- Exclusive WindTunnel 3 Technology lifts and removes deep-down, embedded dirt with 3 channels of suction
- Lightweight, and easy to lift, carry, and move around, weighing less than 14 lbs
- Steerable Technology allows you to swivel and turn around objects with a flick of the wrist
- Multi-Floor Electronic Brushroll On/Off moves from carpet to hardwood with the push of a button
- Reusable Easy Rinse Filter, multi-cyclonic air passes through eight cyclones to filter dirt and debris from the air path
At Hoover we’re a trusted authority on total home cleaning because we design powerful tools to help you tackle every possible cleaning job in and around your home. We constantly strive to improve our vacuums and carpet cleaners, even while we introduce cutting-edge cleaning products in new categories such as steam cleaning and air purification. Hoover Air Steerable
PRODUCT FEATURES Steerable Technology Navigate smoothly around furniture, corners and other obstacles by simply twisting the handle in the direction you’d like to go. Exclusive WindTunnel 3 Technology WindTunnel 3 Technology creates three channels of suction to lift and remove surface debris and deep down embedded dirt. Vacuums without WindTunnel Techn
Great upgrade from my old Windtunnel with one drawback,
I have actually been flirting with getting a new vacuum for some months. I had looked at the Dyson line, but balked, frankly, at the price point. Ye gods and little fishes…I couldn’t get past it.
But thanks to imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, there are a great many vacuum manufacturers who are incorporating Dyson engineering or design elements into less pricey alternatives. My previous Hoover (model U5456-900) dates back to 1999, and with the exception of an indicator light that had died within a month of owning it, I have had no problems. Never affected the way the unit worked as far as I can tell. I was more than willing to give a Hoover cyclonic a try.
The UH72400 is a Windtunnel 3 with a bagless cyclonic canister. It has a smaller foot print than my old Hoover, and is quieter. This led me to wonder if it was cleaning as well, but no… it works just great. You do empty out the canister far more often than you change out a bag, but this is a little thing.
:Accessories: The UH72400 has exactly two accessories, a combination upholstery and crevice tool and the hose/handle. The hose handle combination looks like it was taken directly out of the Dyson playbook, except that the machine end of the hose must be manually switched into a suction port. The working end can be released and pulled out of the body (as just a short handle, or longer tube) to suck up small debris, but the full handle is not a telescoping variety. It turns out to be six inches shorter than the full accessory handle on my old Hoover, and I could not reach cobwebs in ceiling corners or curtain rods as easily.
The old accessories fit, though, so I could extend my reach, but still – no where to conveniently store them on the machine, even if you had any you could add on.
:Canister: The canister has a HEPA filter and a washable filter. I’ve been hand washing my old vacuums filters for years – just be sure they are bone dry before you reinsert them! The HEPA filter you don’t wash, just knock the excess debris from it.
One button empties the canister, but unless the contents are heavy, it will need a little jiggle to flip open. =Fair warning= Do NOT shake the canister empty with a twisting motion to get debris out! When I did this, the canister/filter assembly neatly detached itself from the twist on top and handle and fell into the garbage can in a cloud of vacuum dust. Shake it up and down, perhaps a little side to side (carefully), but no twisting. That was a mess. They could probably stand to put a small friction point where the canister connects to the top to make it even slightly less easy to pop off unexpectedly during emptying.
:Cleaning head: It’s surprising that the Windtunnel hasn’t changed much in 14 years. The rotary brush is more or less the same, but there are some differences. The new unit is a lower profile, and rides low, easier to reach under furniture, or under cabinet doors. Unlike my old one, it does not have an adjustable height, but is supposed to auto adjust. Happily, this means it also flings less cat litter around when vacuuming stray litter from around the cat area, but I have no idea how well this will work on a lose pile carpet (like shag… SO 70’s but still can be found in the wild). Instead of a foot switch, you just pres down the entire cleaning head. The rotary brush engages, and off you go.
:Operation: The unit has an electronic on/off pushbutton, which means it doesn’t stay depressed once pushed on, and the only way to tell if it’s on or off is if the motor turns on when you plug it in. On the flip side, because the rotary brushes in the Windtunnel head do not engage while the vacuum is in the fully upright position, you aren’t likely to accidentally suck up the cat or anything. The maneuverability is a vast improvement over the old Hoover, and twisting the handle during operation easily changes course.
The unit is less cumbersome, and a bit lighter than the old one, so I could actually lift it and use it on stair treads, dog beds, and seat cushions.
:Bottom line: I ran my old Hoover over my rugs, vinyl and hardwood flooring Saturday. Four days later I ran the new Hoover Windtunnel Air over the same surfaces and got an impressive (or depressing, depending how you look at it!) amount of fine dirt and debris in the canister. Either I generate that much dust and dirt in four days, or my old vac wasn’t cleaning as well as I thought.
My old Hoover had a two year warranty and needed two belt replacements and had a broken LED in 14 years. No major issues. The Windtunnel Air comes with a 5 year warranty, which I naturally haven’t needed to test out as yet, but my past experiences with Hoover have been positive.
At this price, if you can live with the hose length issues, this is a very decent substitute for one of the more expensive cyclonics which are 2-3 times the…
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|Great for Hardwood floors with area rugs,
This is the best vacuum I have ever owned. I LOVE it! Our main floor is all hardwood floors (even the kitchen) and with two toddlers in the house there seems to be no end to the crumbs everywhere. I have been using a Shark hardwood floor cleaner daily, and then also bring out the vacuum for the area rugs. I can now replace BOTH with this vacuum. The one touch on/off for the carpet beater is brilliant! I love going right from the hard floor to the rug and back again so easily.
It also has great suction. We haven’t had a dog in the house for a year and a half, and the first time I vacuumed the rugs with this the canister ended up full of dog hair. Clearly our old vacuum (which was less than 6 months old) wasn’t doing the job!
The vacuum was very easy to assemble and the is easy to empty. I also love the swivel steering.
Overall, this is a great vacuum!
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|Back to Hoover,
I mostly hate vacuum cleaners. Better than a broom and dust pan, of course, but I’ve never found a machine that I liked enough to compel regular use. Vacuuming is drudgery and I put off engaging in drudgery for as long as possible.
We’ve purchased a variety of machines over the years to clean our carpet-free floors — bagless, cordless, canister and upright. They all bring their own level of drudgery. The canisters have to be dragged around. Or carried! The bagless require intimate contact with the accumulated muck. The cordless don’t have any power. I hate them all.
This machine doesn’t completely remove the drudgery, but it does the best job we’ve come across at a reasonable cost.
Our biggest floor problem comes from dog ownership. One short-haired mutt, much shedding. Our window sills could use more regular help. The cobwebs in the corners might not become so interesting if we took an interest. This Hoover helps with all of those issues quite simply and in a way that lightweight machines can’t and other full-size machines don’t. Snip, snap, you’re ready to go from floor cleaning to upholstery cleaning. You know why that didn’t happen in our former machines? Because the myriad attachments were never where we needed them to be as they’d become broken or lost. This machine has one useful attachment, snuggled securely in its place and ready to work.
Excellent suction. Superb maneuverability. The dirt bin is the most easily emptied of any bagless machine we’ve used (although tissues or wrappers might need encouragement to dump). The cord is long enough to manage half our modest, one-story ranch-home before being relocated.
Four stars instead of five because it is loud (what vacuum isn’t?), the cord is not retractable (at this price, I’m good with that), and the motor runs hot enough that I can feel the heat emanating while I’m working. It’s heavy-like, but this is a full-size machine, so one should expect full-size weight. Since it doesn’t need to be carried around the way some other vacuum cleaners do, and wheels about easily, the weight is a moot point. We’re in a one-story house, though.
Good machine. Less drudgery. Clean house. Win. (At this price, if we had a two-story house we’d buy two of these machines to keep from carting it up and down the stairs, and it would still cost less than a Dyson.)
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