whole house vac

[David and Fran]

Our MH has a Dirt Devil whole house vac. I find that it does a very poor job of cleaning, with minimum suction power. I know that there is a power head (not electric, but powered by the suction) available, but I don't think it would improve the performance. Yes the filter is new!

Have any of you been disappointed? Does anyone have a different brand?

[David and Fran]

Our MH has a Dirt Devil whole house vac. I find that it does a very poor job of cleaning, with minimum suction power. I know that there is a power head (not electric, but powered by the suction) available, but I don't think it would improve the performance. Yes the filter is new!

Have any of you been disappointed? Does anyone have a different brand?

[abarkl]

The DD I installed in my MH works great with the power head (Rug Rat) and even the kids like to use it.

Maybe yours doesn't have enough "breathing room"?

I mounted mine mid-coach in the cabinets below the washer/dryer. It has at least a 4" clearing behind it and several inches on all other sides.

[hondo122]

I bought an electric powered powerhead at a flea market. solved the problem.

[GerryB54]

Captain Bud, the Northeast forum leader, recently showed me his whole house vacuum, he bought it from Lowes and says it works really well. He installed it and had an electrician run an outlet to an outside compartment he mounted it in.

[Retired and Happy]

You might look for a kink or crimp in the hose going from the outlet to the main vacuum housing. I also use the Rug Rat most of the time, and it seems to do a good job. The main problem I have is the Rug Rat bounces when moved against the nap of the carpet. It does fine when moving With the nap.

Does it SOUND like it is a powerful vacuum, or does it sound weak? If you put your hand over just the hose, do you get a lot of suction?

[DriVer]

You may want to check for 90 degree bends. This will reduce the effective suction and if there are more bends than 1 it will reduce the effectiveness greatly.

One other source for leaks would be where the hose connects to the unit. A few wraps of Teflon tape up and down on the inlet pipe might tighten that up for you. Please also check the attachment point behind the vacuum inlet port on the interior wall of the coach, it can happen where the hose might have come off.

If you remove the hose from the top of the unit place your hand over the top of the inlet pipe and check for suction. It should be evident if the motor is properly working.

Last there might be an obstruction or built up debris in the pipe leading from inside the coach to the unit itself. Don't overlook checking the vacuum hose itself for leaks and or a possible clog.

You might just need some vacuum Drano!

[AFChap]

I have the Dirt Devil central vac (in Maxum RV2000 clothing) and would say it works "ok" for a suction type unit. I bought the Rug Rat hoping it would be a great addition, and have decided I wasted my money. It works some, sometimes, but often doesn't turn at all. I constantly have to clean the rug rat and/or empty the vacuum bag to make it work ...not worth the trouble. My unit is mounted in an empty space under the refrigerator and has plenty of "breathing room." It has good suction as long as the bag doesn't need emptied ...just won't run the Rug Rat worth anything.

[Gary RVRoamer]

We have an Intervac, which I think is now sold as a Dometic. It can use the same bags as the DD, so maybe is another variant of that? Have seen similar vacs with other names as well, so maybe everybody has the same thing???

At any rate, a friend has the same model with the power head and we can't see any difference from ours without it. But our Intervac works well, picking up cat hairs (we have a Persian with ultra long & soft fur) and dirt quite well. I've heard the Dirt Devils (at least some models) have a low power motor (small amps) but cannot give comparative numbers for mine either.

[GStream40]

We purchased the Intervac Roadvac for RV's at a rally in June. It does a good job and seems quite powerful. It is also sold under the Dometic name.

Here is the link to the Intervac site with the specs for comparsion to the Dirt Devil.
Intervac RV Roadvac

Ron

[sharbra]

We also have an InterVac. Purchased in 2002 and still working very well. We installed in our first coach, but have since attached it to a luggage carrier and use it to vacuum vehicles, house and coach.

[Gary RVRoamer]

The Current Dirt Devil RV vac (as sold by RVUpgrades.com) appears to have slightly better specs than the Intervac. Probably not significantly better, but should not be underpowered.

Dirt Deveil at RVUpgrades.com