Losing control of the canister because of a long hose?
I wouldn't say I've ever come across this problem; 12feet equates to around 3.5metres. Thus the largest amount of hose I've used is a 2 metre extension hose on a Henry vacuum cleaner which has the 2.5 metre hose as standard. Or a SEBO K1 Komfort at 2.1 metres with the extra SEBO extension hose at 3 metres tagged on. Both use for cleaning narrow and three flights of steps. Generally when you have that much hose to clean with, one hand goes onto the handle of the vacuum and the other can grab excess hose to ensure that:
1) The body of the vacuum cleaner stays close, but not close enough to bump into legs, feet etc.
2) More control of pulling the machine towards you rather than allow it to crab into the sides of rooms, walls or hall ways.
3) A longer hose ensures less weight pulled on the machine body itself.
When it comes to storing, I find storing the hose on the Henry awkward, but simply this is because there are no park points for the hose, suction tubes and floor head to get onto, unless of course you have the very latest model that now supports a rear central park slider.
With the SEBO machines, I find it easier to park the long 2.1 metre hoses because both the smaller bagged K series and the D2 have central park points. I really wish my Miele S6 was as compact as storing up. The decision in the UK to not allow the handle to have its independent slide in storer partition is a bit of a pity. As you can see, the S6 model shown here has a slide in bit at the back of the handle, making more use of the body on offer for compacting up the standard 1.8 metre hose.
Also in time I think brands will offer a hose that can either compact up into itself only requiring to be used for extra stretch or just general use, rather than just fitting an extra long hose onto the machine. AS others have noted, unless a hose has a wider diameter and smooth internals, the amount of airflow can suffer. But it also has to do with the airflow and sealed suction that the machine has to offer in the first place - one of the reasons to why both the Numatic and SEBO vacs have justifiable long hoses not just from a lighter-weight-to lift point of view than relying on the machine itself.
