Hoover U8351-900 Windtunnel 2 Extra Reach Bagless Upright Vacuum

Well-designed – I chose this over a Dyson, July 15, 2006

By 

Rick McCarty –

  

I’m going to give this one 5 stars, but with the caveat that it is a new product and there are still unknowns about it. That said, so far I’ve been impressed.

It is clear that Hoover is setting their sights on Dyson with this line of vacuums. Their previous Windtunnel models reviewed quite well against Dyson, and I expect the Windtunnel 2s will do even better. At around $300 street price and up, these are not inexpensive vacuums, but they are still less than a Dyson.

Build quality is good – reasonably solid plastics seem to have been used. So far, I also find that suction is excellent, no complaints in that department. Edge cleaning is good, and operation is smooth. The power cord is connected near the top, which I’m glad they did. The pet hair tool attachment is nice – it seems to be built well and works pretty much like similar tools found on other models/brands. The hose is of good quality materials and construction, definitely matching what one would expect for a vacuum in this price range. The headlight is plenty bright and seems to be well-placed. The power switch is actually a button. At first, I wasn’t sure about the placement of it (below the handle on the front), but after using the vacuum a bit, I’m kind of liking it. The dirt container seems reasonably well-sized – looks to be competitive with the Dyson in that respect. It is also very easy to use and has a bottom release for disposing the contents.

One place this vacuum really shines is in how they designed the handle assembly. Ergonomically, I like it better than the Dyson design. On the Dyson, the wand stores inside the hose. This seems like a nice idea – until you have to fiddle with storing the thing. On the Hoover, the wand assembly comes out easier, and goes back into place easier. It is also very easy to disconnect the hose from the handle. Though others might disagree with me, I personally find this setup to be much better engineered.

The hose is longer than you’ll find on many vacuums – but Hoover also gives you a nice extension constructed just like the main hose. Put the two together and it is indeed quite long. Very, very nice. My old vacuum had a really nice extension hose as well, but the main hose was so short, you pretty much had to use the extension to do anything. Not so with the Hoover – you’ll find that the main hose is more than adequate for most tasks and will only need to break out the extension occasionally.

The self-cleaning HEPA filter seems interesting – you can see it turning which the vacuum is on. How well it works, I don’t know – we’ll just need to see. But certainly a novel idea and potentially will save $ on replacement filters.

About the “lifetime belt”. Hoover claims that, “under normal household conditions” it will never need replacing. I assume it’ll last a long time, but we’ll need to see if it really does hold up for the life of the vacuum.

Balking at the cost of a Dyson, I was about to give up and just replace my vacuum with a $150 Eureka 4870GZ, which, though inexpensive, comes highly recommended. I figured that I’d rather not spend $400+ like I’ve done in the past and wonder whether it was really worth it. However, after running into the new Windtunnel 2, I found myself really liking it. And at around $300, it is a great value for what you get compared to its competition.

Do I have some things I don’t like about this vacuum? Yes, but very few, and I’m not going to focus on them, because they are really tiny nits that don’t change my overall opinion.

I think that ergonomically, the Windtunnel 2 is well thought out. There are also a number of nice features which (if they pan out) should make this a low-maintenance vacuum. Performance is good, and it seems to be generally well-built. A well-deserved 5 stars.

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