Customer Reviews

Hoover U8371-900 WindTunnel 2 Complete Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

If your living environment is in the country with exposure to dirt, mud, animal hair & normal household dirt or dust, this vacuum is not for you! This machine is poorly designed & does not perform as advertised. Suction is so great it pulls dirt, debris & hair up through the collar cone filter & directly into the sealed HEPA chamber. Once the chamber plugs full of debris, the vacuum looses all suction & ability to clean. There are only two options for cleaning the chamber, once obstructed - take it to an authorized shop or dismantel the machine yourself. No one wants a vacuum that must be 'repaired' after minimal use, or one that must be repaired after every use. It clogged up before I could complete two rooms & although the initial obstruction was cleared, the unit now plugs up before finishing one room. Hoover appears to have no desire to fix the design flaw or make it right with anyone who foolishly spent money buying this product - Hoover will not accept a return, or provide an exchange to another vacuum in their product line. A word of advice I received from the authorized service shop that repaired (cleaned) the vacuum - this type of problem seems common with Hoover bagless models, especially the new windtunnel 2; don't buy anything but a bagged Hoover product.

I read the other reviews here but thought I could handle the problem they described and bought it anyway. I mean how bad could it be? It's half the price of the Dyson.
It's bad. When we took it out of the box - we couldn't get the canister to latch. After fussing with it for a while and mashing a rubber seal down, we were able to get it to latch - however - the parts feel cheap and when you put it in - you're not sure that it is latched. The latch feels and looks like it will easily break.
Physically - it's lighter (21.5lbs without attachments)than the old Kirby we replaced (25.5lbs), however it feels three times heavier when you push it. Actually pulls down on your shoulder. It's 5 times harder to push.
Beater bar isn't strong enough. Would stop on our carpet till we raised it all the way to high. Finally, after running it for 10 minutes, it started making a whirring noise and we smelled smoke (burning rubber.) We couldn't see a belt anywhere and I have no idea how the beater bar turns.
It did get up a lot of dirt, but like the others, when my daughter went to empty the canister - it fell apart and dumped all over the place. (I didn't tell her the problems the other reviewers had. It was sort of funny having the prophecy come true.)
One other observation was that the rotating HEPA filter thing sounded like a poorly constructed wind up toy with a smooth place in the gears. It makes a grinding noise, a little lighter grinding noise, and then back to the grinding noise.
Nice try by Hoover, but a failure. Taking it back tomorrow.

The "Lifetime" "Self Cleaning" HEPA filter does not clean itself and can't be replace by the consumer. Once the filter is plugged, this poorly sealed beast blows dust all over the room when you turn it on.

As others noted, it sounds like the gears are stripped when the filter cleaning mechanism is engaged. The filter jerks and moves irregularly or not at all. The transmission is made of plastic and flexes when engaged. What an idiotic, cheap design.

Took it in to be repaired and the shop was full of Windtunnels with repair tags.

A poorly engineered product. Clearly a Lemon.

Purchased based upon Hoover's reputation for quality but they won't make it right. Boy did we get Burned.

Anybody interested in a class action law suit?

If I'd known Hoover is owned by Maytag, I never would have bought their product - given what they did to their employees in Iowa when they moved operations south of the border.

One star because I couldn't give it ZERO.

Welcome to the internet, Maytag / Hoover. You're no longer going to get away with treating people like the dirt your products are supposed to clean up.

First, the good news. For the first few months, this thing was awesome. Only complaint is that you have to clean it every time you use it and the seal around the dust cup is not very good.

Now the bad. Like everyone else says, the Hepa filter is a major issue. The thing totally clogs up with dirt, stops spinning, and then the gears strip on it. Once that's done, its off to the repair shop. Three months and the unit is no good. The HEPA filter does NOT self-clean. Ok, the big parts fall out, but pet hair and fine dust plug this thing up fast and hard. You'll be amazed at the amount of dirt stuck in this thing if you try to clean it out yourself.

Its a great vacuum for a couple months, then its worthless.

Wow! Never wrote a review before, but would like to lend a helping hand for the next person considering buying this unit. DON'T BUY IT! My last vacuum was a Hoover Windtunnel self-propelled vacuum. I loved it with the exception of the self-propelled function breaking twice. I figured I would purchase the newest and best Wind Tunnel 2 Complete Bagless Upright w/o self propelled. I'm strong...I don't need it, I thought. Well, that would soon prove to be the stupidest choice I ever made. It is hard to push this vacuum at times. I vacuum daily. I have a daycare business with children here every day. I like my floors clean. I have babies that crawl on it. I have many pets also. Most do not cause a problem with pet hair. The dog is a non-shedding bred. The parakeets scatter bird seed and small feathers each day that need to be picked up. The other pets do not have issues with pet hair/debris. Therefore, pet hair was not the reason I really purchased this vacuum. I just like clean rugs! Well, I wish I came here first to read the reviews. I wouldn't have done it. I have the EXACT problems the other review-er's have! The dirt finder light does not work! It turns on the "dirty" signal upon turning on the power to let you know its lamp is working. That's it. I purposely run the vacuum over small, but plenty of debris, and NOTHING! Says it's "Clean" all the time. I can hear the debris being picked up, but no "Dirty" signal. They're right. Within the first week of purchasing...the so-called HEPA filter was not turning, clogged with dust and being blown EVERYWHERE while I choked trying to clear it. It makes a loud "popping" sound which I cannot figure out where it's coming from. It comes and goes. I think it has something to do with the motor of this vacuum. It has moments when it sucks really hard and other times when there is no suction at all with the hoses. I am a fanatic! I clean this unit after each vacuuming. There's little dirt to empty. It all seems to be trapped in the HEPA filter which I cannot clean. I have resorted to taking my old Wind Tunnel to vacuum the HEPA filter as best as I can. Then it worked for a little bit, and happened again 1 week later. Hoover claims they have no complaints from other customers regarding these identical problems! Who are they kidding? This is the first time I purchased a vacuum through an on-line site (another mistake I will never make). They were a great company, but don't take the vacuum's back. You have to have it serviced at the closest repair center (thankfully, for me, is 5 miles away.) Now, tell me why I should have to take a month old vacuum for service? It's not going to fix these problems....it's the terrible design of the unit! I will never buy another one of these again! Lisa Ranzino, Sewell, NJ

i recently purchased a Hoover U8371-900 Windtunnel 2 Complete Bagless Upright & I am so impressed with it's performance & versatility. I had no problem assembling the vacuum cleaner. it feels a little heavy but so far hasn't been a problem for me b/c it has a convenient handle for carrying the vacuum upstairs. I can't believe the suction this vacuum has. it picks up so much more than my previous vacuums & it's so easy to empty out the bagless container. the self-cleaning filter so far has worked with no problems. the tools that come with this vacuum work very well. i am able to vacuum my stairs with the extension hose & the pet hair attachment works well at picking up my dog's hair off of the sofa. overall completely satisfied with this product. kind of embarrassed at how much dirt this vacuum picked up the first time i used it. couldn't believe i had so much in my carpets!

There isn't much more I can say that hasn't already been stress.Other than SELF CLEANING HEPA FILTER, yeah and the Titanic was unsinkable too! I wouldn't even give it the honor of 1 star if the review didn't make me.

This vacuum has a good cleaning system when it works. It seems the problem that I've had along with the problem most other people have is the filter stops spinning and gets clogged. This means the vacuum won't pick up anything and the hose won't work.

I took the vacuum apart today and figured out how to fix it.
1. Take all the screws out of the top part of the vacuum to pull the white and orange( or other color i guess on different models).
2. Clean out all the gunk in the filter and around it with a flathead screwdriver. It helps to have another vacuum to suck up the the gunk from the filter if you have another vacuum.
3. On the right side of the filter is the motor to spin the filter. It should still work. The reason the filter stops spinning in the first place is that gunk gets built up on the sides of the filter creating too much friction and it breaks a piece connecting the motor to the filter. Take the outer part of the motor enclosure off. There seems to be screws holding it in place but its just one latch. You only need to pry it open enough to get the big white gear out. This gear connects to the filter. Once you get it out, if you look closely at it, you see that what used to be a rectangular shape has turned into a circular one. Fill this hole up half way with some super glue ( I used gorilla glue) and put it back in place.
4.Put the vacuum back together and wait a few hours.

Hope this helps. It worked for me.

A Penn State Student

We bought this vaccuum instead of a Dyson because it was cheaper and seemed to have all the same stuff. Not the case!!! Needless to say after about two months we went out and bought a Dyson. Great improvement!!! The hepa filter clogged after about the second time we used it and you cannot replace them. No comment from Hoover when we e-mailed them about this awful machine!!! We would rate this less than 1 if there was an option to do that.

Hoover's attempt to make this vacuum bagless is a complete failure. The most glaring problem involves the seal between the collection chamber and the outside world -- fine dust particles are easily able to escape and are blown back into the room being cleaned, as well as onto the surfaces of of the vacuum cleaner.

This effect was most apparent when I used the hose attachments to vacuum a hardwood floor. The "puddle" of dust that covered my floor was unbelievable; too bad Amazon doesn't allow photos, because they speak volumes.

The design of the chamber makes it difficult to empty without creating a complete mess. Furthermore, you routinely need to reach inside to pull out dust collected on the screen. Your hand comes out every time covered in fine gray dust. Yuck.

And I don't have allergies, but I sneezed every time I used this vacuum.

On the bright side, the WindTunnel 2 is powerful (before the filter clogs with dust) and the roller brush does a good job of returning the pile to the carpet.

Thankfully I was able to trade it in; I now have the same model with bag and it works a thousand times better. No more dust in the room. The HEPA bags are far superior to the bagless design. And the vacuum is noticeably lighter than the bagless version.