Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start by saying I am (was) a die-hard fan of Hoover. After previous disappointment with Kenmore, Kirby, and Shark, I was impressed with my Hoover WindTunnel Anniversary Edition (U6485-900). It was so flawless that I swore off all other brands. These days, Consumer Reports recommends a Kenmore (#1) over this WindTunnel Max (#4), but there are a lot of comments on their site and Amazon about how Consumer Reports got it wrong and how this vacuum is terrible. I dismissed those and bought this vacuum anyway. Now I, too, am very disappointed with Hoover. Let’s start with the ATTACHMENTS. The EXTENSION WAND is a friction-telescopic design based on the Kenmore model that I hated (for that reason). The friction design is flawed to begin with. It’s just not robust enough—if you’re extending it, you’ll invariably pull the wand out of the hose, and if you’re vacuuming with it, you’ll push it back into itself. It's not even that long, and the friction joint loses suction. (The WindTunnel AE has two static extension wands housed on the side of the vacuum, and they were great.) The CREVICE TOOL hides inside the extension wand during storage, which is supposed to save space, but it really doesn’t matter. The tool is too narrow to do any real good (1/2” square vs. the 2” x 1/2” tool on the WindTunnel AE), and it has an odd shape on the tip which misses dirt by baseboards. A narrower tip does increase suction, but the one thing this vacuum has going for it is suction. So the narrow tip is generally moot. The BRUSH TOOL is pretty standard. I never use it. But this WindTunnel Max vacuum no longer has a hard plastic FURNITURE TOOL, which is more useful than the brush tool on the WindTunnel AE. And lastly, the AIR-POWERED TOOL (“turbo tool”) just doesn’t work at all, and is ineffective when it does work. I used it for about 30 seconds before it jammed up and stopped rolling. I unplugged the vacuum and pushed the brush with my thumbs to unjam it, and ended up cutting my thumbs when it suddenly unjammed. I’m literally sore at Hoover. The HOSE is too long for the vacuum, and it flops around the back of the vacuum a little while you’re vacuuming. The long hose is supposed to reach more “above-floor” areas, which is prominently advertised on the website and box. (I want to say that the box said something like “up to 20 feet,” but you’re lucky to get two feet away from the vacuum.) The problem is that the hose feeds around a hook on the back of the cleaner and is forced to always jut out the left of the bottom of the back panel, so you have to angle the vacuum with its hot air venting at you from the vacuum’s left side to reach anything 2-4 feet away. And you can’t thread the hose out of that hook; the hose end is too wide to feed though. If you want to use attachments on the vacuum’s right, forget about it. I can’t even use the extension wand to get baseboards while standing fully upright—the hose simply isn’t long enough, and I have to waddle along, crouching. Compare this with the WindTunnel AE, which has the hose port in the middle of the back panel, pointing back, and an optional long hose (~15 feet when stretched out, ~7 feet when compressed) that you can swap in. The vacuum has a HEIGHT ADJUSTMENT KNOB with six settings, but the manual says to only ever use the first two (off and shortest-comb). I got new carpet a year and a half ago, and on the highest setting, I can move the vacuum without issue. (It’s regular carpet, not shag or anything.) The other settings glue the vacuum to the floor. The vacuum also has a BRUSH ROLL SHUTOFF PEDAL so you can turn off the roller on the fly. But I can’t figure out a scenario when that would be useful. Like, if every-other room in your home is hardwood flooring, and you simply must vacuum them all at once without turning the vacuum off? Maybe if you have an area rug on hardwood floor? But even then you’d suck up the entire rug regardless. The HANDLE RELEASE PEDAL is tucked away under the vacuum and hard to get to. That pedal is used almost every time you use the vacuum, so I don’t know why it’s in a cave while they put the brush roll switch on top of the base. Of course the WindTunnel AE has the release pedal easily accessible, like someone who’s actually used a vacuum cleaner would design it. Even the OWNERS MANUAL that came with the vacuum is terrible. There are graphics covering text, missing labels on diagrams, and features omitted from the manual, such as the hook for the power cord at the top of the vacuum. The manual says both to always keep the unit at the bottom of the stairwell while vacuuming stairs and to hold the vacuum over each stair individually. The manual also covers two models, with varying features, but it doesn’t ever say which model is which, or which feature applies to which model. The included manual’s pictures are even horribly aliased like they were done on Paintbrush from Windows 95. The online manual looks better, but if they’re not going to bother with the manual, why include one? When you buy a product, your money pays for the whole product, right down to the packaging. And I feel that Hoover took my money and gave me a cheap Chinese knock-off product and manual instead. And lastly, I have to mention the COLOR. Other Hoovers are blue, green, or red. I’m not crazy about this color. Red would be fine; brown would be fine. This color… why? It’s like some bigwig looked at the toilet paper after his sixth chipotle and said, “This! This color. Get engineering on the phone and see how cheap it would be to make them all this color!” PROS to this vacuum are that its suction is really high (at least so far). Although choosing a vacuum on suction alone (which is what Consumer Reports was going for) is like buying a car based solely on horsepower—a lot more goes into using it and owning it, and there’s not really a discernible difference between comparable models. This WindTunnel Max also has an easy bag drop feature, so you don’t have to touch the bag when changing it. This seems pretty neat, but I haven’t used it yet. This vacuum is a little bit lighter (17 lb) than the WindTunnel AE (21 lb), but it’s not noticeable to me. It’s better at picking up pet hair than the WindTunnel Anniversary Edition, allegedly, but I don’t have dogs or cats. (I have birds who scatter their Nutriberries.) THE BOTTOM LINE: if you’re considering this model, instead get either the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Anniversary WindTunnel Self Propelled Bagged Corded Upright Vacuum U6485900 (if you can find one) or the Kenmore 31140 Pet & Allergy Friendly Upright Vacuum in Blue/Silver (which I plan to replace this WindTunnel Max with within a year). I’d rate this model two stars, but Hoover should know better, so I’m taking a star off for that.