Hoover UH30010COM Review

Introduction

Design & Usability

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Both cleaners are easy to handle, but don’t have the reach or flexibility of more modern units. And you’ll need to switch between them to go from vacuuming the floor to cleaning the couch.

Both the upright and canister cleaner are small and compact, making them easy to handle. The upright has a large, comfortable handle that puts the buttons into easy reach of the thumb, and it doesn’t require much force to push it back and forth. A handle on the back makes it easier to lift and carry up or down stairs. The canister cleaner is also very small, and includes a strap that allows you to carry it under the shoulder, like a large handbag. That is a definite benefit when using it to clean out small spaces, like the inside of a car.

The canister comes with a two-section telescoping tube that extends the reach of the hose by between 18.5 and 30 inches, plus a crevice tool, dusting brush and wall/floor brush. None of them have any moving parts, but that long wand will give you plenty of reach around the house. The canister's cord is 25 feet long and the upright's is a little over 35 feet. Neither of them retract automatically.

Both the upright and canister cleaners use paper bags with HEPA filtration for holding dirt, with the canister using Type I and the upright using Type Q bags. The Type I ones cost about $2 each, and the Type Q ones about $3.50. Both are quite easy to remove and replace: for the upright, you unzip the cover, slide down a locking tab that seals the bag and pull it out. On the canister, you unlock the door on the side, slide in a similar locking tab and pull it out. In both cases, it is easy to do without much chance of dust and dirt escaping, as long as you remember to slide the locking tab into place.

Both cleaners are advertised as being lightweight, and this is indeed the case: the upright weighs in at just 12.8 lbs, while the canister is just 7.96 lbs.

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Features & Performance

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Excellent carpet cleaning from the upright, but the canister disappointed.

The Hoover Platinum UH30010COM Lightweight is one of the most powerful and highest scoring cleaners we’ve seen on carpets, but its design makes it largely incompatible with wood floors. To get around this, Hoover includes a small canister cleaner, but this has only lackluster performance. The lack of a special pet hair tool for the canister vac makes it tough to clean on upholstery, and the canister lacked the suction necessary to pick up debris.

The two cleaners are each a little noisy, but don’t use a lot of electricity. In fact, you could likely run them at the same time off the same outlet and not worry about blowing a fuse.

Conclusion

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A great upright, but a lousy canister companion.

The Hoover Platinum UH30010COM Lightweight has plenty of retro charm, but that isn’t always a good thing. While it might give a nostalgic glow to cleaning carpets, the two separate cleaners are not as convenient as their more modern descendents. Plus, having two cleaners ups the cost. Where this cleaner does excel is in cleaning carpets, so it might appeal to those who have carpeted homes and little need to clean other surfaces. Those with wood floors and carpets may be better served by other cleaners, though.

Science Introduction

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The combination of the two included cleaners has ups and downs. The ups are the excellent carpet cleaning performance, and the large capacity of the dirt bag. The downside is the lackluster performance of the canister cleaner, which barely made a dent in our wood floor and other tests.

Dirt and Debris Cleaning

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Uneven performance across two cleaners

On long carpet, the upright cleaner in this package performed very well, picking up over 85 per cent of our test dirt. That’s among the best high-pile carpet cleaning we've ever seen. On short carpet, it was even more impressive, capturing a remarkable 93 per cent of our test dirt. Many other vacuums match the short carpet number, but few others can beat this one for high carpet cleaning.

The upright cleaner is not compatible with wood floors, as you cannot turn off the rotating brush (which could damage a wood floor). So, Hoover includes a small cylinder style vacuum in the package for cleaning wood and other surfaces. Unfortunately, we found this only had lackluster performance, managing to pick up just 57 per cent of our test dirt.

With pet hair on carpets, the upright cleaner had excellent performance: the rotating brushes and high air movement meant that this cleaner made short work of our test hair. However, this cleaner does not include a specialist pet tool for removing hair from fabric, so it would not be a good pick for those who like to remove pet hair from the couch.

This combination package had mixed results in our tests on picking up debris from carpets and wood floors. On the carpet, the upright cleaner did very well, picking up the great majority of the rice and pasta we use in this test. It did struggle with the coins, though, and the small canister cleaner struggled with all of our test materials on a wood floor, missing many of the rice grains and noodles and shifting none of the coins.

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Noise and Energy

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Efficient, but a bit loud.

The upright cleaner in this package is a little on the noisy side: we measured it at 78 decibels. That’s fairly average for a cleaner of this type, but you would not describe it as quiet. The upright cleaner only used about 703 watts of power while cleaning a carpet, which is significantly less than others.

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