Dyson? Or a hetty/henry? Or other?

watchthisspace_2

Hi,

I need vacuum help! I have a vax pet 2 force (i think) which was £100 in the sale from £200 but is broken. My warrenty is expired so do i...

a) Pay to get it fixed, although its not brill,
b) Give in to the hype, buy a dyson,
c) Get something else? eg, henry.

I was considering a dyson of some sort but seem to hear alot of 'not worth it' taken a look at hetty which has great reviews but can they really be better?

I have laminate, carpet, wool carpet and stairs, so preferbly a cylinder and powerful because the wool carpets are hard to vacuum.

Help!!! And thanks in advance

fluffymuffy

I'm a firm Henry fan. There's one in every cleaner's cupboard in the land for good reason. It's the Land Rover of vacuum cleaners.

busiscoming2

Although I personally have never owned a Dyson, when I used to be a cleaner lots of my clients had them and consequently I would never have one. When my Hoover goes to vacuum heaven I shall probably get a Henry or Hetty, need to look into whether they are basically the same thing.
The good thing about the Henry is the long cable and metal pipes. IMHO.
I have a Hoover Aquajet which I have had for 15years now and is very good (long cable and metal pipes).
Hope you find what you want.

reehsetin

We just had the same dilema, we had bought a VAX but it died after a couple of months, decided on henry (got it from costco for £90) as he was half the price of a dyson, suction is great has a high and low setting, we mainly have wooden flooring and it picks up everything. The power cable seems like it's a lot longer than the vax too which is really handy.
only negatives are doesn't store away very easily and a bit bulky when going up steps
Had a dyson when I was living with my parents, didn't really like it seemed very cheaply built, plastic handles etc broke fairly easily henry seems a lot more sturdy

penrhyn

If you want a vacuum cleaner thats built to last then get a Meile.

ema_o

I love our Henry, it really does work well, and has coped with huge amounts of building waste from redecorating. I lived in a houseshare with a dyson and it didn't seem to work that well just for normal hoovering. Henry was also far better value for money.
Do you have pets? If you do the Miele cat and dog one gets very good reviews. My mum has this and is really happy with it.

Angilion

I bought a Henry for £100. I hadn't initially considered one, because it looks like a toy and it's bagged. So it looks like an old school toy. It isn't explicitly specified for pet hair, which I wanted. It doesn't explicitly have HEPA filtration, which I wanted. I don't like faffing around with bags, which are a constant expense. They're only 1200W max, which is much less than most vacuum cleaners. So I didn't consider a Henry.

I asked in another forum and about three-quarters of the replies recommended a Henry. People were using them for everything, home and work. Builders were using them for sawdust, wood shavings, plaster dust, light gravel, even dry sand. Some people run them without bags. It isn't recommended, but they're so tough they'll last anyway.

So I bought a Henry. No pet hair? No problem - the standard head removes per hair anyway. No HEPA filtration? Yes there is - buy the HEPA filtration bags. Talking about bags - the ones for Henrys are several times the size of other bags and cost about 50p each, so the usual issues don't apply. Only 1200W? Yes, but the fan creating the airflow is far larger than in other cleaners, so it generates much more airflow at lower speed, hence the lower power use. 1200W is actually too high in most cases, so the 600W low speed is enough. I pulled a carpet off its fixings with my Henry. Then there's noise - you can talk while using a Henry. I was considering ear protection with the bagless upright I had before. I can do the stairs with my Henry - the standard hoses and stuff that come with it are long enough.

The only drawback I've found with Henry is that the length of the hoses and the shaft means that it takes up quite a bit of space when not in use.

Angilion

penrhyn wrote: »

If you want a vacuum cleaner thats built to last then get a Meile.

This is true, but they are very expensive. They're expensive for a good reason, but they are expensive.

watchthisspace_2

Thanks for your replys. I thought dysons were to good to be true! what is the suction like on a henry? I have seen good reviews for miele too, but are they powerful?

No, i don't have any pets. However I have a cream carpet which is very thick and the bits get stuck init which my vax couldn't pick up. I also found on the wool carpet bits start to come of but don't pick up with the vax either o have to pick them up b hand! :mad: I do sewing so get little bits of thread etc everywhere plus have a to year old who is very good as making crumbs! :rotfl:

And the longer cable on a henry seems appealing for going up the stairs!

penrhyn

Not as expensive as a lot of Dyson's Chinese built efforts.
I've a Cat and Dog, that replaced a DC05 amazing how much more it picks up when used with the turbo heads.

The Cat and Dog is £179 at John Lewis, you get what you pay for.
http://www.johnlewis.com/230650740/Product.aspx?source=14798

watchthisspace_2

Angilion- I have the same thoughts as you initially, they seem old school, they are bagged. So I'm glad to see they won you over! :T

How often would you need to change the bag? I only have a little two bed house to hoover but would use it everyday. I remember my mum had one when I was a child for over 10 years!

Also do the henrys come with the little extra bit, sorry don't no what it's called, i think it's ment for corners! I tend to end up using that on the thick carpet to get all the bits out that are 'stuck!'