Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets review: corded vacuum cleaner is ideal for pet hair

Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets review in a sentence: a compact and lightweight vacuuming powerhouse with performance and practicality in equal measure.

I know some people dismiss any vacuum that comes with a power cord as old school, preferring to pick from the wide choice of best cordless machines, instead of picking over the goodies in our best vacuum cleaner buying guide for this year. That contains both cordless and cable-free options, but the trend has been going towards cordless. Some folks are even more set in their ways, preferring only to consider the best Dyson cordless vacuum cleaner.

However, the new Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets eschews that trend and comes not just with a cable but lots of it, 8.1 metres in fact, which is more than enough to give you freedom wherever you want to clean. Fair play to Hoover for making the move to bring out a new range of vacuum cleaners that boast a cable that you have to wind up at the end of your cleaning routine rather than offering the convenience of battery power.

Why? Well, for me, it’s that unrelenting power and suction that you get from a corded vacuum cleaner. No fretting about battery drain and, to be honest, winding a cable around the machine when you’re done isn’t exactly a hardship, now is it. You could argue that a corded machine can be cumbersome and, yes, cables do tangle around things.

Nevertheless, I’m happy to put up with that minor irritation knowing that my new Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets will never deliver anything less from its 800 Watts of mains delivered power.

Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets: Price and availability

The Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets is keenly priced, representing top value for a cleaner with this set of features. As you’d expect, it’s available from a variety of outlets including Hooverdirect, with a launch price of £139.99 and an 'official' price of £199 in the UK. It doesn't seem to be on sale anywhere other than the UK.

Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets: What’s in the box?

You get everything needed to start vacuuming inside the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets box. Alongside the main body there’s a handle and tube assembly, which slits into the body. A power cord is already attached to the machine and comes with a plug, which can then be wound around the back of the appliance via a couple of clips. Accessories-wise our model came with a mini turbo nozzle, a dusting brush and a 3-in-one or crevice tool.

Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets: Design and build

While the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets might appear to be just another vacuum cleaner with a power cable I think Hoover has done a great job with this model. It takes mere seconds to pull out of the box, something helped by its weight of just 5.2kg. Most of it has been put together for you, so after scrutinizing the manual for a couple more seconds the design is suitably simple that you can be powering up in about, well, two minutes.

The design is eye-catching, thanks mainly to some blue anodised surfaces on the tubing and a blend of blue and grey plastic on the main body. Build quality is also very respectable too, with chunky plastic used on most of the heavy duty components. The hoses look to be respectable too, although how they’ll fare over time is always hard to predict when you’ve only been using a machine for a few weeks.

My only minor gripe thus far is with the anodised finished on the aluminium tube, which forms the upright that joins the handle to the machine. It’s been so designed to let you use the attachments for specific cleaning duties but suffers as a result. This has already got some scratches on it, just from daily use, so how this will look in time might take the otherwise solid shine off this vacuum. That’s a minor cosmetic point though.

Elsewhere, the supplied accessories are also of a good standard and feel pretty durable. I like the way Hoover has designed these to fit on the machine, and they stay put too, which is always a bonus as many machines have this feature but then shed accessories as you make your way around the house. Having them on the machine is also better as it saves having to find them in a box, and will ensure they don’t go AWOL over time too.

Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets: 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.

In front of the power button there’s another that lets you engage or disengage the brush in the cleaning head. This can be used in conjunction with the white slider switch on the top of the cleaning head, which is marked as Carpet one way and Hard Floor the other. Simply slide it across to change the cleaning mode, and disengage the spinning brushes if you’re cleaning something like a laminate floor. Initially I’d tend to forget to do this, but practice makes perfect.

The resulting performance once you’ve got the hang of the setup is largely excellent. I really like the slimline design of the cleaning head because it’s low enough in profile to get into tricky locations. Plus there’s the 80° steering angle, which helps. Of course, you’re always going to be limited by the body of the machine, which is where I’ve found the accessories collection invaluable. There’s a really neat mini cleaning head that is perfect for vacuuming stairs. It’s also going to be perfect for anyone with lots of pet hair to deal with and even has a small brush roller inside that gets the job done even better.

With 800 Watts of suction power the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets is certainly effective, although its performance does mean you’ll fill the relatively small 1.5 litre bin quite quickly. However, this is not an issue as it can be whipped off via a small white button on front of the down tube and emptied in seconds thanks to a hinged door on the bottom. I’ve also found the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets very easy to clean, with easy access to filters and other areas that frequently get clogged.

So, is the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets any good?

Overall I’ve been left feeing impressed with the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets. As the name suggests, this model is aimed firmly at pet owners and it’s brilliant at picking up plenty on the fluff and hair front. I initially found the setup for attaching the accessories a little bit strange: you unplug the hose from the cleaning head and plug it into the top of the handle, once you’ve disengaged that from the body of the machine. Got that?

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’ve currently got a vacuum with a cable that feels big, bulky and unwieldy then the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets will be a revelation. It’s not unique and the likes of Shark’s models give it some stiff competition. However, this is a great little machine that makes a perfect supplement to a bigger vacuum, but is also well-powered enough to replace an older machine altogether.