What you won’t have to do on a regular basis, however, is clean the roller bar. The vacuum has an anti-tangle mechanism that stops hair from getting wrapped around the roller and it works well. I cleaned all around the vanity stations of my long-haired family members and didn’t find a single strand of hair caught around the roller, so I’d put this down as a big success for Hoover’s system. If you need an affordable cordless vacuum from a trusted brand, then the Hoover HF9 Cordless Vacuum would make a solid choice. It's really easy to use and charge, and has suction power that will do everything you need it to. The HF9 has a run time of up to 30 minutes – which is quite standard across the industry – although our device offered 33 minutes when fully charged. After doing the floors and the upholstery on a small flat, and then vacuuming the floors for a second time, we only used about 20 minutes of charge – this, we felt, was a pretty decent result. There are devices on the market that offer significantly longer suction time though. Emptying the collection bin is straightforward, too. It’s positioned to the side of the extension wand, so can be removed without having to take off any attachments. It unclips with a button at the top, while a second button at the bottom releases the door and lets the dust, dirt and debris fall out. Throughout I've been comparing the Hoover HF9 to the Shark Stratos, as I think these two vacuums are close competitors. While I would say that the performance of the Shark Stratos may slightly tip the scales, the affordability and lightweight design of the HF9 makes it an option that I would tell anyone on a budget to go for, especially if you can find it at a discounted price.

Above the buttons is a simple screen with icons showing what mode you’re in (carpet or hard-floor) and whether Turbo is engaged. The rest of the display shows the number of minutes of cleaning left on the device before the battery runs out. If the vacuum is plugged in, it will display the percentage of charge the battery has available instead. I didn’t have particularly high hopes for the hard floor Cheerio test. The HF9 doesn’t have a soft roller, which is the usual path to performing well in this test. However, to its credit, Hoover’s floor head designers have built two funnels into the front of the head, which allowed the suction to capture some of the Cheerios and let them pass underneath. If there’s one thing that’s slightly disappointing, it’s the battery life. As you can see from the chart below, some vacuum cleaners at this kind of price come with enough power to clean for an hour on their lightest settings. With no Economy setting on this vacuum, there’s no option to reduce the suction down to eke out a few more minutes.The first thing I noticed about the HF9 when putting it to the test is that it was noticeably lighter than the Shark Stratos (3.4kg compared to 4.07kg). If you struggle with mobility or carrying a heavy vacuum around for a long period of time, this might be a big help for you.

Finally, there’s the flour on carpet test. Here, the Hoover HF9 also performed magnificently. It collected the entire spill in terms of weight, and I couldn’t see any remaining particles when I inspected it, either.At 0.7l the collection bin isn’t enormous but it’s a significantly more useful size than the 0.45l bin that comes with the Hoover HF500. This should be enough to clean a house without having to empty part way through, unless your house is particularly large or filthy. It’s never good to leave lithium-ion batteries constantly charging as it wears down the overall capacity of the cell much faster than regular use and charging. Because of this, I am put off recommending the HF9 wholeheartedly, along with its inability to slurp up stubborn fluff in carpets. Price and availability Another frustrating flaw is if I stored the Hoover unplugged – but still with a good amount of charge left – it often won’t turn on. The first few times it happened I thought the battery had run down, but on plugging it into the mains charger I saw it always had over 70% left, and would only turn on after it had been plugged in a few minutes.