Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Great cleaning quality for such a small compact machine |
| Disadvantages: |
Couple of design flaws that just irritate |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
A Hoover is a Hoover, is a Hoover - Unless it's a vacuum cleaner of course!
Well how many of us incorrectly talk about using a Hoover? When in fact we're just using another Vacuum cleaner - Just one of those idiosyncrasies of life today how a manufacturers name is somehow more associated with the task or appliance being used, rather than its accurate use.
However, in this instance I do have a Hoover! A genuine one. A bright blue one!
So, how about a little about the company:
Hoover began in America, in Ohio. Eventually it established itself in the United Kingdom, and was a major player in the early and mid 1900's dominating the Vacuum cleaning industry. As I've already hinted at, the Hoover became synonymous for vacuum
cleaners here in the UK.
Although the company is no longer the major seller of Vacuums in the country, the term "Hoover" or "to Hoover" remains.
Over the years, Hoover diversified into other products including Kitchen
appliances and hair dryers.
The TW 1550 Sprint:
Main specifications:
· Animal Brush: No
· Cable Rewind: Yes
· Controls in Handle: No
· Fragrance Diffusor: No
· HEPA Filter: Yes
· Hardfloor Brush: No
· Integrated Tools: Yes
· Maximum Volume of Dust Collector in Litre: 2.5
· Maximum Wattage: 1500
· Multifunctional: No
· Noise Level in Decibels: unknown
· Power Brush: No
· Power Supply: Mains
· Tube Material: Metal Telescopic
· Turbine Brush: No
· Type / Shape: Sledge
· Type of Dust Container: Bagged
Our use:
As a family we had one of the very early Hoovers. A cast metal round thing that hovered as you moved it along and it wasn't until the 1980's before it finally gave up on my mother, over 20 years after she bought it new!
Now, I don't expect the TW 1550 Sprint to give us anything like as much life, and to be honest, I've been rather wary of Hoovers for a few years now because I've known a number of people have problems with them. Having said that, they are all Upright Cleaners that I was aware of, and this is a cylinder style machine so that stood it in good stead.
And I was desperate for a vacuum cleaner. I had given up on the Upright I had got because I suffer with arthritis and I was just finding it far too heavy to move around the house, because it was just too clumsy. And as usual, I didn't have much money to spend and a house with 2 dogs meant we needed something and fairly urgently.
I also wanted to ensure that we had either a bag-less machine or something that had a re-useable bag, partly on grounds of the environment, partly because it's a pain to go and vacuum, only to remember you've run out of bags!
So, there we were walking through Tesco's a year and a half ago, and hey presto - they had a clearance sale on for this particular vacuum. It was a cylinder, from a
manufacturer I knew, and best of all, came with a re-useable bag, although you can also get some other "paper" bags to use with it if you have a high allergy problem. And to cap this all off, because it was a clearance sale, it was reduced down to £24-99. So off to the till with it we staggered.
How has it performed:
Overall, it's been great. It has very good suction, with a nice easy indicator on the top of the machine that soon warns you if the bag is getting full or if there is a full or partial blockage somewhere. The tools are fairly basic (a small head for furniture and a long thin nozzle, plus the usual head) but to be honest, how often do you use anything other than the basic heads on your machines? We don't so that was fine.
It is nice and light and manoeuvres well on the small castor wheels it sits on and the cord has a yellow and then red sticker to warn you that your either close to the end of the cable when pulling it out (yellow) or have come to the end (red).
The cable has a cable rewind, which works very well indeed. Because of my arthritis I have a special plug on the end that is slightly bigger and certainly heavier than others, and it still manages to wind it in efficiently, although it does slow it fractionally compared to the normal plug it came with.
The hose is plenty long enough, and the steel section is on a ratchet system, and that would allow some adjustment if you found the length a little too much, but we do use it fully retracted all the time.
The bag is very easy to access, holds a reasonable amount (so you aren't empting every few minutes) and is easy to empty. There are two main foam "filters", one in the bag compartment, the other at the back - and both are very easy to take off, wash, clean out or replace as needed and then put back in place.
The on/off button is nice and large, and easy to push on or off either with hands or feet. It can be carried using a small depression in the casing as needed, allowing you to easily move up and down stairs for example.
The noise level is fair, and isn't too demanding on the ears. Certainly it is quieter than the cylinder we replaced.
It isn't
perfect though and two main areas are a problem.
The first is the attachment towards the bottom of the main steel hose where you're suppose to store the two other cleaning heads.
It's impractical!
You bash the attachment area as you move around vacuuming and we have actually had a section snap off because of that so it is now useless for storing the heads on even when stored away. I don't know who on earth thought it was a good place for it to be, but it most certainly isn't practical and to be honest if we weren't sure it would do more damage, we would try and chip it off completely and do without it totally.
The other area is the main head you use for cleaning. It is totally impractical to use on a rug or carpet with any kind of animal hair or similar. It just isn't good enough to "grab" those sorts of partials as you vacuum. However, we already had a head bought specifically to help pull up the animal hair, so it was just a simple swap over to that since it is a universal fitting on it. Ours cost just under £10-00, and considering how little we paid for the vacuum in the first place it isn't a bad investment. The original head still comes out to be used on the laminate flooring, which is does very well indeed, so it isn't a complete waste and still gets used.
One very trivial aspect is it would be nice to have a slightly longer electrical cord. Its not as short as some I've known, but it would benefit having another foot or so added.
Main thoughts:
Overall, it's a cracking little vacuum. The two main problems we've had are gripes rather than outright complaints, because they don't affect the day-to-day use.
And we do use this! With the dogs and cats we have, plus house renovations we've got going on - so all the dust and rubble its had to deal with, and it is still going strong (famous last words), but it undoubtedly has had more use than the average household would give it and its performed admirably.
If I were looking for a replacement machine, I would certainly look at this or its slightly larger "brother" the 1750 model.
So, its 4 stars - only knocked down because of the two main points I raise about its impracticality, but if we could award half points, I would put it at 4 and a half because I think a full star down is just a little harsh, but I can't quite justify the full five star rating.
Otherwise I can't praise this enough and I would say to anyone who might be thinking of a cylinder cleaner to give this serious consideration. Its not got some of the all singing all dancing aspects some vacuums have, but it does exactly what you need it to do and it does it well.
Finally, I think the blue colour is rather funky! I'm not the sort of person who is usually too bothered by the looks of this sort of thing generally, as long as it does the job, but in this instance I do love the colour! But that's personal taste, and so some people might well hate it because it's blue.
edited: for some reason it showed 5 stars not 4!
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