We have already talked about regular system maintenance and unclogging your system, but it is also important to understand what causes clogs in your central vacuum system and how to prevent them.

Almost every time there is a clog in a central vacuum system, we find the root cause to be a long firm object or dampness. Dampness is pretty easy to prevent. If the floor is wet, don’t vacuum it.  While you can get away with sucking up wet stuff from time to time, it is not worth the risk. Moisture can sit in your tubing and dampen things you suck up as they pass. These wet items can clump together and cause nasty clogs. Moisture can also damage your vacuum unit, so it is just all around a bad idea to vacuum water.

Common items are pens, toothpicks, paperclips, and safety pins, but there are literally dozens of items which can cause a clog.  These items are sucked up, get caught in the bend, and then other things begin to stick to them. Over time, these few items become a kind of nest, grabbing more and more other vacuumed particles, until your suction power is weakened or completely lost.  When you clear a clog like this, it is always important to make sure you have removed the original item which caused the clog (which is why we recommended that you recheck the intake with a napkin or tissue).  To prevent these kinds of central vacuum clogs, you simply need to watch out for these kinds of items when vacuuming.

There are many other causes of clogs in central vacuum systems, but if you can avoid these common problems, you will notice an immediate reduction in the number of clogs you get.