Hoover S3670 Anniversary WindTunnel

Introduction

Design & Usability

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It's not too difficult to move from room to room, but carrying it up stairs may be a hassle.

The canister's wheels are able turn corners well, so walking across the room with the {{product.name}} in tow was a breeze. That said, unless you plan on getting a full workout during use, you won't want to carry it too far: it weighs a robust 24 pounds. Fortunately, with a nine foot hose, you'll be able to clean stairs without having to carry it up every individual step. It's also on a swivel so you don't need to worry about getting tangled up.

Users can turn the power brush on and off from the extension wand's handle, but most of the controls are on the canister, specifically the on/off button, power level, and cord retraction. You can replace the {{product.name}}'s small 0.96 gallon HEPA dirt bag by cracking open the canister at the top. It slides out of its holster with ease, which is a good thing because you may need to replace it a lot—it can only hold 0.96 gallons at a time. The filter itself is located just below the dirt bag inside the {{product.name}}'s canister. You'll see a blue "remove filter" sticker on the bottom. There, you can lift up the black tab and pull the HEPA rinsable filter out. The vacuum also uses HEPA media filter bags as means of filtration.

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Features & Performance

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While you can count on the {{product.name}} to do well on a few different surfaces, long carpet is a different story.

Almost every particle of dirt, dust, and sand placed on both hard wood and short pile carpet got picked up by this machine. Long carpet, though...just under a quarter of our mess came up, which means you can plan on having to make multiple passes before the job is done. Conversely, it did a really fantastic job picking up debris on long carpet, better than it did with hard wood floors. Pet hair, too, proved to be no challenge: this machine sucked up virtually every strand.

You'll be able to access the {{product.name}}'s tools from their convenient storage spaces on the canister. All you need to do is push down on the lid at the top to get inside, where you can find a pet hair tool and crevice tool. The {{product.name}}'s power cord is 26 feet long and retracts by stepping on the button with the plug on it on the left side of the canister.

Conclusion

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Despite long carpet issues, the S3670 Anniversary WindTunnel handles well.

If it wasn't for the {{product.name}}'s poor performance in our long carpet test, it would be the complete canister vacuum. It has plenty of controls, it handles well, and it does a great job on short carpet and hardwood. Most users will expect a heavy (24 pounds) canister vacuum to suck up more than 23 percent of dirt from high pile carpet, but that was the best this one could do. With that in mind, it's hard to recommend spending $300 on this vacuum over other canisters and uprights that are lighter and will provide better cleaning performance. If the floors in your home match the Hoover's strengths, don't let us stop you from buying it; be warned if you decide to move or redecorate in shag, though.

Science Introduction

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Almost an amazing the vacuum, that's just not enough of an endorsement to make the Hoover S3670 a universally good purchase. Take a look at our data to see where it fell short, and by how much.

Cleaning Performance

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Great on hardwood and short carpet, but fell off the cliff on long carpet.

Feel free to employ the {{product.name}} in an office environment because it sucked up nearly 94% of dirt in our short carpet tests. The {{product.name}} was even better on hardwood than short carpet as it pulled in 95.2% of dirt in our tests. Pet owners will love the {{product.name}}, it didn't leave anything on the surface of the carpet. So far, so good, right?

We noticed that the {{product.name}} wasn't able to dig too far into the long fibers during the high carpet cleaning. Our tests use a mix of different types of sand and talcum powder. Of the 23.4% of dirt picked up, the majority of it was lightweight talcum powder, which means there's not enough suction to pull in the heavier grains of sand. On the other hand, 94% of debris (rice, pasta, and coins) came off of our long carpet, as opposed to just 65.3% that came off hardwood.

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Noise & Efficiency

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The {{product.name}} doesn't go too hard on your ears or electric bill.

At 74 decibels, the {{product.name}} is below average in noise produced. Given its mostly solid performance, this vacuum's noise level is pretty reasonable. Energy consumption was pretty good, too. Other high-performing vacuums that we've tested have been in the 1300 watt range, but the {{product.name}} only uses 1050 watts.

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