This particular vacuum story is about what happened, after 19 years, when the tubing system became plugged somewhere in the walls. The suction power was undiminished - when you put your hand over the end of the hose, you can hear the vacuum power unit bear down and observe the hose start to collapse. This indicated to me that the power unit in the garage wasn't suddenly weaker. There was a faint whistle sound coming from the system that suggested, at least to me, that there was some kind of blockage. I tried using my 6HP shop vacuum to pull any item stuck in the system the opposite way. Didn't really succeed. I took a 50+ foot section of cord and let the vacuum suck the cord in through the system, making darn sure to not let the other end go. This was interesting - the cord went in and continued to be pulled in to the vacuum until it was at the very end. After that I took one of my granddaughter's socks, tied it to the end of the cord. The sock was big enough to fill up the 2" diameter of the vacuum piping. This time it pulled the sock and the cord in and reached a blockage. I tried using a light duty plumbing snake on the system starting with the port upstairs that is closest to the power unit. After being careful not to over do the pressure on the piping, I reached the end of the snake - 15ft - and didn't see any results. I took the same device down to the first floor port closest to the power unit and repeated the process. It seemed like something happened - the sound changed a little bit and I could hear some debris moving in the vacuum pipe. Still nothing accomplished. I knew from examining the vacuum piping in the crawlspace under the first floor that the distance wasn't that far to the power unit but farther away than the 15ft snake could reach. I looked up plumbing snakes on Harbor Freight Tools website and found a light duty 25ft snake with an arbor to attach a drill.
I took this device to the closest port to the power unit on the 2nd floor and carefully guiding the tip through the piping. The nature of all joints in a vacuum system are that joints always have a curve toward the power unit. This means that the snake always guides in the right direction. That being said, it is important to know that vacuum pipe is not heavy duty schedule 40 or 100 PVC pipe. It is much thinner and more brittle. This snake, being 10 feet longer than the previous one I tried seemed to move something. I then repeated the process on the first floor port - also closest to the power unit. All of this was done with the vacuum system running. During this last attempt something dislodged. I retrieved the snake and went to the garage where I had shorted together the low voltage wires to keep the vacuum running. I removed the short, shutting down the vacuum power unit. I removed the dust canister and discovered 3 heavy clumps of hair - not previously seen - I started by emptying the canister so I would know when something new arrived - and a large crayon.
These items combined to not allow the clog to move through the joints of the vacuum system.Summary:
- Problem solved and a lot learned - pipes cleared.
Suggestions:
- VacuMaid power units are built tough. I took the unit down off the wall to inspect it and was impressed. This 18 year old power unit is still working strong - it sucks :)
- Be careful with what you do to the PVC vacuum plumbing. The pipes get a little more brittle as they get old - be gentle.
- Know the layout of your pipes - understand where they go and how the sequence is assembled.
- Empty the dirt canister before you start any work to clear the clog otherwise you won't know what comes out.
