Hoover H-Upright 500 Sensor Plus review

Well-respected large-appliance brand Hoover sells a wide range of vacuums including cordless, handheld, upright and cylinder designs. The Hoover H-Upright 500 Sensor Plus is one of the latest models to join its upright vacuum cleaner collection.

There are a few versions of the H-Upright 500 vacuum cleaner within Hoover’s upright range. The Sensor Plus version reviewed here is averagely priced within the collection and is an upgrade from the existing H-Upright 500 version. The Sensor Plus is powerful and versatile and - unlike its predecessor - it features floor sensor technology to suit all types of flooring – be it hard wood, carpet or tiled.

If you have pets and are looking for a vacuum specifically suited to clearing up pet hair however, you may want to take a look at the more expensive H-Upright 500 Sensor Pets version, which costs £169.99 from Hoover.  

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Price and availability

The Hoover H-Upright 500 Sensor Plus usually retails for £179.99, but at the time of writing can be found for £124.28 at Amazon, which is the best price we’ve seen. It can also be bought for £139.99 at Argos and £149.99 at Hoover direct.

You can see today’s best deals for the Hoover H-Upright 500 Sensor Plus where you are below.

Design and key features

With its sleek blue and grey body, the Hoover H-Upright 500 Sensor Plus vacuum cleaner is stylish in form and comes with lots of useful design features. Its flexible floor head, for example, has illuminating LEDs so you can see exactly what you’re vacuuming when the light levels are low. While we found the body to be a little on the bulky side, the agile head makes the machine easy to glide around the room, around and under furniture.

The model also comes with floor sensor technology to suit all floors types and multi-cyclonic technology, which separates the dust from the air within the machine for less filter maintenance. The washable HEPA filter means it’s a good option for allergy sufferers too.

Accessories are neatly stored on board so the whole design can be packed away compactly when not in use. At 6.25kg it is a little heavier than your average cordless vacuum, so you’ll need a little muscle to carry it up the stairs. But one of the benefits of a corded vacuum cleaner is the fact that you don’t have to worry about recharging batteries every time you use it and fretting that it’s going to stop working mid clean – something we’ve been caught out many a time here at TechRadar while using a cordless!

The Hoover H-Upright 500 Sensor Plus has a 11m cord, which means you can travel quite a way around your home before you need to stop and re-plug. A 4.5m hose also allows it the stretch it needs to clean up to 13 stairs at a time - this means you can leave the vacuum at the bottom of the stairs rather than having to balance the cleaner on each step. 

A long crevice and extension tube is attached to the side of the machine, which means you can reach up to ceilings and skirting boards without having to get on tip-toes. A 2-in-1 crevice and soft dusting brush is also fitted on the body of the machine, which can easily be detached and added to the hose for use on corners and narrow spaces such as bookshelves, as well as on hard surfaces to avoid scratching them. To set up the machine you have to attach the hose to the cleaner by plugging in the lower hose end into the socket on the back. We found this very easy as was changing between the various attachments.   

Performance

Press the ‘auto’ button positioned conveniently below the main handle of the Hoover H-Upright 500 Sensor Plus and you can make use of its built-in floor sensor technology. It knows when you’re vacuuming on carpet or hard floors and adjusts its suction power and brush bar speed automatically. With the auto button and separate brush bar on, we were impressed with how powerfully it picked up dirt and debris and felt it change suction power between the tiled floor in the kitchen, laminate floor in the hallway and carpet in the living room. While the side suction on the head ensured it picked up dirt alongside the corner of the room right up to the skirting boards, it did struggle with larger pieces of debris such as cardboard and paper, however.

Curious to test suction power further, we scattered lentils on the floor and tried vacuuming them up. We also used the detachable hose to suck up a handful of uncooked rice. Removal was successful on both parts, but we found a few lentils drop out of the head of the vacuum when we picked it up later on.

The rotating brush bar can be switched off easily so the vacuum can glide more gently over deep pile rugs. We found out the hard way that you must switch off the auto sensor and brush bar buttons when vacuuming delicate surfaces - when we attempted to vacuum over a Persian carpet with the auto sensor button and brush bar on the machine went into overdrive and tried to chew up the tassles. We tried again with both buttons off and it then glided over the carpet and tassles without fault.

The vacuum also comes with a manual suction control built into the body of the vacuum, which we found could be easily increased or decreased by hand depending on how powerful you want the vacuum to be. The accessories slid neatly off the body too and could be placed easily on the nozzle. The combination of brush bar accessory and powerful suction made this model particularly useful when cleaning under the sofa cushions. We were able to get right into the corners of the sofa and give it a good once over before deciding that was enough for one day and it was time to sit back and put our feet up. 

Buy it if...

You need a powerful vacuum: With floor sensor technology as well as manual suction control, this vacuum gives you flexibility.

You have a range of floor types in your home: Be it hard floor, short pile or long pile carpets, the Hoover H-Upright 500 Sensor Plus’ main selling point is its automatic sensor technology, which detects which floor type it is vacuuming and adjusts it accordingly. It also has a very flexible head so you can zoom around and under furniture.

Don't buy it if...

You have one type of flooring in your home: While this machine works well on all types of flooring, if you have one type of flooring in your home, it may not be worth paying more for a feature you don’t need. 

Storage space is tight: At 113.5cm high and 6.25kg in weight, this isn’t the lightest design you can buy and older folk may find it cumbersome. For something that’s easily portable up the stairs you may want to consider a cordless or cylinder model instead.

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