When your choosing a central vacuum hose for your home cleaning system, most of them are pretty much the same and will work with a universal fit. A vacuflo hose though is unique in the way it fits into a vacuflo style valve. They are one of the few companies that decided to market their own style valve with their central vac systems rather than using a universal fit. Unfortunately this makes life a lot harder for the homeowner when they go to replace vacuflo hose with a newer  and updated version.

A vacuflo hose is different in the way that it plugs into central vacuum inlet valve in the wall. A standard hose paired with a universal valve would only have a metal ring around its hose end. This metal ring makes contact with the two prongs inside of the inlet valve. Then when you flip the switch on the hose to turn on your central vac, it completes the circuit and the machine is turned on. With a vacuflo hose the setup is only a little different, but it can cause huge problems when trying to replace the hose. A low voltage vacuflo hose (a hose with an on/off switch) has two metal prongs that plug into the valve rather than a metal ring around the small part of the hose end. Essentially these two metal prongs do the same job as the metal rings, but in a different way that isn’t applicable with universal central vacuum technology.

Luckily you can still replace your vacuflo hose easily, and they are still available. You don’t need to worry about changing out your vacuflo valves unless you want to upgrade to the new stylish valves that are available.

Here are a couple pointers to see if you actually have a vacuflo hose or a universal hose:

You have a vacuflo hose if:

1)      Your hose only have an on off switch for the central vacuum, not a power head, and has two prongs at the end of the hose that plug into the valve.

2)      Your central vacuum turns on when you lift up the valve cover.

You have a universal hose if:

1)      Your central vacuum hose has a metal ring or metal plates on the central vacuum hose end that plug into the valve.

2)      Your inlet valves have two small brass pins that are popping up or down inside the valve where the hose plugs in.