Numatic International - Charles (CVC370)

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

I have cordless Henry for light duty and powerful 1.6 hp George for heavy. Highly recommend George. Or Charles, same 1200 watt power, minus wet extraction mode.

I would do Charles for twice as much power. That suction is addictive:) I went with George only because it has additional functionality to wash upholstery, cars, carpets.

Numatic George or Charles with 1200watt/1.6 hp motors

Those two are just Henrys on steroids with more than twice as powerful motors. I do have cordless Henry for light duty upstairs. George is way more powerful and if only one I would have George.

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.

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.

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