Hoover HMC5 Review: Keep your mattress clean

Verdict

A purpose-built vacuum for mattresses and other soft furnishings, the Hoover 4-in-1 Corded Handheld UV Mattress Vacuum Cleaner – HMC5 is great for those who want a thorough, deep clean. Able to pull out deep-seated dirt, this vacuum did a brilliant job on my mattress. UV-C lights help kill any dust mites. There’s also 50°C air to remove moisture, although it’s quite laborious to thoroughly dry out a mattress. That aside, this smart vacuum is a great addition to any home.

Introduction

Mattresses can be disgusting. Full of dead skin cells, and providing a warm, moist environment that dust mites love, mattresses should be vacuumed regularly to keep them hygienic. With the Hoover 4-in-1 Corded Handheld UV Mattress Vacuum Cleaner – HMC5, that job is easier, so you can keep your mattress in its best condition.

Designed specifically for mattresses, the MHC5 has a beater for agitating dirt, a dust detection sensor and a UV light, and it blows 50°C air to remove moisture. If you’ve spent a lot of money on one of the best mattresses, having a tool to keep it clean is important.

Design and Features

• Corded design
• Integrated UV light and dust sensor
• Needs some force to get the UV light to turn on

I’ve vacuumed mattresses before, using the tools that came with the vacuum cleaner. That’s better than nothing, but it does mean I have to use tools that may have been used in dirtier areas.

With a dedicated mattress vacuum cleaner, such as the Hoover HMC5, there’s no chance of cross-contamination. More than that, the HMC5 is built differently from the competition, designed specifically for cleaning soft furnishings. Mattresses are top of that list, but you can use this cleaner on sofas, chairs and cushions, too.

The entire vacuum cleaner is one lightweight unit that weighs just 2.2kg. That includes the wide motorised roller, which spins at 4200rpm, using soft nylon fibre and rubber bristles to agitate dirt without damaging delicate surfaces.

A handle at the back makes it easy to carry the vacuum and push it around your mattress or chair, and the power button is within easy reach. There’s just a single power mode that automatically kicks in when power is turned on.

While vacuuming is the HMC5’s main job, the unit also has some features built-in, the status of which can be checked via the LEDs on the front control panel. Oddly, the panel is designed to be seen from the front of the vacuum cleaner, which makes it hard to see when vacuuming.

First, there’s a dust sensor, which helps you visually see when your surface is clean. This is labelled as ‘Mite’ on the front, which seems a touch misleading, as the system doesn’t detect the presence of dust mites but rather small particles.

In any case, the system itself is useful, with the LED turning red when the area you’re vacuuming is dirty, and green when it’s clean.

Next, there’s an integrated UV-C light, which can kill bacteria and mites. For safety, this light is only engaged when the vacuum is pressed onto the mattress, with the corresponding LED lighting up.

I found that I had to press quite hard on the vacuum to get the light to turn on with my mattress; it was easier to enable UV-C when using the HMC5 on a sofa.

In addition to vacuuming, the HMC5 blows warm air (50°C) as you vacuum, and the humidity sensor shows the current relative humidity. The idea is that the vacuum cleaner can be used to dry out a mattress as it cleans.

Dust is sucked into the 0.6-litre bin. That’s a similar size to the bins on many cordless vacuum cleaners and, truthfully, probably larger than you’ll need for a typical job. This bin unclips from the vacuum cleaner for emptying. It and its integrated filter are washable, and it’s worth giving both a rinse-out after a couple of uses to keep the HMC5 running optimally.

This vacuum cleaner is corded, but it has a long power lead, so you can easily cover an entire mattress without having to swap power sockets.I normally prefer corded tools, but given that this vacuum cleaner will be used less often than a regular one, having a power cable isn’t such an issue. Plus, a plug-in vacuum cleaner will run for as long as required to deep clean a mattress.

Performance

• Sucks a lot of muck out of mattresses
• Drying is laborious

I would normally test a vacuum cleaner by measuring its suction power in air watts (AW), but the design of the HMC5 meant that this wasn’t possible.

I tested the HMC5 on my mattress. I found that it needed to be pressed firmly to get the UV-C light to turn on, and I moved slowly and methodically until the dust sensor light changed to green.

I’ve vacuumed mattresses before, but the HMC5 did a better job. It wasn’t long before there was a noticeable amount of fine, grey dust in the bin. By the time I’d finished vacuuming, there was quite a pile of dust that had been sucked out. It’s disgusting to see, but nice to know that muck had been removed.

I’m less sold on the drying system. When I started, the HMC5 registered relative humidity at 59%. It took a long time of vacuuming to get this down to 20%. For future uses, when I gave give my mattress a vacuum, I then left it to air afterwards.

I also tried out the HMC5 on soft furnishings, including a chair that I had bought from Facebook Marketplace. I cleaned the chair with water and cleaning solution, using a Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design, which removed the marks on the fabric.

However, once the chair was dry, I vacuumed it with the HMC5, which pulled out dirt from inside the chair. Again, not pleasant to look at, but the deep cleaning is evident.

I also used the HMC5 on my sofa, which gets covered in hair thanks to my cats. I found that the vacuum cleaner was a good hair remover, too, easily picking up the cat hair on a single pass, and pulling dirt out from the cushions, too.

I measured the vacuum cleaner at 63.8dB, which is quieter than many models. That’s good, as you naturally end up closer to this vacuum cleaner than a regular cordless model.

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