I find vacuuming to be quite satisfying, maybe the most zen of all household chores. I wonder if Buddhist monks will ever trade their rakes for Hoovers. I may also like it because in my high school, pretty much the only time we weren’t studying was during “service” when we performed school-keeping tasks. Guess what I always picked? Vacuuming also equals ducking work.

And my wife hates it. So, happily, I’m the vacuumer in our house.

Which is why I was happy to try out the Hoover Max Multi-Cyclonic the company sent me as part of the Hoover Insiders program. Our old Hoover has served us well for many, many years, but looks pretty tired next to this new beast.

The challenge for the Max is pretty significant.  In addition to the usual generous helping of ordinary filth our kids bring into the house, my sons have recently become obsessed with AirSoft guns, and have liberally spread their ammo — little plastic pellets — all over every floor in the place.  And we also had fresh blueberries with dinner.

Also, our living room is an obstacle course for a vacuum, with bare floors covered with oriental rugs at crazy angles.

The Max performed very well. As soon as I powered it up, the speed of the brushes up front clearly indicated that this thing meant business.  Because those agitators are so strong, it’s important to use the height adjustment knob on top of the lower unit.  Leave the thing too low and it feels like it could tow a skier (don’t tell Bubba — he’d ride his skate board behind it). But get the height right and this thing gets down to work.

Two moments when I actually said “dude” aloud in acknowledgment of coolness: when operating the cord retractor and when I dumped out the canister. Who wants to spend time wrapping up the cord when you’re done vacuuming? No prob. Just depress this lever with your foot and the thing sucks that cord up like Coop polishing off a strand of spaghetti. Sluuurp!

The canister detaches easily, and empties from a trapdoor in the bottom.  Done.  In two seconds. And the amount of junk! I thought the carpets were clean. I had vacuumed just two days before.  We are even filthier than I thought, or this thing was going where no Hoover had gone before.

Overall, I was very impressed with the features and ease of operation.