacuum tubing is more flexible and a bit easier to work with, while Schedule 40 PVC plumbing tubing is a bit stronger and more readily available. One very important thing to remember is that if you decide to use plumbing pipe, only use large sweep elbows instead of hard sweeps. Rough sweeps would restrict debris movement through your system and should never be used with a central vacuum system.
