Hoover Freedom 2in1 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner, FD22L, Handheld, Above Floor Cleaning, Lightweight - Blue

Product Information

The low suction power and lethargic brush bar didn’t really stand much of a chance with pet hair embedded into a nylon test carpet. The results were very poor. A 25-minute battery provides more than enough power for many routine cleaning tasks around the living room, bedroom or even your car. Although this happened less frequently with the Hoover than on the Vax, it was often enough to suggest that this cleaner is far from pet-friendly. Once the charging cable is connected, the light on top flashed red and blue. From a completely flat battery, it turned blue to indicate it was fully charged some five-and-a-half hours to six later. This is a good few minutes shy of the similar Vax SlimVac or, indeed, Hoover’s own claimed run-time. However, there’s certainly a little more suction power on offer than the Vax – and a more efficient floor-head – so we’re happy to lose that 4 minutes.

It took about a nano-second after getting the Hoover Freedom out of the box to realise that the main cleaner is all but identical to arch-rival Vax’s SlimVac Total Home. A couple of different mouldings and slightly different colour, but essentially the same item straight out of the same Far East factory. Red highlighted clips beneath release the bin flap and battery. Since the charger plugs into the cleaner handle, having a removable battery is all but pointless, as you can’t charge a “spare” battery while using the machine anyway. If you have the wrist strength and energy to manoeuvre the Hoover Freedom, it’s actually quite handy for stairs.On the plus side, the floor-head, and particularly the detail tools, are better designed. The floor-head has more bite and pulls dust and debris from the carpet better, although our carpet test still showed it wasn’t great. Hoover is the latest brand to join the pistol-grip cordless vacuum cleaner revolution with the affordable Freedom FD22G. This lightweight handheld combines extension tube and power brush-head for floors, and some neat tools for up-close detail cleaning.

Using the upholstery tools on the stairs produced a much better result, albeit taking a while longer than with the larger floor-head. The action of agitating the tool against the carpet shifts a fair bit of debris – but again, you need some arm strength to do it. The other important feature to consider here is the materials the battery is made from. Lithium is the modern battery of choice. It’s much lighter than the older lead-acid batteries and its lifespan is significantly longer too – you should experience (close to) a lossless battery performance. Unfortunately, the combination of limited cleaning ability and our coarse stair carpet with embedded pet hair was a challenge too far for the Freedom, and its struggled to clean efficiently.

The pistol grip at the rear of the cleaner with motor, battery and bin in front give the Freedom a very front-heavy design. See also: Best Halogen Oven 2018: The 6 BEST Halogen Cookers. Hoover FD22L Freedom Lite review: Design and attachments

The FD22L comes with only two attachments. The standard vacuum brush head and an accompanying tool. There are no specials tools for pet hair, upholstery cleaning or large/small dusters.The day was saved to an extent by the crevice tool and a good dual-purpose upholstery and cleaning brush. Both are a decent size, and with the airflow condensed into a smaller area, both provide reasonable suction.