Hoover H-UPRIGHT 500 Reach Home (HU500GHM) Vacuum Cleaner Review ~ Fresh Design Blog

[AD] We take a look at the the H-UPRIGHT 500 Reach, the new upright vacuum cleaner from Hoover. Billed as ‘powerful and agile with long reach’, it’s Hoover’s first upright vacuum featuring variable suction (perfect for transferring from hard floors to long-pile carpet/rugs).’ Our reviewer was Sara Walker.

Here at Fresh Design, we get asked to look at a wide range of home accessories and cleaning products and we’re always delighted to review them as thoroughly and fairly as we can. This new Hoover was something I was particularly keen to look at though, as my house is home to a delightful but bouncy long-haired dog. Things are particularly bad at the moment, as I can’t get him booked in for his regular cut ‘n’ trim at the groomers – he’s compromising by shedding unwanted hair all over the carpets. Ho hum.

A new vacuum cleaner? Bring it on – I’m pretty sure I can put it through its paces!

H-UPRIGHT 500 Reach vacuum cleaner from Hoover — Introducing Olly Spaniel, grot spreader extraordinaire.

According to the blurb, the H-Upright 500 Reach has an extra-long reach up to 15m with a 4.5m hose and a 10m cord. It’s multi-cyclonic (I had to look that up – it means the vacuum creates a cyclone of air inside the chamber which pushes the dirt and debris down to the bottom), it has a special filter ideal for allergy sufferers and is ultra-manoeuvrable.

It comes complete with on-board tools including an extension tube, long crevice tool and a two-in-one crevice tool/dusting brush. It retails at £139.99 and is available from various outlets including directly from Hoover themselves.

Metallic blue H-UPRIGHT 500 Reach vacuum cleaner from Hoover — Neat ‘on board’ accessory storage.

This is quite a shallow thing to say, but I really liked the funky colour of this cleaner which is a sort of metallic teal blue and reminded me of a racing car! It’s only a small thing, but you need a bit of cheering up when you’re doing the cleaning. The weight of this cleaner is just under 6kg, which I found fine.

Once I’d assembled the cleaner (just a matter of connecting a couple of tubes) and read the instructions, I was ready to go. The first thing I noticed was how all the cleaning accessories (extension tube, crevice tool) clipped neatly onto the machine itself. I really liked this, as with other vacuum cleaners I’ve ended up with a drawerful of detachable accessories which were always at the opposite end of the house from where I was.

H-UPRIGHT 500 Reach vacuum cleaner from Hoover in action — Easy to manoeuvre.

The H-UPRIGHT 500 Reach has another useful feature as well – there’s a little slidey thing (stop me if I’m getting too technical!) on the back which allows you to adjust the suction strength. This is great if you’re moving from a hard floor to a carpet or vice versa, or if you’re cleaning something delicate such as a rug. Once I’d worked out what the switches did, I was off and running!

The H-UPRIGHT 500 Reach vacuum cleaner from Hoover gets into all the corners — Using the crevice tool on the brush setting.

A quick dash through the dining room picked up an embarrassing amount of dog hair! The cleaner was very quiet compared to previous ones I’ve had, but that didn’t seem to make it less efficient.

Moving onto the stairs, I was pleased to see that the 10m flex and hose combined easily reached from the bottom to the top of my short, steep flight – I have had cleaners in the past where I’ve had to abandon the cleaning halfway up the stairs to move the plug from a power point at the bottom to one at the top, which drove me insane!

I did find this cleaner very manoeuvrable – a little pressure on the handle caused it to twist and lower to move round corners or under furniture. I had to stop mid-clean to empty the canister, which is more a reflection on the state of my carpets than the capacity!

The crevice tool was useful, with its retractable brush – it meant I could use the hard section to do the sides of the stair carpet, then slide the brush across to do the skirting boards at the same time.

Hoover H-UPRIGHT 500 Reach vacuum cleaner in action — Using low suction to clean the rug.

Overall, I thought this cleaner was excellent value for money. It’s priced at £139.99 which is towards the lower end of the scale, and although it doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles of some models I don’t tend to use most of those regularly anyway (special thingy for cleaning Venetian blinds, anyone?).

I particularly liked the ‘on-board tools’ system, and the colour (shallow, me?). I couldn’t actually think of anything I didn’t like about this, and it did seem to do a good job on the floors. Now I just need to keep on top of it a bit more!

You can find out more or buy the H-UPRIGHT 500 Reach Home (HU500GHM) online from Hoover.

(Disclosure: The Hoover was supplied for the purpose of the review, but all views and opinions are those of the reviewer)