100 year old central vacuum system

[AndyinMA]

Hi all,

I posted this over at Vacuumland, but wanted to share it here as well.

In the vintage central vacuum thread, a gentleman in Newton, MA posted pics of a 1916 Spencer he was looking to have removed from his basement. Being I've always wanted one of these units for my collection (understatement of the day), I wasted no time in contacting the owner and arranging to pick it up. Now here's where it gets weird...I've been on the lookout for an old Spencer like this for at least a good 12 years. The day after I contacted the owner, I was in a small flea market here in MA. While perusing the booths, I stopped and turned around and laying on the floor was an original hose rack for a system of the same vintage. Seriously.

It is Spencer's smallest unit for residential use, but still probably weighs a good 250 lbs. I gave it a test run in the driveway yesterday and it fired right up! It had tons of sooty dust in it, but I got it cleaned out and will eventually fully restore it. Here's some pics for now...

 

[super32]

WOW! I didnt know central vacs went that far back. That is pretty cool.

 

[norgeway]

Hi Andy!

Im SOOOO glad you saved this, You know Mike Hays has Spencer outlets and attachments in his house,,,,Hooked up to 2 ,2 motor Beams  , those attachments are really something!

 

[cfz2882]

super cool antique!

do you know how many blower stages it has?

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Wow, what an incredible find! It was meant to be! Congratulations!!

 

[frontaloadotmy]

That is a Great Find

after waiting for 12 years ! ! !

 

[AndyinMA]

Thanks all!!

Hi Hans, I remember hearing about Mike's setup. I'm gonna have to get one of those attachemnt sets!

"do you know how many blower stages it has? "

Cfz, I believe it has two. I wasn't able to get deep enough into it to find out, but this picture out of a Soencer sales booklet shows two.

 

[gansky1]

That is really cool Andy, you have a real piece of history there.

Do you have an idea of what the inlets looked like? I was in a home some years ago that had an original vac system, built in the early 1900's. The inlets were all in closets or cabinets around the house, two per floor IIRC. The main vacuum unit was long gone but the hardware and inlets were still there, probably because they were out of sight anyway. I seem to remember a small threaded cap on a fine linked chain. I suppose there would have been an electric switch located nearby to turn the unit on? The inlets had no obvious switches/wiring, etc.

Keep us posted on your progress and what more you learn about it.

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Central Cleaning at its finest!

Looks like attachments and hoses are still readily available! Here's a link to the PDF of the Attachment catalog, complete with hoses, tools, and inlet valves! And it looks like they still make that exact same hose holder that you found, Andy!

I'll have to dig through my box of pictures - I think I have a photo of Mike Hays' Spencer inlet.

Spencer Turbine

Air and gas handling specialists. The Spencer Turbine Company is based in Windsor, CT and owns the following trademarks GasCube®, FastVac™, Industravac®, Power Mizer®, and Vortex®.

www.spencerturbine.com

 

[circlew]

Very nice! And those attachments in Fred's post look like they would last forever.

Hans, is Mike Hays the guy that lives in Greenfield, OH? If so, my friends Neil and Richard know him. Seems like Neil has mentioned the Mike he knows is in to vacs.

 

[AndyinMA]

Hey Greg,

Here's a page that shows the inlets..and you're right; most of the systems of the day had a switch on the wall to turn the system on.

Fred,

It's amazing how the current tools are basically the same as what was sold back in the day. One can basically recreate the whole system.

 

[abcomatic]

The Spencer Turbine Co. also made pipe organ blowers; which were called Orga-blo.
There are still a lot of these in use today.

 

[norgeway]

Mike Hays

Yes, he lives in Greenfield Ohio, he has about all of the rug tools, and smaller tools, the inlet in his house is the recessed one, I have used it, and that odd looking connection at the user end of the wand is very user friendly,also it seems much  more airflow is available thru the slightly larger than normal hose and wands, really a nice set up, those rug tools just glide over the rug.

 

[kenmore58]

Hey, Andy!

Great find! Always a great feeling when you find that one item you've been looking for for years!

Ron

 

[combo52]

Heavy Duty Central Vacuum Equipment

It is nice to see that such equipment still exists, I think next to central A/C installing a central vacuum system is the best thing I ever did at the three homes Smitty and I live in, I can't ever imagine using stinky portable vacs again. Almost ever day I am in customers homes and they drag out a vac to clean inside a dryer I am working on or clean under the refrigerator etc and I can't believe how poorly many portable vacs work and the awful stinky smell from pet hair etc in the bags.

 

Yes I know that these owners are not maintaining their vacuums well, but all I have to do with the CV is dump the canister about once a year and I have never spent a cent for any type of filter or bag in over 35 years.

 

[washer111]

Totally Agree, Combo

Having lived with central in our last house (original fitting to the house), I can attest to how convenient and QUIET it is.

The system we had was from 1987, and was broken on arrival, as people living in the house prior (when it was rented) thought it could handle animal waste.
It was fixed, and ran for years before the original motor gave out around 2008. The replacement sounded different, but worked just as well.

I don't think we ever needed to do more than change the bag once in a blue moon. Absolutely monstrous capactiy in that thing!
And it outlived a portable vac, too.

 

[turquoisedude]

OMG!  The old high school where I went in the 70s had vac outlets that looked a lot like the Spencer system and it was still in service at the time. 

 

[circlew]

Thanks Hans, I've never met Mike yet, just hear about him from my friends up there. He sounds like an interesting person. I live about 45 minutes west of Greenfield.

 

[iej]

Central vacs actually made more sense in the past too as modern filtration systems that are now take for granted on canisters and uprights wouldn't have been possible and fan and motor technology was in its infancy, materials were also bulkier and heavier all of which made portable machines less feasible.

A central vac can do rudimentary filtration and exhaust the dust outside totally eliminating the need for a lot of complicated technology.