Are henry hoovers any good?

[NinjaChipmunk]

My vacuum cleaner died in a puff of smoke yesterday which is a shame as I liked it. It was fairly small, bagless, and reasonably powerful, however it only lasted 2 years (it was about 6 weeks outside its warranty). I don't really want to spend much more than £100 or so and DP seems very keen on getting a Henry for some reason. Are they any good? How the chuff do you do the stairs with them? Do they last? DP has form for hoovering up DIY/ sawdust/ brickdust etc even though I try to stop him (which I am sure is a culprit this time). Your recommendations/ ones to avoid please....

I hate his smiling face too. Smug little bastard.

I Have a Hetty. Would not recommend. Should have stuck to Miele.

Oh yes and they smell. Of sick.

I love my Henry, so much better than the stupid tank Dyson we had previously, now that was shit.

Our Dyson caught fire. Henry's never done that!
Also nice long cord, I can do the whole floor of the house at a time.
Do forget to change the bags often enough though. Some sort of indicator other than "suddenly I am uncharacteristically crap at removing shit from your floor" would be good.

I want rid of mine. It is ok ish on the laminate but crap on carpet. Storage is a nightmare, so bulky and what do you do with all that hose??

I use a Hetty at work, she copes very well with all manner of crapola thrown at her.

question though: i heard you can use them bagless, is this true?

Yes, though the motor may burn out eventually from the dust.

I've had mine for 21 years and he's still in his prime.

Right I'm going to take the bag off mine and hoover some dust. If that doesn't kill it I'll leave it out in the rain.

It represents the biggest waste of money in recent times but on the plus side I've learned not to trust MN recommendations. :)

Do you Henry owners not like clean carpets then?

If anyone wants rid of theirs and are near Surrey please feel free to pass on to me :)

I'm not near Surrey or you'd be welcome to it. It's started raining so he can go and sit in the garden for the day

My cleaner requested another Henry when mine died last autumn. I ignored her I took her opinion into account, considered my options, thought about how much I detested the red-faced idiot, and got a Miele instead. She moaned about how the lead was shorter than on Henry, how reliable he was etc and generally reminisced fondly about how great Henry had been, bless him.

FINALLY yesterday she admitted the superiority of the Miele, which is lighter, more efficient and doesn't smell like an old, wet dog I (just about) resisted the urge to say 'I told you so'

I've got a Miele in one side of the house (two joined together, rather inconveniently), which is good but temperamental and costs a fortune in bags and replacement bits. Henry for the other side. Henry swallows everything I've ever thrown at him and I can get generic bags from the market.

I do wish I'd spent another tenner and got the James version, which has space for the tools in the lid. Haven't seen the little brush thing for nearly six months now...