Verdict

In its upright mode, the Hoover HFX Pets is brilliantly designed: it’s easy to push around, it folds in half for simple storage, and it has an integrated Corner Genie brush for getting into hard-to-reach areas. Converting the vacuum to handheld mode is very fiddly and takes the shine off what’s otherwise a powerful vacuum cleaner. As is, this is a better choice for those who primarily want an upright cleaner. Anyone who switches between upright and handheld modes frequently will find that there are better options.

Introduction

Moving to a cordless vacuum cleaner shouldn’t mean that you have to give up the style and comfort of a traditional upright vacuum cleaner, as the Hoover HFX Pets shows.

Compact, light and easy to push around, this vacuum cleaner has the power of an upright with the convenience of a cordless model, plus the smart Corner Genie integrated nozzle that makes for fast edge cleaning.

Converting this vacuum cleaner into a handheld one is a faff and time-consuming, meaning that this model may not be suitable for those who want flexibility above all else.

Design and features

• Light and easy to push around
• Clever Corner Genie brush
• Fiddly to convert to a handheld

This vacuum cleaner is available as the standard and Pets edition that I have on review. There’s a £20 premium for the Pets version, as you also get a mini motorised tool, which is built to remove hair from furniture and pet beds. It’s a useful tool to have regardless of whether you have pets or not; I find these tools useful for stairs and for cleaning out the car boot.

In its upright mode, the Hoover HFX Pets is brilliantly designed. Weighing just 3.65kg, this vacuum cleaner is slim and light, and easy to push around. It’s full of nice touches, too.

For storage, the vacuum cleaner can be folded over on a hinge, so it takes up little vertical space. It’s similar to how the Shark Stratos IZ420UKT works, only here, Hoover has added a handy handle that makes it easy to carry the HFX around quickly.

There is an optional wall mount if you prefer to have the vacuum cleaner hanging up, rather than taking up floor space.

In upright mode, there’s the main floor head, which has Hoover’s Anti-Twist technology built in, which uses a comb to prevent hair from getting caught around the roller.

Tap the release switch with your foot and the head pops off to reveal the Corner Genie, a smaller brush that lets me nip around the edges of the room and around objects. It’s a great idea and speeds up cleaning, as the switch from floor head to Corner Genie (and back) is so fast.

It’s a shame, then, that the conversion to handheld mode is such a faff. Most cordless vacuum cleaners let you remove the floor head or the wand, and then attach tools directly to the remaining handheld unit.

Not the Hoover HFX Pets. Rather than a fast changeover, the handheld unit first has to be removed from the standard upright bin, and then it needs to be connected to the separate handheld bin unit, which has the outlet for the provided tools.

That means storing and emptying two bins, with a fiddly changeover every time you want to change modes. I’ve not seen a vacuum cleaner that works like this before, and it’s clear why.

In handheld mode, there’s a handy extendable crevice tool that has a fold-out brush attachment. At full extension, this let me clean around the top of my walls with the Hoover HFX Pets.

There’s also a standard dusting tool and, as I have the Pets edition on test, the motorised brush.

In handheld mode, the bin has a flap at the bottom to release dirt out and down. This entire bin can be removed, and the filter at the rear taken out for cleaning.

In upright mode, the 1.2-litre bin can only be emptied when the floor head has been removed. There’s a slide action on the main unit, which pushes open the flap at the bottom and pushes dirt out. A few pumps for a very full bin may be required.

This bin can’t be removed, and there’s a second filter in this section that can be removed for cleaning. Regular filter washing is required, as with other vacuum cleaners, to maintain the highest suction power.

Using the Hoover HFX Pets is easy, with thumb controls at the end of the handle. The Hoover HFX Pets turns on in its standard power mode, and has a Turbo button to jump to the highest power setting. There’s no Eco mode here, but given that these modes are largely useless, I didn’t miss this.

There’s also a Mode button, which lets me adjust the brush bar speed between hard floor and carpet modes.

Neatly, the LCD shows the current selected mode and the remaining battery power in minutes. There’s a single battery in the box, although this is removable.

Performance

• Powerful suction
• Cleans well on most surfaces
• Good hair removal

To see how vacuum cleaners compare for raw power, I test them all at the handle to see suction power in AirWatts (AW). Measuring on its standard setting, the Hoover HFX Pets managed a powerful 95AW, jumping to 188AW on Boost.

That’s a reassuring level of power and shows that the vacuum cleaner has enough power to clean most messes on its standard setting. More power comes in useful for spills deep in the carpet or for quickly removing messes with handheld tools.

Testing against a line of rice, I found that the Hoover HFX Pets could suck up grains from 2cm away, which demonstrates the level of suction on offer and how quickly this cleaner can remove messes when in handheld mode.

Next, I moved to my real-world tests, starting with the carpet test, where I sprinkled 20g of flour onto the floor. In standard mode, I gave the cleaner a pass forward and backward through the mess. The carpet was clean in the middle, but there were some traces of dust towards the edges of the floor head.

Giving the cleaner multiple sweeps until the carpet looked clean, I measured its bin and found that a reasonable 91.45% of dust had been collected; the remainder is likely to be in the floor head or wand.

Next, I moved to the tough edge test, sprinkling 10g of flour up to the skirting board. Using the standard floor head, I found that there was quite a bit of mess that wasn’t picked up.

Switching to the Corner Genie, the results were better on visual inspection. Here, I measured the vacuum cleaner as having collected 89% of dust, which is a good result for this tough test.

Next, I put 20g of rice onto the hard floor. Here, the Hoover HFX Pets managed to pick up everything without flicking rice around or allowing any grains to drop back onto the floor. That gave me a 100% collection rate.

I combed cat hair into my carpet and then used the Hoover HFX Pets on standard power. Everything was collected.

I finished off my pick-up tests with human hair, dropped onto the carpet. I found that the vacuum cleaner collected everything. Turning the floor head over, I couldn’t see any hairs wrapped around the roller.

At 70.4dB in its standard mode, and 75.6dB in Turbo mode, this vacuum cleaner is similar to most of the competition, and not annoyingly loud.

I tested battery life at 27m 37s in standard mode, which should be enough time to get around an average-sized home. Turbo mode, which will be required infrequently, resulted in a battery life of 14m 28s, which is impressive.

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