Hoover Bagless Vacuum Cleaner – Hoover U5725-960 TurboPower

Great product that does the job. My only issue is with the bagless system. A lot of large debris like cat hair gets through the screen filter between the intake side and the HEPA side. Cleaning the HEPA requires a lot of tapping to get fine particles out of the folds. I now use my old canister (also HEPA) to vacuum it out. I also wouldn’t empty the bagless cup inside the house at all. Take it outside and use a small trash bag held as close to the unit as possible to prevent dust flying, then vacuum it.

The other night, I did not get to the writing I had planned–the first night in 3 that I had some time. I was vacuuming. For some time (over a year), I had been thinking my 10-year-old vacuum must no longer be up to snuff, and the day before, when I cleaned the office/catfood-intake/outgo room, it was making noises as if one of them had gotten caught in it and was flapping about giving yowls of protest–as well as spewing burnt-rubber smells. I had been casually checking machines for some time, so knew what was available, and went all over the internet gathering reviews and prices of the things. Then I bought this one. I discovered it is as good as the reviews, which is to say that the $170 Hoover “Windtunnel” beats many of the much more expensive trophy-vacs. It picked up all the visible cat hair on the first pass–as well as thread bits, difficult little lint balls, etc., and has a light indicator that shows when it is still picking up dirt that can be set to 2 different sensitivities. Using this, it took 6-8 passes, and sometimes more to finish its job (I would never have known without the indicator that it was still sucking dirt after 2 passes). It groomed all the carpet’s nap so it was all upright (something my old machine could not dream of accomplishing in a few high-traffic areas). When I finished, it looked as good as right after I had steam-cleaned everything several months ago. My old machine had only been pretending to be a vacuum–even when it was new.

I had seen the exclamations in customer reviews over how the family of similar Hoover models effortlessly remove cat and dog hair, but I had not expected it to be as good as claimed. One thing many faulted, is that being bagless, you have to empty the container and knock the dust off the HEPA filter–and that is messy. In vacuuming the living/dining room, my bedroom, and the stairs and landing, I filled the container twice. Thank God I bought bagless–I’d go broke with bags. At its most thorough, my old cleaner could vacuum the whole house 15 times before I had to change bags–maybe more. It is messy to empty, but awe inspiring to see what and how much comes out. I did it outside and didn’t mind that a bit. I simply took its small, fixed-brush attachment outside too to brush the HEPA filter down, and that worked perfectly.

Knowing how my occasional roommate is–he hasn’t mastered emptying the dryer lint trap yet–I didn’t want to risk his over-filling the dirt cup and clogging or damaging the machine. I decided I had better vacuum the bulk of the dirt out of his room. Fortunately, he had recently straightened things, so I had easy access to the floor. I did not move anything but his office chair and filled the dirt container full again. After this first use, I expect vacuuming will not yield such dramatic volumes of dirt.

On one of the hand tools for stairs and upholstery, there is a rotating brush (cleverly powered by a wind turbine built into its handle). It is surprisingly powerful. Reviewers had oo-ed over it for its ability to remove cat hair. Of late, my cats prefer to sit on leather, but I did use it on the stairs and found it worked great.

So much for my ode. I wonder which neighbors would like their carpets vacuumed…

This vacuum is powerful, easy to use as it glides across the surface to be cleaned. Because it does not require the use of bags, and because of its filters, there is not a “vacuum” odor. As an aside,my sister had recommended this vacuum to me and I in turn have told my friends about it.