Henry, Dyson or Vax - recommend a Hoover please

[notasausage]

I badly need a new Hoover as ours is falling to bits. I fancy one without a bag, simply because I don't like having to buy Hoover bags. We have lots of laminate plus a carpeted stair and hallway - no pets at the moment but 3 long haired girls mean I also have a hair problem!. Please can you tell me about your hoover so I'm prepared for the Christmas sales.

Well out of those 3, I'd have a Henry. We have one as our DIY and car vacuum. It's 12 years old now and survived 3 house moves and our most recent was a full renovation. You can pick anything up with them. They are bagged, but the bags are enourmous and last for months. Plus, with bags, you don't have any messy filters clean. With bagless vacs, you have to regularly wash out the filter and it can be really messy job.

I know some others on here have had trouble with Henry and it's true that they're not ideal if you have loads of carpet but that won't be a problem if you only have carpet on the hall & stairs. Henry are ideal for cleaning hard floors as the floor head is dual purpose so it has a setting for hard floor & carpet - it won't scratch your laminate.

With that configuration i would get a dyson v6 handheld like a shot. We have all laminate and carpeted stairs and i have 2 older models, one upstairs and one down. They are brilliant, much better than the dyson corded vacuums even. So much so that when my miele cat and dog broke down, i never bothered replacing it and use only the handhelds. Ive asked for the v6 for Christmas. Expensive, but youd never need to plug a hoover in again.

I have a Henry, yes if does have bags but they don't need changed for ages. There's three girls in our house with molting hair. My Dyson were forever breaking or getting things stick in them and what I love about the Henry is it literally sucks everything up and nothing ever gets stuck or affects it's performance.

When I had my Dyson, all our hair would get wound round the turny bit underneath and it would stop turning. Never happens with a Henry. Il never buy another make again.

Iv had two vacs and they were absolutely shite and got returned.

I've been using Dyson for around 17 years now. I'm on my third corded in that time but I only replaced the second one because we got a dog and I wanted an 'Animal' one. I also have a handheld one which is so useful.

Just to add re the comment above about Henry's not being good if you have loads of carpet. My dad's had the same Henry for 14 years and lives in a massive house across five floors and it's all carpeted apart from one floor and it's still going strong and never had a problem ever.

Henry is brilliant, have had him for 10 years. For carpets, I flick the little lever to use the brush that is meant for hard floors. This makes it harder work, but the carpets get fluffed up beautifully and are extra clean. Only drawback for the Henry is that it he's quite heavy on the stairs, and can get a bit stuck on corners. He's very robust (survives bouncing down the stairs, being flung in to the back of the cupboard etc.) Also have a hand held Dyson (the one with the long arm). It's more convenient for the stairs, but doesn't come close on suction.

Henry. Had mine for at least 10 years and he sucks up anything with a little smile!

Not on your list but the Bosch cordless one is fantastic. I have 2 pets and a mix of floors and it's great.

Henrys are awkward on stairs and heavy. Great otherwise.

I love my Henry. We actually bought ours with wedding gift money, doesn't sound very exciting but we were so excited to buy it!

Me and 3 DD with long hair, lots of hardwood flooring, but carpeted bedrooms and stairs. I have a Henry after years of frustration unclogging the Dyson and emptying after every use. My Henry bags last about 3 months between changes.
Highly recommend adding a turbo brush which has made mine much better and easier to use on the carpets. The hair does wind round it but the brush design means you can cut it out easily as opposed to taking half an hour and shredded fingers with the Dyson.

Dyson every time and, no, the filters are not messy to clean IME.
Agree with foragogo about the Dyson handhelds - they are ace and I too am getting a V6 as a Christmas pressie to myself .

We bought an upright Sebo recently and I really like it so far. It is bagged, but I don't think that's always as much as a faff as people think, as long as one has a stock of bags on hand

olivia. Can the Bosch cordless one totally replace a normal vacuum? I'm very tempted to get one.

MrsBosh, great choice! We have a 20-odd year old Sebo that myself and DH got as a hand-me-down when we first moved in together. We've tried twice to replace it with more modern vacuums - a Dyson and then last year, a Miele Cat & Dog, but neither have lived up to the performance of the old Sebo.

We also have a Henry that we use for the more messy jobs - that's also an oldie. We bought that in 2004 when we were having some work done on our house to cope with the brick dust and builders mess. It's since kept us going every christmas with pine needles, through another house move and completely renovation of our current house which we gutted when we bought it.

I saw this thread title on active convos and thought it was a baby name thread

Henry is my choice. It is a workhorse of a Hoover. Only looses suction when bag needs emptied. However it is heavy a nod cumbersome for stairs.

I've had my Henry for years and I have a reusable bag. It's a zip up bag that you just upzip and empty in the outside bin!

I wouldn't swap Henry from anything he's old but still works the same as the day I bought him!

The Bosch Athlet is a fantastic vacuum - and I have a collection of various makes ,I can't comment on anything with a bag as we are all bag less here .

I have 4 Henrys (I use them for work and home)
Pros: you can suck up everything from dust to rubble.
You can use with or without a bag (best to use one as not using one can shorten its life but I listed it as a pro as when I ran out of bags the other day I could still use it)
Long cord means you can vacuum the whole floor of an average house without faffing with sockets.
If you have a hairy house (pets or long haired humans ) the rotating brush attachments are amazing for getting the carpets clean.
They are great for hard floors because of the brush setting on the head.
They last for ages. My oldest one is 15 years old.
He's always always happy

Cons: heavy on stairs? A bit but the nozzle is so long that you can do most of a flight of stairs without having to move it.

Who yes ours is now our only vacuum, it's fabulous. We have a cleaner now and she is buying one for herself as she's so impressed with it

Thanks.

Another plus point to Henry - he's cheap!! Whereas Dysons, Sebo's, Miele's and fancy cordless vacs are all touching and often exceeding £200, Henry is under £100. I think we paid about £80 in Costco for ours but that was a while. Amazon are selling them for £99.

The bags are cheap too - £7 for 10 in our local vac shop and they're huge. They last for months before they need replacing.

Also meant to say, there's a reason why you never see cleaners using expensive bagless vacs in offices and hotels etc.

Sebo Felix - bagged, super suction, loooooooong cord, reliable.