His powerful suction means dirt and stains from hard floors can be tackled with ease, with the brush head designed to pick up all debris it finds. It’s difficult to answer which is better when it comes to Henry vs Dyson, as it comes down to personal preference. I measured the Henry at 408AW, which makes it one of the most powerful vacuum cleaners I’ve tested; even more powerful than the Stihl SE 33 wet and dry cleaner. Numatic have been making Henry Hoovers for decades and it really tells with the Henry HVR160 and HVR200 – you’ll struggle to get a more reputable brand in the UK vacuum market. Produced by British manufacturer Numatic, the Henry has become a hugely popular vacuum cleaner, and its popularity shows no signs of slowing down.

The curved section has an air vent on it, too, which is used to decrease suction power – the vacuum cleaner has just an on/off switch.This means his effectiveness at cleaning stairs is not as good as some other vacuums, and he isn’t the easiest vacuum to move around the home. If you have a house with allergy sufferers, the Allergy version is better; for most homes, the standard Henry will do the job.

The famous Numatic Henry vacuum cleaner has had a revamp to make it compliant with new EU energy regulations for vacuum cleaners. It’s a plastic base plate with litter pickers either side of the suction inlet which help deal with more clinging litter such as pet hairs. The power cable is a generous 10 metres in length and the genius rotary dial at the top of Henry makes retrieving the cord a doddle – which is just the sort of convenience we appreciate after undertaking a good vacuuming session. It’d be easy to underestimate a cleaner with such charming looks, but rest assured the Henry HVR 160-11 offers serious suction. Putting the Henry through my usual tests, I was generally impressed – although all of that power does mean that the floor head can be difficult to push across some surfaces, having a tendency to suck up lighter rugs.

Before we go into detail on Henry, If you’d like to know more about Henry’s family you can check out our post on the Henry Hoover range. In the box, you get the standard set of accessories, including a floor head that can switch between carpets and hard floors, plus a crevice tool, dusting brush, upholstery brush and extension tube. This helps to increase airflow and vastly increase performance, despite the newer Henry’s having significantly less wattage than its previous versions. It’s not just Henry’s size and weight that has changed, he’s always ready to go with all new on-board accessory storage and improved floor tool docking.

It’s completely different to earlier versions of Henry and does feel like an improvement, allowing for an all-round better clean.

What it may lack in finesse, the Henry more than makes up for in terms of raw power, using lots of suction to clean quickly and easily.

In addition to bag capacity, there is a difference in suction power as detailed above, though it’s only a small difference of 40 watts so it’s unlikely something that you’ll notice.There have been a number of iterations to Henry over the last decade in terms of motor power, meaning the Henry Hoover suction power and wattage is different depending on which model you have at your disposal. We test how well each vacuum cleaner can deal with the type of large dry spill that you might get in your kitchen, by measuring how much dry rice each vacuum cleaner can suck up. Henry bags even come with a neat closing tab that can be closed the moment they’re removed, minimising the chance of any dusty spills during bag changes.