Review of the Hoover Air Steerable upright bagless UH72400 Two and Three year update. I have two of them, identical. One is about three years old and one is about two years old. The BAD: The problems with this vacuum are as follows: The plastic parts can easily break. Depending upon what parts you break, the vacuum will need repair. The motor brushes aren't replaceable and they go in about three years or normal use. The motor costs about $70 to buy if you fix it yourself. It's terrible that the brushes are not user serviceable. Terrible. The suction is very good but sometimes it's so strong that the cleaner sticks to the floor or mat or carpet too much. Cleaning of the parts is a Very Messy undertaking. (I don't know that there's any answer to this) Cleaning and maintenance is not only messy but a little complex. The hoses can get filled with debris and the machine stops sucking. The Good, I already listed. I like the simplicity, which normally leads to reliability, lower weight and lower costs. Bottom line, it is a personal choice and a trade off of features, costs, weight, and maintenance requirements (qualify yourself). But I like it, even after a full year of using it in a very dirty, doggy environment. It's been run quite hard. I plan to buy a second for the apartment. I recommend it for qualified buyer. Simply put there is “no free lunch”. Decide what trade space you are OK with and go in that direction when selecting a vacuum cleaner. For what I want and willing to deal with, this is a good machine. I'm willing to learn how to assemble, disassemble, clean, maintain, provided it does the job well. It does the job and vacuums quite well. The good: Purchase price is right. Anything at $100 +/- is a modern manufacturing miracle. It's a simple machine, so it tends to have fewer things to break, carry, store, or lose. It's light enough. Can't see how it could be any lighter. It's maneuverable enough. Uprights tend to be, but this one is more so. Something like 4-6 layers of filtration and a clever air flow, which may be state of the design these days. Seems to capture most everything, yet without a bag. The balance, ease of use, ease of carry, maneuverability are all quite good. Sucks pretty good, with a tight fit from the base to the floor/carpet. No height adjustment, it just rolls to the correct height. So less weight w/o height adjustment system. Durable: I've run it for 3 hours straight, 4 periods, over a heavy carpet, pulling pounds of dirt and dog hairs. Provided I followed my own maintenance advice, it kept doing the job asked of it. When I didn't do my part of the job, it overheated and quit working. But that was easy for me to resolve. The not-so-good: The wire is long which is good but it doesn't retract. Kind of gets in the way and I get lazy putting it on and off and moving it as I work. But it's lighter and simpler than cord retraction devices, so I live with it graciously. It requires maintenance/cleaning out of parts. Much more than a bag-based machine. You mustn't allow the canister to get full or the roller to be clogged or other problems may develop. The hose tends to get clogged and you must check that regularly. It will tend to clog more if you allow the brush and/or the canister to get full of stuff. When it clogs I carefully use a metal coat hanger wire that I bend to fit like a long fish hook and carefully remove the clog. Sometimes I have to remove four screws and take the roller plate off to get all the debris. The fit of the canister back together and back onto the machine is a bit fickle. If you don't have any mechanical ability whatsoever or you are a klutz, this might not be a good machine for you. You must make sure all the pieces are going together properly. Even checking the air passage interfaces are sealing correctly. You must read the tiny instructions for assembly on each of the part. If you force Anything, more and bigger problems result. Follow the instructions and everything will be all right. CAUTION: It does require regular maintenance and just a bit of ability. But I consider this a fair trade-off for all the plusses. If you don't maintain it, it will fail! It has several well-known and correctable failure modes without costing. But do these things: 1) You MUST empty the canister regularly. By watching it through the clear plastic if things aren't going around in a circle, it's too full or has some other maintenance required. 2) You MUST clean off the roller brush. If it gets tangled up with long hairs, strings or similar, it will jam it up and you might burn out the belt and have less cleaning. You may have to cut that stuff off of it. * If you don't do the above two often and properly, then you will have other problems that could seem more serious. 3) You MUST check the hose leading from the ground for any stuck debris. If it isn't wide open, you must clear it out. It may require removal of the bottom plate to get full access. This machine clogs hoses more than most others I have owned. But again, I still like this machine overall. Also tap all the filters into the trash, and there is a hidden one above the motor housing. Easy enough to get to but easy to overlook. If you don't empty the canister, tap out the filters and check the hose for clogging, you will overheat the unit and it will try to save itself by shutting down until it cools. When it overheats, simply take the canister off, and the hepa filter and leave it out too cool down. It should reset. But do not run it if the roller, hose, and canister are not all clear. Do not run it if it isn't assembled properly. Look carefully that all the air ducts mate properly. Four instead of five stars only because many users will not keep up with the canister emptying and roller and hose debris checks and they might assemble after emptying incorrectly. But we love the machine anyway because I can do all those things and I'd rather not have a costlier, heavier, and less reliable unit. Bottom line: I can no longer recommend this vacuum cleaner. But if it's considered a throw away, if you get the right price, it's pretty good. Don't plan on a long life. Replacement parts are expensive. The brushes are not replaceable, a HUGE downside.
