Hoover WindTunnel 2 Upright Vacuum

I received this vacuum to review with low expectations. I have bought too many sub-$100 vacuums and they were all junk. The last Hoover I had barely worked. I am not going to spend all of that money for a Dyson, but I have been fairly happy with the Shark Navigator Upright Bagless Vacuum Cleaner, NV22L that I got last year.

The vacuum arrived requiring minimal assembly. The top handle is inserted into the base, and a single screw holds them together. Be careful when you open the box because the screw was loose at the bottom in my box. This could easily be lost. Once the screw is in, the vacuum is assembled. Pop on the pre-assembled filter/cannister and you are good to go.

The cord itself wraps around cleats on the back (it is not retractable), and all attachments store securely on board. To make this happen, the hose detaches from the bottom with a small latch to detach. On my Shark, this is held in by friction, so I like having the extra latch on the Hoover. There is a long tube with a really long and thin crevice tool. This is perhaps one of the better crevice tools I have seen on an upright. The tube is 13" and the crevice tool is 13.5". The crevice tool stores inside the tube (there is a snap to hold them together), and then the pair stores on the side of the vacuum. There is also a brush that stores on the alternate side.

Additionally, the vacuum comes with a rug beater hand brush for sofas and stairs which stores on board as well (Shark provided one that did not store on board). The rug beater hand brush is not independently powered it uses some of the suction power to turn the beater like many of these models do.

How does it clean? Quite surprisingly well. The carpet beater does a nice job of turning over fibers and has an adjustable height for various size carpets. It is belt driven (not direct), so longevity is a concern, but these things can be replaced if they get too worn. The cyclonic action is very similar to the Dyson models, with a washable filter on the top and quite a generous cup for holding the dust. Amazingly I accidentally vacuumed over a broken half of a pencil. As I went searching for where it got caught in the hose, I found it was in the dust cup. Quite impressive suction. It's not a Dyson, but it's also not $500.

Downsides? The vacuum is quite noisy I mean very noisy. It is also rather heavy. But for under $100 delivered from Amazon with Prime Shipping, it's a really good option. I give it 4 stars not a perfect choice, but quite a good one for the price.