vacuum cleaner

[sue denim]

Time to buy a replacement vacuum cleaner....must be able to cope with builder rubbish and also be used by the good lady wife in the house....any recommendations......?

Thanks

'Sue'

 

[tekno.mage]

Get a Numatic "Henry" - excellent machines and they go on for ever.

 

[bugbear]

Get a Numatic "Henry" - excellent machines and they go on for ever.

They're certainly widely used by commercial cleaning companies,
which is some kind of recommendation (although
cleaning companies may have different priorities
to normal homes)

BugBear

 

[nev]

Henry or one of his mates for work
sebo for the house

 

[cambournepete]

I would try and use the same one for both - the DIY/builders one will get very dirty on the outside.

We've got festool and Miele (cylinder). I'd go for a Miele or Sebo upright next time.
We had a dyson, but it was very noisy and plasticky and filled up quickly ( it doesn't compress the dirt like the bagged cleaners).

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My friend fixed domestic electricals for a living, and wouldn't touch Dysons with a barge pole. He swore by Henrys, and said not to use them without a paper bag. From my experience, he's right.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Henry. Made in Yeovil, I think, and tough as nails.

 

[ColeyS1]

I tried a few different cyclone flavoured hoovers for home, then bought a Henry for the work van. The hoover at home swiftly got replaced with a henry afterwards. The thing with henry is he's quiet. He doesn't shout about how great he is, he just gets on with the job. One thing about Henry is he's proper hungry. He wants to eat as much garbage as possible but this means he gets a proper belly full. When you replace the bag( empty his belly) , you also give him a new set of lungs ( bag acts as a filter) so he breathes/sucks easy after emptying his belly. Did I mention he was hungry? He never gives up. The thing with Henry is he's always happy cause he's good at his job . You can drag him around over proper rough terrain and he always stays put on his castor/feet. That's enough, im starting to feel confused

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[cutting42]

Workshop/builders - Henry
Home - SEBO - no contest and by a country mile. Great for fine particles and allergies, very robust, simple to change stuff and service. Same basic design for 20 years plus, all spares the same. I travel extensively and have seen SEBO vacs re-branded, but in more hotels than any other make. My mechanically challenge MIL fixed hers over the phone to SEBO to unblock after she tried to vac a brand new deep pile carpet and bunged it up.

I love Miele for all my kitchen stuff but SEBO for vacs.

 

[Harbo]

We've just replaced our 20yr old Oreck with a new one. Very simple design, Hypo Allergic bags with great capacity, very light (no tools to lug around).
Many years ago we saw them being used extensively in USA Hotels.
No tools - on some models you get a free hand vac but we have a wet/dry Henry type Vax for those jobs.

Agree about Miele - best by far for kitchen and laundry tasks.

Rod

 

[Graham Orm]

Numatic do more than the Henry range. I use a larger model for work, it's indestructible and will lift the carpet when the filter is clean. Have a look on Ebay

 

[Ring]

Any good.....http://www.tesco.com/direct/karcher-wd3 ... ff_1018132

 

[Graham Orm]

Any good.....http://www.tesco.com/direct/karcher-wd3 ... ff_1018132

That's an excellent buy, worth of a thread of it's own, it has a power tool take off as well.

 

[Eric The Viking]

More on Henries: we had one die a couple of years ago. Itwas a clone made by a now-defunct spin-off from Numatic - same motor and accessories, different casing. It only managed 26 years of house cleaning, with occasional bursts of building rubble etc. during DIY episodes. It only died because our treasured cleaner thought it was wet+dry, and caused the bearings to rust and wear out prematurely (even that took three years!).

We now have a posh, 2-speed genuine Henry (no face though). It was about 30% cheaper than a Dyson, before discount, it has a HEPA filter, a cable winder (brill) for the really long cable, and is much quieter than the old one. I bought it from the vac shop that's two streets away, from which I can get ALL the parts as spares, and the consumables (filters, bags, etc.). The owner, whom I know, sells to lots of the cleaning services in the city. He has one too. He says Dyson repairs have paid for a few of his holidays down the years!

I think they have two drawbacks: they're a bit heavy, and tall stairs can be tricky because of their shape. Our cleaner wouldn't have anything else though.

your mileage, etc.

E.

PS: If I gave the impression it's either Henry or Dyson, I didn't intend to - it's merely a comparison. I wouldn't touch a Dyson with gloves on.

 

[cambournepete]

Henry. Made in Yeovil, I think, and tough as nails.

Close - they're in Chard, also in Somerset.

 

[JakeS]

My experience with Henry vacs is that the filtration is awful, and lets through a lot of fine dust and throws it all over the room; I have to be sure to be out by the time the cleaners come at work, 'cause they use one and I can't breathe after they've started going around - dust sets off my asthma.

On the other hand, for all I know they're not buying genuine bags and replacing them with cheaper ones that don't filter so well. If such things are available.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Jake, they probably aren't using bags at all - if the Henry is used regularly, for a couple of hours a day, the money saved would replace it every year.
I use pattern bags, and other than for a second or two when the bag's been changed, I've never seen the even the smallest amount of dust. It pays to run the cloth filter through the washing machine once in a while, as well.

 

[tekno.mage]

My experience with Henry vacs is that the filtration is awful, and lets through a lot of fine dust and throws it all over the room; I have to be sure to be out by the time the cleaners come at work, 'cause they use one and I can't breathe after they've started going around - dust sets off my asthma.

On the other hand, for all I know they're not buying genuine bags and replacing them with cheaper ones that don't filter so well. If such things are available.

If you are having that sort of trouble - your cleaners are definitely doing something badly wrong with their Henry! They are so reliable that they continue to "work" (ie suck up some dust and not go bang) if seriously abused (run with a burst paper bag, for instance).

My first experience of Henry vacs was their use in mainframe computer rooms in the 1980s which had all sorts of restrictions about fine dust (which caused problems with early hard disks) and the Henry was the only vacuum the service engineers would allow as their fine dust filtration was so good. I'd guess your cleaners have either removed or not maintained (ie washed and replaced when necessary) the multi-layer cloth filter and they may not be using the correct bags (or maybe no bag at all!).

I belive Numatic also make vacuums for use in semi clean-room environments, BTW, and seem to remember when I bought my latest Henry (about 10 years ago) that there was some bumph with it about additional filtration options that were available for use in more stringient enviroments or for people with really bad dust allergies.