Just today I spoke with the electrical supply guy who also installs CV and told him I want the HAH He's never done one. Said the suction isnt as good on carpet. says clogs in the pipes are bad with HAH and is just all around skeptical as HAH is too new?!?
I will only have carpet in three bedrooms and the old dyson could work for that but since I have arthritis getting worse by the minute I'd love the HAH. Back in college I cleaned houses for cash and worked with a couple different regular CV -- HATED the HOSES!! Wrestling around just cant do it now.
Has anyone installed them yourself? This may be the only way I get one as this guy was way not gonna do it!

We're still not in our new house and so our HAH has only been roughed in. I knew I wanted it based on reviews here on Gardenweb. The company who did our security and tv/internet wiring also installed central vacs. When I asked about HAH the owner said, "oh no, you'd hate it, they get clogged, get stuck in the wall, aren't powerful, etc." I said thank you very much, I'll talk to someone else. I contacted a HAH installer who said his customers were over the moon with the system.

Well, funny thing, the HAH installer was doing the rough in at the same time the security guys were preparing to do their thing. One of them said, "oh cool! You're getting that Hide-a-Hose thing! We hear its great, but it sounds like a pain to install." That after his boss had informed me HAH was junk. I guess the security guy didn't notice my mouth gaping open.

I'd take the trash talking with a large grain of salt.

It depends on how much carpet, type of carpet etc that you have. I've got dogs and thick plush carpet so I want/need a power head in order to do a good job on carpet and area rugs.

I've used the turbo brush before that comes with HAH and it doesn't have the oomph that the electric power head provides for carpet. Because of that I'm not going with HAH.

It's one of those individual choices, I'm NOT trying to bash HAH since I think it's great for many people. For me with thick carpet and pets, I prefer the power head. As I've said before, I've got to go to the closet to get the attachments anyway, so I may as well scoop up the hose while I'm there.
Its a mystery to me though why they don't make a HAH that is compatible with the electric carpet powerhead. It would be the best of both worlds!

I have carpet in my bedrooms as well as several area rugs and my HAH has worked great for me on all surfaces. I was kind of surprised to learn in recent threads that there is a debate about the effectiveness of HAH on carpet. It works as well if not better than my old vacuum cleaners but I have to admit my old vacuum cleaners were not high end.

We have carpeted bedroom and no issues. I guess I'm not sure if I would notice deep issues. I've always wanted to borrow a dyson and vacuum after the HAH to see if anything was missed.

I will say that the hose powered vacs spin so fast that they are really loud when not slowed by the carpet. They certainly seem like they are working quite well. I've used powered heads that don't work as well.

HAH by design is not really compatible with a powered head. There is no way to make that safe. You could have a power cord separate but that defeats the purpose.

We checked out both regular and HAH. We chose the regular CV. We will have some carpet in the house. And it's hard to justify the need for HAH for us. Like gbsim, you still need to go and get the attachments. And, I prefer to deal with a 30ft hose than a 60ft HAH hose (since I would not pay more $$$ to have 30ft HAH inlets).

Well our question really isn't about whether we want CV or CV with HAH - if I put in CV, it's gonna have HAH. I'm just wondering how well CV and specifically HAH (if there's a difference) works on carpet and whether I need a really strong motor or some special head to get the best performance.

My HAH powerhead for carpet is a "TurboCat." The website for that product says,

"Will the Air Driven Power Brush clean as well as an Electric Powerhead?

If the Turbocat Air Driven Power Brush is matched with the right Power Unit tests show that it�s performance is comparable to an Electric Power Head. The Turbocat has a higher life expectancy, higher brush speed than many electric power head�s, it is lighter, it has an automatic height adjustment feature, and it has the ability to clean closer to edges. In addition the Turbocat has a built in Performance Indicator. If airflow is restricted within the tubing or power unit, the Turbocat will slow down, indicating that the system is not operating at peak performance and should be checked."

I have never used an electric powerhead to compare suction ability. My powerhead does a good enough job, but I imagine there is room for improvement....

Do you get the "stripes" on the carpet when you vacuum with the Turbocat, like with a regular vacuum cleaner? Does it suction well enough for that effect?

You get the stripes.

With my unit, the turbocat spins like it is going to explode when not on carpet - ie faster than any regular vacuum or powered head. It slows on carpet - more on deeper pile. We have one of these trendy really shaggy area rugs in our living room. I think the fiber length is 1.5 inches. It works fine with our dog hair on that. But I suspect a high quality stand alone might be better - someday I'd like to try that. Nothing visibly noticeable but I suspect there would be deep hair picked up that is missed by the turbocat. But - we just use our turbocat and I suspect we go a little slower than we would with a Kirby.