Hoover Upright Vacuum Cleaner, Red - Upright 300

Product Information

I also struggled with moving the vacuum from hard floor onto rugs or door mats. The front of the device is quite low to the ground and it struggled with even small changes in elevation, crumpling and pushing away the rug rather than climbing up the edge. The vacuum can operate in a number of modes. There’s the basic upright mode, with the floor head, vacuum unit, wand and handle all connected together. Alternatively, each element can be detached and used interchangeably. The Hoover is reasonably light for a corded model, weighing just 4.94kg. This is lighter than its similarly priced competitors, with the Shark DuoClean with Lift-Away NV702UK weighing 5.25kg and the Dyson Small Ball Allergy a hefty 6.9kg. It’s easier to carry around but isn’t small, standing at over a metre tall (1,147 x 300 x 320mm). The mains cord is 8.1m long and there’s a built-in hose for connecting the attachments to, which stretches to 2m. A more difficult test is my carpet tile test, where I sprinkle flour right up to the skirting board. With the H-Upright 300 set to hard floor mode, it left a trace amount of dust behind, as you can see from the images below. On the brush bar is a manual slider: keep it closed for more suction on hard floors; or open to make the cleaner easier to push on carpet.

If you’re looking for a workhorse of a vacuum cleaner then a corded upright like the Hoover HL5 ought to be an attractive option, as long as it can perform the cleaning jobs it’s supposed to. To find out, I put it through our usual suite of tests.While the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets might appear to be just another vacuum cleaner with a power cable I think Hoover has done a great job with this model. It takes mere seconds to pull out of the box, something helped by its weight of just 5.2kg. Most of it has been put together for you, so after scrutinizing the manual for a couple more seconds the design is suitably simple that you can be powering up in about, well, two minutes. It’s a little less powerful than the competition, although I found using the hard floorhead more than made up for this on short-pile carpet. If you want something cheap but good, then this is a neat option. I have the standard model here, but it’s also available as the H-Upright 300 Pet Edition with a mini-motorised tool. Both versions are available in blue or red. Design and features I was pleasantly surprised by how it performed in the same test on short-pile carpet, however. Here, the angle of the base of the floor head and the powerful suction combined to compress the Cheerios into the carpet enough for the floor head to climb over them and, once underneath, they didn’t stand a chance. A single pass left a few crumbs behind but not enough to register as a full gram on my kitchen scales.

There’s a reason upright vacuum cleaners are such a popular choice – this classic style does it all, with a lightweight, easy-to-manoeuvre design and exceptional cleaning power. From the HL5 to the best-selling Upright 300, there’s an upright vacuum for everyone. Our upright vacuum cleaners promise high-performance cleaning on all floor types. Whether you want to deep clean your carpet or tidy a hardwood floor, a versatile stand up Hoover will get the job done. Our upright vacuums also come with push and lift capabilities and instant release wands, allowing portability for all your above-floor cleaning needs, such as sofas and stairs. We know how frustrating it can be to get hair caught in your vacuum, which is why we’ve introduced ANTI-TWIST™ technology to our upright vacuums. ANTI-TWIST™ means you don’t need to worry about hair getting tangled; our tech automatically removed it from the brushbar. You can attach each tool to either the lift-out wand or the hose, which unplugs from the motorised brush. Those looking for a full suite of attachments should consider the Dyson Ball Animal. This comes with a great selection of tools, a larger collection bin and a longer cord. It’s heavier, though, and costs more. First, the model I reviewed doesn’t come with many accessories. I’d recommend you opt for the Pet model, which comes with a better attachment for handheld jobs and doesn’t cost much more.

An affordable upright vacuum cleaner that picks up anything and everything, but you might have to resort to the tools beyond the floor head

The floor head has anti-tangle tech, which stops the brush roller getting clogged up with long hair. During testing I found no hair tangles on the floor head, even after cleaning around the vanity stations of long-haired family members. The collection bin has a generous 1.5-litre capacity and is easily released from the chassis for emptying. It also contains the filters, which are washable in water and rated to the HEPA H13 standard. The collection bin can hold 1.4L of dust and debris. That’s slightly less than the 1.8L of the Dyson Ball Animal but still beats the capacity of most cordless models, including the Shark ICZ300UKT cordless upright, which only holds 0.6 litres.

In front of the power button there’s another that lets you engage or disengage the brush in the cleaning head. This can be used in conjunction with the white slider switch on the top of the cleaning head, which is marked as Carpet one way and Hard Floor the other. Simply slide it across to change the cleaning mode, and disengage the spinning brushes if you’re cleaning something like a laminate floor. Initially I’d tend to forget to do this, but practice makes perfect. To start with, I put the Hoover H-Upright 300 through my raw power tests, measuring its suction in AirWatts. I recorded a score of 185.9AW, which is lower than many other plug-in cleaners, which usually come in around 200+. However, in context, this cleaner is still more powerful than most cordless models on their maximum setting. Where it can’t compete is against the battery power of the Shark cordless upright. This has much stronger suction in its most powerful setting.

The Hoover H-Upright 300 cleans well and won’t break the bank, but it’s better on carpet than hard floor

Once you’ve finished cleaning, the bin lifts out of the cleaner, and you can flip open the bottom to empty dirt quite easily. There’s one filter here and a another in the cleaner, both of which should be cleaned with water to maintain maximum suction. Performance