Hoover Sprint QuickVac UH20040 Review

The Sprint QuickVac finished close to the bottom of the bunch, right behind the Hoover WindTunnel and the Bissell Zing Rewind. The WindTunnel outmatched the QuickVac at cleaning soft floors and picking up pet hair, but it is much harder to use overall and much heftier, making it a bit more difficult to maneuver. The Zing Rewind also cleans better than the Sprint, but does much worse at collecting pet hair. The QuickVac did slightly outperform the Bissell 9595A, but only by being much easier to handle and maneuver — this pair had a similar cleaning performance.

Performance Comparison

To see which vacuum cleaner truly bested them all, we bought the top models on the market today and compared their performance side-by-side. We split our testing methodology into five weighted metrics — Carpet Cleaning, Hard Surface Cleaning, Pet Hair, Ease of Use, and Handling, with the sections below elaborating on how the QuickVac performed against the competition.

Carpet Cleaning

Our Carpet Cleaning metric is the most important of our test, comprising 35% of the total score. We used oats, rice, flour, and Cheerios to assess performance, testing on both flatter low-pile and fluffier medium-pile carpet. The Sprint delivered a universally subpar performance, leaving plenty of residual debris behind.

The QuickVac did an average job of cleaning rice from low-pile carpet, but did an abysmal job on the fluffier carpet, piling up the rice rather than collecting it. Its performance flipped when we tested its flour cleaning abilities, doing better on the fluffier carpet than the flat. It still did relatively lackluster overall, even with two passes.

The QuickVac continued its poor performance into our oatmeal test, leaving plenty of oat fragments and dust behind on both flat and fluffy carpets, even after 5-6 passes. Continuing its trend, this product also did poorly at collecting Cheerios, tending to push them around and leave plenty of residuals behind, even after adjusting the carpet height setting.

Ease of Use

Our next metric, taking responsibility for 25% of the overall score, is Ease of Use. We ranked and scored each product on how easy it is to adjust for different floor types and how well the vacuum cleaned close to edges and reached under furniture, as well as how loud each product is. The Hoover QuickVac delivered an overall mediocre performance, earning a 5 out of 10.

This model does have the ability to adjust for different floor types, but it isn't particularly easy to use. You have to bend down to reach the rotary dial, which is also quite hard to turn.

The Hoover does quite well cleaning in close to edges, but it did leave a little debris directly in front of the main extractor when cleaning in close to a tight corner. It did a decent job at cleaning under furniture, reaching a little over 7" under our simulated sofa, or about half the distance of the top models.

This vacuum is about average in terms of noise, measuring in at 77 dBa in our test, but has a terrible reach, having one of the shortest cords of the group.

Handling

Our next metric, accounting for 20% of the final score, tested each vacuum on three things: how maneuverable it is, how much effort it takes to push or pull the vacuum, and how easy it is to clean a flight of stairs. The SprintVac delivered one of its best performances in this group of tests, earning a 7 out of 10.

This vacuum is lightweight, making it one of easiest of all of the upright vacuum to push or pull. However, its maneuverability is somewhat lackluster — a bit surprising since it is so light, weighing in at a little over 12 lbs.

This vacuum did an average job at cleaning stairs, reaching just shy of 7 steps without toppling.

Hard Surface Cleaning

Taking credit for 10% of the total, our Hard Surface Cleaning metric used the same tests as our Carpet Cleaning metric, instead conducting them on a section of laminate hardwood floor. The Hoover Sprint QuickVac again did quite poorly, earning a 3 out of 10 for its substandard performance.

We used the hard floor setting for each of the tests. The QuickVac started off poorly in this test, causing a mini-explosion of rice grains. It didn't do much better with the Cheerios, causing similar results. The oatmeal was even worse, though this product did redeem itself slightly in our flour test. It still didn't do amazing, doing a relatively average job overall, but bucked its trend of absolutely abysmal performances when it came to cleaning up messes on hard floor.

Pet Hair

For the final 10% of the total score, we assessed the ability of each vacuum to clean up after our furry friends. The Hoover Sprint QuickVac did quite well at collecting pet hair, earning a 7 out of 10 for its showing.

The Hoover collected about 83% of the pet hair we laid out, leaving about 0.83 grams behind.

Value

While the Hoover QuickVac is very affordably priced, it also scored quite poorly, precluding it from being a great value pick.

Conclusion