Hoover U831900 Windtunnel 2 Bagged Upright Vacuum Cleaner

Tried Everything — This is a Good Vacuum, November 29, 2007

By 

Just Anonymous (Georgia, USA) –

  

SPRING 2011 UPDATE (3.5 years later)
It’s hard to believe that I’ve had this vaccum for almost 4 years already and it’s still going strong. I’ll report back when the thing konks out (unless I konk out first). I’m hoping for an 8 year lifespan (on the vac, not me) – we’ll see.

I’ve started using the allergen bags vs the hepa bags to save a few bucks but I still have hepa bags for when I really want to do a great job (still get the bags from amazon). Vaccuming after a christmas tree still yields that smell of pine needles from the vac regardless of whether it’s hepa or just allergen (until I change the bag). Emptying the bag is easier with the self closing feature. String does get caught in the roller and you do have to clean that out from time to time with a knife to cut the strings and pull them out but that’s with all vacs.

Much happier still with this upright bagged vac than with the canister vacs or a bagless ones I’ve had before. I’m sticking to bagged uprights and it’s lasting quite well.

Overall, still hate vaccuming but I’m much happier vaccuming with a sensibly priced vaccum than with some $800 Miele or Dyson….this is a sound investment and at least mine has held up very well, no broken parts. Besides, no matter what vac you get, you’re going to hate it right 😉 😉 so why buy a $1,000 vac made by Swiss artisans.

Happy vaccuming.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

First of all thank you to all the reviewers of not just Hoover but Eureka, Electrolux, Dyson, Hoover, Orek, and all the other brands out there — especially the critical reviews, they’re the most helpful in my mind although – I’m writing a positive review. Its a tall order to the people who build vacuums though to build a perfect vac: a tool to help us do something that we inherently hate to do.

I guess you’re getting old in life when you can say you’ve owned 6 vacuum cleaners in your life and having owned 6, I’ve been through it all: bagged, bagless, canister, upright etc….and I’ve used every single one of them until they dropped (I never buy to replace a working vac – run it into the ground). This is what my school of hard knocks has taught me and why I bought this one and what I like dislike about this vacuum.

Canister vs Upright
My last vacuum was a Hoover canister and I bought it because I erroneously thought it had more suction than an upright — actually most uprights are more powerful and better for carpets where canister vacs are more maneuverable and better for hardwood floors. I have about 50% hardwood and 50% carpet but I mostly use the vac on the carpet and use a broom, mop as needed on hardwood so for me carpet cleaning power was the requirement.

Bagged vs Bagless
Bagged vacuums tend to lose suction as the bag fills up — so your first vacuuming on a clean bag is great and then things go downhill as the bag fills the dirt and mess gets compressed in the bag and you lose suction. Bagless vacuums retain suction throughout the filling of the container but and here’s a very important but, you have to empty the container very very regularly, almost a container per room sometimes and emptying the container is always always a dirty affair — not as bad as empting a shopvac but definitely not what the commercials/informercials show or fail to show and you cannot cheat on NOT emptying the container regularly as the penalty is a time consuming and messy affair to clean gobs of gunk out of your new and sometimes $700 expensive vac that looked so pretty on that commercial — so if you go bagless empty the container regularly or spend most of your time unclogging your vacuum vs vacuuming your house. Sealing and seating the container is also very important or you can wind up with lost suction or a mess. Also, if you don’t empty your container after you finish with a bagless, you create an environment from which dustmites etc can escape etc….and lookes very ugly. Other than that, bagless vacs tend to look prettier (is that possible) no, it must be the marketing talking there but in my experience they’re as reliable as bag vacs but no more. All that said, bagged vacs don’t need changing as regularly — you vacuum multiple times (sometimes I change a bag every several months when I notice I’m not cleaning as good as before) so at least to me, bagged works best. I’m not messy and my place stays fairly clean but enough that I’d change a container a couple of times during an average housecleaning.

Cheap vs Expensive
Price seems to be somewhat overrated with vacuums (although $200 is pretty steep in my mind)…Consumer Reports had some great ratings and rated this vacuum 2nd place just under a Kenmore on a variety of tests and much more expensive vacuums were rated less favorably. That said, different people have different tastes and if getting a premium brand…

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