About the hoses. What is pictured here is the original hose, the design being plucked straight from the original Turbopower and Turbomaster cleaners. It is indeed too narrow to use easily in it's current format, not because this is a clean-fan machine, but because the cleaner relies on the hose 100% of the time, whether in tools mode or upright. Added to which the hose obviously has to bend around the holster when in upright mode. It meant that clogging of the hose was more likely, and trust me, they did clog. This hose might have been fine on a clean-fan cleaner which didn't use the hose for upright cleaning, like a Dyson doesn't, but not for this type of machine.
The introduction of the Turbopower 3 saw the hose being changed to a standard diameter hose. This was much better, although still could clog like any other machine might. Hoover reverted to the narrow hose around 1999 and I have no idea why.
There is no doubt that the narrow hose could have put a strain on the motor, but in reality I don't think it did on most machines, as up until the late 1990's the motor was of very good quality. Also, these cleaners had thermal cut-outs which worked well and would soon switch off if something was blocked. Though many of the blockages I cleared were on cleaners where the owner complained of poor pick up, a good deal of machines were brought in as 'no power', because the thermal cut-out had come into play.
