Hoover Vacuums

The company traces back to 1908, when W.H. "Boss" Hoover bought the patent for Murray Spangler's suction sweeper, and its 1926 beater bar gave it the line "It beats, as it sweeps, as it cleans." Techtronic Industries (TTI) bought Hoover from Whirlpool in 2007, and the US brand is run from TTI Floor Care North America in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The models listed here fall mainly into two families. The corded uprights carry the WindTunnel name: the WindTunnel 3 Max Performance Pet ($199) is the carpet-and-pet machine, the High Performance Swivel XL Pet ($205) adds ball-joint steering and a 3-liter cup, and the WindTunnel All-Terrain ($181) is the first WindTunnel with two brushrolls, a soft front roller for hard floors and a main roller for carpet. The cordless side runs on ONEPWR, a 20-volt battery that Hoover says fits more than 20 of its cleaning products. The ONEPWR Emerge ($200) is the current stick, the Emerge Pet ($330) adds a motorized pet tool, the now-discontinued Evolve Pet was a cordless upright that does not convert to a handheld, and the handheld ($100) ships with a 2Ah pack.

Owners of the All-Terrain credit the dual rollers with fixing the old WindTunnel habit of scattering fine debris on hard floors, but several describe the plastics as cheap for the price, and a few report units failing within months. WindTunnel 3 owners like its pet-hair pickup on carpet and its carbon odor filter, while pointing to the 18-pound weight and filters that need replacing every few months in shedding homes. Evolve Pet owners say its carpet pickup beats sticks at the price, but the handle cracking is the failure they report most, and carpet mode empties the battery in about 12 minutes.

If one ONEPWR tool is already in the house, a second one costs less because the batteries swap. If not, check whether the kit you are buying includes a battery and charger, and how many amp-hours the pack holds, before comparing prices.