I am struggling to understand which bit of the hose is splitting. Is it the concertina hose or the actual cuff (the cuff being the black end of the hose which is shaped to a triangle finish) that is splitting? If its the hose then there is no way around that happening as they do by very nature split because of how they are fashioned with the ring clipping the hose into the cuff - vax was very bad for this. If however it is the triangle end of the cuff that is splitiing then this is often caused by cleaners using the cuff on stairs and corners without the metal tube attached. Doing this wears the cuff down and makes it prone to splitting. Also if the replacement hoses are not the genuine Numatic hoses then these will break quickly as the quality is much poorer. Incidently, Henry has been around since the latter part of the 1980's. Numatic first became popular in the early 1980's, I started cleaning schools in 1983 and they had Vorwerk uprights which they replaced with Numatic tank vacuums not long after i began working there. Henry as a name was put on a smaller version of the tank cleaners i was using about 1987. Henry cleaners do pack up, usually the leads break, but also motors do burn out too as indeed you have found. But they give hours of use before this happens, you would be pressed to find another machine that takes the use that a Henry will and they much cheaper than a lot of cleaners. I still like an upright for carpets but i would not be without a Henry as well.