Vacuum cleaners (dull,I agree,but necessary) please recommend me one!

[wrinklytum]

Mine has died and we are a bit skint so nothing over £100.Can you help oh wise mumsnetters?TIA thanks

All I can say is in my experience I would not buy either electrolux or dyson. Wish I could afford to change mine.

I'm pleased with my miele cat and dog but I think it was about £160.I got it about 2 years ago. It does a good job and I was sooooo impressed after our dyson.

I have a henry but it is rather large but sucks good.

definitely a henry.. mine is now 17 years old and still smiling

he survived my kids feeding him milk and all sorts of things when they were little, my exh cleaning up a buildng site, and he's as good now as he was when new

about £89-£100 I think

I just brought a new one yesterday cos ds1 broke it. I looked at Which? and decided that for the money v ratings the (argos details) 406/0675 Electrolux Powerlite Bagged Upright Cl 1 £49.97 was a good enough buy, there was no way I was spending £200 on a vacuum.
Having got it home, it's great on carpet, but not so great on the tiles in the kitchen as I can feel little bits being spat out behind at me - not a major issue, it is getting the vast majority of the stuff (dog hair). But if I just had laminate or tiles then I don't think it would be any good.

but depends, do you want upright or cylinder, bagged or baggless, what type of floors do you have, etc

Some NOT to get! Had a brilliantly hungry Hitachi from Argos - it ate everything but kept falling in half and eventually burnt itself out with sheer enthusiasm. (was about £50).
Vax Astrata - not very good suction, couldn't work out why until a year after I'd bought it and was still using the Hitachi. realised the filter had been clogged before I bought it (Argos return probably!) and now it's better but the filter needs cleaning pretty much once a week to get any power. Well made though and solid. (reduced to about £50, usually more like 80)

I have now also got a Miele which seems very good and very quiet. It doesn't suck as much as my beloved Hitachi but is quieter and very well made. That was also reduced as it was discontinued. Only downer is it takes expensive cloth bags.
Good luck finding the holy grail of vacs!!!

(I still want to get a Henry)

When i split up from my husband i promised myself i would get a henry as before all icould afford tog et was a cheap £20 which didn't pick up anything.

I'm glad i got it it was worth the saving up for it.

Oooooooooooo Henry, Charles or James, I bought my Henry from Amazon for about 76.00 incl p&p.

It really is the best one I have ever used.

Henry! I bought one after a cornwall cottage had one, and it sucked up all the sand brilliantly. 3 years old now and still great!

The S380 is the cheapest Miele - it is the best make of cylinder. Although they use bags you get max suction until the bag's nearly full, and the cloth stuff keeps the dust in.

You can get a box of 5 bags and 2 filters for about £5.

Which don't recommend Henry but he does seem to go on for ever!

Thanks.Am off to get a Henry.Many thanks ladies!!!

Wendy - where d'you get your bags??! I can't find any except on ebay and then there's all the hooha about whether the paper ones are suitable or not - I have an S311i, still awaiting its first replacement bag
poor thing.
A fiver sounds Ok.