It is really easy to pull out the hose and I love not having to store a 30 ft hose either. Also you don't need to pull the full length out if you don't need it. You only pull out what you need. Since it is attached there is no lugging around a heavy hose to move it to another outlet and it is very light weight. Lighter than in my old house where I had the 30ft hose I had to lug around. As for retracting. That is the easiest. You just cover the hose hole with the vaccum on and it retracts itself. Depending how much you cover controls the speed in which it retracts. We don't have carpet so the air powered is not an issue for me here, however it never was in my old house either where only the spare bedrooms were carpeted. Cleaned those really good. A Kirby guy tried to sell me his vaccum and he tried to show me how dirty my carpet was, but couldn't. Of course being that they were spare rooms they didn't see as much use as a living area would.

Wishenwell, we didn't see a need for a diverter. We've got the hot and cold supplies going to the thermostatic valve, then there are two outputs from there- one goes to a volume control for the rainshower, and one goes to a volume control for the Movario handheld. With that arrangement, we can independently run both showerheads, plus have independent volume control over each. The only thing we can't do is independently set different temperatures, which isn't much of a loss. The diverter systems get pretty complicated if you need to plumb anything other than "one or the other". The other benefit of having the two volume valves, was that it came out less expensive. :-) Hope that helps.

Very satisfied Dyson Animal owner here. In a home with two large dogs that shed enough hair daily to stuff another dog, as well as 4 cats, the Animal does the trick! I've had all kinds of vacuums over the years, and the Animal is by far the best at getting all of the hair. The worst was the Oreck. That was traded in soon after purchase as it really did nothing to pick up the animal hair. I know lots of people love them because they are so light to use, however, they don't have a roller/beater, ergo, it only picks up surface stuff. As soon as I started using the Animal, I loved it. I could see not only the pet hair, but everything that vacuum pulls off the floor! Vacuum also has a setting for hardwood or other flat surface. The Animal works well on all surfaces. DH even loves using the vacuum because he can see what he's vacuuming up. I know it sounds crazy, but I can actually get him to run the vacuum for me once in awhile. LOL While Dyson's products are not inexpensive, there are no bags, no odor, just a great purchase. A true workhorse. Worth every penny!

I had a small hand held, electric, Dirt Devil vacuum I bought at my aunt's garage sale for $1. It worked, worked for years then the motor finally went kapoot and the sweeper store guy said it wasn't worth fixing. A new one would cost almost as much and they are better made these days anyhow. So I went online and bought one, it came with a supply of bags too. They hold alot and it's much better than the mess of a bagless in my opinion. The Dirt Devil has two speeds and its very powerful on pet hair, I have a cat. I use it on the rugs in the library and the mohair furniture. I love it. Only disadvantage is bending over to sweep the rugs but I've even been known to continue and do the wood floors too! It picks up all the crud that falls in between the boards (old house).