NUMATIC Henry Quick cordless vacuum review

A Henry vacuum is a staple of British life, without a doubt. And the launch of the Henry Quick marks the entry of this familiar favourite into a new age, the age of the best cordless vacuums. While the large upright Henry vacuums have gone cordless before, there's never been a stick Henry model on the market, making this a brave new venture.

Numatic has taken the friendliness and reliability of Henry Classic corded, large capacity vacuums and injected the spirit into a slim stick vac. It's pretty different to the other competing models I've tested; it has dust-free emptying thanks to the dust bag system, and it has ultra-simple controls. That means there are just two modes, normal and boost. 

I put this vacuum to work in my flat to see if the new and improved Henry Quick really was....new and improved, especially with the love and appreciation that older Henry models still hold in mind. On the whole, I thought this new iteration of Henry is sure to earn the brand even more fans and help to keep his smiling face in British homes for years to come.

Numatic Henry Quick specifications

• Max. run time: 70 min Low / 16 min High
• Charge time: 150 mins 
• Bin volume: 1 litre
• Weight: 3.2kg
• Dimensions: 240x270x1220mm
• Modes: normal, boost

Who tested this vacuum?

Molly Cleary

Our Ecommerce Editor Molly oversees appliance content at Ideal Home, including vacuums and cleaning. She's tested a range of cordless vacuums from Dyson, Shark and more, this time turning her attention to the Henry Quick, which is the first bagged model she's tried. 

Unboxing the Numatic Henry Quick

The Henry Quick arrived in a clever, compact box, which opens out with a door to reveal all of the components of this vacuum neatly tucked away. The first thing you should know about this vacuum, and the first thing you'll notice when you open the box, is that it uses pods otherwise known as dust bags.

The debate over whether corded or cordless and bagged or non-bagged vacuums rages on (I'm not joking - Google it), and in this instance, Numatic has decided that a bagged system is best. I was intrigued to find out why. 

Many brands have dropped the more traditional bag system due to the fact it's not very sustainable generally and to spare customers from needing to repurchase bags in the future. 

Cleverly, Numatic provide enough bags in the box initally so that you don't have to worry about repurchasing for a long while - 26 pods in fact, are more than enough to get going with.

The rest of the vacuum set-up is straightforward. You've got the stick element, a battery that slides into the side, a vacuum head and two bonus attachments: a crevice tool and an upholstery tool.

My first impressions were strong with this vacuum. The branding is seamless (who doesn't love Henry?) and the set-up was really straightforward. There's no confusing jargon or features. You simply attach the parts together and press the silver button on the vacuum body to get the suction to roar into life. 

I was already thinking how perfect this vacuum would be for my mum, who wants a cordless model but is a bit of a technophobe. Even charging the battery is easy, as it just pulls away from the main body and can be popped on to power up like a phone. 

What's it like to use the Henry Quick?

In a word: easy. The Henry Quick has a very simple interface, with three lights that indicate how much battery you have left, and one single light beneath that'll illuminate when you need to change the pod inside. 

The last two buttons send the vacuum into Boost mode (which is good for thicker rugs) and turn the roller brush on or off. It's best to use the 'Power Brush' in high traffic areas, or when there's dirt or mud that you can't lift with the normal suction.

If you opt to use the 'Power Brush', which I usually do, then you'll also enjoy the LED lights being turned on as you vacuum. I tend to vacuum in the evenings, so I feel like I need a helping hand from the LEDs to get to all of the dust in my flat. 

I have both hard floors and carpets, and this vacuum works pretty well on both. I tend to go into boost mode on problem areas such as the kitchen, near where food is prepped, and near the front door) and it picks up as it needs to, mostly. 

To illustrate how the suction power with this vacuum is, I ran a test by spilling some oats over on the floor to test the pickup ability. This tends to give a good indication of how many times you'll have to revisit the same spot in order to get that desired pick-up that you need. 

As you can see from the photos, while most of the oats were successfully funneled into the vacuum, there were some stragglers, which I haven't found when I've tested (much more expensive) competitors, such as Dyson. However, a second go over and the oats were all firmly collected, meaning that as long as you're happy to go over a spot twice sometimes, this amount of power and pick-up will suit you just fine. 

Battery 

If there's one thing that Henry understands, it's that life is busy and finding charge to find another household appliance is hard. To make things as easy as possible, he's made it so that all you need to do is slide the battery off the handle and then plug it in at your nearest convenient plug. Praise be for Henry.

The battery life itself with this vacuum is very decent. Maybe because there isn't a fancy LED screen here, the battery feels like it goes on for much longer, with 70 minutes possible if you use it on the normal mode with the brush bar turned off. 

I don't live in a mansion (sadly), so I just tend to use the minutes of charge spread over a few weeks, meaning that it's not super often that you need to remember to charge your new Henry up.

Cleaning 

Another way that Henry has made life easy is by keeping things simple when it comes to features and therefore keeping things simple when it comes to cleaning. Using dust bags comes into its own when it comes to clean up too as to take care of the mess inside (that usually explodes in a cloud of dust with non bagged models) all you need to do is remove the bag, and place it in the bin. None of the dust or nastiness escapes, and you don't even need to clean the inside space, as it won't have gotten dirty. A dream. 

Things weren't so straightforward when it came to the brush head, unfortunately. There was a little bit of hair buildup after testing for a few weeks that I needed to cut away, and while this isn't the end of the world, I'd love to see a feature in the next generation of cordless Henry that means that you don't need to do this.

Should you buy the Henry Quick?

If you're new to cordless vacuums or if you're a Henry loyalist, my answer would be 100% yes. The Henry Quick is a great starter cordless vacuum, with nothing that's too challenging or difficult to use, and fairly strong suction at a good price.

If you're on a tight budget (under £300) for a cordless vacuum, then that's another box the Henry Quick will tick. In sales periods next year, we might even see it go on sale, if you can afford to wait that long. For those living in flats, the 70 minute runtime is more than enough for multiple uses across one week, and for anyone in a larger house, the charging process is so straightforward that it won't be too painful to plug it in once you're done.

About this review, and this reviewer 

Molly lives in a two-bedroom flat in West London, where she tested out the Henry Quick for many weeks before coming to the verdict in this review. She has both carpets and hard floors to try out the suction on, and used this vacuum throughout her home on various occasions to see how it fared.