If you register your Hoover the Guarantee covers the battery for one year, all other parts are guaranteed for ten years, but they will only be replaced for free in the first year, except for parts subject to fair wear and tear. So essentially after the first year if the battery fails you will need to replace it yourself, parts like the pre-filter you would be expected to replace, but other parts should be covered for free replacement although you have to pay for labour. In terms of size, the device is fairly standard, standing upright at 260 x 210 x 1,110mm (WDH). It weighs 3.4kg: the handheld unit is around 2kg, with the floor head and wand making up the remainder. The brushbar has a mix of soft and hard bristles to clean all types of hard floors and carpets effectively. Use the CARPET button for deep cleaning, or switch off to clean rugs and hard floors. The HF500 anti-twist is the upgraded version of the powerful H-Free 500 model. It has better suction power, charges 58% faster and offers a 20% longer run time. It also features a unique anti-twist floorhead, which prevents hairs from wrapping around the roller. As someone with long hair, I know how hard it is to remove tangled hair from a brush!

At 0.7l the collection bin isn’t enormous but it’s a significantly more useful size than the 0.45l bin that comes with the Hoover HF500. This should be enough to clean a house without having to empty part way through, unless your house is particularly large or filthy.Starting with the Cheerios, the HF500 performed well. There are vents at the front of the floor head – gaps that can draw in and swallow larger items, such as chunky breakfast cereal. Keeping the floor head clean is a cinch thanks to the Anti Twist Technology which helps to prevent those hairs from wrapping around the floor head, if you do feel like giving it a periodic clean then easy instant access is achieved via the pop-up cover. The HF500 Anti-Twist offers our most powerful cordless cleaning, thanks to a new and improved motor. For better all-round cleaning performance, the Shark IZ300UKT proved stronger in our tests. This has a soft roller for hard floors and can fold up for compact storage. It also comes with a greater number of tools and attachments, although it’s usually a bit more expensive, too. Note that this model can’t stand unsupported when extended, though, so you’ll always need to find somewhere to prop it up mid-clean.

In use, I found the battery needed recharging regularly, making the HF500 best suited to small spaces and lighter jobs. Hoover quotes the battery life at up to 45 minutes, but I assume that’s only possible with the motorised floor head switched off. With the floor head powered, I found the vacuum lasted 26 mins 10 secs – which, as you can see from the chart below, is one of the weakest battery performances you’ll find among similarly priced vacuums. The main attachment has an LED light bar which is the sort of design feature you don’t realise you need until you try it. When vacuuming in low light it is really helpful for showing where the dust or dirt is and making sure you don't miss a patch. Self Standing

Above the buttons is a simple screen with icons showing what mode you’re in (carpet or hard-floor) and whether Turbo is engaged. The rest of the display shows the number of minutes of cleaning left on the device before the battery runs out. If the vacuum is plugged in, it will display the percentage of charge the battery has available instead. At 0.45l, the collection bin is relatively compact for a full-size cordless, so you can be pretty certain that it will need emptying at the end of most significant cleaning jobs. The battery can be charged in the vacuum or separately and should reach full charge in 2 1/2 hours. Furthermore, when it comes to storage, this Hoover is very compact. In storage mode, the device sits at only 69cm in height meaning it can be stored in a cupboard out of sight, instead of cluttering up your home. It can be used as a normal vacuum or as a handheld cleaner Take the Cheerios on hard floor test out of the equation, however, and the rest of the results are technically perfect. There were some elements left behind on a single pass, but not enough to register more than 1g of weight on my kitchen scales.