Hoover HFX Home review: a super svelte corner king

Hoover HFX Home review in a sentence: If you’ve got tight spaces to tackle, this vacuum will get to them with ease and all without the faff of cables.

I’ve been very happy with the recent crop of new Hoover vacuum models that have appeared at regular intervals over the last year or so. There was the Hoover H-Upright 300 Pets that I still own and also the more recent Hoover HF9 Cordless Vacuum, which obviously does away with a mains cable and therefore offers a little more freedom to roam.

That’s always a good thing with any vacuum and even more so if you’ve got lots of tricky spaces to tackle around your home. In the bad old days, I used to put off vacuuming due to the sheer amount of hassle involved in getting around the house without getting in a tangle of cable. That’s why going down the route of the best cordless vacuum cleaner is an option to consider if you’re tired of corded models.

Enter then the new Hoover HFX Home, which is cordless, features a powerful electric motor and battery combination and features a smart LED display so you always know where you are in terms of power and suction capacity. However, its appeal is also boosted by a Corner Genie nozzle, which is aimed at people like me with tight corners to tackle. Better yet, it has a folding design, meaning it can be stowed away much more easily than the other vacs I own.

If cordless isn’t your thing then have a peep at the best Dyson cordless vacuum cleaners or check out our guide to the best robot vacuum if you’ve had enough of doing the cleaning yourself. Meanwhile, read on for my thoughts on the new Hoover HFX.

Hoover HFX Home review: Price and availability

The Hoover HFX Home with Corner Genie, to give the vacuum its full title is available now directly from Hoover and, in addition, comes as a Hoover HFX Pet with Corner Genie variant also from Hoover. The Home model is available for £449, while the Pet edition is £469 and might be the one to go for if you’ve got a furry friend or two in the house, for obvious reasons. Hoover also offers a 5-year warranty on these models for additional piece of mind.

Hoover HFX Home review: What is it?

The Hoover HFX Home with Corner Genie is a slender home vacuum that features a cordless motor and battery setup, which means the freedom to roam. It also comes with a Corner Genie cleaning head, so it is well suited to a variety of vacuuming tasks, with the emphasis on those hard-to-reach locations, like darkened corners, cupboards and stairs.

One of the most appealing aspects of the Hoover HFX Home has to be its long but narrow design, which is interesting in that it’s a doddle to use as there’s no real bulk. The dimensions are 112cm high x 20cm wide x 25cm deep and it weighs just 3.65kg too. At the same time, the appliance is powerful, cordless and features a 1.19-litre bin capacity. It’ll run for 30 minutes and has a charge time of 3.5 hours.

As you’d expect from this long-established brand, the Hoover HFX is nicely designed, comes finished in Titanium-Magenta (in the case of our review sample) and the overall build quality is excellent. It arrives in a slightly smaller than usual box, which contains the main vacuum unit, a removable battery pack, charging plug and cable, the Corner Genie tool plus several accessories. These include a crevice and cleaning tool along with a wall mount if you want to get it off the floor. A user manual completes the package.

Hoover HFX Home review: Is it any good?

You’d think it’d be hard to better any kind of vacuum design that already exists, but Hoover has managed to come up with a neat variation on the theme with the HFX. That’s because it’s not only got a very slender design that folds up for good measure, but there’s also a Corner Genie cleaning head. Cleverly, this is contained in the body of the main vacuum and can be accessed by detaching the main head via a simple click-and-go mechanism that can be activated by stepping on it with your foot.

That, and the fact the Hoover HFX also functions as a more straightforward, no-nonsense cordless vacuum means it’s a bit of a multi-task appliance. Better still though, it can do all this without the need for a bulky design. I think that’s a major step forward, especially if you live in a cramped home with little in the way of storage. It’s also a boon if you’ve already got other vacuums in the cupboard, meaning it can be stashed alongside without hassle, especially thanks to the wall mount that’s included.

Hoover HFX Home review: Performance

I know that some folks can be a little bit dismissive when it comes to the performance characteristics of cordless vacuums. However, they’ve come a long way and modern designs along with beefier more efficient batteries make a model like the Hoover HFX more than capable. I found it lived up to the runtime figures too, and 30 minutes or so is more than enough for me on an average dust down session.

I’m really keen on the control interface in the Hoover HFX too, with easy access buttons on the top of the main unit allowing you to power on and off, as well as tweak the settings depending on the surface being cleaned. The vacuum is responsive and sounds like it has more than enough cleaning muscle. It proved perfect for the hard surfaces of my kitchen. Equally though, the carpet option is great for a thick rug I have in the living room that somehow seems to contain all manner of crisp fragments and biscuit crumbs. No more.

I found that the no-touch emptying was a pleasant surprise too, allowing you to get rid of the dust and detritus in the barrel mounted bin without getting covered in it. Also impressive are the duo of LED lights on the front of the main cleaning head. They’re not exactly a new idea but do underline just how much crud can live under your sofa and other items as well as highlighting how effective your cleaner is.

Hoover HFX Home review: Verdict

The Hoover HFX Home is an interesting alternative to many more conventional vacuums and the innovative design works really well. Being able to fold it up for storage is a real bonus, but the main appeal of this cordless vacuum is its natty ability to deal with a multitude of cleaning scenarios. Some less smart vacuums can tackle the same tasks but require you to change heads, move pipes around and connect into different ports. It all takes time. With the Hoover HFX things are much more straightforward, and less time setting up means more time cleaning, right?

Hoover HFX Home review: Alternatives to consider

If you’re quite keen on the Hoover brand then I’ve enjoyed a lot of time using the H-Upright 300 Pets model, although it’s getting on a bit now. Alternatively, there’s the more recent Hoover HF9 Cordless Vacuum, which I’ve reviewed not so long ago and that too is an excellent compact and portable solution, without a cord obviously and can be had for a decent price.

Of the other brands I’m keen on, the Tower VL100 Optimum Cordless 3-in-1 vacuum cleaner is a very good and so is the Dyson V15 Detect Absolute if you’re a fan. Lookout too for the Gtech AirRAM Platinum, which is another premium stick solution. 

Elsewhere, the Shark Anti Hair Wrap IZ202UK is another well-respected brand that demands your attention if you're not convinced by either of the other two models mentioned above, especially as it comes with Anti Hair Wrap tech. This uses a series of prongs to prevent long hair and threads from wrapping around the cleaning roller.