It’s my birthday today and as a present to myself because, well, why not? – I got myself a Henry vacuum cleaner. Henry’s are made in the UK so I passed my test not to purchase something made in China (although I have failed numerous times already this year).
We did have a vacuum, a Dyson, but we’ve both become irritated with it for various reasons. The dirt doesn’t come out of it without having to stick your hands in and pull it out which isn’t very pleasant; it doesn’t clean the floors very well especially carpet; on wood flooring the setting keeps flipping back to carpet so I keep having to adjust it as I’m vacuuming and lastly, I’m pretty pissed off that the billionaire founder, James Dyson, campaigned for Brexit and then promptly moved his business to Singapore. You don’t get to sink the ship and then jump on an exclusive lifeboat leaving everyone else to drown.
Our new Henry is superior to the Dyson in every way – it’s quieter, sucks better, is way cheaper, has a really long cord, looks to be better quality, is made in the UK, and he smiles at us. Henry’s are the vacuum professional cleaners use and I’ve also seen them in schools. They are simple, tough, and last a very long time which is everything a good appliance should be.
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Congratulation! Hope you have a nice your birthday with many real 😉 presents.
That vacuum cleaner looks so Anglo-American. Including a helmet as protection against the Germans.
Thanks, Victor. Haha that’s so funny about the vacuum. I hadn’t noticed that before. Numatic started making them in England in 1969 so perhaps there was some post-war inspiration there 🙂
Happy Birthday! I hope you have a fun day.
That is a cute vacuum cleaner. I’d be happy to buy a new vacuum for my birthday—a basic task shouldn’t be difficult to perform, and yeah, boo James Dyson. It’s rotten he fled the country after he voted to screw it over.
Thank you! I’m very happy with my new vacuum – a great birthday present. Henry FTW!
I’ve never understood how Dysons got to be so popular when they are so difficult to empty. I think they’d have you believe you just open the lid, tip and the contents slide easily out into your bin, ha ha.
Yes, it’s so hard to empty and definitely does not tip easily into the bin. I think Dyson used to be better but they’ve gone downhill.
Belated birthday wishes Rachel!
We went to buy (actually to return a lower powered cheap Electrolux and get a bit higher spec’d one) a vacuum cleaner today to Briscoes but thought of checking what we get for for the same money ($250) at Godfreys next door.
We did see a Henry for $529 and recalled this blog post. And we bought a Hoover for four times our budget, after seeing its impressive performance in action. Our budget was overshot but I think we got a quality cleaner given how obsessive I’m with household cleanliness.
$529 seems a bit expensive for a Henry but I guess there are import taxes and shipping and that kind of thing. I am super happy with the Henry. Something that frustrated me about my old Dyson (which actually wasn’t very old and way more expensive than Henry) is that it wasn’t very good at picking up fluff and hair from carpet. It just used to push it around. When you test a vacuum in the shop it’s not the same as using it on your own carpet which may have a thicker pile.
I hope your Hoover is working well and was worth the expense!