Hoover onepwr evolve cordless vacuum cleaner bh53400 reviews

Avg. consumer rating = 91/100 

In this review we look at the Hoover ONEPWR Evolve. It is a very simple, bagless and cordless stick vacuum.  It is also quite reasonably priced.  We ran it through a carpet cleaning test and a hard floor cleaning test and it performed adequately in both.  The unit is also easy to maintain.  However we did find that the brushroll got easily tangled with hair, the vacuum did not clean up tight against edges, and it was on the noisy side.  We were also a little disappointed in how much plastic is used in the unit’s construction.  It doesn’t feel very robust.

	Swappable Battery			A bit noisy
	Affordable			Some scattering in Hard Floor Mode
	Reasonable cleaning performance			Weak edge cleaning
	Respectable run times			Sometimes needs extra push on carpet
	Simple, straightforward vacuum			Doesn't feel sturdy/robust
	Good size dust canister

HOOVER ONEPWR SYSTEM
Hoover ONEPWR is a battery system which allows the use of the same battery across 9 different Hoover products.  This could be an asset if you have or plan to have more than one Hoover ONEPWR product.  If not, it really doesn’t make much difference.

MODELS
We have the Hoover Evolve (model BH53405CDI) which was purchased in Canada.  In the USA you more frequently see the Hoover Evolve Pet (model BH53420PC).  These are essentially the same vacuum but to the best of our knowledge the Evolve Pet has an antimicrobial brushroll and an odor absorbing filter while the Evolve does not.

 WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
- Hoover ONEPWR Evolve vacuum cleaner
- Filters
- 1 Battery
- Battery Charger
- Quick Start Guide
- Owner’s Manual

CONSUMER RATINGS
We found over 1500 owner ratings for the Evolve/Evolve Pet from several well-known online retailers – see table below.  When a weighted average was applied to these figures we got an overall vacuum score of 90.7 out of 100.  This is a very good score (owners thought more highly of this machine than we did but that happens).  You can compare this score to the score of other stick vacuums in our stick vacuum ratings table.  You can also view the scores of all the vacuums on our site in the Vacuum Cleaner Finder.

TOOLS & ATTACHMENTS
There are no tools or attachments provided with this vacuum.  There is really nowhere to attach tools anyhow.  This is one of the first vacuums we have worked with in which this is the case.  

BATTERY
The unit comes with a battery charger and a lithium-ion battery which provides what the industry commonly calls fade-free power.  Fade-free power provides full power until such time as the battery is fully discharged – then the power almost instantly drops to zero.  This is a good thing as you don’t have to deal with waning power as the battery is discharging.

The ONEPWR system uses swappable batteries.  So the battery is not built into the vacuum.  Rather, it can be removed and charged and placed back into the vacuum.  One of the major benefits of this approach is the ability to use more than one battery. When one battery is fully discharged you can simply swap in another one and keep vacuuming.  Two batteries will effectively double your run time.   Of course this vacuum only comes with one battery but you can buy an additional one if you want.  Also, if you happen to have other Hoover ONEPWR products then you will likely have more than one battery.

CONTROLS
Vacuum controls are easily accessed just behind the wand at about waist height.  See image below:

The control definitions are as follows:
- Power On/Off: Overall vacuum power on/off
- Carpet Mode: Maximum brushroll speed, Maximum suction
- Hard Floor Mode: Slower brushroll speed, Low suction
- Brushroll Off Mode: Zero brushroll speed, Maximum suction

Brushroll Off Mode may be a good choice for people who have a delicate hard surface to vacuum and are concerned that a spinning brushroll may mar or scratch the surface.

Also, Hard Floor Mode is really more of a lower power Carpet Mode.  The brushroll still spins fast enough so it is still effective on carpet.  It would be reasonable to use Hard Floor Mode on most low to medium pile carpets if you wanted to extend your run times.

RUN TIMES
Hoover Evolve literature states both 35 minutes of run time and 25 minutes of run time.  We are not sure under what circumstance they came up with these figures.  We tested the vacuum run times ourselves.

Run time in Carpet Mode is a little short but if you use Hard Floor Mode on carpet you get a pretty decent run time (over 27 minutes). Recharge time for the battery is between 3 and 4 hours.

Note: During our carpet mode test you could hear the motor whining and the speed seemed to fluctuate up and down over the duration of the test.  Frankly I was concerned that maybe something was going to go wrong with the motor (in the cleaner head).  Nothing did but it was a little disconcerting.  We did notice that the motor in the cleaner head was very hot after this test and you could smell it (burning rubber kind of smell).   To be fair the unit still operates just fine.

CLEANER HEAD
The cleaner head is pretty simple.  No fancy tangle-free technology or dual brushrolls or any such things, just a simple spinning, bristled brushroll.  Hoover has also made it easy to clean the brushroll.  

Brushrolls will often get tangled with hair, string, thread, etc.  This can become so problematic that the brushroll slows and/or pickup is compromised.  When this happens you have to clean the brushroll and it can be a bit of a chore.  In the case of the Evolve, Hoover has made it easy to remove the brushroll from the cleaner head for cleaning - you just give it a twist and it slides out (see image below).  There are even grooves in the brushroll where one can fit scissors for easy removal of hair/string/thread.  

We have read several owner comments that state the Evolve brushroll can stop when it experiences some resistance, like deep carpet.  To test this we ran the machine on very deep pile carpet.  In the short video below you can see that the brushroll did not stop and it continued to operate just fine.  The vacuum also moved quite well on this carpet – better than we expected.  We’ve seen some machines really bog down when tested on this deep pile carpet.

MANEUVERABILITY & WEIGHT
According to Hoover the vacuum weighs 8.6 lbs. We weighed ours on a scale and it actually came in lower at 8.2 lbs.  In either case the vacuum is a bit on the heavy side for a stick vacuum. Units like the Dyson V7 Motorhead stick vacuum are about 5.5 lbs. But I suppose it can be viewed as rather lightweight if you think of it in terms of an upright.  It depends on your view point.  

The cleaner head has two very small rubberized rollers on the front underside and at the back of the cleaner head there are two large rubberized wheels.  We found movement on our low pile carpet to be ok – not great – but ok.  Sometimes the machine requires a little extra push to get it to keep moving.

Also, with some vacuums the spinning brushroll has a tendency to pull the vacuum forward on carpet.  You do not get any forward pull from the spinning brushroll with the Hoover ONEPWR Evolve.

We found overall movement on hard flooring to be better than on carpet.  On our tile floor the unit moved forward and backward easily and it turned reasonably well.

FILTERS
The vacuum has two filters – one foam and one felt.  They are located near the top of the dust canister and are easy to access.  The filters can be rinsed in water and re-used.  None of these is a HEPA grade filter.

Given that the vacuum does not have a HEPA filter or a sealed system (you can read about these here), the Evolve may not be the best fit for those suffering from asthma or allergies.

FIT, FINISH, BUILD
We were not overly impressed with the build of the vacuum.  It’s not bad but it’s not great either.  It doesn’t feel sturdy and strong and it made us feel like longevity could be an issue – especially if we work the machine hard.  I think, however, that one has to look at this with an eye to the cost of the machine – which is very reasonable.  At this price point many vacuums are not what we would consider well-built.

NOISE LEVEL TEST
In order to compare the noise level of the Evolve to other stick vacuums we used a digital noise level meter.  In our test we placed the meter 3 feet in front of the cleaner head of the Evolve, turned the vacuum on and recorded the peak decibel level over a 10 second period.

Carpet Mode = 78.3 dB
Hard Floor Mode = 73.2 dB
Brushroll Off Mode = 76.0 dB

The Evolve is not a particularly quiet vacuum - especially in Carpet Mode.  Also, the results may seem unintuitive (Brushroll Off Mode louder than Hard Floor Mode) but remember that in Hard Floor Mode the suction is lower than in both Carpet Mode and Brushroll Off Mode, which has the effect of reducing the noise level.

We have done the same test on carpet with a host of other stick vacuums and you can see the results in the following table.  For comparison purposes with the Evolve, one could consider Carpet Mode as Max power and Hard Floor Mode as Low power – we added it to the table as such.

CLEANING TESTS

Carpet Test
We created our own small to medium sized debris (ground fruit loops, chili flakes, flax seeds, split green peas) and placed it in a 5 ft long line on low pile carpet.  The vacuum was run over the debris in one forward 10 second pass.  We then calculated the percentage pickup by weight.  You can see one of the test runs in the video below.

We determined that the Evolve picked up 98.4% of the debris.  This is a pretty good result.  We have seen better (the Shark Rocket Pro Cordless got 99.9% for example) but we’ve also seen numbers in the low 90’s with some machines.

Hard Floor Test
We performed the same test on a hard floor (tile in this case).  In this test we used “Hard Floor Mode”.  See video below.

Pickup (by weight) was 96.5% and it was obvious (from the video) that a fair bit of the debris was left behind and there was also some scattering.  While the result is ok we’ve seen much better.

Given the average performance in “Hard Floor Mode” we decided to run the hard floor test again but this time we used “Brushroll Off Mode”.  See video below.

Pickup in this test went up to 98.5% which was a definite improvement.  

Edge Cleaning Test
In the edge cleaning test we placed chili flakes up against the baseboards along our wall.  Good edge cleaning should pick up all (or almost all) of the flakes right up against the wall.

As you can see quite a few flakes against the edge were left behind.  In our opinion this was an average to below-average result.

Hair Test
This vacuum has no special technology for dealing with hair wrap on the brushroll.  In this test we ran the vacuum over a combination of long black human hair and short white pet hair.  In the video below we also show the results from another vacuum (Shark Rocket Zero-M) which has special tangle-free brushroll technology.

While the Hoover did a good job at picking up all the pet hair, it is apparent that much of it got stuck on the brushroll and that the brushroll would require cleaning after this test.  This was not the case with the Shark Rocket Zero-M where the special technology kept most of the hair off the brushroll.

VERDICT
The Hoover Evolve is an inexpensive, cordless vacuum.  We've seen it as low as about $150USD (for the Evolve not the Evolve Pet). It’s simple and it’s light, and maintenance is straightforward and easy.  In our tests it performed fairly well on carpet and not too bad on bare floors (using Brushroll Off Mode).  Overall we’d say cleaning performance is average.  

If you have pets this is not a great choice as it doesn’t have a HEPA filter, there are no tools, and the brushroll gets easily tangled with hair.

Run time in Carpet Mode is not long and our tests showed just over 12 minutes.  You get longer run times in Hard Floor Mode (over 27 minutes) or Brushroll Off Mode (almost 19 minutes).

 It was a little disconcerting that during our Carpet Mode run time test we could smell the motor in the cleaner head and it was a bit hot.  Also the vacuum just doesn’t feel very robust.  We haven’t had it long enough to make a statement about longevity but it is a concern.

 However, at the end of the day “it’s inexpensive and it works”.  Although, if you are in the market for a cordless vacuum you may want to consider moving up into the $200+ range where you can find some alternatives that provide better bang for your buck.

WARRANTY
The Hoover ONEPWR Evolve carries a 3-year limited part and labor warranty.

MANUAL
The manual is provided in English, French and Spanish and it covers the basics.  It is not too detailed but this is a fairly simple machine.  You can see the manual here:  Hoover ONEPWR Evolve manual

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