Our In-Depth Review
Performance: Using The Hoover Platinum Linx Handheld
One of the advantages of owning a handheld vacuum is that you can quickly clean small areas on your floor without having to drag out your regular vacuum. We found that the Hoover Platinum Linx was up to the task as we tested it on carpets and hard surface flooring.
The power brush and dusting brush worked great, but the upholstery tool didn’t work to clean up pet hair. This vacuum also has a combination crevice and dust tool that slides up and clips into the nozzle, it was convenient, but had a tendency to not stay in place.
The removable battery charges in only three hours and gives continuous strength throughout cleaning. The foam filters did a decent job of capturing particles and not releasing them back into the air as it cleans.
Performance on Carpets
Using flour to test the vacuum’s ability to capture small particles, we used the power brush attachment for cleaning and found that the Hoover BH50030 Platinum Linx Handheld sucked up every particle we could see. Next we used rice. Again the vacuum had no trouble cleaning the rice from our carpet.
To further challenge the Hoover Platinum Linx hand vacuum, we scattered some white beans on the floor and again the vacuum was able to easily remove them from our floor. However, after turning the vacuum off and setting it down, a few white beans and grains of rice did fall out of the machine.
We gathered that it is important to make sure the larger particles make it all the way into the dirt cup before turning off the suction.
Performance on Hard Floors
We tested the vacuum’s performance on hard surface flooring by using flour, rice, and white beans. We found that the dusting brush was a useful tool for removing the fine particles from the floor and the vacuum did a great job sucking up the rice and beans.
Car Cleaning
When we used the Hoover LINX handheld vacuum to clean our car, we found that it was only truly useful for cleaning the floor mats and the flat parts of our seats. It was pretty useless for cleaning ridges or sharp contours.
The integrated flip down crevice/brush tool on this vacuum was way to short to clean between and under our seats. However, our floor mats looked great after using the LINX.
Pet Hair
We used the the upholstery tool to try to remove the pet hair from our upholstered chair.
The rubber blades scraped the pet hair from our chair, but rather than sucking it into the vacuum, the tool rolled it into small clumps that didn’t get sucked into the machine.
We were pretty disappointed by this performance. The power brush did a fine job removing pet hair so if you are cleaning pet hair, we recommend forgoing the special upholstery tool.
Filtration
The filtration system on the Hoover BH50030 Platinum Linx Handheld consists of a pre-screen filter and a foam filter.
The pre-screen filter is plastic with a cone shape and is covered by small holes.
The foam filter sits over the base of the pre-screen filter to capture the fine particles before they reach the motor and vacuum exhaust.
Both filters are rinseable, but the foam filter requires twenty-four hours to dry after you wash it.
Attachments / Onboard Tools
Power Head Brushroll – This attachment pivots twenty five degrees to allow you to easily conquer cleaning at various angles. We found the power head did a great job on carpeted surfaces of all kinds.
Brush rolls can sometimes be troublesome to clean. However, Hoover has thoughtfully designed the power head to have a quick release brushroll that can be ejected from the head with the push of a button and snaps back into place once cleaned. This tool was great for cleaning up threads and hair.
Pet Upholstery Tool – the pet tool is unusual in that it features three rubber blades that are designed to grab pet hair and wipe it from your furnishings much like windshield wipers.
We found that it rolled the hair into balls instead of wiping it off of our upholstered surfaces and wasn’t able to suck the “balls” through the narrow slats in between the blades.
Deluxe Dusting Brush – the dusting brush head is surrounded by two rows of bristles.
The bristles were gentle enough that we felt comfortable using it on our furnishings without fear of it scratching the surface and we found it a useful tool to quickly clean baseboards, closed blinds and various other odd jobs.
Ease of Use
One of the things we appreciated about the Hoover BH50030 Platinum Linx Handheld was how the handle was located near the center. It really helped to balance the weight of the machine while we were using it, lessening the strain on our wrist.
Getting Started
Prior to using the vacuum, the battery will need to be charged for three hours. Once the battery is charged, it is simply a matter of sliding the battery into the vacuum and selecting the desired tool for cleaning.
Battery Charge
The battery requires three hours of charge time for several minutes of powerful suction strength. The amount of strength left in the battery is indicated by a fuel gauge lit by a LED light located by the power button. The remaining power is indicated in twenty-five percent increments and we liked knowing how long we had left to complete a job.
Noise
The Hoover BH50030 Platinum Linx Handheld vacuum cleaner averaged eighty-three decibels on our decibel reader. This falls into our moderate noise category.
We have found that handheld vacuums tend to be louder because the motor is usually in closer proximity to your ear while you use them and because they tend to be less insulated.
Ease of Use on Stairs
We used the power head attachment to clean our carpeted stairs and were very pleased with the amount of dust the Linx collected.
The cordless feature made it extremely easy to to clean our stairs allowing us the freedom of not becoming tangled or restrained by a power cord.
Maintenance
We did not like that the vacuum could not be stored in the charging station. The battery actually has to be removed from the bottom of the vacuum by pulling a release button to be put in the stand to charge. Hoover does provides a mesh bag for you to store the attachments in, but even with the bag we felt that this vacuum wasn’t as tidy to store as vacuums that have stands.
However, Hoover designed the removable battery so that the vacuum could be put away while the battery was charging and we realize that some consumers might find this a highly desirable feature. The battery was also designed to be transferred between the Linx handheld and a stick vacuum. We didn’t see the point in two vacuums sharing one battery as we would prefer each vacuum had its own.
Value For Money
The suction strength seemed moderately powerful to us. When we were using the vacuum to clean our car, there was some debris that it wasn’t able to suck.
However, it did a great job cleaning up particles in our particle test on carpet and hard surface flooring so we feel it is safe to say that it works better on flat surfaces.
The Hoover Platinum Linx vacuum retails for almost one-hundred and seventy dollars. We felt that this was over priced for the quality and features of this machine.
However, we did find that many stores offer this vacuum at a discounted price like Amazon, who sells it for just under one hundred and twenty dollars.
If the strong points of this machine meet your cleaning needs and you aren’t hindered by the cleaning limitations, we feel that the machine is a decent value for the money at the discounted price.
Final Vacuum Verdict
The Hoover BH50030 Platinum Linx Handheld was a satisfactory vacuum that did a good job at most things. We were disappointed by its limited ability to clean our car and the fact that the upholstery tool didn’t work. Other than that, this is a well balanced machine that has good suction strength and was comfortable to use.
