Hoover Upright Vacuum Cleaner, Red - Upright 300

Product Information

First, the model I reviewed doesn’t come with many accessories. I’d recommend you opt for the Pet model, which comes with a better attachment for handheld jobs and doesn’t cost much more. I didn’t really want to attempt a conversation when I was vacuuming with the Hoover Upright 300 Pets, and I especially didn’t want to when I was using the motorised mini turbo brush – the pet hair tool. Bear this in mind if your animal housemates are sensitive to loud noise. In the box, Hoover has provided a good range of tools. There’s the floor brush, as mentioned, plus a 2-in-1 crevice tool with brush, an upholstery brush that has a clip-on hard brush, and a mini-motorised pet tool, which is great for use on sofas and stairs. For those without furry friends, there is a non-pet version of this cleaner available (the HF322HM 001) that comes minus this tool.

Hoover provides a single battery for this model, which can be charge in-situ, or pulled out and charged separately. The latter is handy to keep your vacuum cleaner topped up if you don’t have power in your storage cupboard. Controls are easy to use on this Hoover vacuum cleaner. You squeeze the trigger to turn the vacuum on and squeeze it again to power it off. This kind of design is less tiring to use than models that require you to keep the trigger depressed throughout cleaning. I didn’t find the Hoover H-Free 300 too loud, either, coming in at 67.9dB on Low, 69.5dB on Medium and 74.9 on Turbo. That makes this one of the quietest cordless vacuum cleaners I’ve tested.

The filter is only basic; it isn’t EPA or HEPA rated. If you any folk in your home who suffer allergies, a vacuum cleaner with better filtration may be required, such as the Dyson Small Ball Allergy. Performance at the highest power level is solid, with very little vibration from that motor and noise levels that are no worse than, say, a beefy hair dryer at full tilt. Suction power is also really good at the top setting, although it does drop away on those other lower settings. These are handy for delicate areas around ornaments and suchlike, but we got most value from the maximum setting.

Quality isn’t based on suction power alone, but also the efficiency of the tools, which is where my real-world tests come in. First, I started be spreading an ‘X’ of flour onto a carpeted floor. Actually, it sounds more complicated than it is. Nevertheless, the power and performance is great, with the attachments well designed for getting into awkward places where pet and human hair tends to get. More straightforward carpet and hard floor vacuuming duties are a cinch though, with the lightweight and agile design making the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets a joy to use. The wheels are great too and, thankfully, don't mark if you’ve got a prized wood floor. It’s a reasonably solid job for the price but the slightly more expensive Dyson Small Ball Allergy did a better job. Although it suffered the same ploughing problems with larger particles on hard floor, it was near perfect when it came to carpet, and was better with flour on all surfaces. If you have a lot of hard floor, the Shark DuoClean with Lift-Away NV702UK has both a brush and a soft roller in its floor head, so can capture anything from hard floor, even Cheerios. The Hoover H-Upright 300 is a fairly basic model, with a single rotating brush in its floor head. You can switch this on and off, depending on the surface you’re cleaning; Hoover recommends you switch it off when cleaning floors and deep pile rugs. I was particularly fond of the collection bin on this model. It releases easily and emptying it is a simple job: a latch opens the door at the bottom and most dirt and dust simply drops out.

The design is eye-catching, thanks mainly to some blue anodised surfaces on the tubing and a blend of blue and grey plastic on the main body. Build quality is also very respectable too, with chunky plastic used on most of the heavy duty components. The hoses look to be respectable too, although how they’ll fare over time is always hard to predict when you’ve only been using a machine for a few weeks. To complicate matters slightly, there’s also a suction regulator. This is a slider that either covers or opens a grille on the top of the floor head, which helps reduce the amount of suction. This is useful if you find the head is hard to move on long-pile carpet or rugs. While the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets might appear to be just another vacuum cleaner with a power cable I think Hoover has done a great job with this model. It takes mere seconds to pull out of the box, something helped by its weight of just 5.2kg. Most of it has been put together for you, so after scrutinizing the manual for a couple more seconds the design is suitably simple that you can be powering up in about, well, two minutes. In front of the power button there’s another that lets you engage or disengage the brush in the cleaning head. This can be used in conjunction with the white slider switch on the top of the cleaning head, which is marked as Carpet one way and Hard Floor the other. Simply slide it across to change the cleaning mode, and disengage the spinning brushes if you’re cleaning something like a laminate floor. Initially I’d tend to forget to do this, but practice makes perfect.

The true mark of any vacuum cleaner is its ability to clean well. I start my tests by measuring the power in AirWatts of each mode. I measured the cleaner at 29.13AW on Low power, 64.47AW on Medium power and 118.66AW on Turbo. The Medium and Turbo speeds are similar to the Dyson V11 Outsize’s results on Eco and Medium power settings, and then the Dyson has a Turbo mode that more than doubles the power. Another downside for me was the machine’s reach under furniture. The bulk of its body means the floorhead doesn’t fit far under a bed, for example, and we all know the pet hair makes its way there as well. Having to swap to using the hose plus attachment or hose, handle and attachment combo makes the job take longer. Hoover Upright 300 Pets on carpets, hard flooring and upholstery Carpets and rugs Not everyone needs a top-of-line, do everything cordless vacuum cleaner. For some, a cheaper, less powerful model will likely fulfil most needs. Step forward the Hoover H-Free 300 (HF322PT), then: a well-priced cordless cleaner with a removable battery, pet tools and a great range of accessories. The Hoover is reasonably light for a corded model, weighing just 4.94kg. This is lighter than its similarly priced competitors, with the Shark DuoClean with Lift-Away NV702UK weighing 5.25kg and the Dyson Small Ball Allergy a hefty 6.9kg. It’s easier to carry around but isn’t small, standing at over a metre tall (1,147 x 300 x 320mm). The mains cord is 8.1m long and there’s a built-in hose for connecting the attachments to, which stretches to 2m.Take it from me, as a veteran vacuum cleaner unboxer, that some are a tad time-consuming. Lots of parts wrapped in plastic and assembly instructions with pictures only. This vacuum, on the other hand, only needed its handle slotting in and the two attachments to be put in their place on the machine and it was ready to go. Tools on board and therefore always to hand is great, and also scoring points from me is the fact that the instructions have clear words as well as drawings. And much as I like cordless machines, being able to plug in and start rather than wait for a battery to charge has a lot to be said for it. READ NEXT: These are the best robot vacuum cleaners to buy today Hoover H-Upright 300 review: Should I buy it? Part of the reason the cleaner is able to stand unaided is its 2.1kg weight; it’s exceptionally light in the hand. That’s great whether you’re cleaning up around the ceiling or just need to move this vacuum cleaner from room to room. Plug in the wand and there are lights on the motorised floor brush, so you can see clearly where you’ve cleaned and where you need to clean.