I have a Vacu-Maid with the Hide A Hose system. I have mostly hard wood floors and it works well. The carpet head is an Ultra T210. It doesn't work well on low pile rugs at all.You do want one with a lot of power as they will somewhat drive themselves. If you have carpeting on your stairs I would get t he small head for that. I had it at my last house, no carpet on stairs here. The only other accessory I use is the flat brush for the wood floors.

I have the Vacuflo. Love my vacuum. The thing I use alot is the door with the kick plate that you can just sweep. It's real easy to just grab a broom and sweep the mess up. I do have the little turbo attachment. Mine is very noisy but it does work well. It comes in handy for vacuuming the RV. One more thing that comes in really handy is I have a hose connect as close to the front of the house (garage doors) as possible. It's so I can vac out the cars and RV while they are in the driveway. An extra hose with attachments stays in the garage. I've bought the thing that goes under the refrigerator, which I don't like. I have a blind duster that's okay, but I don't know that it works any better than the hose duster that comes with the set. You might want to buy two sets of indoor hoses just so you don't have to lug them up and down the stairs. Also put the sock on your indoor hose, it protects the woodwork.

gailefiona - I would have loved to get the hide-a-hose but we saw that too late (or at least that's what my husband told me so that I wouldn't keep adding up extras)! I was thinking of getting the RugRat (smaller head) for the stairs like you suggested. For your hardwoods, do you use a 12" brush? Are there any differences between the brands?

housefairy - I like the idea of a set of tools for the car - thanks for that suggestion. We did get a vacpan for the kitchen which i'm excited about -- just wished i had thought to put one in the laundry in time. What kind of hose do you have?

I just bought the hoses from the dealer. The hose for the garage doesn't have the switch. You just plug it in and it works. It came with its own set of attachments. It was cheaper than the switch hose and it stays in the garage. Plus your not as concerned if you damage the hose. Though I've had it for twelve years with no problems. I do have two outlets for the garage, so I have to replug (anyway) when I vac out the garage.

Your vac man should be able to come out and retrofit your laundry room. I had the system retrofitted to our current house. The guy did an amazing job. Had him put a system in my Mom's house. One of the best things I've bought.

I agree with the garage kit and a hose w/attachements on each floor. You didn't mention if you had electrified valves (direct connect) or not. I prefer the power heads, so you switch on the fly turning the beater bar on/off, while leaving the vacuum on. You can do the hard wood and turn on the power head on when you hit an area rug.

I also like the mini turbo brush for upholstery.

Here is where I bought all of my stuff 3-4 yrs ago, I'm not sure about attachment price, but they had great prices on the vacuums themselves.

Here is a link that might be useful: Allegro