Those looking for a full suite of attachments should consider the Dyson Ball Animal. This comes with a great selection of tools, a larger collection bin and a longer cord. It’s heavier, though, and costs more. If yours is a home with lots of carpet or has a 50/50 type of split between that and hard flooring, and you share your space with small or large pets, it’s a yes. This is a solidly built and good looking upright that’s thoughtfully designed for ease of use and convenience. Both I and the cats would have preferred a little less noise in action ideally, but it’s a value for money choice for all fans of upright vacuums and those looking for the best vacuum cleaner for pet hair. About this review, and our reviewer You can attach each tool to either the lift-out wand or the hose, which unplugs from the motorised brush. The collection bin has a generous 1.5-litre capacity and is easily released from the chassis for emptying. It also contains the filters, which are washable in water and rated to the HEPA H13 standard.

On the brush bar is a manual slider: keep it closed for more suction on hard floors; or open to make the cleaner easier to push on carpet. There’s a tendency for vacuum cleaner manufacturers to make ever more expensive and complicated cleaners. The Hoover H-Upright 300 offers a tonic to that formula: it’s a cheaper, lighter upright cleaner that gets all of the basics right.It isn’t a particularly long wand, although I still had just enough reach to get to the top of the rafters in my test lab. The Hoover H-Upright 300 is a fairly basic model, with a single rotating brush in its floor head. You can switch this on and off, depending on the surface you’re cleaning; Hoover recommends you switch it off when cleaning floors and deep pile rugs. However, in our other tests it performed exceptionally well, proving itself exemplary at carpet cleaning and gathering smaller particles from hard floor. Hoover could have been slightly more generous with the attachments, and more easily accessible controls would be high on my wishlist of improvements. However, it’s good value for money for what you get. With the brush switched off the cleaner relies on vacuum suction alone, but performance suffers in this mode when cleaning hard floors. However, it’s worth noting that you don’t get the extra bit of agitation for more stubborn dirt that you get from a soft roller on vacuums such as the Shark DuoClean with Lift-Away NV702UK. Actually, it sounds more complicated than it is. Nevertheless, the power and performance is great, with the attachments well designed for getting into awkward places where pet and human hair tends to get. More straightforward carpet and hard floor vacuuming duties are a cinch though, with the lightweight and agile design making the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets a joy to use. The wheels are great too and, thankfully, don't mark if you’ve got a prized wood floor.

If you’re looking for a workhorse of a vacuum cleaner then a corded upright like the Hoover HL5 ought to be an attractive option, as long as it can perform the cleaning jobs it’s supposed to. To find out, I put it through our usual suite of tests. To start with, I put the Hoover H-Upright 300 through my raw power tests, measuring its suction in AirWatts. I recorded a score of 185.9AW, which is lower than many other plug-in cleaners, which usually come in around 200+. However, in context, this cleaner is still more powerful than most cordless models on their maximum setting. I was pleasantly surprised by how it performed in the same test on short-pile carpet, however. Here, the angle of the base of the floor head and the powerful suction combined to compress the Cheerios into the carpet enough for the floor head to climb over them and, once underneath, they didn’t stand a chance. A single pass left a few crumbs behind but not enough to register as a full gram on my kitchen scales. A more difficult test is my carpet tile test, where I sprinkle flour right up to the skirting board. With the H-Upright 300 set to hard floor mode, it left a trace amount of dust behind, as you can see from the images below. Once you’ve finished cleaning, the bin lifts out of the cleaner, and you can flip open the bottom to empty dirt quite easily. There’s one filter here and a another in the cleaner, both of which should be cleaned with water to maintain maximum suction. Performance

I’ve got no complaints so far about the performance of the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets, which further appeals thanks to its washable H13 HEPA filter that traps those pesky allergens. Interestingly, the power button is part of the main body of the vacuum, which you reach down to press. It’s a variation on having a power button on the handle, but at least there’s no turning it off by accident mid-vacuum. At least the dust collection bin is easy to remove and empty. A handle and thumb button on the top release it from the main unit, while a second button near the base opens a trap door to let the contents drop out. Plus, all the filters can be rinsed in clean running water. Hoover HL5 review: How well does it clean?

Take it from me, as a veteran vacuum cleaner unboxer, that some are a tad time-consuming. Lots of parts wrapped in plastic and assembly instructions with pictures only. This vacuum, on the other hand, only needed its handle slotting in and the two attachments to be put in their place on the machine and it was ready to go. Tools on board and therefore always to hand is great, and also scoring points from me is the fact that the instructions have clear words as well as drawings. And much as I like cordless machines, being able to plug in and start rather than wait for a battery to charge has a lot to be said for it.It converts into its various functions easily and feels very well built. The main unit is easy to lift away from the floor head with the help of your foot, and the 2m extension hose isn’t as tight and cumbersome as I’ve found on some other rivals, particularly the Dyson Ball Animal. I was particularly fond of the collection bin on this model. It releases easily and emptying it is a simple job: a latch opens the door at the bottom and most dirt and dust simply drops out.