19 out of 19 people found this review helpful.
Super Powerful Vacuum
Date of Review: May 1, 2005
The Bottom Line: This is a reasonably priced vacuum with super suction and no bags ever needed.
The price has dropped steadily on this well-regarded canister vac from Hoover. I was able to pick it up at Costco for less than $200, and it even came with a free hand vac in a separate box.
The WindTunnel is the Hoover moniker for the see-through bagless canister that many vacuums have today. The best part about having a bagless canister instead of a bag is obvious, you never have to buy vacuum bags. Besides the expense of purchasing bags, there is the frequent problem of trying to locate the correct bag for the particular vacuum you have. I went through this with my previous vacuum, the Sharp 1200. The bags were so difficult to find, I finally gave up and ordered directly from Sharp, and paid dearly. This was part of what drove me to choose a bagless canister vac.
The drawback to a bagless vac is the emptying of the canister. It can be a messy task to dump the contents, and in the case of this model Hoover, it is also a frequent task, since the canister is quite small. I find that I have to clean out the chamber at least once, and sometimes twice, every time I vacuum the house. There is a filter system built into the canister too, so you need to brush out the filter, and occasionally wash it. Be sure to let the filter dry THOROUGHLY before replacing it in the container. If it is not completely dry, it will develop a musty/moldy smell that will be apparent the minute you turn on the vacuum.
The Hoover S3765-040 WindTunnel Bagless Canister Vacuum does a great job of cleaning, with a super-powerful motor that picks up what other vacuums leave behind. It does this without being too noisy too, as it is significantly quieter than most vacuums in it's class. The power switch is located right on the handle which is a great touch. You can vary the power from off to full power and anything in between by just using your thumb - no need to step on a power switch on the canister like most models. The adjustable-length wand is attached to a fairly large and heavy powered head with beater brushes for carpet cleaning. There is no hardwood floor head included with this vacuum, and the instructions suggest using the regular head with the beater brush turned off for hardwood floors. I find it too heavy and cumbersome for hardwood floor use, so I attached the floor-cleaning head from my old Sharp vacuum to clean the hardwood floors and tile. Works just great.
The cord is a good length (22 feet) and retracts into the unit, although the spring loaded auto-return is a bit anemic and you often have to feed the last few feet of cord back into the machine by hand. This is a minor annoyance, but a quality control issue nonetheless.
Another drawback which I would characterize as a design oversight, rather than a quality control issue, is the lack of a swiveling coupling where the vacuum hose meets the canister. What this causes is a twisting and winding of the hose that needs to be occasionally unwound by hand, much like a telephone handset cord. A simple swivel coupling like most vacuums have would have avoided this.
The wheels on the brush head unit squeak to the point that I had to add some WD-40 spray to stop it. The wheels on the canister unit itself are very skinny and lined with hard rubber, but they do what they're supposed to.
The built in HEPA filter works well, and provides noticeably cleaner exhaust as compared to other vacuums I have used.
The Hoover S3765-040 WindTunnel Bagless Canister Vacuum cleans carpet extremely well, and does a great job on hard surfaces too, but use a different head than the one provided when you do hardwood floors.
Livin' Clean
