The Hoover Sprint Quick Vacuum – Item of the Day
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Hoover Sprint Quick Vacuum. This one was suggested by Dorothy and here is the story behind it. As you guys know we are animal lovers, we keep both dogs and cats and we love them like family members. Our house would be empty without them.
The one big issue is hair, hair everywhere, especially with dogs like Max our GSD and he predecessor Lakota who was a Siberian Husky. We are talking running the vacuum at least every other day.
As you guys know I am of the school of “buy once, cry once” (meaning buy the best, cry about the price but never worry again) at least when it makes sense. So when Dorothy said she wanted a Dyson Animal, well having heard how amazing they were for so long, I said go for it and simply accepted the almost 500 dollar price tag as a “buy once, cry once” moment.
At first we were happy, the Dyson sucked like no vacuum had ever sucked before! The performance was amazing, then it sucked in another way. It simply broke and would not suck at all anymore. By then it was out of warranty so Dorothy tracked down a repair guy locally, there was ONE. Yes ONE.
But one does not simply throw away a 500 dollar vacuum if one has brains so down she goes to the shop. They guy fixed it for a fee, about 75 bucks if I remember right, but he also told her the following, paraphrased,
I work on these things all the time, and it is always pet owners bringing them in. Once they break the first time, they keep breaking. Now I make money fixing them so fine but to tell you the truth I would never buy one.
What I do is buy this cheap Hoover called the Sprint. It is like 60-70 bucks and while a bit small it is very powerful. I have dogs too, and I am going to be honest, pet hair kills vacuums, it just does. I work on them all the time, I’ve been doing it for 20 years and no vacuum is immune to this.
These little vacuums will give you about three years and crap the bed, just like the Dyson but will only cost you about 65 bucks.
The Dyson is going to be at least 75 to repair each time, until you give up and buy another one. Every time you do that you are out 400-500 bucks and for what? I’m happy to take your money but I am also big on telling people the truth.
Well, Dorothy got the Dyson fixed anyway and you know what, it didn’t last much longer before it went down again. So before repairing it again she figured she would try the Sprint. The little thing is a beast! Not to mention very light weight and easy to use.
It is also affordable, since that time as most electronics do the price has dropped from 70 to under 50 bucks! I’ll bet some people with two story homes might get two just to keep one on each floor, though as light as the thing is there is no need to do so.
There is one short coming and it is the size, well the size of the dust bin, it is pretty small. With Charlie, Lucy and Max, pretty much one room fills it, but it is easy to dump and it just keeps going.
I know some of you are likely fans of the Dyson and will go on about “you have to clean the filters”, yes we know, yes we did, and yes it still failed. Not to mention the parts that fail have nothing to do with the filter. The truth is I think the Dyson is a great vacuum, especially for people without pets or at least without pets that shed a lot. I also think it is over priced.
The Hover Sprint is what we use now, we use it on wood floors, tile floors and carpet and it just works. I guess Dorothy has had it about a year and a half now and it gets almost daily use. I am sure one day it will give up the ghost, fine, so be it, I would rather be out 46 dollars than 75 for a repair or say another 400 on a new machine.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
“But one does not simply throw away a 500 dollar vacuum if one has brains…”
Unfortunately, many in our society do not meet the minimum requirements of the above statement.
I used to work for a garbage company collecting residential trash. A coworker, over the course of several years, found, kept and re-sold about 10 dysons of various models. Usually they were simply the older model that had been replaced by the latest model. But one had become clogged due to a knitting needle being bent in the tube and creating a place for pet hair to build up. After a half hour with a pair of pliers, he had a fully functional, good as new dyson.
Moral of the story, make friends with a garbage man and offer to buy any dysons or other great stuff that they find. My co-worker usually resold the dysons for $50-$75.
Dyson’s are over-hyped and over-priced, in general. My own repair guy has a shop full of broken Dysons and says he would never buy one. Says the tech is cool and they work well. While they work. They’re very frail and expensive to repair. He recommends the commercial-grade Orecks. Under $200 and super reliable, and cheap and easy to repair.
Thank you for this review. We’ve been in the market for a good “pet” vacuum as we have a dog and a cat. I showed this review to my wife and she ordered one. Good job.
My needs aren’t exactly the same, but I may just try this. All my vacuuming is above floor. 20+ windows with varying coverings. I do just what the woman in the picture is doing. I need something light enough to hold over my head window after window. Last purchase I did extensive research (focusing on weight of wand) and made the best choice that I could. Complete failure. Lightweight, sure, but the brush on the end of the wand is useless.
Full disclosure I have never used the thing that way, I don’t know that Dorothy has either, you may want to post a question on Amazon or read the reviews a bit deeper if that is your primary use. I selected that picture simply because it worked best of the ones they had available.
I don’t know why I did, but ended up reading an AMA with vacuum repair guy on reddit. Fun read.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pe2bd/iama_vacuum_repair_technician_and_i_cant_believe/
Bought a Miele canister on his suggestion. Thought I would never go back to a bagged vacuum but it’s so much better than any bagless one I’ve ever had. 2 years going strong so far.
Just purchased for my mother – her Dyson went south and not worth repairing. Thanks for the recommendation – it’s difficult to know which way to go with vacuums and grateful to have some useful insight from someone who uses regularly (thanks Dorothy!). I, too, have no problem paying for quality – but you don’t always get what you pay for.
We have the Dyson cordless and it’s been great, but not an ideal design for everyone…my mother’s arthritis prevents her from comfortably using a trigger-switch for any period of time.
Much appreciated