Numatic Hetty HET200P

Excellent Vacuum – This vacuum is powerful, has various settings and looks great too. Works well to clean my carpets especially. Easily adjusts to different floor types. Stable and easy to navigate the home.

Impressed – I was surprised at the quality, strength and performance, best filter system in one of that price , greatly reduces dust emissions back into the air . Wish it had a power head option for thick carpet though . Can't think of any other negatives except the lack Iv a power head as perhaps an extra fitting .

Straight forward and functional with a smile – I've had this vacuum for a few weeks shy of 2 years now.. My previous vacuum was a Miele S291 and before that I can't remember, they would have been just cheap ones. I clean other peoples houses for work (about 8 homes a week on average) so it's not had an easy 2 years! I'm very happy with Hetty, it's still going strong. I've found it to be of quality construction and simple design. No gimmicks apart from maybe the smile :) and honestly I almost didn't consider buying one because the smile made me think it would just be a gimmicky vacuum, well until I looked into it and found it was a commercial vac and made in the UK.

I haven't needed to replace the filter, but will be shortly anyway. The bags are large capacity and much cheaper than some other brands (Miele as one example). It's easy to change bags etc, and even though I clean other houses a box of bag seems to last a very reasonable amount of time.

The hose is exceptionally durable, I've stepped on it etc many times and it gets yanked along, pulled up to get over small obstacles (ie going from flat floor onto a thick rug or something) and yet it's still perfectly fine, it doesn't constantly kink or anything. The design seems to be great also in that I've not had big things get stuck in the metal wand very often at all, and if they do it's very easy to pull apart and get it out! I think this is credit to the sweeping bend in the steel wand. I know things got stuck a lot more often in my Miele and were really hard to get out.It's just inevitable that I suck up something I shouldn't have from time to time!

The brushes on the original floor head aren't too worn yet either but the big wheels feel like they're a bit more wobbly than they might originally have been (if I grab them with my hand and give them a wobble). The connections are still firm enough not to randomly come apart when I'm vacuuming etc, but they aren't as tight as they used to be., I must say that I am constantly puling some of the wand apart to fit into the boot of the car, and I was changing the floor heads for a short time as I brought a Super Gulper to try (great on hard floors not so much on carpets with fluff, easy to push along but wears out pretty quick).

I find it can be a bit heavy when the bag is full (of sand and what not), mainly because one of my vehicles that I sometimes drive I have to lift it up to chest height to get it in the car!

I'm thinking of buying a 2nd vacuum soon (so I can keep one in my own house permanently), I would probably get either a George (just for a different name and colour) or go for the Numatic Back Pack next time around. I did consider looking at a Dyson or something, but I just don't think it would be as nice and simple to use as Hetty, Dyson certainly not as quick when you have to pull the wand apart to quickly vacuum a dead fly on a windows sill or something. Tempted by James Junior too but it's lower wattage and air flow than Hetty.

I wouldn't go back to a Miele purely because it was heavier than the Hetty and the bags were at least twice as expensive and a lot lesser capacity.

Anyhow that's enough of a ramble I think. Simple, Reliable, Quality Consruction and fit to clean more than just my house. Nothing! After a couple of years of hard work it's starting to show some signs of wear, but it still works perfectly.