Repairing Electric Central Vacuum Hose

jogr

My 12 year old central vacuum hose has a lot of hairline surface cracks (that don't leak air) and has finally cracked through just before it enters the nozzle. The hose is dual electric (high and low voltage) for the powerhead.

I opened up the nozzle end and it looks like it might be possible to shorten the hose about 6 inches to eliminate the crack. But the high and low voltage wires are wound around and formed into the hose itself so I will need to carefully strip back the hose from the wiring.

Anyone on here ever do this and do you have any tips? Is there anything I can put on the hairline cracks to keep them from getting worse? A liquid plastic like you can coat tool handles with comes to mind. A replacement hose is going to be over $200.

sninny

At about $16.67 a year I think you got your money's worth!!
Buy a new hose!

jogr

Shouldn't it be obvious by now that I'm cheap.
And 200 dollars will get me 2000 miles worth of fuel for my car.

Yoyizit

Doesn't the hose need to flex? I wouldn't bother with this.

But if the manu. wants too many bucks because he knows you are locked into his product, get any kind of corrugated hose and run the wires.
How high is the higher voltage? It may not be 120v; they could use lower voltage and a high current (how long are the wires and what diameter) motor to get the same hp.

handyman78

Central vac with a powerhead does have 2 sets of wires within- 120v (with either a plug at the other end like mine or 120v in the vac outlet) and the switch leg for 24v to turn the main vac unit on. You might be able to use the liquid plastic or silicone caulk sealant to fix it for the short haul. I would also use some pvc tape for the cracks- you should be able to get electrical tape in white or gray for a short length of repair, just not half the hose!

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jogr

Thanks guys but after I posted this last March the power head motor itself went out too. So I bought a new powerhead and hose kit. $300 for the head hose and attachments but looks and runs like new.

Last month the main vacuum motor itself wouldn't run. Figured out it was the relay and plunked another $40 into it for a relay. Luckily this is an older simple central vac without circuit boards - just a 24 v transformer and relay. I just read off the code from the relay and Googled it. Found an online electronics place that had the identical relay.

She's running great now but I'm sure that next should be the main motor or the 24v transformer since that's all that's left that isn't new. But I've already found a source for those. LOL

Yoyizit

If they have the equivalent part, these guys
www.hosfelt.com
are great.