Our In-Depth Review
Design
The Hoover Tempo is an upright vacuum. That means that the Hoover U5140900 works well on open areas. You can simply walk behind the vacuum and push it around the floor as you clean.
But when you have to vacuum in tight spaces, you will have to either move furniture around, or use the onboard tools to get into the spaces that need cleaning.
The Hoover Tempo does have a hose and many different tools for cleaning different spaces, but you still have to have the vacuum close by.
Hoover claims that this vacuum has a reach of 20 feet with its hose and attachments, but at best it can reach 8 feet from the vacuum base.
This vacuum is a bagged model. Some view bagging vacuums as a negative, but it can be a positive for many reasons.
First of all, when the bag is full, all you have to do is remove the bag and toss it in the garbage. Then you attach the new bag, and your vacuum is as good as new. Yes, each bag does cost money, but the price for bags is very cheap. Each bag costs on average just under $2.
Performance: Using the Hoover Tempo U5140-900
Performance on Carpets
First, adjust the Hoover Tempo Widepath to the desired carpet height.
Once you have it set, this vacuum does a tremendous job cleaning everything from fine dust, larger debris and pet hair. It leaves a nice looking carpet path in its wake after every pass.
The suction power is excellent. It is extremely rare where you have to make more than one pass to pick up any lint, small debris or pet hair.
To test the vacuum on more than just a regular mess, we dumped flour and rice down to see its cleaning abilities. With one pass, it sucked up both of these messes with ease.
We even brushed the carpet around after we passed over the flour to see if it just pushed the flour into the carpet. We couldn’t find any flour dust or particles. It does a wonderful job cleaning up carpeting.
Performance on Rugs
Rugs that are lying on a hard floor are very easy to clean with this vacuum. When the Hoover Tempo U5140900 model was tested on different rugs, it always did a great job cleaning no matter how high or low the rug was.
Once again, you do have to set the vacuum to the correct level for the height of the rug. Because this vacuum has a lot of suction power, it will lift up the rug as you get close to the corners.
Make sure that as you vacuum, you have most of the vacuum on the rug. If you go from hard flooring and up onto the rug, chances are the rug will lift off the floor and mess up your vacuum path.
Performance on Hard Floors
We do not recommend using the Hoover Tempo as an upright on hard flooring. When this vacuum went through testing, it would kick larger objects all around the floor.
Pet hair, and dust would get sucked up, but the rotating brush at the bottom of the vacuum blasted larger objects far away before the Hoover Widepath Vacuum could suck them up.
The hose and onboard attachments work well for cleaning small areas of hard flooring with any mess. This is because there is no rotating brush on the end of the hose attachments.
Edge Cleaning
The Hoover Tempo vacuum doesn’t get all the way up against the edge of a carpet as it bumps against a wall. There is about one centimeter of the edge of the floor that doesn’t get effectively cleaned no matter what angle you try to vacuum at.
To make sure your carpet or hard flooring is totally clean, you’ll have to use the hose and an attachment to get the edges clean. Don’t be alarmed by this.
Almost every upright vacuum has trouble getting the edge of a carpet or floor totally clean. That is part of the reason most uprights have a hose and attachments.
Attachments / Onboard Tools
The flexible hose on the back of the Hoover Tempo has many different tools it can attach too.
One thing that is very nice about this vacuum is that all the tools clip onto the vacuum and stay there when the tools are not in use.
They will be right there when you need them instead of you having to dig through your closet for the desired attachment.
The company claims that if you attach the two extension wands, you will have a reach of 20 feet. This is entirely false.
If you really stretched out the hose, it could get there, but we think you are risking cracking or breaking the hosing if you try this.
There are three tools that can attach to the hose or two extension wands. First there is the very necessary crevice tool for getting into narrow nooks and crannies.
The upholstery tool is designed for vacuuming up your sofa or couch cushions or even your drapes. The final tool is the dusting brush. Use this for cleaning shelves, molding, or wherever dust gathers.
Overall Performance
The Hoover Tempo is a very good option on carpeting, but doesn’t perform well on hard flooring. You have to use the hose and attachments to effectively clean hard flooring.
During the testing of this Hoover model, fine particles and bigger particles were cleaned up easily on carpeting. On hard flooring, fine particles were sucked up with ease, but the larger particles (tiny small objects like rice) get kicked all over away from the vacuum.
Ease of Use
Using the vacuum as an upright is very simple, and using the hose and attachments are easy to use as well. The vacuum is relatively light so it is easy to control and maneuver.
On carpeting, however, the spin brush that rotates on the bottom of the vacuum actually pulls the Hoover Tempo forward. You can lightly hold the handle, and the rotating brush drags the vacuum forward.
You have to put a little more effort than normal to stop the vacuums momentum. This is a very minor detail, and after using the vacuum multiple times, you hardly even notice it.
The onboard tools are also very nice and easily accessible. The cord wraps around the back in front of the hose, so you do have to totally unwind the cord in order to put the hose into use.
When you are using the Hoover Tempo Widepath hose and attachments, you have to stay relatively close to the upright. If you reach too far, you’ll knock over the vacuum if you don’t hold it up.
The vacuum doesn’t have a long reach even though it claims it can reach 20 feet. When you use both extension wands, you don’t have to bend over to reach the floor though.
Cord Management and Length
The cord is 25 feet long, which is plenty to clean a typical living room or any bedroom. It winds behind the vacuum and has a clip near the end of the plug. The cord it fits nicely when wound up and doesn’t dangle when the vacuum is not in use.
Hose Management and Length
The longest we could make the hose reach was about eight feet, even though Hoover claims a 20 foot reach on their website. Trying to go any further than this might end in cracking the hose. Eight feet is actually long enough for most situations in your home. The hose along with all the on board tools clip down nicely on the back of the vacuum when not in use.
Floor Selection
There are five settings for the flooring on The Hoover Tempo Widepath U5140900 Vacuum. The first is for hard flooring. The next four settings are for how high the carpet or rug is that you intend to vacuum.
It is hard to predetermine what exact level you need as you go from one carpet to the next. All you do is simply vacuum a section and then adjust the height. If the vacuum is set too low, it tends to pull forward as if the vacuum is self propelled. If it is set to high, you won’t create that nice vacuum path on your rug or carpet.
Getting Started
Putting together a new Hoover Tempo vacuum is extremely easy because all you have to do is attach the handle by inserting two bolts and then tighten the bolts up with a screwdriver. Once the handle is attached, insert the hose and turn the power on. You’re ready to clean.
Maneuverability
This is a lighter upright vacuum with large wheels at the back making it very easy to move. It also has a relatively smaller cleaning head so it can fit under some furniture with a little higher clearance.
Pushing is easier than pulling it back on carpeting. The rotating brush pulls the vacuum a little forward. It is easy to maneuver around chairs and other furniture.
A downfall of this Hoover U5140900 vacuum is that it is wide. It doesn’t fit into tighter spaces. It also has a relatively high nose. It doesn’t fit under many objects that have a low clearance. You will have to use the onboard tools to clean around and under furniture.
A nice option that the Hoover Tempo Widepath has is a handle by the front brush.
You can tilt the vacuum all the way down, grab the handle by the front of the vacuum and then use the Widepath to clean your stairs one by one.
This is an easier way to clean stairs only if you are quite strong. The vacuum is heavy to carry.
We recommend using the onboard tools instead of the regular vacuum for the steps.
When you are not using it, it is easy to carry up and down stairs. Also, if you aren’t using it, you can roll it up and down the hall real easy on the rear two wheels.
Noise
This is a loud vacuum! Your neighbors will know when you are cleaning the carpets. Don’t plan on trying to turn on the stereo and listen to music as you clean, because it is one of the loudest models of vacuum we have ever tested.
We measured it with the Decibel Reader and it registered about 80 db when vacuuming, and up to 88 db when it was standing up and you are using the onboard tools. This is extremely loud.
If you have to listen to a noise that is 90 decibels, your hearing can actually be damaged. This vacuum is just below that level.
Maintenance
There are two items that require maintenance on this Hoover model. First, it is a bagged vacuum, so you have to change the bag probably once every three to four hours of use.
You can easily snap off the front of the vacuum to see if the bag is full.
Hoover recommends that you use their special HEPA bags or Allergen Media bag because they trap an incredible percentage of dust (99%).
We tossed flour on the ground and didn’t see any white dust coming out of the exhaust as we vacuumed it up, so we agree with these claims.
It does however kick out more fine particles into the air than normally would be airborne. We used a Laser Particle Scanner to measure the dust. The level of dust doubled in the air when I held the particle scanner next to the vacuums exhaust.
With a cheaper bag, a much higher percentage of dust would be kicked out. This isn’t an airtight system, but no vacuum is for such an inexpensive price. The Hoover bags cost under two dollars, and if you buy in bulk, you can get them almost for one dollar per bag.
This vacuum has a lot of suction, but it will lose a bit of power when the bag starts reaching capacity. We actually like this aspect of a bagged vacuum. You know the bag is almost full when the vacuum isn’t as powerful as normal.
Changing the Bag
The bag is very easy to remove. You just pull it forward and it pops right off. The new bag is also easy to install. Just push the cardboard square around the circular opening of the bag towards exhaust tube, and the bag will slide right into place.
There is a small filter that comes with this vacuum, but it never needs replacing. Instead, you have to wash out this filter. It looks like a rough sponge you would use for cleaning out sinks. Just rinse it out good, let it dry and reinsert the filter. We recommend washing the filter out every time you put in a new bag.
Value For Money
Whenever you buying a vacuum, there is only one thing you really need to know. Is this vacuum worth the price? For such an inexpensive vacuum, the Hoover Tempo Widepath is a great deal – but only if your main flooring is carpeted.
Final Vacuum Verdict
The vast majority of people that have purchased this vacuum have come to the same conclusion that we have.
The Hoover Tempo Widepath U5140900 is a great vacuum for the money.
There are a few negatives to this vacuum, from the noise to its ineffectiveness on hard flooring.
These definitely can be overlooked, especially if you just use your vacuum for carpets and rugs.
