He offers two useful features. The first is a dual purpose hairo-brush which is fantastic for scrubbing off stubborn pet hairs and other stains, the second is a carbon filter designed to combat unpleasant smells. The MicroFresh filter activated charcoal filter will minimise the bad smells your pets can create. Henry is a fixture of homes and offices nationwide. Designed and built in Britain, the quirky vacuums have a reputation for ease of use, effectiveness and durability, with many still going strong after decades of faithful sweeping. That’s no surprise: according to manufacturer Numatic, every Henry is “designed, tested and engineered to last a whopping 25 years”.

The frugal member of the family, James Hoover is a slightly smaller vacuum cleaner and comes with a couple of other alterations.

Henry Xtra

The bigger the capacity of the vacuum cleaner, the more dust and dirt it can hold. With the likes of the Hetty Vacuum model, the capacity of the bag is higher than the capacity of the vacuum. This means you are unlikely to ever burst a bag by overfilling it. A good tip for those looking to save cash.

We have a James hoover at home and a classic Henry which we use for our cleaning business; you do certainly notice the difference in weight between the two. The James vacuum cleaner is far easier to move around with especially on the stairs. It has a useful hi/low feature which allows you to switch seamlessly between the more powerful 1,200w and a lower 600w mode. It’s a great way to manage your electricity use. For most jobs, 600w will be more than enough power to get the job done, but occasionally, for really stubborn tasks, you might want to switch up to the more powerful 1,200w. This allows you to do just that. In the light of recent European legislation, though, Numatic have released a less powerful 620w model, but they’ve put in a huge effort to tune this up so despite the power drop you still get excellent performance – capable of meeting any job. litres dry dust bin capacity, which is a huge amount of space. Wet, the Charles holds 9 litres. An easy-to-operate switch goes between the two. There’s also a number of different Henry versions, including the popular Henry Xtra, Henry Allergy, Henry Pet, Henry Eco and Henry Micro. There’s even now a Henry Cordless option too. Have Questions about Henry, Hetty, Charles, George – or any other vacuums? We may already have the answer… What’s the best Henry for my small home or outhouse?

Henry

The Henry Xl Plus has a two-stage filtration system that uses standard fabric filters. It’s effective at retaining fine particles, but isn’t as good as HEPA filters. These contain 99.7% of micro-dust particles, like mould, so we recommend these if you suffer from severe allergies. Henry is manufactured by Numatic International at a factory in the town of Chard, in Somerset. The company was founded in Crewkerne in 1969, and initially employed just six people who made the first vacuums using oil drums and washing-up bowls. You can still see evidence of this in Henry’s drum-like body and plastic hat. Numatic moved several times over the years, eventually arriving in Chard in 1990. Thus if you are an allergy sufferer or someone in your home is, then the Henry Allergy represents a great way to get a vacuum at the same weight as the original Henry but with specific benefits around allergen control.