Just wanted to share my experiences w/ Hide-A-Hose. I too have had a standard central vacuum system in my previous home. I did not care for the 30' hose always being out because I was too lazy to put it away.

I had the HAH system installed in my new home; it was an existing home (not new construction) w/ one valve upstairs and one on the 1st floor. A Vacuflo 566Q power unit, 2 35' hoses, a Vroom in my kitchen as well as a Turbocat air driven power head make up my system...

I can say the system works perfect and the larger-then-necessary 566Q power unit (566Q is rated for homes up to 8k sq ft & mine is less then 2k) has more then enough suction-power for my air driven power head. I would not even consider going back to a standard central vacuum system; the additional cost of the HAH system was worth every penny!

FYI, my system cost about $3300 if I remember correctly; about $1100 more then the quote I got for a standard Vacuflo system...

deborahcouri you're the first person I've read that doesn't like her HAH, very interesting. What length hoses do you have? Have you tried the new rapid flex hose with HAH? I'm planning on installing in our new build so I want to cover all my bases.

I'm curious about just how great a central vac is? I swear by my roomba for everything but the stairs. Am I missing something. I cant see how vacuuming by hand (even if its is conveniently located) can beat a robot.

I find the Roomba fustrating, it doesn't even work all that well on the floors even if it doesn't do silly things like getting stuck (or locking itself in the bathroom as it did one day).

Even if the roomba was reliable, I'd still want a vac for places it can't reach.

I've not had any issues with the Hide-a-Hose either getting damaged or damaging things. I've got mine fairly centrally located on each floor. I do have an extra hose set and a few extra outlets (garage, mud room) where dragging the HAH is impractical.

Good points, I have wall to wall currently and the zoomba does well on those, though I do run a real vacuum every so often for deep cleaning. I guess I just like the "jetson's" feeling I get from my zoomba.

I have a 50 ft HAH and it doesnt bother me. They did have several sizes to choose from and I think 50 ft was the max. I went with that since mine was a retrofit and I would only have one outlet on my main floor. I had a regular central vac before and hated having to store the hose. It would get all tangled up. Love the HAH and hoping to get one installed on my second floor when we update that space.

We have 60' and 30' hoses. Both work fine. The second floor hoses pull down from the outlets and are very easy to use. The first floor hoses pull up and are not so easy to get out because I am short and the outlets are installed at nearly the height of my shoulder. If I had it to do over, I would see whether the "pull up" outlets could be installed closer to the floor. The socks on the hoses do a good job of protecting the corners and baseboards; I am not particularly careful with those. Like ALJR we also have an oversized vacuum unit.

We have the HAH and we LOVE it. We have 3 40' hoses in three locations and 2 "spot" wall systems. We also have a "mint" robot duster (we have all hardwood floors. We love it and we us them both every day. We even have it in the garage. With a wood stove it makes clean up so stupid simple it makes the wood stove investment much more enjoyable. Just do it - it is one of the things that makes your life so much easier....

We are about to install the Hide a Hose system in the house and got 2 quotes ranging from $5300- $5900 for systems what include 2 HAH outlets, attachment for floors and the power unit. Does it seem reasonable?

@deep... That seems high to me. We installed HAH system about 2 years ago and paid somewhere in that range for HAH on three floors: 2 40' hose outlets in basement, 2 50' outlets on first floor, and 1 40' or 50' (don't remember) on top floor, plus a vac pan in the kitchen (wish I'd done one of these in the master bathroom as well), plus tubing to the outside garage area (no hose installed yet).

Hi

I'm based in the UK and about to order a BEAM system with a Hide a Hose 50ft option, one for each of my 3 floors. I was going to go with a non-HAH system and 9m hose until I went to a home show and fell in love with the idea of not having to carry around a long hose and switch sockets all the time.

However, a main distributor in the UK had personally advised not to go for a HaH and opt for the regular hose system.

Does anyone with a Hide a Hose have any problems with a) suction if you do not unwind the full hose or b) dirt or dust which then reappears on the sock pipe that comes back into the room again after the hose is fully extended and then retracted into the ducting but wiping against the dust (that might not be sucked to the unit - if that is possible!?).

I understand that a new version is coming out in a few months which allows for an electrical cable to follow the hose for the powered brush but also the on/off mechanism on the tool?

Thanks.

If you're going to have a central vac system then definitely go with hide a hose! When I had my home built just three years ago we were forced to go with the one system our wiring company carried which was a standard system - Dirt Devil Pro Series 990. I was okay with this at the time because I grew up with a regular central vac system and was used to dealing with wrapping up the hose. It wasn't until I read all the comments on these boards that I found myself wishing I had investigated the hide a hose option. After about a year of using the central vac in my current home I noticed I was only using the central vac for weekly deep cleanings and using a regular vac for in-between cleanings solely because I detested wrapping up the hose. At that point, I reached out to a local dealer and he was able to retrofit a 40ft hide a hose outlet for the main living level. I must say, we use it all the time! Whenever something spills it's so easy to pull the hose out, do a quick clean up and suck the hose back in to the wall. We even use it to clean out our Neato Botvac (highly recommend that too!). My better half thought it was a waste of money and he uses it more than I do! We have a ton of hardwood floors and wool area rugs and the hide a hose works like a dream. We will still pull out the old electric hose and power nozzle to deep clean any wall to wall areas but the Turbocat does a pretty good job for being air-powered.

I am planning a new home and like the Hide-A-Hose. It seems to me that I would need more tubing than a regular system to fit the hose. A minimum of 30' of tubing for every 30' hose. Doesn't this cut into the efficiency or is the power unit just that powerful? Thanks for any thoughts.

As I mentioned previously my system was originally installed a few years ago just to support regular central vac outlets. I have about 8 or 9 of these throughout my house. When I had a Hide a Hose outlet installed the gentleman had to add an additional 40 - 50 ft of piping to store the hose. He then tied this back into the trunk line that leads out to the garage where the power unit is mounted. I haven't noticed a difference in suction whether I'm using the electric hose that came with the house in a standard outlet or when I'm using the HAH.

Any comments on using HAH on carpet? A lot of our floors will be carpet.

mrclark - if you're building a custom home definitely speak with the installer about designing a hybrid system - one where you have a mix of standard outlets (so you can use an electric hose & powerhead) and Hide a Hose outlets. As I mentioned before my house came with the standard outlets but I was able to retrofit a HAH outlet on my main living level due to all of the hardwood floors. When researching the HAH many users said that the Turbocat (air driven powerhead) on the HAH did a good job on carpeting. It does a good job of picking up the dog hair at a surface level but doesn't seem to clean as deeply as the electric powerhead. It will leave the classic vacuum lines but they're not as deep as you'd have with an upright or electric powerhead. However, I would never be without HAH...wrapping up the standard hose is a pain in the butt and we vacuum more often with the HAH because there's nothing to coil back up...you just suck the hose back into the wall.

@ocscott - thank you for your comments. Yes we are building a custom home.

Do you mind sharing where you have your traditional central vac system (rooms) and where you have the HAH system? (Rooms)

Sure - our basement is currently unfinished so the installer put in two standard inlets and will add a third if we finish. I imagine we will have wall to wall carpeting in the basement so I don't plan on adding a HAH outlet down there. For the main level of the house we have three standard wall outlets that overlap the whole floor (1 in the sunroom, 1 in the family room and 1 in the dining room). We had a 40 or 50ft HAH outlet installed in the center of the floor in a wall leading from the foyer into the back hallway/family room and kitchen area. I know it's hard to visualize but from this outlet we can reach every area of the main living space as well as up and down the two staircases. There's also a vacpan in our kitchen island but our beagle tends to get the various crumbs before we do so it's not used too frequently. Plus with the HAH system it's just easier to pull out the hose and hit the kitchen with the floor brush rather than trying to Swiffer the crumbs and hair into the vacpan. Upstairs we also have three standard outlets (1 in the master bedroom, 1 in a guest bedroom and 1 in the hallway on the opposite end of the house). The upstairs hallway and laundry room are hardwood but we have wall to wall carpeting in the bedrooms. If we only had hardwood upstairs I'd stick with just a HAH outlet..it's just so much more convenient. I cannot tell you the last time I pulled out the electric hose and powerhead to clean. Our cleaning woman uses it when she comes to clean but I just use the HAH in between her visits or our regular vacuum. BTW - I have mentioned before you can use an electric powerhead with the hide a hose. I just purchased a 30ft power cord that will attach to the cord of the powerhead and the other end plugs directly into an electrical outlet in your house. It's a bit awkward to juggle the hose and separate cord but not terribly unwieldy...certainly easier than our Miele canister which is constantly on our heels when cleaning.

Anyone have an opinion or feedback on the new (HAH) rapid flex hose or the traditional grey socked hose?

I actually have owned both...my original outlet came with a socked hose but one morning when I was pulling it out of the outlet the cuff ripped off. I called an online central vac store to buy a new one when the woman told me about the new blue rapid flex hose. Being a brand new product I was a bit skeptical but gave it a try and could NOT believe how much better the Turbocat ran when hooked up. I thought it worked well before but the suction is now even better! I was a little worried that not having a hose sock would cause scuffs but it just slides around my baseboards without any scratches or marks. It's definitely worth it to get the rapid flex hose as there's a noticeable difference in suction.

Can anyone give me a price comparison between the rapid flex hose and the traditional gray hose with sock?

Thanks ocscott. Everything I had read said the new repaid flex hose was the way to go, but the dealer advised me to go with the sock hose. Great to have some real world information to make my decision.

sail_away, my dealer priced out the hoses the same.

Thanks, Muffy and Ocscott. I thought we had all our decisions made, but I will have to look into the rapid flex hose.

Hi guys and gals,

I'm literally having my HaH installed right now. Could I please have some suggestions on the best height to install the HaH socket? I heard that some people have it incorrectly installed too low and it becomes a tiring task to pull out the hose bending your back, before you even start the hoovering.

Is 100cm about the right height?

Thanks.

Dan
(London)

Hi Dan,

Depends on which direction you will be pulling the hose and height of the user.

Our inlets are all set with the bottom of the cover at ~3ft above the floor. Upstairs I pull downwards and the height is perfect for me. Downstairs I am pulling upwards; it's a bit of work because I am short, no problem for my tall husband.

Good luck!

Hi

Thx for the reply. So we've got one on each of the three levels and my building contractor has installed it do that the bottom of the rectangle socket is exactly 1m (3ft and 3.5 inches) from the ground - we will be pulling it from the bottom rather than the top.

Hope that's not too high. My wife will never vacuum so me at 5ft 7 I hope that's the ideal height. Still got one more to install on the ground floor!

I was too lazy to read through all the responses but I just built a house and installed Hide-a-Hose on the main floor (with a back up standard central outlet just in case), standard vacuum on the second floor, basement and the garage. I am more than likely to pull the Hide-a-Hose out than I am to lug out the heavy "snake" etc.. It doesn't have the versatility of the other conventional but it is much easier to use and put away. I saved a bit by not putting it on every floor, since we use the first floor the majority of the time and have hardwood floors and tile only.

Almostemptynester, we will only have hardwood floors and tile so have you found the Hide-a-Hose to work well on hardwood?

We only have one local vacuum dealer. I always prefer to buy small and local, but I can't get the owner to return my calls or respond to messages left with employee when I stop by his shop and he's not there. Can anyone suggest a trustworthy online source for central vacuums? It will be new installation in new construction.

I have found the HAH excels at bare floor cleaning and pretty much any task that requires using the attachments - such as vacuuming the sectional sofa that my beagle lives on while we're at work! In my previous home I had a Miele canister which was great but you still had to drag the canister around behind you. The HAH is truly effortless to pull around as you clean. In terms of online suppliers, I've only used an online source for a replacement hose and tools. I used centralvacuumstores.com but the prices seem comparable on most other popular sites.

My Hide a hose is a 50' length. I've only used 5 times and it is now stuck inside the pipe. The last 25' I cannot pull out! Any suggestions on how to fix thi? My attic is very low and difficult to get up into to try and find where even stuck.

An 11 year old thread? Why not simply start a new thread with your actual question?

They are horrible. I first started out with the 110 power unit. It never had enough power to suck the hoses up. Then I bought a brand new 220 unit. $2,500 more and got all new ports. The power was great but the hoses still get suck in the wall. I have a home that is only 3 years old and I have had nothing but stress with the hide a hose. My other house had conventional central vac. I am going in the attic and rip out all the hide a hose!!!!!!!!!!!

Judy, what do you mean with "The power was great but the hoses still get suck in the wall." Do you mean that while you are using it the hose is getting sucked into the wall and you have to fight it? If so I'm guessing you're not using it correctly. Mine has a little latch on the outlet that you have to turn and this locks the hose in place so it doesn't get sucked in. I can pull out however much hose I need pull the little lever to the side and lock it and vacuum with however much length I need. I'm going on about 15 years of use of mine and it still works great. If you don't have that little lever/latch then I'm guessing they installed the wrong outlets for you.

I've had conventional central vac in every house we have owned for the last 30 years and put in HAH in the house we built in 2021. Love the HAH and wouldn't want a house without HAH or plain central vac, specially with 3 dogs and wood/tile floors.

Judy, just took a photo of one of my outlets ... see the horizontal black lever? It is in the left unlocked position and slides over to the right when you need to lock the hose. That is what Lyfia is explaining in her post.

Hi Mine does not look like that. I have had central vacs in our houses since I was a child. Never any problems but they were not hide a hose. My last house was 3 levels I had a port in every room. No problems. 3 years ago we built a 3500 one level and put in central vac. I had nothing but problems. Finally figured out they put in a 110 volt instead of a 220. So I went to another company and another 3k and got the 220. It is fantastic for power. Several weeks ago when I went to pull out one of my hoses it was jammed in the wall. That happened on the old system too and when my husband and I tried to pull it out it shredded the entire hose.. I want to go back to the regular plug in hose to the outlet. No hide a hose.

Judy, does your hose have a sock on it? I had the socked hose and when it ripped, I replaced it with the newer blue rapid flex (??) hose. It doesn't have a sock but in the last seven years it has left no marks on my extensive wood work. It retracts SO much better than the socked hose I had before it.

Hi, Yes it has the sock. I will check into the newer blue rapid flex. I hope I can get the stuck one

out of the wall. It comes out about 4 feet and then I get the extension hose in the garage to vacuum with. A pain. The other one on the other side of the house has been ok lately. Thanks for the info. Too bad they don't go up in clear piping in the attic or roll up like a fire hose.

I also have the blue flex hose. I didn't use a sock because I have dogs and it would just get dog hair and odors trapped in it.

I would look for a local Central vac repair shop. I have been able to find one in every state I have lived. They are sometimes associated with vacuum and sewing machine repair shops.

I have 3 dogs and 4 cats. So I deal with that pet hair. That is why I have to have a central vac. I use it several times a week. I have used two central vac companies and I was not happy with either one. My electrician is the one who installed the 220 powered one.

It sounds to me like whomever you (or your builder) used to install things didn't know what they were doing or did something wrong as it relates to having a hide-a-hose. I mean to not have the correct unit to work with a hide-a-hose seems like the first red flag. I know that was a big thing when mine was installed to make sure I had a powerful enough unit. Sorry you are having to deal with this.

Sounds like the pipes for the HAH were not installed correctly and you don't have the correct outlets if you can't lock the hose at the length you want.

Both comments are right. It was installed wrong. All those elbows in the attic. Also we never discussed the power. My other houses were 220 power so I never questioned it until I started using it. The builder said I talked to the central vac company so he put it on me. Also I have to turn on the hoses at the outlets and they do not lock. I have to have a little "U" shaped plastic thing to stick on the hose to prevent it from going back in. I actually climbed up in the attic to see if I could open up a pipe to get the hose to pull out but it was too dangerous to try it. I just want to go back to having a free hanging hose. I will carry it around. After 3 years of this it would be less stress. I just have to find out how to have that done.

Judy, I have no idea what kind of system you have, but it doesn't sound like a Hide-a-hose system. Lots of elbows doesn't sound right either. I mean some yes, but I have longer runs without it in my attic. Could you be having a Chameleon system? If so it seems like it wouldn't be too hard to have it be a regular system as well. Or could you have a made by themselves system from your central vac company. I think I would go back to them and see what they can do about fixing the system they appear to have really messed up.

The first one I had was Ricar when the house was being built. They came out about 4 times. It would work when they left, but still never enough power. Then I would have trouble with the hoses not going in or coming out. Then I got electrolux to come out and they put in all new ports or outlets, and new hoses. Still not enough power and the same with the hose problems. They did do a few things in the attic with the pipes. Now I have Drainvac which is the high powered unit I got the electrician to install. Great suction power but hoses still get stuff in the pipes. If I only had clear pipes I could see where the blockage is. We have a call into the head people at the original company that installed the pipes. It was a Hide A Hose system. We are hoping they will recommend someone who really knows how the install and service them. I have almost 9k in this system now and still not happy. My sister built a new house the same time and did not want it. She has a rainbow somebody gave her. She is laughing all the time about what I am going thru. I never had any trouble before until I got Hide a Hose.

It just doesn't sound like you have a hide-a-hose outlet. There is no clip that I'm aware of certainly wasn't available 16 years ago and doesn't appear to be available now either. So either you have a different brand or someone cobbled something together.

I'm wondering if you have the right pipes/elbows as well to support a hide-a-hose if it is cobbled together.

The actual vacuum unit brand doesn't matter as long as it has enough power to handle a hide-a-hose system. However, what you've described in how you lock your hose is not hide-a-hose.

You are probably right. Like I mentioned we have emailed Hide a Hose about the problem. They do not have technicians available here. They talk you through it over the phone. I guess we are going to have to take a video of the whole shebang and send it to them. The pamphlet I got was Hide of Hose. But it does not say on the piping.

Hey again all. I just fixed my Hide a Hose. I went into the attic and one of the pipes that "held the hose" that was stuck in the wall was not glued and I pulled it apart and there was the stuck hose. Yay. So 3 things to remember when getting this system. May sure you get a 220 volt unit, unless you have a tiny house. We put the original 110 volt I had in my daughters cottage which is 600 sq ft and it works fine. Two, make sure they do not glue the pipes that the hose runs in so in case the hose gets stuff you can find it with out cutting into the pipes and 3 make sure there are no sharp 90 degree turns in the piping. They all should be the gentle curving 90's. Hopes this helps. I have been dealing with this for 4 years.