Customer Reviews

Hoover U5269-900 EmPower Bagless Upright Vacuum

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I was a bit worried when I first bought this, since the box didn't list any specifics about the power level of the cleaner. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. If you want a great vacuum but don't want to spend the equivalent of a car payment on a Dyson, buy the EmPower. It's pretty powerful, and the pet attachment does exactly what it's supposed to do. I was kind of freaked out with all the dirt, dust and pet hair that ended up in the cannister, but seeing all that plus a clean carpet gives you a pretty good feeling of satisfaction. The cord is extra loooong, which makes going from room to room easier, and the brushes on the bottom of the vacuum really work the nap of the carpet to make it look brand new when you're done. The rotating brushes also create a traction feature, like a lawnmower, that makes it glide across the carpet surface - since I'm so used to pushing crummy cleaners, it almost flew out of my hand the first time I used it. I agree about the "hush" mode feature, however - sounds like a regular vacuum to me. But since I didn't buy it for that feature (who looks for a quiet vacuum?), I don't care that it's really a non-feature.

I suspect Hoover is phasing this model out, since it's on sale practically everwhere I see it (I got mine at Home Depot), but as long as they continue to sell the filters, this is going to be my primary vac for a long time to come. It's a great buy at this price and higher.

Bought this to replace our old Windtunnel. This has a lot of power, a very powerful brush that actually pulls the unit along the floor, giving it the "self-propelled" feature mentioned in some of the reviews. However the short hose (also mentioned by lots of folks) it comes with is lame. I have brand new berber carpet. Very low pill. After getting this vac I noticed some stains in the carpet. Closer inspection ID'd them as burn marks. The tops of some of the carpet fibers were actually melted. I wasn't sure what these were from but suspected the vaccuum. Took it downstairs on some out-of-sight carpet and ran it. Changed the height, pushed down on it, grinding the brush until it stopped...no burns. Then I figured out if you are using the hose attachment the bottom brush still spins. When you stretch the hose to reach something the vaccuum tilts to one side. When this happens plastic on the rotating brush assembly on the far edges actually grinds into the carpet...and will actually friction burn the carpet. This will happen even with the vaccum set at it's highest setting....so be careful when using the hose attachement!

This vac sucks up more cat hair than any vac I have ever used! I collected the equivalent of three cats when I did my whole house after I got this machine. I had to empty it three times in one day because it had collected so much hair. It did so much better a job than the old wind tunnel, that the carpets had returned to a color much closer to the original.

The attachments all come along with you although I am not crazy about the hose connection. You must disconnect one end of the hose to use the attachments. This works OK, but then when you're done, you have to reconnect it. This doesn't work as well as I would like. I have to admit that I have arthritis in my hands, so that may be the reason I have trouble.

Also the hose is not long enough to do stairs etc. You can buy a hose extender according to the book, but I found that the hose extender that came with the old wind tunnel works with this machine, so if you have one of those, you've already got one!

Despite the minor complaints, I am very happy with the job this machine does and would highly recommend it.

I am so glad that I bought this vacuum. I have grown up using vacuums with bags, and I simply prefer the bagless vacuums more. They may not necessarily pick up any better then a bagged vacuum, but bagless vacs are just much easier to deal with, especially this one. There is no getting your fingers inside the vacuum just to empty it. You just simply pop out the canister and you're ready to go. I tried out many vacuums before I bought this, trying to decide on features that I wanted and needed.

What I like about the EmPower:
* It's easy to pick up and carry in a multi-level home, it's light, and the carry handle is a great feature!
* The carpet height dial is easy to turn, not stiff like many other vacuums. This is great for a home like mine with a mix of carpets, hardwood, and area Rugs. I don't have to deal with sore fingers from trying to change the carpet height constantly.
* The canister is easy to remove, clean, and replace. Many bagless vacs that I tried were quite difficult, they may as well have been vacs with bags.
* Having a handle that folds down is a decent space saver in a house with horrible storage
* It keeps it's suction better than any vacuum I have ever used
* It's sturdy and good looking
* The attachments are easy to get to and use

What I don't like about the EmPower
* I wish the canister was bigger and could hold more

Some tips on using a bagless
* empty the canister after two uses...I have to do this because my dog sheds horribly
* empty the canister outside, I usually do this the day before my trash gets picked up. This way, all of the dust that escapes is not escaping into your house, and is going straight to the dumpster.
* I keep an old utility brush right by my garbage can outside so that I can brush off the filter, this keeps it very clean.

This vacuum is a great buy, I have no doubt. If you are on the fence on this decision, you cannot lose with this product.

For the price, or for any price, this is a very usable, user friendly, effective vacuum. The suction is good, and is exponentially helped by a nasty vicious torrential spinning beater bar. That thing wacks the heck out of carpets like I've never seen. So much so, in fact, the vacuum pulls itself forward slightly almost as though it were self propelled. I didn't have any "rug burning" issue like one person described.

The unit itself is pretty light. Emptying the dirt bin is not too difficult or painful, but a thorough wet cleaning of the dirt bin (short of the filter) does take some time. I vacuumed my parents house with it after my mom ran her Oreck XL2 (less than 1 year old) and the dirt bin was entirely filled. She was shocked. A good mixture of fibers/fuzz and actual dirt dirt.

Partially because this unit gets under counter edges and under furniture much better than the Oreck. Additionally, the unit seemed more willing to comply and easier to direct where I wanted it to go compared to my mom's Oreck.

I am used to a 10 year old Hoover as the last Hoover I touched, so I was disappointed that the power cable didn't seem more heavy duty, that the wheels weren't a little heavier, and that the plastics weren't thicker. But this is by no means a flimsy vacuum. More light weight, just like cars and everything else these days.

The tools are intelligently placed on the unit. One drawback I found in the beginning was how the stair beater spinner attachment is on the left side of the unit. I kept hitting it with my knee and knocking it off. I learned not to hit it, or could have easily taken it off.

I did notice that when vacuuming someplace for the first time, once the dirt cup gets half full or so, the suction does decrease. As expected, I emptied, and it went right back to normal.

The attachment hose is actually clear when you stretch it out, so you can see if it has a clog in it. Very innovative.

I was not happy that the main unit beater bar does not stop when you convert it to hose mode for using attachments. Not only loud, but annoying. This may or may not be normal with other brands/models, I don't know.

The hush mode really does work, despite others comments here. As someone stated, if you "LOCK ON" the "EXTRA BOOST" then hush doesn't hush at all.

Overall, I am satisfied with this vacuum and would purchase it again. I looked at the walmarts, k marts, sears models, as well as the most highly rated ones on here. I would definitely call this thing a best buy in its price category and possibly a couple tiers above it according to cost.

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Almost 2 years later-- an update-- the unit still works very well but I've found that the bracket that holds the extension wand on the side has cracked from what I'd call not extreme use. Other than this failure, everything else from my review still stands!

This model was replacing a self-propelled Wind Tunnel.It is lighter weight,less noisy,has floor height dial instead of problematic slider on the WT.On board tool use is more trouble,but decent tradeoff for more important features.First bagless I bought & am pleased w/ ease of emptying,along w/ savings from not buying pricey bags.It is #18 on the Consumer Guide and the Hoover Tempo(#8) is the only competition in performance & price,in regard to the aformentioned review.Beware-some stores erroneously state the retail price as over 150.00;this is not accurate for this particular model,though.

i purchased this vacuum cleaner after doing research and reading customer feedback. i was pleasantly surprised how well this very reasonably priced vacuum works! i've had an oreck for the past few years and by looking at the hoover dirt/dust container, it did a horrible job! i would vacuum every week but still had to pick up small particles afterwards. with this vacuum, you can determine the type of flooring that you are cleaning as well as using a turbo boost which suctions even more! i did have to empty the container four times while vacuuming my entire house (2000 sq ft) but that was probably due to it not really being cleaned for quite some time. it weighs 21 lbs which is a little hefty for me to take up and down the steps but the power and performance is worth it! this is an excellent product with a wonderful price! i highly recommend it!

We purchased this vacuum after trying out, and almost purchasing a Kirby vacuum. This vacuum is a must have! It has great suction and I really enjoy the bagless feature, since you can dump it after each cleaning, and eliminate the dust smell that you get with vacuums with bags. The quiet feature really isn't much quieter, but it's a nice thought. The attachments are neatly placed on the vacuum, I haven't had trouble with any falling off like I did with my old Hoover. The Power Boost feature is handy too. This is a great vacuum and well worth the money!

Oh Boy" I have been using an upright Hoover for some years, it picked up some of the stuff on my carpets" then I had my carpets professionally cleaned at the cost of $250.00 and what I saw was scary, blaks water like black on black can be. I decided to purchase upright vaccum bagless and since I did not want to spend lots of money I settled on this Hoover U 5269-900 I was totally taken by this hoover, it needed no assembly, just plugged it in and it went going, it was walking me and the suction is terrific, it picks up all the dust, my cats hair and you name it, even the hand tool almost sucks up my pillow on the couch, it is a terrific vacuum and I could not be happier with it! I would however, not recommend this Vacuum for large apartments or homes, since the dust cup is small. I live in a good size two bedroom apartment and for that it's perfect. At last, the long cord on this vacuums makes me only have to plug it in two places in my apartment, every vacuum should have this long cord.
I highly recommend this vacuum to those that live in 1 or 2 bedroom apartments....go get yourself one. I got bad back and had trouble vacuuming with my old Vac, have no pain using this one.

I picked this vacuum up over the weekend literally because I saw it on clearance on an endcap at Target. It said it did well on hardwood floors, worked well with pet hair (we have 2 dogs and 2 cats) I wanted onboard attachments, AND to top it all off it was green--my favorite color! I immediately came home and vacuumed our bedroom. It was so disgustingly full of pet hair that I can't believe we were walking on that carpet! My husband loves the upholstery attachment. It's one thing to suck dirt off a couch, it's another to have an attachment that has a mini brush to actually power dirt and pet hair away! The only thing is that the "hush" mode doesn't work. I don't need it to work but I think it's a funny feature to have, because it sounds exactly the same.