Numatic International - Henry Quick (HVB160)

Henry quick (commercial one if possible)

The mieles have small capacity, you'll be emptying them absolutely constantly. Plus it'll need regular filter cleaning. Otherwise the duoflex is pretty good ive heard, of those issue aren't deal breakers. Any long hair in the house? The Henry quick brushbar wraps hair readily and will need regular cleaning. It's bagged which is good, no filters to clean. You should look at the pet model though if you want extra tools. More budget cordless models are not sufficient as someone's only cleaner, especially not with carpets and pets.

It depends on what you mean by “repairing”. Repairing usually refers to replacing a worn belt, the brush roller gets hair tangled around it on the sides where you can’t cut it and needs to be taken out and cleaned, and the vacuum can get clogged and needs to be cleared out. If you want to do any of that, don’t get a shark, because you can’t open them up to do any of those basic things that you could do on most vacuums 10 years ago. Look at a simplicity, or kenmore for plug in. Or Henry quick for cordless 👍🏼

As long as it’s a low pile rug: Henry 160, Miele C1 Pure Suction, Sebo k2 kombi. No wrong answers amongst the 3. You don’t wand cordless/bagless they don’t work well and break prematurely. You’d be lucky to get 2 years from the crap that’s being sold today.

Great vac, but Not for carpet unfortunately

Dude is a paid shark shill. Take what he says with a huge grain of salt. Miele, Sebo, Henry or Lindhaus are the correct answers

Got it! Hard floor only: Miele C1 Pure Suction, Sebo k2 Kombi, Henry 160 Hard floor and carpet: Miele C1 Cat and Dog, Sebo k3, e3, dart or Felix To add: all are excellent. If you have a Miele/Sebo dealer nearby, definitely stop in for a test drive.

I’d urge you to reconsider cordless. Most of them will have this same fate. IMO Get a Henry xtra as your primary vacuum. If you absolutely must have a cordless, Henry quick.

It’s shaped like a small shop-vac. I don’t find it “bulky” but that’s personal preference. All the pieces disconnect and break down so if you have a cabinet or closet it can store quite compactly. Not as compact as a stick, but the huge bump in performance is worth it IMO. Being in the UK there is bound to be a store where you can see the Henry for yourself and decide if it will work for you. The Quick is probably the best stick vac on the market. Just don’t expect a 20yr lifespan like you can with the corded Henry’s.

Check out a Miele C1 Pure Suction, Sebo k2 kombi or Henry 160.

No wrong answers amongst the 3! If you do have a Miele/Sebo dealer nearby, stop in for a test drive. They Henry may be hard to source locally though and will need to be ordered online. The biggest differences are 1) Miele has the shortest cord 2) the Henry has a manual cord rewind, the other two are automatic 3) the Henry’s bag is massive. And yes. The Miele is less expensive because it doesn’t have the electric powerhead (used for wall to wall carpets) which would be totally overkill for you. Those models *start* at $775. I’d also caution ordering from Amazon (specifically for the Miele) look around the sub, there are dozens and dozens of examples of people getting used/broken machines being sold as “new”.

This, OP

A Henry 160 is my pick!

Trash all of them, none of those are good vacuums (except the Miele). Also look into the Simplicity Jill, Henry 160 and Sebo K2.

Henry or Miele for BIFL.

Henry. Hands down and will be well under your budget for the standard one

Ours has put up with 8yrs of abuse and still going strong, as you say just change out the bags and he's as good as new. There's a reason almost every office/shop/hotel uses them

Henry’s are excellent. There’s a reason cleaning contractors use them. Looking for a vacuum with bells and whistles is pointless, just more to go wrong. Two dogs and cats. One of the dogs sheds vacuum killing amounts of hair. I’ve replaced the filters and the hose in 12 years. He’s still going!

Dyson are the ones of choice, however, I cannot betray my trusted HENRY hoover. It even has the right name!

Henry as a main one and Shark hand held (something pet plus anti hair wrap ..can't rememebr) is a great combo.

Seconding Henry range - a no nonsense affordable hoover

Usually a Henry or miele and you can't go wrong with those immo

Same. The only one I would ever recommend. Had expensive Dysons and cheap non brands. All blew up or became useless. Henry is still a champ 10 years later, just changing bags now and then and off it goes.

Henry 4 lyfe. End of story. But from the POV of buying for life, how many of the other designs can boast that something like 40% of all their vacuums *ever built* are still in service?

Just get a Numatic Henry. Relatively cheap, powerful and reliable.

I've never head of a vaccuum cleaner with no consumable parts such as disposable bags, unfortunately. I wish I had one, that'd be great! Well the tiny cordless ones don't have disposable bags - you just pour the dust out into the litter bin - but they have *nowhere near* enough suction power for a couch. Vaccuming a couch needs a lot of suction power. Most durable brands have good suction power. Numatic (the ones with the faces on them) have fantastic suction power, are very durable, and it's easy to buy replacement parts if something breaks. It's a British brand so probably available in India. They are expensive, but less expensive than other vaccuums that are equally good. Since Numatic is so easy to repair, a secondhand Numatic might be a good choice?

I have a Henry Hoover and it's grand.

Henry. Huge bags, wide nozzle so it rarely gets blocked, nothing fancy to go wrong - it either sucks or it doesn't!

Can’t believe I had to go all the way to #20 to find the dependable, REPAIRABLE Henry.

This is 100% not accurate. Dysons are very poor performers and most don’t recommend them. That particular Kirby model 18 to 21 years old and can’t even buy it new anymore, and most people who like Kirby’s don’t even recommend them. Cordless vacuums are mediocre at best. This may be the most recommended vacuums among the general public, but for most aficionados, they know to stay away from the vast majority of these. There are a few good ones in there. The Mieles, the Henry, the Kirby is at least a reliable cleaner and a cheap option.

I bought an extra one after 10 years cause I figured Henry needed a friend. They both still work fantastic, even with two big dogs and two cats.

That bastard can find trouble anywhere. Some chair leg or door gets in his face and he kicks off and ends up on his arse. Drunk manoeuvring aside, they're excellent vacuums. I keep finding them on the side of the road and they're normally fully functional or you can replace the whole motor for £25

The Miele, Henry, and Sebo vacs are the only ones worth a damn on this list. If you want a real BIFL vac and are willing to shell out, get a Lindhaus.

I have a golden retriever, hard floors and the shedding tumbleweed is quicker than I can hoover 😂 I have a robot vacuum that keeps the worst at bay and then a Henry for proper hoovering. The robot vacuum is a game changer because it’ll keep on top of the worst of it and can go on a constant wander

I find the Henry one useless but I also have COPD so I think the people saying it’s great might not have the same cleaning needs as us breathing challenged

After scouring this sub and r/vacuumcleaners, I ended up going with the Henry. Had it for a few years and it does its job, but it’s such a pain to lug around. Glad to see some cordless models made the list. Might consider getting one sometime since, although a cordless isn’t necessarily BIFL, I’d likely actually vacuum more with one. My floors may thank me lol

Mieles are good but I think a numatic Henry would be your best option and they have a cordless model as well they are very durable machines and easy to repair yourself

Henry, funny face included. These things are unstoppable

There is only one brand of vacuum that will last your lifetime, it's a Henry and it's not even on the list. Crazy 

I worked housekeeping in a few different fancy hotels, they all use Henry. He’s a work horse and never breaks! Yes he’s not the sleekest but he’s a charmer

Henry. Always Henry.

I love my Henry and wish I would have purchased him years ago. I do recommend him but only to people who have no carpet and very very few rugs. Henry is amazing but he does not do great on carpeting.

r_doood is spot on. The Numatic Henry is a great option for you. I use the Wessel Werk RD285 head he mentioned. It's excellent for picking up stuff like hair, dust, and dry dirt. It's outstanding for getting under chairs, tables, anything low to the ground. Comparable vacuums would be the Kärcher T12/1 or the IPC LP. Plenty of great options in the small commercial canister vac segment well within your budget.

Agree. It takes some amount of abuse and still does the job. I even took out the bag one time and used my Henry to vacuum a drenched footwell after driving car through a flood. It did a stellar job.

Dyson - we've had 2 or 3 handhelds. OK day to day for the hard floors and pretty good for carpets occasionally. Fills up quickly and does a better job than our cleaner's vac but eventually bits break. Normally just out of warranty and parts aren't available directly so I end up on ebay. I'm not convinced it's worth the price tag TBH Shark - I'll look at this next time for price point on handhelds Henry - we've had ours for about 15 years. He's done several renovations, sucked up all sorts of horrible stuff including garden waste. That thing is bullet proof and if it eve does go wrong, it's simple enough to fix Miele - I'm going to look at this next time as it gets some good reccos here Father in law likes his Vax

I have a Henry and love it. Works well on hard floors and carpet.

Sebo, Henry, Miele, Lindhaus all make BIFL level machines. They're expensive, but 20+ years of service is common with these brands. Sebo machines even come with a 10 year warranty when you get them from a dealer. Can't go wrong with anything from these brands. Go to a brick and mortar vacuum store and avoid big box store brands like Shark and Dyson.

Dyson in buy it for life , lol, it wont last till next year. Henry or GTFO.

Every so often at a UK holiday complex salesmen would turn up to try and replace the 200+ Numatic Henry vacuums they had. They would take them to a restaurant next to a beach, and get them to vac the mats full of sand. Many didn't even last though the demo.

I'm from Singapore. I think good options would be Miele C1, C3, and Numatic Henry/James. You can even find a Lindhaus if you want. The bagged Bosch canisters would also be good options. The Miele C3 in Singapore is the 2000W pure suction model. Whether you want a turbo-brush or not, that's kinda borderline The Henry 160 would be quite expensive though. I got a quote from the distributor here and it's about $450SGD. You can ask the Numatic distributor about the various models they can bring in https://jeffsupplies.com/product-tag/numatic/ There's also a Lindhaus dealer (Supersteam) who could potentially bring in the Valzer or the HF6 Personally, I've owned the Henry, the HF6, and a Bosch GL-30 (roughly the Series 4). They will all do a great job on the hard floors and deal with your long hair. The combi tool should be OK on the rug, but you can always get an aftermarket turbo-brush from Wessel Werk/Miele/Numatic if there's a need The HF6 is the only one of the lot where an electric powerhead is an option (though I don't think it's really needed for your situation) As far as I know, there's no Sebo distributor in Singapore Henry's appear for cheap once in a while on Carousell. You can buy bags direct from the distributor for $40/10 bags

Honestly I think the perfect combo is to have a robot to do the regular work and then a Henry for the big jobs.

I use a Henry hoover. They can handle a lot but still manage to get blocked at times

Travesty for Henry Hoover to be missing from this list. Truly indestructible BIFL

Ah my bad, missed that!

Agreed, Henrys are awesome! Super light, powerful, and dependable as gravity.

A Henry costs about £120-£140, it is mains powered, never dies, very powerful and uses bags. Almost all builders use it, and for a reason.

My Henry is smiling at my from across the room. Or he’s looking to get into trouble, it’s hard to tell sometimes.

I bought the Henry and I regret it. It’s heavy, the casters don’t track very well, the floor and carpet nozzles are cheap and generic and the design is very clunky.

I love my Henry, had it ages and still going strong!

I'm the UK a Henry £119. I don't know how you guys are spending $499 on it.

Numatic is literally unkillable.

Henry, or any of the other Numatic models. No question. They may look like a toy but there is a reason every professional cleaner here has one. They're so cheap in the UK for what they are because they are made here. £130 will buy you a brand new one, but an second hand one is a perfectly good option too. They last absolutely forever (I know 1980s models still in daily use), have very powerful suction, you can get bags easily, and the cord length is insane. The bags are big and don't need changing often. The only thing a Henry isn't so great for is deep pile carpet. Probably best to get an upright as well for that. To be fair though, I haven't tried one with a powered brush head, so maybe they can do long carpet well with one of those.

Henry. Just get a Henry, they are the rugged, repairable, simple and reliable.

> I work in shops, and Dyson cordless vacuums are revered UK here but practically everyone uses Henry's in the cleaning industry and as shop vacs. They're nearly impossible to kill