A month ago I waved goodbye to my poor Vax Kone cordless hand vac. For a year and a half I had hoped better from the little white cordless vacuum, but it was not to be, and showed signs of slowing down despite repeated charges from its funky lit base, of which I considered would make an unusual lit up utensil holder, until I realised that it would just look out of place with the name "Vax" written on the holder part and nothing in it. A quick look online and no such luck to find the Vax Kone on sale, other than a seller who had marked up the price to £60, it made no sense whatsoever. Armed with a few vouchers collected from Argos however and off I went to look for a suitable cordless dust buster. Generally I don't use a dust buster all of the time; whenever I'm cooking, or making dry dust spills from general day to day living is all I require from a dust buster picking up the dirt left behind, and I've surprised myself on the general mess I can make day to day, from either filling up my bird feeders to general dry food mess, to dust behind large portable appliances and then some. At the time of purchase I was presented with so many different brands, it was hard to choose and against my experience, the best product that caught my eye on power and run time came down to two brands - Argos Value or the Hoover Jovis hand held "dust buster" vacuum range.



Nar2's Quick Skip Product Spec


* Make & Model: Hoover Jovis SJ96CO4 Handheld Cordless Vacuum.
* 9.6 Volts, 16 minutes run time on full charge.
* Low battery & general battery 4 LED light indicators.
* 2 speed slider suction levels.
* 0.5 litre bag-less dust capacity with washable HEPA filter.
* Slide out brush, easy release empty cup & detachable crevice tool.
* Wall mountable charger base and holder.
* Size: 38cm by 14cm by 13cm width & 1.3kg.
* My price £29-99 with £5 off voucher from Argos, general price £35 to £60 online.



Design & Quality


The Hoover Jovis is a proper "Hoover" branded product, but it has been out on the market for a couple of years now and was made around the same time when Hoover UK (owned by Candy of Italy) launched two new upright vacuums, the Slalom and Freedom uprights. Their generally new design, though using some old components had a neat handle with a hose release already incorporated into their bodies to take out whenever above the dusting process was required. Well, The Jovis has a very similar handle to both the Freedom and Slalom where the design is concerned and everything is thickly made on this hand held, feeling like a robust unit.

Like a bent cone shape with ribs set into it at the top, the Jovis handle looks very purposeful on its own and up to the job of being carried, handled and used. The design is also quite flashy due to the silver paint (a likewise nod from Hoover's uprights at the time) and curvy with a frosted red detachable empty dustbin located at the bottom of this hand held vacuum. Hoover's designers may well have got the design right where being ultra modern is concerned by visuals alone and despite the fluted handle, this is quite a heavy hand held dust buster, on account that it has a larger 9.6Volt battery for better power and can run up to 15 or 16 minutes total run time if it has had a full charge beforehand.



Performance. Maintenance & Downsides


Generally I find that the Jovis is up to the job of being a good dust buster replacement, but there have been a few surprises along the way. The biggest surprise is the amount of power that this hand held vacuum has - there seems to be a lot of it in the highest setting whilst the lowest setting doesn't tend to struggle either if you just require a gentle suction strength on taking surface dirt off precious or fragile articles and I find the low setting is able to suck up general kitchen dirt without the need for the higher run power level. Noise level is well contained too, better than my old Vax Kone, but still has that familiar high whine and plenty of hot air flooding out the back where the rear vents are located and unlike some, at least the suction speed slider stays on without having to keep my finger on it.

The four green LED's that shine up on the handle whenever either speed is activated is downright annoying and like LED gauges in cars that show petrol consumption, half of the time I'm not sure whether I can trust the LED's or not. After following the suggested 24 hours full charge time, the Jovis should show up four lights of power, but after this hand held being charged and only used for a couple of minutes, the charge lights cut to just two lights shining on the low speed and one light on the highest speed - increasing with more lights if you happen to close up the suction hole in use. The LED's are therefore a waste of time in my experience and they don't add anything other than an annoying feature that really should have been left out at the design stage, with only one light coming on to show when the battery requires charging instead of the overly complicated series of lights coming on or not! To the less experienced owner who would believe in a brand's promise, the LED's could provide a major distraction if owners end up leaving this hand held being charged all of time, rather than actual use and there's a fifth light in red that comes on to show that the hand held has been plugged in to be charged. Why Hoover can't get the LED's to rise up and down to show the battery is being charged up, I'll never know - but the LED's end result is really pointless in so far as being able to trust in what strength the battery is at, completely!

Unlike the Hoover Handy cordless dust busters, the Jovis is a lot bulkier but not unnecessarily bigger than my old Vax Kone that replaces it. Whereas the Vax had a natural "downwards" design to it and had a natural scooping action, the Jovis incites me to pick up dust vertically due to its length and though the handle is curvy, lacking hard edges and has a few ribs set in a the top, a rubberised handle on the bottom part where my hand naturally rests would have been more appreciated here rather than being too slippery due to its all silver finish. Overall though, this is a very large dust buster but only because the dust bin capacity is larger than most and requires less emptying unless your household produces a lot of kitchen surface dirt daily.

Another surprise exists here that unlike the Handy models having an on-board crevice tool already stitched into the design, the only tool that is built into the Jovis is a base row of paint brush like bristles that can be flipped outwards under the main mouth of the vacuum. The brushes don't really do anything either, only adding a little bit of help when the Jovis is made to clean along flat worktops and their flat position when sticking out on the base is after the suction channel, making no sense whatsoever! Other models from other brands on the market have a more sensible clip on brush for general dusting and able to brush up more dust into the suction channel than after it and I suppose the only saving grace here is that the brushes do retract back into the hand held other than a tool you have to detach and store it in a place you'll remember the next time. I don't know what Hoover were thinking here, but their Italian designers may well have had one too many coffees!

There is an additional lint strip for picking up pesky hairs, but its small length and permanent location after the dust channel, does very little other than push dirt along into the channel - but only if you are pushing the mouth of the dust buster directly onto contact with surfaces or furnishings. Generally then, although the mouth of the hand held is large, it is oval shaped and requires a bit more handling to get into awkward corners. This is where the much more appreciated crevice tool comes in - but you'll have to go to the charger base to find it. As such, the crevice tool is permanently installed into my Jovis since purchase and its use is far better to use than depending on the other built in "tools" that don't do very much, allowing the Jovis to be lifted up at a greater angle with just the crevice tool sucking out dirt in the trickiest of areas.

The Jovis (apparently it is "Jupiter," in Italian) however, has a few other surprises in store. The large frosted dust cup is ever so easy to delight your eyes in seeing dust and dirt spinning around quite the thing and the dust cup is thankfully very easy to empty aided by two large release buttons either side of the hand held. Although Hoover don't stock an extra filter, the HEPA paper filter cone is able to seal back strong odours of dry dust that has been picked up, and it is washable provided you wait for 24 hours at the bare minimum for the filter to dry.

In so far as the dust being emptied and the filter maintenance, it's all about lifting upwards and allowing the dust to fall downwards naturally, with very little partitions in the dust cup clogging up dirt that may get stuck through use and ownership. The filter too only requires to be pulled up, cleaned off and pushed back in after either washing it, or just tapping it generally to loosen any dirt that gets stuck into the paper pleats. If you are obsessive about clean filters though, you'll have to spend a great deal of time getting all fragments out of the paper-pleated filter. I simply can't be bothered with all of that - it's a dust buster - it's supposed to get dirty!

When the power starts to run down, the Hoover Jovis only requires 8 hours of charge time and although the curvy base holder is wall mountable, it doesn't feel like it is made to last if wall mounted, even though you get two screws and two obligatory optional Plas-plugs. Typically although it has the traditional Hoover name, it is of no surprise that this product is made in China and has a familiar feeling of flexible plastic to it, even if the hand held vacuum itself is better made with thicker plastic quality.



Other Models


In my experience, not all cordless dust busters are the same when it comes to power. Generally those with a battery higher than 4.8volts are better at sustaining power as well as general running. Hoover do produce other models in the Jovis range including one with a turbo brush fitted (but you're depending on the amount of suction air that the machine is putting out to get the brush roll turning) as well as a wet and dry model. Good to see that Hoover are at least, able to supply the market with more than just one model:


* Jovis Wet and Dry SJ144WSR4 20 min run time, 14.4 Volts.
* Jovis Pets SJ120CBN4 with turbo brush, 17 min run time, 12 Volts.


Final Thoughts


Cordless dust busters are a must for any home that gets frequently dirty with crumbs on worktops and perhaps in some way, a good helper compared to the traditional dustpan and brush. The Hoover Jovis is a good capacity cordless dust buster but its overly complicated and nonsense charge LEDs are distracting and its general design could be improved here with an all one unit that has all the tools on board with much better thought given to the slide out brush on the base. Like most of Hoover's current range, the Jovis model doesn't belong in a product line up that promises "Generations Future," and as ambiguous as that may sound, the Jovis is compromised on being a bit too bulky and heavy for its own good. Large dustbin and high power aside, the Jovis is up to the job of being a good hand held cordless dust buster. It just however needs to be better than good to promote the Hoover name that was once held with great regard - and great design for the user than just mere looks. Thanks for reading. ©Nar2 2012.

www.hoover.co.uk