Hoover H-Free 300 pets cordless vacuum review: Our house is finally free of cat hair thanks to this machine

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Owning a pet, whether it’s a loving Labrador or rambunctious Ragdoll, has so many benefits; from helping to ease stress to encouraging playfulness and keeping you fit and active.

But there are some downsides that come with having a furry companion, including shedding. No matter how much you brush your pet, their hair has a bad habit of staying behind after they’ve been snoozing on the sofa or on a trip in the car.

And, as such, it’s important to invest in a vacuum cleaner that can help you clean up after your four-legged friends.

While there are plenty of pet vacuums around, they are often expensive and not always better at sucking up fur and fluff than non-pet models. So when we spotted this model, that’s not only affordable but claims to banish all that pesky pet hair with ease, our interest piqued.

Hoover’s H-Free 300 (£159.99, Currys.co.uk) is one of the brand’s stick vacuum models and is designed to slot into the middle ground when it comes to budget. Ideal for tackling those jobs that don’t warrant bringing out the full-size corded machine, it promises to rid your home of dust bunnies and, while featuring motorised tangle-free brushes, upholstery accessories and easy-clean filters that make life with your beloved dog or cat much easier. But how did it perform against our beloved fur babies’s endless fur balls? Read on to find out.

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We put the H-Free 300 pets cordless vacuum to the test over a few weeks of daily use in a two-bedroom house that’s ruled largely by a boisterous Scottish straight called Babushka, who enjoys nothing more than curling up on a velvet sofa and partaking in lengthy (and messy) grooming sessions on the stairs. As well as its ability to tackle extensive pet fur tasks, we rated the vacuum on its design, range of attachments and how long the battery lasted in different modes.

Buy now£159.99, Currys.co.uk

As we opened the box, one of the first things we noticed about this vacuum is just how lightweight it is. Weighing just 2.5kg (which is less than half the weight of traditional full-size uprights), it’s exceptionally light in the hand, making it great for a range of household jobs, from ridding the ceiling of cobwebs to quick crumb hunts.

It’s aesthetically pleasing too, with a blue anodised finish on the aluminium main tube, while the handle, main brush and bin come in grey and topped with the signature Hoover logo. When put together – which is seriously straightforward, simply slot your chosen attachment into a hole at the bottom or the end of the nozzle – we also noticed that the H-Free 300 has the ability to stand up on its own accord, meaning you don’t need to find a piece of furniture to lean against mid-clean.

Hoover has also installed two LEDs – one on the main body to give you light when using it as a handheld tool and another on the motorised floor brush, so you can see clearly where you need to clean, whether that’s in a darkened room corner or underneath the sofa.

Elsewhere, the bin is a decent size with a 0.7l capacity and the controls are easily identifiable. You simply squeeze the trigger to turn the vacuum on and squeeze it again to power it off, while a “power control” touch-sensitive button on the handle can be gently tapped to raise or lower the suction level.

This model also comes with a single battery, which can be charge in-situ or removed and charged separately.

This stick vacuum comes with a range of accessories designed to help you tackle different jobs. As well as the main stick that’s fitted with a floor brush, it comes with a crevice tool, an upholstery brush that has a clip-on hard brush, and a mini-motorised pet tool, which is designed to tackle sofas and carpeted stairs.

Read more: 15 best bagless vacuum cleaners: Upright, cylinder, cordless and robot

Like other Hoover models, there’s also a rubber wiper in the box, which can be inserted into the floor brush for better suction on hard floors and a wall-mounting kit, which allows you to hang it up on the wall or inside a cupboard. There isn’t, however, any type of storage provided for the different attachments.

As a cat owner, we’re used to finding balls of grey hair around the house, whether that’s on the sofa where she’s been curled up for hours or tucked behind large pieces of furniture. So, we were keen to see how the Hoover H-Free 300 would fare against our seriously furry feline as well as day-today grime.

Despite its reasonable price tag, we were impressed by the performance of this stick vacuum, which had no problem switching between floor types, from hard wood to rugs (apart from one with tassels, which caused it to get slightly stuck). The main floor brush makes light work of crumbs and we were surprised at how well it picked up larger pieces of dirt too, especially when on full power.

Naturally though, it’s worth considering that the life of the battery is affected depending which setting you use – while you’ll get a full 40 minutes of cleaning time in auto mode, use it on turbo and you’re looking at something closer to 15 minutes max. However, we found we only needed to kick it up a gear for stubborn debris. If you have a really big house, you might find you need a quick top-up charge (it takes three hours to return to full capacity) 40 minutes was more than enough for us to do a quick whip round to tidy up.

Incredibly lightweight, this vacuum wins when it comes to convenience as it’s ideal for quick touch ups and moves around the floor easily, getting into corners and tight spots – the lights on the brush also made it easy to spot any pesky areas we might have otherwise missed. One thing we did find though is that, while the “park and go” feature that allows the vacuum to stand up is handy, it isn’t fool proof. When the bin started to fill up, the extra weight made it unstable on a few occasions, causing it to fall over.

Read more: 13 best cordless vacuum cleaners for hassle-free hoovering

We found changing accessories was straightforward and quick too – our favourite by far was the mini-motorised tool, which left our velvet sofa fresh and cat-hair free. We also really enjoyed using the crevice attachment, which is excellent for dusting skirting boards and cleaning up any cat litter that inevitably gets kicked out of the litter box.

The bin compartment has a sizeable 0.7l capacity, which was big enough for us not to have to empty it for an entire week. It has a drop down lid on the underside which makes it easy to move collected dirt straight into the bin and the entire thing can be removed should you wish to give the filter a thorough clean.

At under £200, the Hoover H-Free 300 is great value for money thanks to the powerful suction and range of tools. The cleaning performance is brilliant and we loved how lightweight and portable it is, meaning it can be used for quick touch-ups we all need to make every day or so. Ultimately, we think this model is best-suited to smaller households or as an extra to a powerful plug-in appliance – especially if you have a pet that sheds a lot. For those without furry friends though, there is a non-pet version available (£129.99, Currys.co.uk), which boasts all the same features aside from the dedicated pet tool.