No company has done more advertising to support the concept of central vacuums than Beam. For this we greatly congratulate them. Full-page ads in magazines regularly extol the virtues of central vacuums. Furthermore, they have invested time and money in the C-VAC Council, ASTM, VDTA, and other organizations to promote central vacuums.

Currently Beam is a subsidiary of AB Electrolux of Sweden, the world's largest appliance manufacturer. Their family of products includes Frigidaire, Eureka, White Westinghouse, McCulloch, and other large divisions. Their central vacuums are sold abroad under the names Beam, Lux, Smart, Eureka, Frigidaire, White Westinghouse, Lift Master and various other brands. They private label their units to distributors such as Buckeye and VCP who also put their own label on them.

With so many brand names under one product, you can easily see the difficulty for the consumer to differentiate products as well as the difficulty of the dealer to set his product apart. The product is quite obtainable for resale, thus multiple dealers often pursue the same client. In fact, Beam proudly offered their central vacuums for sale at the recent Builders Show in Las Vegas with an entry level package including a power unit, electric powerbrush kit, and enough supplies to install a 4-inlet home for an outrageous price of $399. While this may seem like a bargain, it greatly reduces the perceived value to the consumer. Why pay $1200 - $1500 when you can get a full system for $399? Of course the system would not be adequate for their needs and the result would be an end-user complaining that central vacuums are a waste of money.

In Canada in the 1980's Beam of Canada and Eureka had a price war. Central vacs were offered installed for less than $500 and the market grew. In fact, all homes are now being plumbed for central vacs! But ask an installer if it is profitable or if the consumer receives fair value and service! The rough-in of the system is done for $35 - $45 per inlet and the average profit on selling the finish installation (power unit and accessories) is about $60 - $90! The salesperson does not know the product well, and service of the units is poorly provided. The consumer receives a poor product, poorly installed, for a low price. This hurts the entire market!

Beam appears to be on a similar path in the United States possibly because of directives of the parent company. The central vacuum division was bought out in the 80's with the anticipation of serious growth. With only 157,000 central vacuums sold in the US in 1992, Beam's maximum market share might be around 50,000 units per year. That represents such a small drop in the bucket compared to AB Electrolux's other divisions. They must be driven to increase numbers sold, and, unfortunately it will likely be done at the expense of price and the long-term detriment of the market.

We believe also that Beam has a difficult predicament on their hands. A quick search on e-Bay will produce a list of their product for sale at cut-rate prices. Remember their product sells under many different names so eventually it will simply be a price war by any savvy consumer. Their dealers are constantly being pushed into required sales growth figures but at the same time other dealers of similar product are springing up around them. M.D. limits its distribution thus preserving the market for it's dealers

Beam announced their "New Technological Advances" at the VDTA Tradeshow in Las Vegas in March of 2003. This included 3 areas where they feel they have greatly enhanced their products:

First, they presented a slide show of their old 2-layered inverted cloth bag system which included a Dacron material and then a sateen material. They admitted that the second filter media was finer than the first and dirt would permeate the first filter and then embed into the second filter. We at M.D. have been explaining this problem for years (see M.D. Volume 2 page 2) and they have denied it for even longer. Close inspection of any filter used for a year or more would easily reveal this! Our contention was that this embedded dirt would impede airflow and the consumer could never get the filter clean. Thus an older system could never regain its full potential. So they finally admitted it! Now they will be in a tough position if their replacement material is not better. They can't go back!

The new material is a Gortex coated with Teflon. The concept is to have an extremely slick surface and then a material, which catches a large percentage of micronic-size particles. Close observation of the attached diagrams (coming soon) reveal the new design. Notice that the Teflon layer is made to be difficult to permeate. But once a particle gets through the Teflon, it is not able to be released back into the trash receptacle. It's almost like a Eastern Hognose Snake that, once it bites into a victim, it must swallow it because its inverted fangs keep it from getting away. The filter will trap dirt and will not release it. Speaking to a number of Beam dealers, they do not like the new filter and are skeptical of its long-term viability. Beam is stuck though; they can't go back to the old filter because they have admitted its inferiority.

The second "new technology" is the new "air watt" series motor from Ametek Lamb. This new motor has a different performance curve than previous motors, oddly shifting to a larger orifice size. They displayed in their seminar charts comparing different motor performance levels of Waterlift verses CFM (wasn't it M.D. that introduced these back nine years ago in our Vacuumology Article Volume 2 Dec 1993?) and Air Watt comparison curves. In their seminar they correctly stated that the opening size is important and showed performance tests on the new motor, but they only used a specific selected opening size. They still don't get that the opening size depends on the brush being used, the flooring it is on, the degree to which the filter is loaded, and the length of the hose and pipes. They just arbitrarily put out a point they wanted to use. We believe this is a fundamental flaw in their logic but at least applaud them for recognizing the fact that newer systems now use a larger orifice size than older systems.

M.D. knows fully about the new AirWatt series motors and their increased performance statistics but has not chosen to include them in our product at the recommendation of staff at Ametek. They have stated that these all-metal motors spin about 28,000 RPM (3,000 RPM faster) and thus have a lifespan of only 500 to 600 hours whereas ours are normally used 800 - 850 hours. This means that we have a lifespan of 40 - 60% more! Until such time that the motor is improved, M.D. will not allow our clients and dealers to be offered this motor. Beam's new largest unit Model 2900 uses two of these motors. If this unit is installed in homes where it will obviously be used more often, the clients will be greatly disappointed when it wears quickly!

The third change introduced is the elimination of the clamps to attach the dirt receptacle on the bottom of their power units. This would greatly reduce manufacturing labor costs so it would be a wise investment on their part. The new method requires the operator to twist the dirt receptacle one-quarter turn and then lower the bucket. They supposedly have been through a number of design changes and one "earlier" model even had the user slice their hand in the emptying process. We trust they have corrected this. We at M.D. still feel the new design allows for debris to be caught between the unit and the bucket, thus providing the potential for leakage. Don't forget they also only have a 4-7 gallon trash capacity compared to M.D.'s 8-12 gallon capacity!

They also offer now a unit with the Aerus motor (formerly Electrolux USA) in it. Most of their power unit model numbers have changed so you'll want to pay close attention to the comparison chart above. I know all these power unit model number changes are driving the Beam dealers crazy. For comparison sake, we have listed our recommended units of comparison next to their models. Often their airwatt rating is higher than ours but we still recommend our longer life, slightly lower powered units. (Airwatts can be deceptive depending on the application (electric vs. air)! Higher airwatts does not mean increased effectiveness for a specific application.

Much of what we previously wrote is still correct for comparison purposes but they do now offer an option of trash intakes on both sides. The unit still runs hotter than M.D.'s because the motor is located on the top of the unit rather than the bottom. The cooling air intakes are placed above the motor and the motor exhaust. This brings hot air into the unit and thus reduces motor life. Also Beam units are normally mounted higher up in the garage where the motor cooling air will be hotter than lower point in the garage where M.D.'s is mounted.

Beam launched their Serenity Series in the mid 1990's in reaction to M.D.'s SilentMaster products. They actually took our Silent Master as a model and went to the University of Ohio to come up with a way to make their unit quiet without violating M.D.'s patents. The result was creating an air passageway in the intake cooling that changed shape many times thus reducing the energy of the noise. It worked on reducing noise but they still needed to install a muffler on the unit and we feel that adds additional heat reducing motor life. M.D.'s new AirForce is now even quieter and runs another 18% cooler than the SilentMaster at the AirForce's worst condition! M.D. and Beam and others have been working on an ASTM standard test method to measure noise output of central vacuums because M.D.'s and Beam's published noise levels are not from the same standards. Currently the published results are not truly comparable.

M.D. also does not have its hands tied with respect to new product development. We do not have a massive corporation above us dictating our budgets and directions. When we are inspired to create a new product, we walk out into the factory and build a prototype. Our AirForce is an excellent example of this and its emerging technologies will roll off the assembly line faster than any other large corporation.

Beam also offers a "Lifetime Warranty", but close inspection states that this covers the "power unit and body". Electrical components are covered for seven years but clear details are not available if this covers wear and tear. Previous copies of their warranty excluded wear and tear and the warranty was non-transferable. M.D.'s six-year warranty does cover wear and tear and is transferable.

M.D. uses heavier gauge metal throughout their products. M.D. offers a more diversified product line. M.D. offers the industry's best power brush, proven for almost 8 years! M.D. by far has the greatest vacuum website in the world with real-time technical help in any sector of the market.

Again, Beam is welcome to provide any rebuttal to this article and we will gladly publish it. We have a better product, better technology, and a greater opportunity to capitalize on market growth. We trust this article provides insight to the market.