Hoover advice needed

[yawningmonster]

Have been saving our money for a decent hoover and would like to get some opinions on what would best suit our needs:
Main requirements:
Excellent suction
Manouverability
Decent cord length
Something good for pet hair
Possibly wet and dry but not set on this
Easy to empty and reasonable capacity
Reliability
Up to 500 nz dollars (though dont mind second hand if brand is highly recommended)
Opinions very welcome

Miele Cat and Dog cylinder vacuum, bagged, excellent suction, light and manouverable.
Ticks all your boxes except wet and dry.

Are you in NZ then? (Silly question? ) Can you get British hoovers there?

Can you get Henry in NZ? He has a wet and dry brother/friend, might be called Charles?

We have Henry and he is fab, especially for hard floors, however you can now buy him with a beater bar attachment for carpets and rugs.

Havent heard of Henry and Charles and not sure as yet which brands are available here, thought I would do some research first and then see what was available out of the top contenders. I will check out Miele and Henry and Charles.

Anyone had a Dyson?

Henry and his friends are made by Numatic.

Dysons are good while they work, but very unreliable. Ours broke once while in the guarantee period (the motor blew) and then again a year later (the fuse in the plug kept going, then the whole plug exploded).

Not worth the candle (or the expense) IMO. Get a Henry. Miele Cat & Dog seems to be well-reviewed as well.

I did buy a Dyson upright - despite the warnings - but paid extra for a 5-year extended warranty in light of the reliability warnings. Had it almost totally renovated (???) this year and it is good as new now - when they work they really are the best at knocking 7 bells out of carpets!

I did have a Dyson but it was one of the 'old school', have heard they don't make them like they used to. We abused ours hoovering up loads of rubble whilst rennovating and got around 8 years out of it.

On Monday we bought a Miele S5210, It's Fantastic, Dh does most of the hoovering in our house and he loves it.

We don't have pets but both Dh and I have long hair which seems to fall out a lot, it's a wonder we're not bald, and this hoover is great at getting all the hair out of the carpet. We looked at the Cat and Dog one as well but it was out of our budget but we're very happy with the one we got.

Dyson Animal ticks all your boxes except the wet option.

I had one of the original dyson, but chucked it after three years as we wrecked it when renovating home and hoovering up nails and wood splinters .

Since then have been through a couple of cheapos and they just do not compare.

I was advised to steer clear of Henry's as they are designed for industrial work and not so good at manouvring inside an normal house.

SOoo i arrived home with a dyson animal and its fab! Suction is incredibly strong (hoovered my cream blinds the other day which had turned black and the dyson brought them back to cream).

Work v well on tiled floors also, and has setting for this.

has all the right tools to get in and around furniture. Can do stairs easily and the cord is long enough for me to do three rooms without unplugging.

It is a cylinder which i previously thought would be back breaking, but actually i find it easier as you are not pushing all the weight around as you are with an upright. and the hose is extendable so no need to bend.

the other bonus is no filters to replace, just wash them every six months.

Have i sold it to you yet? or do you need to hear more

If you are going to get a cylinder I would def recommend a Miele. Dyson uprights (although impossibly heavy to shift) do a fantastic job on carpets but Miele are the dog's b@ll@cks otherwise.

had a dyson and motor kept going replaced it with morphy richards pet bagless upright its just as good in fact i would say better at fraction of cost and works on hard floors too

Miele Cat and dog will not hoover up the dog's bollurrks, only their hair.