It’s time for the summer building season, and that means that everyone is considering putting in a central vacuum system into their home. Picking the actual unit and attachment set may be the biggest detail, but the smaller things such as the vacuum inlet are also extremely important. These inlets have to match the design cues throughout the home and mesh well with colors of other electrical and light switch plates.

The first thing you will have to decide is whether or not you want a direct connect inlet or just the standard low voltage inlet. Anyone who has never had a central vacuum is wondering at this point, what in the world does that mean? Well, here’s the difference. A direct connect inlet has the high voltage electricity run straight to it by an electrician, this high voltage line provides the power head with electricity to power the brush roll. This is contrary to the standard low voltage valves which must be placed within 6-feet of an electrical outlet in order to obtain power. (It’s important to note that both of these types of valves have low voltage connected to straight to them. The low voltage is a closed circuit that turns the main central vacuum unit on and off.)

The second thing you will have to look into is the design of the outlet. Typically about 75% of homeowners will go with the standard white covers, as this matches electrical outlets and switch plates. However, those who want to go with a more high end look do have the option of upgrading to several different styles which are shown below. You will often see limitations on the high voltage valves though, as the other type have a lot more design features to choose from.

You can find all of your inlet valve needs at centralvacuumdirect.com!

Thanks for reading and happy cleaning!

– The Central Vacuum Direct Team