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Hoover Air Cordless Handheld Vacuum Review

Derek Hales

Written By: Derek Hales

Updated on:

The Hoover Air Cordless is a handheld vacuum powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, which is compatible with a wide range of Hoover products. Use this handheld independently or pair it up with an upright base for a 2-in-1 vacuum.

hoover air cordless handheld vacuum review

Continue reading below to discover if the Hoover Air Cordless is the best handheld for you.

Pros

  • Powerful lithium-ion battery
  • Converts to 2-in-1 (sold separately)

Cons

  • More expensive than comparable handhelds
  • Long charge time with a short run time

Bottom Line

  • Unless you want the 2-in-1 also, the value of this handheld may not be worth the extra cost.
  • The Hoover Air Cordless handheld offers a strong degree of suction, allowing you clean corners and crevices easier.

Table of Contents

Design

The design of the Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum is sleek and portable. Its elongated shape allows for a nice comfort grip handle and easy thumb access to all the user buttons.

Aesthetically, it uses a modern silver with blue accents and the classic bright red Hoover logo. The blue accents help to draw your eye to important features about the vacuum, like the comfort handle, the on / off switch, the dust cup latch, and parts of the filtration and air flow system.

This handheld vacuum is unique in that it was designed to work independently or as a part of a larger 2-in-1 upright vacuum.

On its own, the Hoover Air Cordless is best designed for vacuuming small areas, spot cleaning, or cleaning hard-to-reach places like upholstery or stairs.

With the 2-in-1 Hoover Air Cordless stick, this vacuum could tackle larger areas and flooring like carpet, hardwoods, or tile. The Hoover Cordless uses a similar design concept to what we saw in our Eletrolux Ergorapido handheld review.

hoover air cordless handheld vacuum parts
  1. Handle
  2. On / Off switch
  3. Dust bin release
  4. Filter
  5. Filter latch

How It Cleans

The Hoover Air Cordless uses suction power to collect dirt, dust and debris from the surface and sweep it into the dust bin. This handheld vacuum does not include a roller brush in the base unit like other handhelds sometimes do (e.g., Eureka EasyClean). However, there is a brush accessory that can be attached.

This handheld vacuum is cordless. Once the battery is charged, you can clean all the desired areas in your home at once without having to pause and find a new outlet.

The debris is processed through a washable filter that helps keep small particles from escaping back into the air. Having a washable filter also helps to keep maintenance costs lower.

Size & Dimensions

The Hoover Air Cordless handheld is lightweight, weighing less than 4 pounds. It is 17.5″ long, 4.2″ wide, and 4.8″ tall. Its compact size makes it easy to tote around the house, up the stairs, or even into a car or RV.

hoover air cordless handheld vacuum size

Accessories & Parts

The accessories for the Hoover Air Cordless are pretty straightforward. There is a lithium-ion battery and filter, which does require general maintenance.

In addition, there are two attachments: the crevice tool and the motorized brush tool. The crevice tool can be handy for getting in between couch cushions, but I must admit, it’s a little short for truly “hard-to-reach” places.

The brush tool is convenient for upholstery or removing pet hair. Below are the list of accessories and attachments:

  • Crevice tool
  • Brush tool
  • Filter
  • Lithium-ion battery

You may be wondering why our brush tool and battery charger are not pictured below. Unfortunately, those items were not included in the box. Apparently, this is fairly common, as I saw other consumers complaining about it.

hoover air cordless handheld vacuum accessories
  1. Lithium-Ion battery
  2. Crevice tool
  3. Brush tool
  4. Battery charger

Cleaning Tests

The following vacuum cleaner tests are designed to show how the Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum performs on different surfaces, picking up a variety of debris types. We test on three different floor types, including hardwood floors, low pile carpet, and high pile carpet. For each floor type we test the vacuum cleaner against:

  • Rice – 3 ounces
  • Dry Cereal – 1 ounce
  • Kitty Litter – 3 ounces
  • Sugar – 3 ounces

Each of the aforementioned debris types were spread across our testing lane. The base surface of our testing lane is an engineered hardwood floor. For our carpet tests we slide in a low pile and high pile carpet insert on top of the hardwood floor.

Cleaning test debris types
Testing Debris – From left to right: Rice (3 oz), Kitty Litter (3 oz), Cereal (1 oz), Sugar (3 oz)

Our vacuum cleaning process strives to be as consistent, fair, and true to real world use as possible. Our tests utilize the following procedure:

  1. Measure the weight of the testing debris and the weight of the empty vacuum debris container.
  2. Spread the respective debris type evenly across the central portion of the testing lane.
  3. Run the vacuum cleaner over the testing lane.
  4. Measure the weight of the now filled container and take notes on the cleaning performance.

Hardwood Floor

Overall, the Hoover Air Cordless did a nice job cleaning the hardwoods, with the exception of cereal. This debris type was just too large for the Hoover to suck up, so the result left the majority of the cereal still on the floor after the cleaning test.

Cereal

36%

Kitty Litter

98%

Rice

99%

Sugar

100%

Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum - hardwood floor cleaning tests

Low Pile Carpet

The low pile carpet test had a similar result to the hardwood test, leaving the majority of the cereal on the floor.In addition to the cereal the Hoover Air Cordless handheld also struggled a bit more with the sugar. This debris type is very fine, but heavy enough to sink into the carpet fibers. The Hoover left about 25% of the sugar buried in the carpet after the cleaning test.

Cereal

22%

Kitty Litter

95%

Rice

99%

Sugar

74%

Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum - low pile carpet cleaning tests

High Pile Carpet

With the high pile carpet, we’ve got the same offenders: cereal and sugar. Regardless of flooring type, the cereal is just too large to be sucked up here. In the high carpet, this handheld sucked up even less of the sugar, likely due to higher carpet fibers- so the sugar would need more suction to be completely cleared out. As a result, the Hoover Air Cordless left about 20% of the sugar for this test. 

Cereal

28%

Kitty Litter

97%

Rice

99%

Sugar

72%

Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum - low pile carpet cleaning tests

Usability

The usability for the Hoover Air Cordless is quite simple. There are three buttons on the Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum. The functions of these buttons include:

  1. Turns on the vacuum
  2. Separates the dust bin from the body
  3. Releases the battery

Two of these three buttons are highlighted in that blue accent color I mentioned earlier. It’s subtle, but it’s a nice touch that helps users know where the important features are.

As far as initial setup, it’s pretty simple as well. Just charge the battery for the recommended 9 hour full charge and then you’re good to go.

The attachment tools are both small and easy to attach to the handheld unit since they just slide right into the mouth of the vacuum.

Maneuverability

Maneuverability with this handheld is about what you would expect from a unit of this size and dimension. Overall, it’s pretty good. It can get into tight spaces and it’s longer body helps with reach.

It comes with two accessories – the crevice tool and the brush tool – but honestly, they’re not really wow factors for maneuverability. The crevice tool is so short that it doesn’t really extend your reach or get too deep into those “dark pit” crevices.

In addition, there is no hose or extension wand with this vacuum. Many handheld vacuums don’t have these features, but at the price point of the Hoover Air Cordless, I feel like these accessories are nice inclusions that really help out the maneuverability.

It is convenient that this vacuum can be connected with the upright body to create a 2-in-1. For users looking to vacuum floors or other large areas, this feature may really add to the unit’s maneuverability since you wouldn’t have to exclusively carry it around the house.

  • Weight: 3.7 pounds
  • Power: Lithium-ion Battery
  • Height: 4.8″
  • Width: 4.2″

Maintenance

The maintenance to keep the Hoover Air Cordless running smoothly is fairly light. Emptying the dust bin and washing the filter are the two most important items of maintenance that you have to worry about – and those don’t cost a thing. If your filter gets extremely dirty, replacement filters are available for sale.

Accessory / PartReplacement Frequency*Replacement Cost
Empty dust binAfter each useNA
Wash the filterClean every 4-6 uses & air dry; Replace as needed (estimated once per year)Check Price
BatteryReplace as needed (estimating once every 2 years)Check Price

The estimated cost to maintain this handheld vacuum is about $40 / year, which will cover one new filter a year and a new battery every 2 years. Being able to simply wash the filter is a nice benefit.

Washable Filter

The filter to the Hoover Air Cordless is washable with water, which helps to prolong the life.

hoover air cordless handheld vacuum usability filter

Battery

The battery for the Hoover Air Cordless vacuum, may be the most disappointing part of this handheld. The vacuum comes with a Compact LithiumLife battery, which is compatible with any of the Hoover vacuums in the LithiumLife series.

Using a Lithium battery versus a standard battery means less loss of suction for the duration of the cleaning. But in the case of Air Cordless, the duration of a cleaning is only 15 minutes. And I don’t recommend procrastination since this handheld vacuum takes 9 hours to get a full charge.

For as much as you pay for this battery, this is not the type of battery life I would expect. Check out the table below to see all the battery stats.

BatteryDetails
SizeUnknown
Charging Time9 hours
Run Time15 minutes
Replacement CostCheck Price
hoover air cordless handheld vacuum usability battery
A little disappointing, this handheld requires a 9 hour charge for only a 15 minutes run time.

Noise

All vacuum cleaner reviews on Modern Castle are put through our standard noise test. For this test, we use a sound meter to measure noise in terms of decibel level approximately 3 feet away from the vacuum.

At 3' away, the Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum emits 78 dB of sound.

At 3′ away, the Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum emits 78 dB of sound.

Value

To assess the value, we look at a combination of factors like design, cleaning performance, maintenance, maneuverability, noise, size, usability, etc. and compare these factors to the overall price.

Honestly, the value of the Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum really just fell short for me.

This handheld is priced at somewhat high for a handheld. It includes the vacuum, lithium-ion battery, charger, and two accessories.

For comparison, this is the same unit without the battery. So really most of what you’re paying for is the fact that this handheld is cordless… and requires an expensive battery / charger. 

The battery, although sleek and interchangeable, has a long charge time (9 hours) and offers a short run-time (15 minutes).

If you already own one of Hoover’s LithiumLife batteries for another unit (they have quite a few in this series), then this handheld may be worth it, since the batteries are interchangeable.

To add to the disappointing value, it’s also important to note that the Hoover could not pick up large debris and largely failed the cereal test on all flooring types. 

Again, if the Hoover were to have a hose attachment or larger primary nozzle, I think it could have accommodated this larger debris, but without that addition, you’re going to be left using another tool.

Lastly, Hoover does have a 2 year warranty that comes with this handheld. The details of the warranty state the following:

… your Hoover product and battery are warranted against original defects in material and workmanship for a full two years from date of purchase

If ordered though Amazon or directly from Hoover, there is a 30-day return policy.

Specifications

Below is a complete list of important specifications and features included on the Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum.

Specifications
TypeHandheld vacuum
ManufacturerHoover
ModelAir Cordless
Length (inches)17.5
Width (inches)4.2
Weight (pounds)3.4
Floor TypeAll (indoor)
Battery SizeUnable to determine
Dust Bin0.7 liters
CordlessYes
BaglessYes
ReturnsVaries by retailer
Warranty2-Year limited
PriceCheck Price

Who Should Buy the Hoover Air Cordless Handheld Vacuum?

The Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum is a well-rounded unit designed for quick fixes and smaller messes. The powerful suction and lightweight build allow you to reach into and clean those pesky corners and crevices you never thought possible. This handheld vacuum is certainly worth exploring if you’re in the market for a smaller, more compact unit.

I would recommend the Hoover Air Cordless if you’re looking for the following features in a handheld vacuum.

  • A handheld vacuum with a lithium-Ion battery – The battery in this handheld is the same battery for many other Lithium-Ion Hoover products. If you’ve already got a handful of those products, this could make a nice addition to the collection.
  • Easy conversion into a 2-in-1 – The Hoover Air Cordless connects to the upright Hoover Air making it a 2-in-1. This is a nice feature for people looking for a vacuum that can do double duty and act as a space saver.
  • Nice for small messes – This handheld is small and cordless which is nice for maneuverability, but the short run-time makes it difficult to tackle any large messes.

For more information on the Hoover Air Cordless, visit here.

Strong Suction, Easy to Maintain
  • Design - 90%
    90%
  • Performance - 77%
    77%
  • Quality - 92%
    92%
  • Usability - 91%
    91%
  • Value - 77%
    77%
85%

Summary

The Hoover Air Cordless handheld vacuum is a powerful unit designed to give users the ability to clean small messes with ease. Although the nozzle is only 2″ wide, the suction power is strong enough to grab debris slightly outside of the width of the nozzle. A lithium-ion battery is included with this unit, allowing it to run for 15 minutes straight without losing power along the way. There is no fade out effect with this handheld vacuum.

About Derek Hales

Derek HalesDerek Hales is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of ModernCastle.com. He has been featured in Fast Company, Reader's Digest, Business Insider, Realtor.com, She Knows, and other major publications. Derek has a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Kansas State University. Hales has been testing and reviewing products for the home since 2014.