This is an excellent unit. My only regret is that I didn't replace my existing power head EARLIER with this unit. It really works well on carpet AND hard surfaces. It does a much better job than any other power head or stand alone vacuum I've ever used. We've been through two powerheads in the past 10 years, the first one was included in our central vac system when we bought the house and it failed to really clean. The second one, although German made also worked well, and I *thought* I was happy with it, but it broke. It's really remarkable how well this cleans carpets, and it's designed so well that we don't even take it off for hard surfaces - it cleans as well as a hard surface head. It stands to reason why people say their central vaccuum is not as good as their stand alone unit, because of the low quality heads that the MFG's include in the 'packages'. Do yourself a favor - buy this unit and you'll see the difference.