I've been using a Hoover Windtunnel power head and hose with our central
vac. Although it looks like garbage, we had a very expensive Stealth power
head from Europe and a Eureka power head and the Hoover is definitely
superior on carpeting and has held up over 5 years. The expensive Stealth
unit was beautifully engineered and quiet but the bristles were too short to
get deep into the carpet and only did a mediocre job of cleaning carpet.

In any case the Hoover is finally dying because the contacts in the handle
that accept the plug from the power head are overheating and melting the
plastic handle and burning the contacts. The interesting thing is that
Hoover was forced to recall a bunch of upright cleaners from similar
vintage for a similar problem.

I filed a complaint with the Consumer Product safety commission and Hoover.
Hoover gave me the brush off. In the mean time I ordered another Hoover
unit but I plan on putting the old one in a closet in case Hoover is ordered
to recall these too. If anyone out there has the same unit and has had a
problem, it might be a good idea to report it before some of these units
from that vintage catch fire as did the uprights.