Hide a Hose Central Vac

14 years ago

I am building a home and got a bid from a central vac installer and when asked about the hide a hose, that I have read good reviews about, this is his response:

I am familiar with the Hide a Hose. We can and will install it but I donÂt recommend it. An exception would be an add on for a certain area for quick clean ups but donÂt bet on it for the whole house. ( A Vroom is less money and better for a small area)

Reasoning:

It will only work with air driven powerheads such as a TurboCat that are marginal for cleaning performance.
The hose is only 1 Â¼' and 50Â will reduce airflow substantially.
It takes extra pipe and special fittings to install so that the hose can be stored in the pipe. The valve could be right next to the vacuum and you still have run 50Â of pipe somewhere to store the hose and then go to the mainline and to the vacuum. Reduced airflow.
Expensive.
Not standard for the industry. What happens if they go out of business in a few years (It is a possibility because Hose Magic went out of existence even after Hoover tried to rescue them. They were also an in-wall hose storage system).

Except for the 5 points above it is OK.

My suggestion for optimum convenience, which is the only thing you are slightly gaining with the Hide a Hose is:

Lay your house out for an easy handling 25Â hose, not 30Â or 35Â. You wonÂt believe the handling difference. You move them a little more often and it probably increases the valve count by 25% but they are light, little and easy to handle.
Have a hose or a complete kit for all 3 levels so you donÂt have to haul hoses up and down the stairs.
In the kitchen/dining put vac pans or even better, Vrooms (www.vroomyourroom.com). If the kitchen valve locations are right and there is convenient storage, a Kwik Clean stretch hose kit for $59.00 works great.

I would like some input from those of you who have used the hide a hose. Are these statements true??

Comments (5)

eteinne
14 years ago
I have never had Hide A Hose but your installer does make a few valid points.

It will only work with air driven power heads, like the Turbo Cat. I had a system installed in my former home and they sales person this would perform as well as an electric power head. I used it a week and purchased and electric set for each floor. I had 35 foot hoses in this house and they were heavy. I had 25 foot hoses in my 2 previous homes and they were much easier to handle.

I 1/4 ID does restrict the air flow and the air driven Turbo Cat slows to a crawl. My system came with a 1 3/8 hose and it spun like crazy. It just didn't pick up anything. I had new plush carpet and after 20 passes the carpet fuzz was spit out, onto the carpet. The Turbo Cat has a very small air opening and the suction is reduced as the turbine takes up most of it. With the reduced airflow at the brush roll it isn't doing much. I had to keep taking it apart and dig the fuzz out of the opening and that is the reason I purchased the electric power heads a week later. It would work fine on Berber or any low pile carpet. I would look into the future as when you change the carpet it would be a shame to limit your use of CV as the air driven would not work on your new carpet.

Also pay attention to the placement of the inlets and your furniture placement. If you are not going to get direct connect valves to run an electirc head you will need an electrical outlet near by to plug the pigtale into. Be certain that it is not behind a heavy piece of furniture and are unable to access it. I had new outlets placed right next to the inlet.

I had 3 Vroom in my former home and the were great in the baths and kitchen.

Hose Magic is still in business and is now called Hose Genie. You are able to use and electric power head with this system, the hose ID is 1 4/4 so the air flow is not reduced, it uses a electric motor to retract the hose instead of suction, and the hoses are 45 feet long. I think that would be heavy as I didn't like my 35' hoses.

I found this on www.thinkvacuums.com They have an istallation video and a lot of information and the pros and cons of Hide A Hose and this system. They are still in business. Hoover can't save itself since it closed their factory in N Canton OH. They have made junk for years. They should just go out of business. This Co was bought out by Cana-Vac if I remember right. Can-Vac has been in business for years.

Good luck. Let us know what you decide.
yokatta
Original Author
14 years ago
eteinne, thanks for the great response. I have read on GW alot of people feel like they couldn't live without the HAH. Anybody who has had this system have and feedback?
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graywings123
14 years ago
I have never had a Hide a Hose, but when building a house, I had extra vac outlets placed in strategic areas, including one in the main hall closet of the house. The hose was stored directly above it, and it was very convenient.

For rug cleaning, you really want an electric driven brush, so that would be a show-stopper for me for the HAH system. Although, a HAH would have been very nice to have in the laundry room, which was also the walk-in from the garage.

I think your installer is giving you good advice.
chinook73
14 years ago
We had a HAH installed when we were building. I LOVE that thing, the hose sucking into the wall is really really handy and I think the turbocat head is great. We have shaggy carpet and it does a fabulous job as far as I'm concerned. I swear the suction coming out of that thing would rip the shirt right off of your back! The canister is super powerful, it needed one of the big plug ins (?240V) to plug into.

I had the vacuum guy that the builder used try to talk me out of it (he was NOT a distributor for the HAH) but I'm glad I got Vacuflo in to do it. Haven't regretted it one bit. For me, nothing beats not having to go to the basement and haul the hose up the stairs. The other vacuum guy told me to have a hose on each level, but for me that created a storage issue.

Needless to say, I think you should go for it and that you'll love it!
jeri
14 years ago
Do yourself a favor and head over to the Building a Home Forum. The HaH is talked about a lot over there. People love it and have Great experience with it. They have also dealt with installers who came up with reasons why the client should not install a HaH Â mostly it was lack of experience on the installerÂs part. That and not all Central Vacs can work with the HaH. But, the ones that can donÂt cost more and work *great*.