Thinkvacuums introduces another product!

Thinkvacuums is proud to introduce another great product to the industry. We get many calls about the subject of dust mites and fleas, and it's especially a concern for pet owners. Pets can easily bring fleas into your home unknowingly. How can it end up in your central vacuum? Well, when your pets shed, flea eggs can fall on the floor, so when you vacuum them up they travel right to your central vacuum main unit. When you go to clean out the vacuum, if you have a paper bag that's a tremendous benefit because it's all contained in the bag, you simply throw the bag out; when you have a bagless unit you are exposed to everything that was vacuumed up. It's pretty gross to even look at, but it's bad because when you dump it out you're breathing in all the dirt that's falling out.

Dustmites are one of the most common causes of asthma and allergic symptoms worldwide. The main cause is some of the guy enzymes produced by house dustmites persist in their fecal matter, which is the strongest source of allergies. Dustmites feed on organic debris such as flakes of skin that humans shed every day. Did you know that an average person sheds about 1.5 grams of skin flakes every day? That's enough to feed about a MILLION dustmites!

We're introducing this product that will help many allergy sufferers who have problems with dutmites. For maximum allergen relief, DustMite and Flea Control is a specially formulated compound that mixes easily in water. It provides long lasting control over dustmites.
DustMite and Flea Control is clear and odorless, has a neutral pH, and will not stain lightly colored fabrics. Simply mix with water in a spray bottle and spray the inside of your central vacuum canister and/or the filters and bags, as well as any portable vacuum. For smaller areas like an upholstered chair, just mix one cup of DustMite and Flea Control to a half gallon of water and apply with spray bottle.

What's more, University tests show one remarkable result is the long term effectiveness DustMite and Flea Control has on lowering the dust mite populations. The numbers of dustmites detected in these efficiency studies were extremely low in week 2 and almost non-existent week 8.

This product is now available, you can view our information page on the DustMite and Flea Control here.

PVC Piping Information

Was your central vacuum installed with plumbing PVC instead of central vacuum certified PVC? I hope not...but if so, we now have adapters that will convert plumbing PVC to central vacuum PVC elbows and inlets. There are instances where installers either

1) look for the cheapest route and the cheapest place to get pipe to run for a central vacuum,
2) the installer believes that it's no big deal installing Schedule 40 PVC instead of CV approved Schedule 20, or
3) the installer doesn't know too much about the central vacuum industry and the do's/don'ts of this market.

Would a building inspector approve your Schedule 40 plumbing PVC pipe? Probably not. They'll most likely tell you to rip it out and put Schedule 20 (certified) for the proper code regulation.

If for some reason there is no building inspector and you must use these adapters, so be it. We'll have them on the site soon to sell, although we're not encouraging it at all. These adapters will cost around 3 bucks each. We know of some websites that sell these same adapters for about 3 or 4 dollars each, multiply that by the 50-75 of them you may need, it can get very costly in the long run. So by using plumbing PVC, it can actually cost you more than if you used the right PVC the first time.

First of all, the angle of the elbow on central vac PVC is much larger than Schedule 40 so it doesn't restrict airflow. Plumbing PVC also has a smaller diameter, which is mostly made for water to travel through and is not wide enough for central vacuums. Schedule 20 PVC has a much smoother internal surface, which prevents air flow resistance which can be very harmful to your system. One internet source claims that schedule 40 PVC is ok to be used as a replacement if you cannot find proper Schedule 20.

FlowMax Gold is produced only from 100% virgin PVC material. We use no recycled material or ground-up plastic of any type in FlowMax Gold. This recycled material basically comes from discarded plastic products or scrap that is gathered together, ground up, reheated, and re-extruded into vacuum pipe. Scrap material typically varies from lot to lot depending on what has been ground up. The nature of scrap makes it hard to keep out foreign materials. Because of this, reused p:lastic often contains foreign materials like metal, stone or other non-PVC plastic materials that cancause poor glue adhesion, holes, tears, rough inside surfaces, inconsistent wall thicknesses, out-of-spec diameters, or easily cracked pipes. This pipe cuts like a dream, reacts much better to PVC adhesive and is consistent piece to piece, order to order and year to year. It's near perfect outside diameter mates with fittings like they were designed to mate.

Lots more information can be found on our PVC pipe information page.

edit: We just put it up on our website, you can find it here in the New Items section.

20th Anniversary Celebration!

Yesterday, November 3rd, we celebrated our 20th anniversary of our brick-and-mortar store here in South Florida! Previously, we've had stores in California and New York. This is a second-generation business, passed down from father to son. Robert, the owner, started working in his dads workshop when he was only 8 years old, and for the past 32 years since has been involved in selling and repairing vacuums and central vacuums, dealing with customers and owning several retail businesses.

Now, 20 years after the founding of our current location, we're doing better than ever. Our website, Thinkvacuums.com, is one of the largest dealers of household, commercial, and central vacuums in the United States.

My mother and father started way back in 1957 in Brooklyn, NY with pretty much nothing. Building this business one customer at a time, making them happy to tell their friends and spreading the word that there's a vacuum store in the neighborhood. Word got around, business grew, and the rest is history.

In fact, we're still very much a family owned business, with myself and my wife running the business and my mom helps out in the retail section assisting customers. We hope a third generation will take over in time.

We love when customers call or walk into our store. We feel that we are the pros in the industry. We have the knowledge people want and we're more than happy to educate the community. Our team of knowledgeable staff is here to assist anyone looking for a home-type vacuum or central vacuums.

All the staff here at Thinkvacuums sincerely thanks all of our suppliers and especially our customers for their business. As a bonus to truly say thanks, anybody who calls us will receive an additional discount off our already low prices, just by mentioning this 20th anniversary blog post.

Again, thank you to everybody for their continued patronage!