Numatic International - Charles (CVC370)

Spend an extra £50 and you can get a Charles - twice the power and can drink 10 pints of fluids.

Miele Cat and dog v3 here. Got it 11 years ago to replace the £40 asda special my new gf had which had died. Previously had Dyson and wouldn't buy another so we dropped £250 on this which she thought was mad. Still going strong. Getting a new brush head a few months back also made a world of difference as they do wear out. For brick dust and grot work the Numatic Charles gets the call as it can also handle water.

I get that, I have a workshop full of expensive tools to stand behind it too. My point is more along the lines of if all they need is a wet and dry and don't happen to have £600 notes just sitting on the mantle for one, but didn't want a Parkside then something like a Numatic Charles will likely last a lifetime for them, do everything they need and only be £150. When you're doing a lot of trade or DIY it does of course pay to spend more. Unquestionably. That was all.

A Numatic charles a has been my goto for a decade because it can also handle water. They don't get a carpet as clean as a proper vac with a beater brush but they get the very worst of it up. Use a Dyson at your peril.

If you're planning on going for a Henry, push the extra for a Charles instead, they're higher wattage as they don't have to abide by the wattage limitation for vacuum cleaners because they're a wet vac.1000w rather than 500 something .

If you're going to buy from an English hoover manufacturer, go with Numatic and get a Hetty, Henry or Charles

I feel like Shop Vacs are meant to stay outside and Numatics are meant to live in the house (and will do a great job outside, too). They're noticeably much quieter, too. Just make sure if you do go with Charles that you swap the filter with the float for that application.

Have you taken Henry to a vacuum repair shop? My Charles stopped working - his cable came loose and a repair cost a whopping £17.50

Nilfisk is a major commercial and industrial vacuum manufacturer, you can't really go wrong with their Attix wet/dry vacs. The Attix 22S is private labelled for Makita, Milwaukee, and a few others I can think of. Other commercial brands worth considering would be Kärcher and IPC. Nacecare (NA Henry distributor) sells the Charles wet/dry vac in the US. The Fein Turbos are supposedly quite good. 110" water lift is quite high for 120v vacuums, you're trading CFM at that point. The tradeoff is useful if your main goal is carpet extraction. Otherwise the industry sweet spot is 150 CFM~ / 100"~ at the motor.

Or, as per my other comment, get a Charles. Then you can vacuum fluids and it has a more powerful motor.

Not quite either, I'd go for a Numatic Charles (same manufacturer as the Henry). It's a basic wet and dry but more importantly IMO it has a more powerful motor than the Henry due to not being caught by the power limit for normal vacuums. (And I'm aware it's claimed that the modern lower powered ones are "just as good", quoting "air watts" etc, but that's completely at odds with my real world experience.) To be fair I haven't had a Shark but I did have a vaguely similar Dyson and I wasn't impressed.

Or a Charles from the same manufacturer. Because it's a wet/dry it's not subject to the same power limit and so has more power than the modern Henry.

Suggest George or Charles from the same manufacturer if buying new. They're more powerful as (because they're wet/dry) they're not subject to the lower power limit that modern Henry units are. Or get an older reconditioned Henry with 1kW or more.

Suggest George or Charles from the same manufacturer if buying new. They're more powerful as (because they're wet/dry) they're not subject to the lower power limit that modern Henry units are.

A Numatic Charles or George will be quite loud in comparison to your old Miele and also a lot less manoeuvrable as they’re a lot bigger. A Henry would be close to the noise level of your old Miele but is obviously dry use only. Personally I wouldn’t have a Charles or George as my main use dry vacuum for the noise and size issues. Honestly if you liked your Miele I’d just buy another as a Numatic machine won’t feel anywhere near as premium

It’s crazy how much more expensive Numatic machines are over there. They’re really quite cheap / offer excellent value for money in the UK. My mains powered Numatic vacuum was only £150. And the Henry Xtra cylinder machine has just been on offer for about £130.

Just to compare, what vacuum brand and model are you using now? I'd totally buy a Numatic Charles £179 if I were in the UK. It's a very durable vacuum and the Chares is a wet/dry version of Henry. They use large hepa bags and can do wet pickup. Honestly I though I've never used the wet pickup on my wet/dry vacuums in years. So if you never plan on doing any wet pickup you can also choose from all the other Henry models. Karcher has also makes some great wet/dry vacuums like the WD2 through WD6. I prefer Henrys because they use standard 32 mm tools while Karcher uses slightly wider tools so adding additional tools to Karchers is more limited.