Giving the HF500 a dusty test drive

This post contains items gifted by HooverDirect.co.uk for the purposes of this review.  All views and opinions are my own.

I’m very much a fan of household items that are functional, fulfil their purpose and which don’t dominate your living space.  So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that when I was offered a H-FREE 500 Twin Battery 3 in 1 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner (this is the top of the range from this series) to review I was keen to see if a compact hoover could deliver great performance (spoiler – it can).  When it arrived, I was surprised at just how compact it was.

As you can see from the picture below, it’s not a usual sized vacuum cleaner box – it’s just a bit more than half way over the height of the radiator.  And in that box, there’s a lot of vacuum cleaner.

It’s also really well packaged.  The items are separated by cardboard with each piece in its place, getting so much into the space available is a pretty mean feat.  Add to that, that for my area, all bar two bits of the packaging are recyclable in our kerbside bin, and that’s also good news.

In the box, along with the unassembled cordless H-Free 500 is a crevice tool, pet brush, additional filter, two battery packs, a dusting and upholstery tool (which is stored on the handheld), a bag for the accessories and the quick start guide and manuals, as well as a wall mount and screws (not shown). 

The instruction manual shows clearly how to assemble the cleaner, but it’s really intuitive and so you’ll not be surprised that I went ahead without referring to the manual, looking at it to check that I was on track.  When it’s fully assembled (see the picture below) it’s a fully sized cordless vacuum cleaner, which I was keen to put to the test. 

I expected to need to charge it though before I could get started, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover it already had some power, but more on that in a moment.  First let me show you the cordless hoover in its compacted form – it was easy to switch into this mode – and you can see it’s clearly reduced in height, which will make it easy to store.  It’s also pretty sturdy standing alone in both set-ups, another plus in my view.

What’s equally impressive is the dual battery – that allows you to have the second battery charged and ready to go, I can see that being a real advantage.  On the Hoover Direct website, it says that ‘each battery pack gives up to 40 minutes of power in auto mode, 25 minutes in standard mode, or 8 minutes in turbo mode’.  The other thing to note about charging the HF500 is that it can be plugged in anywhere, so there’s none of this ‘returning to base’ for a charge which gives it even more flexibility which would have come in really useful for my MIL’s house move at the start of the year.

But back to giving it a test drive. 

As you know I’ve been working from home in my ‘top’ office for a while now, it’s a room that I’m using so much more than in all the time we’ve lived here.  That’s true for MOH and our spare room too though to be fair.  What we’re finding is that our house gets way more dusty than we noticed when we were out at the office each day (or maybe it doesn’t and we’re just noticing it more, who knows!)

My ‘top’ office also doubles as my yoga space, and recently it was when I was supposed to be emptying my mind that I noticed just how dusty part of the floor was.  Embarrassingly so, but in my defence it’s where our washing dries and at this time of year it’s put to good use  – yet another use for my ‘top’ office, which despite the picture I’m painting really is a nice spot to work in.  For a start it’s not the kitchen table and it gets the warmth of the sun from being at the front of the house – but back to the dust.

What the HF500 does really well is switch easily between carpet and non-carpet.  The LED lights really do help you find the hidden – or in my case, not so hidden – dust.  And reassuringly it’s definitely much cleaner now – my yoga sessions can go back to being much more relaxing.

I also want to share more about the dusting tool – and once again my home office set-up provided the perfect place to test the handheld mode.  Removing the pink tube – I forgot to mention how much that made me smile when I opened the box – and fixing the dusting tool in place, I was off – there was no stopping me – skirting boards, radiator pipes and my ‘borrowed from the office during lockdown’ footrest.  It’s amazing how much the HF500 picked up from these areas alone – and clearly I’m going to claim that it was my plan all along to have somewhere where the difference is obvious… ahem.  But I’ve also tested its pick-up power in much higher traffic areas – and therefore more often cleaned areas - of our home, and even there it’s making our space much cleaner, and that’s no bad thing, especially when it’s easy to achieve too.

So it’s a big thumbs up from me, and I know MOH is itching to get his hands on it too to give it his own test drive, and well, who am I to argue with that? 

View this product on Hoover Direct.

*  With thanks to Hoover Direct for providing the Hoover H-FREE 500 Twin Battery 3 in 1 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner for the purposes of this review.

Let's talk rentals

* This is a paid collaborative post

It was only after that brief conversation with our new neighbour over the garden fence, on what is already a long-forgotten Spring weekend that I thought about what it’s like to rent a property.  It’s not something I’ve experienced first-hand, ever, which thinking back is also quite odd.  I think that’s mostly because I grew up in London, started work in central London soon after leaving school rather than going away to study and well, haven’t moved very far.  I’m still in London, I’ve had a brief foray over to Essex but came back to South London, which is home for me.  

But considering what it’s like to rent a property from a renter’s point of view is an interesting one.  I’m sure that the overriding priority, is like the rest of us, having somewhere to live that works for work, is affordable, doesn’t need too much work and additionally is managed well and has a landlord that’s professional and fair.  It’s actually not too much to ask is it, but I’m sure it’s not that straightforward.

Then once you’re in your new place, there’s the requirements in the lease to uphold to ensure your tenancy is not only not interrupted but if you want it, extended at the appropriate points.  

And that’s where our over the garden fence conversation comes in.  I’m sure that it came from a place where they were keen to ensure their new garden was kept manageable and under control.  And that’s admirable.  I also know, through experience, that once you start trimming and pruning and cutting back, it’s quite addictive and that’s where I was keen to save (actually that’s rather stronger than I mean, protect is better), protect the new growth on our highly scented and many years-trained Jasmine.

While renters rightly have legal protection, finding a new home you like then jeopardising that by not completing your undertaking, however unintentionally, must be galling.  

Equally when you move in to your new home you have an expectation that it is fit for purpose, and that the previous end of tenancy cleaning has been done, and to a high standard.  As a landlord the quality and thoroughness reflects on you too, and you’ll want to present your property in its best light.

Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash

In some ways this is a better, and I’m sure more consistent way of approaching cleaning a house following a house sale.  In all the houses we’ve moved into - which is just five, but seems a lot to me - we’ve had some positive and negative experiences, I guess we all do.  But wouldn’t it be great all round if we didn’t?

I’m sure there’s many horror stories out there, but let’s focus on the positive.  Let me know your best experience of when you’ve moved into a new home, either rental or mortgaged in the comments below.

Mine was moving into this house, we discovered a bottle of wine (which is always welcome) and then rather randomly some duck breasts in the freezer.  It turns out we quite like duck, and it’s relatively easy to cook too…

* While this is a collaborative post, all views and opinions remain my own.

A stay clean orange scrubber

Yes, that's what I thought too. You're thinking that's too good to be true right? It's what I was thought when Kuhn Rikon sent me one of their stay clean scrubbers, that and how it reminded me of sticklebricks!

Image credit: Kuhn Rikon

It was much less like a sticklebrick when it arrived though. It's made of silicone which gives it a soft, flexible feel, which is just what you want from something you'll be using on your pots and pans. And I didn't mind the orange either, although if that's not your colour it's also available in white, red, blue and green.

It claims that you'll have no more smelly sponges, and let's be fair sponges can get pretty smelly which is why I don't have one. There's one in the kitchen at work and I can't bear to touch it to move it out of the sink, let alone use it anywhere near my mug. Kuhn Rikon say because silicone dries faster it doesn't harbour the bacteria, like a normal sponge does. And to give it a thorough clean you can just pop it into the microwave. Being silicone it's also dishwasher safe and heat resistant up to 260 degrees C.

So how did I get on?

Well, all in the name of research you understand I'd managed to burn something on my frying pan. I can't remember what, but it wasn't shifting and it seemed just the thing to try this on. There are apparently over 5000 silicone bristles on each scrubber - I took them at their word for this! 

So I set to work. And shortly after MOH got in on the act too. He is the master cleaner in this house, so it was useful to have his view. And he approved too.

And now it's firmly positioned in our washing up caddy which lives by the side of the sink. I said before I didn't mind the orange, looking at this caddy it seems I'm not the matching kind of girl I thought I was, more of one that's happy with any colour whether it's lime green, orange or pink - and even the washing up liquid is blue. 

And I'm already trying to work out if I could borrow it once a week to take to work to give my mug there a proper clean. As carrying a silicone sponge will be way easier than bringing the mug home each time it needs a clean. And when I take it to work - you see, it's already a when - there's no way I'm leaving it by the sink, as I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one impressed by it.

I never realised that silicone could be quite so versatile, but it really seems to be. Who knew.

This is a collaborative post with Kuhn Rikon, but all views are my own.