Hoover HF9 cordless vacuum cleaner review

When a brand is so big it becomes the common noun for the products it makes, you know it’s a big deal. But Hoover isn’t necessarily the vacuum cleaner market leader anymore, thanks to Dyson.

But it has taken a leaf out of Dyson’s book in developing cordless, bagless cleaners of its own. I’ve been hoovering my way around my flat for a few months using the Hoover HF9, a powerful vac that’s reasonably priced but has a few quirks.

Design and build

• Mains charged
• Stands upright on its own
• Easy to clean

The best thing about the design of the Hoover HF9 is it can stand up on its own, unlike many cordless vacuums that you need to lay on the floor or lean on a piece of furniture whenever you take a break from vacuuming.

It sort of looks like a long mechanical human leg with a little foot at the bottom to keep it upright – if that’s not too weird an image.

Its upstanding form helped a lot when storing the otherwise large device easily in a corner of my small flat instead of having to prop it up in a cupboard. However, it comes with a wall mount, if you can find a discreet spot to hang it up.

I was surprised to read in the HF9’s manual that you’re only meant to stand the Hoover upright momentarily, and that storage should be always by wall mount. but I have not found any reason not to store it freestanding.  

The red, grey, and metal design of the unit I tested is inoffensive, and it also comes in a blue version.

The design is well thought out and straightforwardly modular, with two connection points in the shaft. The higher release is for easier emptying of the dust container or attaching one of the included cleaning tools to use the vacuum as a cordless handheld for stairs, sofas or in the car.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

A lower foot release switch lets you attach the same tools to reach up to clean things like cobwebs or get dust on the top of skirting boards.

It feels sturdy and premium when in regular use, with the head turning easily with the necessarily one-handed operation to get under low obstacles like sofas and cabinets and to whizz around sharp corners.

There are even cute little headlights that genuinely help, particularly on hardwood floors, to make sure you’ve got all the dust in dark corners of a room.

The easily removable battery can be charged separately from the Hoover or when connected to the unit. I found the dust container a little small, and had to empty the Hoover after two or three full circuits of my six-room flat, but it’s very easy to release and dump its contents straight into a bin.

The roller is a single brush design and can be easily released to clean by taking off the top of the head and popping out the roller.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

Performance

• Three suction modes
• Can’t grab stubborn ingrained fibres
• Often won’t turn on unless plugged in first

I found the HF9 perfectly powerful enough for most dust and dirt around my flat. It has three modes – hard floor, carpet, and turbo.

One switch cycles between hard and carpet, and you can turn turbo on when using either. Switching to carpet knocks a few minutes off the remaining battery life counter on the display, while turning on turbo mode suggests you’ll only get about 12 minutes of use on a full charge.

The battery takes three and a half hours to charge from empty.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

You can hold it with either hand to push around, operating all the buttons easily within reach of your thumb. It’s nice and simple.

The Hoover lacks a soft brush for hardwood floors but I didn’t see any damage to mine, and the turbo mode is good for giving heavy carpets a good spring clean. When I caught the tassels of a rug in the head, the unit quicky turned off and it was easy to disentangle.

That’s down to the anti-twist design on the HF9’s head, which ensures cables, string and most importantly hair don’t remain wrapped around it. It works exceptionally well.

My biggest issue with the Hoover is it couldn’t get synthetic fluff fibres out of my low-pile bedroom carpet. I had a duvet that annoyingly shed some white insulation in light, fluffy clouds, which was then trodden into the carpet.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

Despite repeat runs and the extreme use of turbo mode, the HF9 could not grab these fibres, meaning I had to get down on my hands and knees and pick scores of pieces of white fluff out of the carpet. I’m not sure if this is because the roller only has one line of relatively short bristles, but whatever the reason, it was supremely annoying and – for my use – a reason not to buy the thing.

Another frustrating flaw is if I stored the Hoover unplugged – but still with a good amount of charge left – it often won’t turn on. The first few times it happened I thought the battery had run down, but on plugging it into the mains charger I saw it always had over 70% left, and would only turn on after it had been plugged in a few minutes.

It’s never good to leave lithium-ion batteries constantly charging as it wears down the overall capacity of the cell much faster than regular use and charging. Because of this, I am put off recommending the HF9 wholeheartedly, along with its inability to slurp up stubborn fluff in carpets.

Price and availability

The Hoover HF9 model I tested has an RRP of £379 and it’s currently available at this price from Currys and Amazon UK. However, at the time of writing, the best price is £295 direct from Hoover.

You can register the product upon purchase to take advantage of Hoover’s five year manufacturer warranty.

The HF9 is not available in the US.

Verdict

The Hoover HF9 is a well-priced cordless vacuum cleaner that’s great for hardwood floors and general dust around the house on carpets and rugs. It’s also versatile, with two included cleaning tools and a handheld mode. Plus, it can stand up on its own.

But in my testing it could not grab stubborn fibres that had been trodden into fairly low pile carpet, and the unit regularly didn’t turn on even when it had a charge, prompting me to plug it in to wake it up.

It’s a shame because it’s a decent vacuum, but these two problems are enough for me to knock off a couple of stars in our rating.

For vacuum cleaner recommendations and to see our top picks, have a look at our round-up of the best vacuum cleaners we’ve tested.