WHAT I LOOK FOR IN A VACUUM CLEANER


I have owned many a vacuum cleaner in my time. When I was first married and had a home of my own, I was given an old (old even at that time) Hoover bagged upright. This was noisy, heavy and ugly, although it did work well for several years, and it must have seen many years of service before it came to work for me. When it finally retired I bought a cylinder cleaner. Following that I have bought vacuum cleaners of various brands and types with and without success.

Nowadays I am particular in what I ask for in a vacuum cleaner, mainly owing to the fact that I have some difficulty with pushing and lifting heavy items and difficulties with certain functions calling for 'fiddly' manual dexterity. I require a vacuum that is light in weight and easy to operate, in respect of switches being easy to use, hoses being simple to undo and also very importantly, ease of emptying. I now only use bag less cleaners for the simple reason that I always find emptying the bags on bagged vacuums awkward and a rotten job. Not only do I find bag less vacuums easier to empty the dust from but find it a pleasanter and cleaner task where my hands don't have to come into contact with the dust.

I have several vacuums in my home. I keep one upright model upstairs. This one is heavy but it does still work quite well. I have a couple of small portable vacuums suitable for cleaning the stairs or small cleaning tasks. But the vacuum I mostly used in my home gave up on me some months ago. This was a Bissell Easy Vac. I liked this one as it was easy to use but as it hadn't lasted very long, my husband thought we should purchase something better. I have to say though, that from my point of view; owing to difficulties I have that I wish I had purchased a new model of this as, for me it was the easiest vacuum I have used. This probably wouldn't be true for everyone except for those needing to use a lightweight easy to manoeuvre cleaner. Added to this is the fact that my living room and dining room carpet (through lounge) is of a very deep pile many vacuums are just about impossible to push.

MY RESEARCH

I looked at many vacuums before making this purchase. I even bought two and tried them at home and quickly returned them to the shop because they were too heavy for me to push with any ease.
After looking in many shops and online for a suitable vacuum I ended up in a Comet store where I had a good look at various vacuums which I had short listed. I tried my best to see which ones were the easiest to:

Lift

Empty

Push

Use the controls with ease

And I also wanted a longish flex as then I can vacuum my through lounge, kitchen and hallway and porch without having to keep changing the power socket.

Of course with this wish list it isn't really possible to thoroughly test until the cleaner is up and running in one's own home. I'm sure if I lived in a bungalow I wouldn't need to be so picky with vacuum cleaners nor if I had carpets which were flatter in their pile. But never the less, I tested as well as I could.

Out of the few models that I was seriously considering, I felt the Hoover Hurricane light mostly fulfilled my criteria. Therefore I finally made my purchase.

ABOUT THIS MODEL

The Hurricane light weighs just over six kilograms making it one of the lighter models of vacuums of similar design and size on the market. Although the Bissell Easy Vac weighs only around 4.5 ( I can't remember the exact weight) but then it isn't as solid and it's a smaller machine.

I believe for many the Hurricane Light would be an easy model to use and most would find it quite easy to manoeuvre. I don't find it too bad but with my limitations I do miss the ease of use which I found with my Bissell Easy Vac. But I must stress that for most users this would be easy to use as an upright vacuum although not so good when using the hose. I will explain this later.

I consider it a better machine quality wise than the Easy Vac, being more solid, but I still don't like it as much. Also, as its base is larger than the Easy Vac it doesn't fit as easily under chairs and tables. But, then again, compared to my heavy Sanyo vacuum it is much easier to manoeuvre when needing to vacuum under furniture.

APPEARANCE

The Hurricane range of vacuums come in bright colours.

The design in my opinion is modern and the vacuum looks sturdy although not too large a design.

Controls are well placed on the base of the vacuum as are the carpet height adjusters.

The dust container is almost transparent just lightly tinted in the colour of the vacuum.

Tools fit on board neatly.

PERFORMANCE

(On Carpets)

Judging by the fluff and dust collected in the transparent dust bin, this cleaner can be seen to do a good job. It picks up unwanted litter from carpeted floor with ease. As this vacuum is made to travel across the carpet, to and fro, it can be seen to be making a difference. As any specks of dirt are collected, the carpet pile lifts nicely, making the carpet, as well as looking clean, it also appears refreshed.

For others in my household this vacuum is easy to push. For me it is easy on flat short pile carpet, which I have in the hallway, porch, living room and main bedroom. It is only moderately easy for me to move it around going in one direction in my living room because of the resistance of the deep pile carpet in there. For this reason I wouldn't recommend this vacuum cleaner for the elderly, arthritic or anyone with any difficulties which means they prefer a light cleaner. This IS light but I personally would prefer an even lighter and slightly smaller model. However for anyone without difficulties such as those I have mentioned then this cleaner would be easy to use and to carry around. It is definitely lighter than most models on the market even those claiming to be lightweight. Of course the type of house one has to clean decide which cleaner is best, even with disabilities cast aside. A level floor and low pile or hard floor, is quite different to clean than deep pile carpets and a home with stairs and different levels.

I have used this to clean the bedroom carpets on occasion, but usually prefer to use the Sanyo vacuum that is kept upstairs so that I don't have too much carrying to do.

(On Hard Floors)

This vacuum has buttons to alter the height of cleaning and has a hard floor operation. However, when cleaning the linoleum floor in my kitchen this doesn't work well at all. I have to use a carpet setting otherwise the hard floor setting pulls up the lino.

I don't like this vacuum for laminate floors either, as it seems to just move any dirt around. I prefer to use a broom on hard floors. It is fair to say though that I have had this same problem with other vacuums when using a hard floor setting.

(Stairs/Upholstery)

Not only myself but my husband feels that this machine does not work so well when using the hose. It seems to suck with so much power that it isn't easy to use and the hose seems to cave in a little at times.
It isn't too bad when cleaning stairs but is too powerful, in my opinion, to clean upholstery easily and well.

One advantage is that the flex is long and the stairs can be cleaned with this vacuum. I find that I can plug in at the bottom of the stairs and use the hose and extension pipes to clean over half way up. When my husband vacuums the stairs he carries the vacuum up with him and manages to rest it on the stairs as he ascends and cleans.

ONBOARD TOOLS

This cleaner has on board tools such as a long crevice cleaning tool, a two in one dusting brush and an extension pipe.. All tools fit neatly onto the vacuum and are easy to a remove and put back in position.

OPERATING

It's easy to operate. To turn the power on or off is simply a matter of pressing down with one's foot onto the control located low down on the base of the machine.

To tilt into cleaning position is the just as easy with this action performed, also with one's foot.

SPECIFICATIONS

2100 watts motor
250 air watts
Lightweight (6.2kg)
Stretch hose
Long hose ( 2.5 m)
Edge to edge cleaning
Cyclonic and bagless cleaning.
Large bin capacity (2.8 l)
On board accessories/tools
Manual cord rewind
Rotating brush bar
Long 6m power cord/flex
Suitable for different floor types such as hardwood as well as carpets.
Hepa filtration (High Efficiency Particulate Air) is said to capture 99.9% of pollen particles and small pollutants. As I have two asthma and hay fever sufferers living in my home and a pet dog I would go for this type of filter system in the hope that it will help to lessen any causes of allergies. The filter is washable.

PRICE/AVAILABILITY

Comet: £84.99
Amazon.co.uk: £131.72
Argos: £79.95

OVERALL

I would sum up by saying that the Hurricane Light is a decent vacuum and not too bad a buy for the price I paid. However, it isn't the VERY easiest to use. As I have explained, it performs well on carpet, IS lightweight YET powerful. It is FAIRLY easy to manoeuvre but I am a little disappointed that it isn't easier than it is to handle. As said, I do think this should perform better when using the hose on upholstery; there can be too much suction for use on certain things.

Although the Hurricane Light is said to be suitable for hard floors as well as carpet I find it best on carpet but nothing special when it comes to cleaning hard floors.

The main advantages are that it is light weight, it picks up dust and fluff well and after vacuuming carpets look rejuvenated.

The dust container is very easy to remove, empty and replace.

I would say it is a reasonable vacuum but should be better and I am a little disappointed.