The tool complement is complete with an extension tube and a basic, but again very serviceable, crevice tool. It’s fairly long, suitably narrow and quite robust. That said, the tool clips are positioned on the cleaner body rather than on the tools, which makes dismantling awkward. Conversely, our small and dainty octogenarian tester – with hands slightly smaller than a Barbie doll – said she couldn’t reach the trigger if she held the cleaner in her right hand. But her small grip and fingers did make it easier to get to the switch when she held the cleaner in the left. A 25-minute battery provides more than enough power for many routine cleaning tasks around the living room, bedroom or even your car. The FD22L comes with only two attachments. The standard vacuum brush head and an accompanying tool. There are no specials tools for pet hair, upholstery cleaning or large/small dusters. Once the charging cable is connected, the light on top flashed red and blue. From a completely flat battery, it turned blue to indicate it was fully charged some five-and-a-half hours to six later.

Its cleaning power on carpets and hard floors is equally limited, however, and its disappointing build quality and poor ergonomics make it an ongoing challenge to use. By working with a variety of trusted Range Plus Partners, we’re able to offer our customers a wider selection of products. It took about a nano-second after getting the Hoover Freedom out of the box to realise that the main cleaner is all but identical to arch-rival Vax’s SlimVac Total Home. A couple of different mouldings and slightly different colour, but essentially the same item straight out of the same Far East factory. Using the upholstery tools on the stairs produced a much better result, albeit taking a while longer than with the larger floor-head. The action of agitating the tool against the carpet shifts a fair bit of debris – but again, you need some arm strength to do it.You don't have permission to access "http://www.argos.co.uk/browse/appliances/vacuum-cleaners-and-floorcare/vacuum-cleaners/c:29693/brands:hoover/" on this server. The other important feature to consider here is the materials the battery is made from. Lithium is the modern battery of choice. It’s much lighter than the older lead-acid batteries and its lifespan is significantly longer too – you should experience (close to) a lossless battery performance.

On the plus side, the floor-head, and particularly the detail tools, are better designed. The floor-head has more bite and pulls dust and debris from the carpet better, although our carpet test still showed it wasn’t great. In either hand, the one thing we can guarantee after 20+ minutes of cleaning is wrist-ache and a few areas of soreness where plastic has been digging into your hand. The cable-free Hoover Freedom Cordless Vacuumis a practical and powerful cleaner for carpets and hard floors. A clever detachable head design makes it easy to carry and effective for cleaning anywhere from the inside of your home to the interior of your car. The pistol grip at the rear of the cleaner with motor, battery and bin in front give the Freedom a very front-heavy design. This is a good few minutes shy of the similar Vax SlimVac or, indeed, Hoover’s own claimed run-time. However, there’s certainly a little more suction power on offer than the Vax – and a more efficient floor-head – so we’re happy to lose that 4 minutes.

Model No. FD22BCPET

Although this happened less frequently with the Hoover than on the Vax, it was often enough to suggest that this cleaner is far from pet-friendly. See also: Best Halogen Oven 2018: The 6 BEST Halogen Cookers. Hoover FD22L Freedom Lite review: Design and attachments This isn’t so much of an issue when you’re using the tube and floor-head to support the cleaner. Lifting it up to clean anything above the floor, or even moving from room to room, does require quite a feat of wrist strength. Getting those high cobwebs with the extension tube and tool attached is definitely a two-handed operation.

The low suction power and lethargic brush bar didn’t really stand much of a chance with pet hair embedded into a nylon test carpet. The results were very poor. Clean all corners of your home with three included attachments. A floor nozzle with a rotating brush bar cleans deep into the fibres of your carpet. A 2-in-1 dusting brush and upholstery tool is perfect for cleaning delicate fabrics, and a crevice tool helps you clean difficult to reach areas. Given the 20-minute run time. The device’s charging time is a little disappointing. Charging from empty-to-full takes 8 hours. That said, charging time is an area where you can expect budget devices to cut corners. If this is a deal-breaker, fear not, more expensive cordless vacuums boast faster charge times.When buying partner items like this one, your contract of sale will be with our Range Plus Partner instead of us. If you have the wrist strength and energy to manoeuvre the Hoover Freedom, it’s actually quite handy for stairs. The day was saved to an extent by the crevice tool and a good dual-purpose upholstery and cleaning brush. Both are a decent size, and with the airflow condensed into a smaller area, both provide reasonable suction.