Which hoover?

[Delphi]

Our Dyson is 6 years old and still going strong. You do need to clean the filters regularly but other than that, no problems whatsoever.

[teacherboy]

Miele CX1 - Cat & Dog is great

[jamcg]

We have 2- a Henry for diy related stuff and a shark lift away for the general cleaning- the shark removes loads more from the carpets than the Henry, they also have lights, which initially seem like a gimmick but actually show an embarrassing level of muck

The lift away feature is great for taking to the car and doing the stairs etc too

[Barry]

Another recent Dyson deserter here, rubbish contraption. Shark replacement lifts the carpet. Much quieter too.

[Ascender]

Henry Pet is "the bomb" as the cool kids say, thanks for the recommendation.

[Gavster]

You've got a new life partner there with ol' Hen

[mik]

The main "spine" of our Dyson broke recently. Tried to glue it but non. Could undoubtedly buy another spares-or-repairs one to replace this part, but not massively excited by that thought.

Replaced it with a (bagless) Miele Blizzard (Cat & Dog edition) bought in the Black Friday sale. Took > 2weeks to get her due to Parcelforce industrial action, but initial perceptions are positive.

[Jobbo]

Since my original post in this thread, we got a Shark upright at the request of my wife. I disliked it immediately on unboxing because it feels flimsy; that's due to the folding, and it does at least fold conveniently. It's no better at picking up pet hairs than anything else despite their claims and we had to have a new main motor unit under warranty recently - though they were very good about just sending out the replacement. Different colour to the original - all their machines seem to be basically the same in different colours - the prices seem to be about how many batteries and what accessories come with it.

Anyway, I still massively prefer the GTech machines, though the charging lead can break the socket on the battery if you have a ham-fisted teenager using them so they aren't idiot-proof. The battery is at least replaceable on its own.

[Zonda_]

Bought a Shark when we got the St Bernard, it terminally broke last month, not even 14 months old.

[16vCento]

Our Shark pet hoover has been a lot better than the Dyson V8 it replaced, that Dyson was an unreliable pile of crap and didn't pick up half as much as the Shark does.

Seems to block the foam filter very quickly, I bought a few spare ones off ebay for when I've washed a set, other than that its been fine and must be nearly 3 year old now.

[DeskJockey]

Our Miele C3 just soldiers on. Can recommend.

[Gavin]

Have had a Kirby for over a decade now I think which has been faultless and picks up more than anything it has been tested against (Or had a few years ago).

My parent's one is 30ish and still going.

My only quibble is, with a long haired family, I have to take the head off and cut the hair from the brush and spindle but I would heartily recommend a second hand one, likely to outlast anything mainstream.

[Gavster]

Why people own anything other than a Henry is beyond me

[mik]

Why people own anything other than a Henry is beyond me

I wanted bagless.

I have read that you can opt to run a Henry without a bag, but the filters clog “in no time”

[Jobbo]

Henry is great. But no rotating brush means he doesn't easily pick up pet hairs from carpets, so with cats and dogs he's not a sole solution.

[Ascender]

Our Henry has been very reliable, but we have wooden floors so it's great for getting the dog hair up.

The only thing I don't like is how the nozzle connects to the metal long tube handle thing - its just a collar & sleeve thing so pops out very easily.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Henry is great. But no rotating brush means he doesn't easily pick up pet hairs from carpets, so with cats and dogs he's not a sole solution.

Aye this. We have a Miele upright, which despite its age and the loss of a castor is till my favourite for getting carpets properly clean. However it weighs as much as the moon.

We also have a Henry, which is great for hoovering up anything you would otherwise wish to subject a vacuum to. Be that hoovering the garage, or building/cement dust, footwells of the car etc. However, it's a total arse to store and retrieve, an arse to drag around and the nozzles etc always come loose/fall off halfway through using.

Which means we also have a Vax cordless jobbie. Far handier for down stairs than the other two, it has a proper powered brush which do an "ok" job on the carpets, you can take the upright bit off to use it as a handheld. However, the main unit is still fairly heavy, and having to emtpy the dust chamber is also annoying. Give me a bag that can just be thrown away anyday (or a Henry which seemingly is never emptied )

The wife was threatening to buy another vac recently so I've had to have a word

[Jobbo]

My Henry is at least 20 years old, has been soaked in cat piss (not intentionally) and used to hoover up wet leaves outside and never missed a beat - the attachments have never come off the hose nozzle. I was at a friend's house the other night and noticed he had a Henry which had a different shape round the wheels, different on/off switch etc and apparently it's a couple of years old. Still obviously a Henry but quite different. I wonder if the nozzle issue is due to a change in the design? Shame.

[Mito Man]

I don’t have much input apart from I’m also much more in favour of bags. Got a rubbish little Dyson V6 just for in the cars and it’s such a faff emptying it. Step 1 - find a new empty bin bag. Step 2 - go outside to minimise dust fallout. Step 3 - hold breath and slowly disarm the Dyson bomb whilst holding it in the bag so it doesn’t pop out and lead to a dusty explosion. Step 4 - give it a shake and using the bag try and remove the dust boogers still stuck on the inside. Step 5 - slowly remove Dyson from bag whilst maintaining a tight seal on the Dyson-plastic bag interface.
Step 6 - breath and close dust flap.
Step 7 - hold breath again and tie a knot in bin bag.
Step 8 - dispose of bin bag whilst moaning at what a hateful task this is!

[drcarlos]

Our Hetty (pink Henry) is Ancient too, it must be 15 years old now. It's not wonderful on pet hair but gets most stuff up and hasn't been a problem with tools. The wife was going on about getting a shark but I saw on their facebook page that the spare support seems to be pretty terrible so decided against it.