Hoover The One

[keiththomas]

I recalled a while ago seeing the Hoover One, it was the most ugly vacuum cleaner I saw. It cost a lot and was trying to compete with Dyson. I saw a review by the Which Consumer magazine saying it was a waste of time. When was it launched and dropped out of interest. I thought it was a ppor product when i saw it

 

[sebo_fan]

Is there a question here or just a thought?

 

[madabouthoovers]

The One was a very poor vacuum, around in about 2005ish, and sold for about £200 if I can remember rightly in Argos. It was to compete with Dyson, but failed miserably.


Poor quality filtration method used caused the airflow to be restricted too quickly and most burnt out their motors a long time ago.


Poor materials used in manufacture meant parts broke off, and the wheel mounts were particularly vulnerable.


Dreadful performance on hard floors due to the brushroll having a pop down "brush" behind it, but the brushroll could not be turned off.


 


Here's one on Ebay - they don't come up very often now, so quite collectable in a funny sort of way - moreso due to them being one of the worst ever mass produced vacs.



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hoover-Va...817?pt=UK_Vacuum_Cleaners&hash=item3f2fd8c059

 

[sebo_fan]

I think Hoover were so annoyed with the Which result that they promptly recalled The One and brought out a "new and improved" model. I don't know if they newer one improved things though. I have never had one but I was offered one a couple of years ago when the Slalom had just been brought out - bought the Slalom instead.

 

[hi-loswitch98]

I do know that the Hoover 'The One Infinity' one of the newer improved models came with a telescopic tube/handle & a very long 8m stretch hose.

 

[madabouthoovers]

They became the "Performer" and "Performer Pet", and essentially was a colour change and the addition of a better hose, and separate brushroll motor, to try to improve its performance on hard floors.


Filtration was unchanged so the overheating problems remained. Still a poor offering.


The release of the Airvolution filtration system on the Freedom and Slalom was a huge improvement on the "One" and "Performer", and finally, Hoover had a reasonable multi-cyclonic lineup to succeed them.

 

[hi-loswitch98]

You could say that until the launch of 'The One' in 2005 Hoover were going down the pan for the previous 10 or so years after the Free Flights Fiasco. Then after the launch of 'The One' Hoover could see what was wrong & recalled the models & then over the next few years relaunched better models & things have improved with the Hoover-Candy Company since then, I mean, the launch of the Airvolution models as Steve mentioned above followed by the other Multi-Cyclonic Vacuums.

You could say that the imfamous Hoover 'The One' helped improve Hoover over a course of time.

 

[sebo_fan]

Frankly I think you're giving Hoover more credit than they are due, HiLO. Dyson certainly knocked the wind out of Hoover Europe's sails, as with every other brand.

Also Candy took Hoover Europe over in 1995 and to be honest with you, I don't think the home owner company had much to do with an improvement of whatever - to Candy, Hoover's existing larger home appliances like freezers, washers and dishwashers meant Candy could double their sales with their own machines as well as Hoover's own larger line up.

I don't think Hoover were that bothered with The One until the media and consumers complained. It wasn't until problems started to surface (and probably helped by the damming report from Which?) that they made some kind of effort to improve the original One design, but as Steve says, any of the changes didn't really help the majority of the problems that the original design had. After all, bad news is never good news and Hoover were caught out for not properly testing the One thoroughly enough, hence a recall/newer changes had to be implemented.

Suggesting that Hoover were going down the pan "for the previous 10 years or so," isn't fair to be honest - when you consider that Hoover were still producing and selling the bagged Turbopower 3 as far as 1997/8, those bagged uprights weren't half bad. Infact quite a few models were good - so much better than the Purepower.

Then when the Vortex arrived and caused Dyson to take Hoover to court, Hoover then spun out the design with many other different models, essentially similar with colour changes and name changes such as "Hurricane," "Cyclean," "Whirlwind," and of course the "Vortex" with a big foot version - timeline wise - those Purepower BASED upright models were all released BEFORE The One was produced.

I had a Cyclean for a while - nice colour but ever so bulky to use and mine came with plastic poly dust bags, which was weird given that it was supposed to be a bagless upright. See old link from Vacuumland.

http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?6603

Also link added here of the existing Hoover Service "problem page" for The One. Click on the "cuts out/blocks" problem and see how many filters they suggest that need clearing!


http://service.hoover.co.uk/advice-...gless-upright-vacuum/troubleshooting/the-one/

 

[hi-loswitch98]

I wasn't giving them credit, just mentioning how 'The One' did push Hoover to redesign it...eventually.

 

[sebo_fan]

Well I'm failing to see how you think The One "improved Hoover over a course of time," from your original reply.

It was the media and customers who complained that forced Hoover to recall The One, HiLo - nowt to with Candy other than a payout of rescuing the old vacuums and being forced to make improvements.

 

[hi-loswitch98]

I meant they had to make improvements to their newer vacuum cleaner ranges (such as the Airvolution models).

 

[sebo_fan]

Well, Hoover had to. Otherwise we'd still be used to the dust box idea seen on the Discovery cylinder vac or the Dustmanager Mk1 ranges.

The Airvolution process wasn't the first in the UK when it comes to multicyclonic design outside the realm of Dyson. Hoover might like to think they were but it was actually TTi/Vax who brought the multicyclonic "Zero" range two years prior to Hoover before the "Mach" series was developed to replace "Zero". Hoover simply copied the idea and badged it as "AirVolution."

 

[dysondestijl]

I have a 'zero' machine. I don't find it that bad- cyclone system isn't the most efficient ever but it doesn't lose a lot of suction as the filter gets more mucky!

 

[sebo_fan]

I always wanted one of the many different Zero models that Vax made (I know they did a whole series of both cylinder and uprights) but the noise put me off when I tried one. TTI/Vax were very clever as they did was just remove the old paper pleated style filters and added the new multicyclonic filter assembly and tarted up an old body. Oldest trick in the book for a "new" vacuum cleaner with a different principle of containing the dirt.

I think Vax also added a VX Zero upright based on their old AVC/X3, X5 range too.

 

[matt8808]

I bought one of the later Performer Pet versions a few years back when Argos were selling them cheap.
It was brand new obviously and seemed to perform pretty well, however I didn't like the tools so took it back. Didn't keep it long enough to see how the filters coped but the few times I did use it I was happy with it.

Seemed to clean far better on carpet than the purepowers, dustmanagers and the Vortex. I think that was due to the floating head design though

 

[ultraperformer]

Ugly

I'd have to disagree I always thought The One looked very funky! Wish I'd been into vacs at that time I would have gone one and kept it new boxed away and I would the Triple Vortex.

 

[sebo_fan]

Id rather have the Discovery -wasn't this a U.S model? I recall there were bagged versions of it too.

 

[hi-loswitch98]

Sensotronic had a Bagged Discovery 'Amigo', they later became the 'Octopus Dust Manager' IIRC.

 

[sebo_fan]

Ah yes, thank you for reminding me - the Octopus. It was available in bagged variants.