Hoover HF9 Cordless Pet review: creature comforts

Hoover is so synonymous with the act of cleaning, people regularly use it to refer to vacuum cleaners made by other brands. Or at least they do on the firm’s UK home soil; a broadly rubbish climate means homes are lined with thick carpets and rugs, to keep in the heat during the colder months. Another thing Brits have lots of? Pets. The Hoover HF9 is designed with both in mind.

Officially the Hoover Cordless Pet Vacuum Cleaner with ANTI-TWIST – HF9, this handheld vac strips hair from the brush bars automatically, to cut down on maintenance. It also promises half an hour of suction between charges. Is that enough to leave your floors spotless? Here’s how it faired in our testing.

Design & weight: few frills, cleans spills

There’s not much design originality on show with the Hoover HF9. It’s a standing vacuum, with none of the distinguished branding of the Dyson V15 Detect Absolute. You won’t mistake it for a Roomba robot vac, either.

The key decider comes in which of the three HF9 models best suits your home. There’s the HF9 Home, HF9 Pets and HF9 Double Battery, in a selection of blue, green and red hues. The Home is essentially the basic model, while Pets (tested here) comes with an additional motorised mini brush for scooping up pesky cat hairs. Lastly, the HF9 Double Battery comes with a second battery pack and a mini brush. There’s no major performance difference between the three models, so just think about what accessories suit you best.

The vacuum can be stood vertically in a cupboard, or attached to a wall using its charging cradle. Like many cordless models it’s an ideal Hoover for those running low on space. However you store it, it’s out of sight, out of mind.

Features & performance: hair today, gone tomorrow

The Hoover HF9 is aimed at folks who want an effective vacuum, rather than one that’s got built-in Wi-Fi or can move around your house by itself. You press a button to start it up, and press it again to stop – there’s no trigger to hold down like on a Dyson, so your fingers won’t ache after you’ve covered the whole house.

It’s a perfectly powerful vacuum, which doesn’t dip in suction pressure as the bin gets filled. The basic power mode handles light dirt, while Turbo mode takes care of the heavier bits. Hard Floor mode drops the brush bar down to a slower spin speed, reducing the risk of scuffing; it hunted out discarded garlic cloves with ease over our kitchen floor.

Carpet mode is for, well, carpets. The brush whirrs at a higher speed, and will excavate lost pennies from the thickest of deep pile carpet. Not that we suggest feeding your Hoover coins, of course. Carpet mode also produces a louder noise, which at 80dB is louder than some of its rivals. It’s far from unbearable, and emanates more of a hum rather than anything remotely industrial, but can still become a little annoying.

Handheld mode is quick and easy to set up, requiring little more than the press of the foot pedal. It made easy work of our stairs and sofa, and also manoeuvred easily around our curved staircase.

As someone who owns a cat and dog who feel it’s their given right to moult all over the carpets, the anti-hair feature comes as great news. Hoover’s claim that hair is automatically removed from the brush bar largely held up in our testing, too. After ridding our stairs and landing of enough hair to produce a human-sized wig, there was no ick-inducing unclogging required.

Battery life could perhaps be better. Hoover says it can clean continuously for over 30 minutes, or 120sqm of hard floor and carpet. It can also be fully charged in 3.5 hours. That checks out in our tests, but a full day of deep cleaning will require several trips to the mains socket. A handy countdown timer on the handle will let you know how long the battery has left, though – and there’s always the double battery model if you need longer.

Hoover Cordless Vacuum Cleaner verdict

While there are definitely lighter and quieter vacuums on the market, Hoover’s latest offering provides everything you need for a deep clean.

It’s easy to handle, powerful, pet-friendly features and a price point that won’t suck your bank account dry.