When I moved in to my first (and current) flat 3 years ago I had precious little in the way of household appliances. The smaller things (kettles, toasters, irons etc) weren’t too much of a problem but larger items like vacuum cleaners were significantly more expensive. So I borrowed my mums old Hoover.

An old blue ‘upright’ cleaner, it served me well until that fateful day when my girlfriend used it to suck up a load of water. It was never the same after that, air smelled musty, the motor began to reek of ozone and I generally feared for my life every time I used it. Something had to be done, I was quite happy to let the carpet fend for itself but girlfriend insisted that a new Vortex V2000 vacuum cleaner was needed. Not having found DooYoo at the time and knowing precious little about vacuum cleaners anyway, I asked my mum. I mean, who else would I ask?

As usual, mum came up with the goods. She had recently purchased a new Hoover (to replace the trusty old blue upright that had mysteriously vanished) and was more than happy to extoll it’s virtues. first off, it was not just another Hoover. Oh no, this one was a Hoover ‘Vortex’. Based on a principal so similar to the Dyson ‘Cyclone’ that patent lawyers must have been rubbing their hands together in delight, it was a bagless cleaner thay boasted no loss of suction. Plus you could see all the dust swirling round as you vacuumed. Add to that a self-retracting cable, a 1500watt motor, a 2 litre ‘jug’ into which all the dirt goes and a deviously stowed selection of ‘attachments’ and it appeared to be the Hoover-owners dream.

Astute readers may have noticed that the above is written in the past tense. This is for two reasons. Firstly, because it happened in the past (about 18 months ago). Secondly because, having purchased the exact same Hoover Vortex model as my dear old mum, I am no longer quite so impressed with it. Why has it fallen so quickly from grace? Well to be fair, it wasn’t a rapid descent.

When we got the thing home and out of the box, we took it for a test-run. The amount of dirt/dust it extracted from a small section of carpet was amazing. I was actually worried that the concrete floor would be eroded away through the carpet! In fact such was the novelty of being able to see the dust build up that we actually fought over who was going to do the hoovering! This didn’t last for too long though. After the dust came the bits of carpet, swirling frantically around the clear plastic jug that had so neatly replaced the good old hoover bag. In use, the hoover was light enough to push around the room with ease (although our carpet is far from deep-pile).

The extension hoses and nozzles all neatly stored in the handle of the hoover meant that there was no more rummaging around in the cupboard under the stairs to find them. It was also the first hoover I’d used that had a self-retracting cable, and what a labour saving invention that is! The clear plastic ‘jug’ meant that it was easy to see when you need to empty it and the actual emptying of the jug is considerably easier (and far less messy!) than the old hoover-bags used to be. And the noise, don’t forget the noise! Whereas the old hoover used to hum along in a muffled fashion this thing roared furiously. No longer was it possible to remain seated in the lounge watching TV, lifting your feet up when the need arose. There was simply no point in trying to watch/listen to anything while the hoover was on, but this was a minor inconvenience.

But after what seemed cruelly close to 12 months, disaster struck. Now that we were comfortably outside of the manufacturers warranty, and having made certain that we hadn’t paid for a warranty extension, the motor decided to burn out. Not in a particularly glamorous style, but enough to render the device useless. It started with the now ominous smell of Ozone, that sharp, acidic, metallic taste that really hits the back of your throat. Every time the Hoover Vortex V2000 was used it left behind it a horrific stench which could only be dispersed by leaving all the windows open.

This lasted for about a week after which, the hoover made an ominous popping sound mid ‘push’ and simply stopped working. Oh dear. A quick call to the local hoover repair-man later and we were off to his shop with the casualty in the back of the car. Two days later we returned to collect the Hoover Vortex V2000 and left £65 pounds worse off. Apparently this is the cost of a new Hoover motor.. Now to have one hoover motor burn-out after a year could be considered unfortunate. but to have two burn out? Surely this is something more than bad luck.

Well, as you have probably guessed I can be considered unlucky when it comes to hoovers. Just over a week ago our hoover (the one with the 6-month old motor in it) began to smell of Ozone for the second time. To date the motor is still working, but the Ozone is getting stronger with each use. It gets used more sparingly these days in the hope that, somehow, it will be able to heal itself. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s going to. So it looks like I will soon be staring at another bill for £65. All of a sudden, the extra 3 years warranty for £50 seems like such a good idea. If only I’d known at the time!

On it’s own, you may think that this was just an isolated incident. That perhaps I am just doubly unlucky when it comes to affairs of the vacuum cleaner. Or maybe that I went to a ‘dodgey’ repair-man who simply reconditioned the motor rather than fit a new one. I know I would be thinking these same things if it hadn’t been for the fact that my mums hoover (which, you may recall, is the very same model as mine) suffered almost the exact same problem. Smell of Ozone, pop of the motor and it was good-night Axminster. A replacement motor and 10 months later and she went and bought a Dyson, something that I am considering myself should the motor burn out again.

And this time I will make sure I get the extended warranty!