UK ppl: Hooooooovers?

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I know that’s what you call vacuum cleaners over there. Hoover isn’t actually a super popular brand here, but our built in central vac purchased at Costco actually is a Hoover.

Anyways, one of the tools I’ve yet to buy for my trade is a vacuum cleaner. I’m thinking of getting a more compact quieter one vs a standard shop vac or Rigid brand shop vac because they’re big and LOUD and don’t work all that great for vacuuming up fine dust. They’re so loud I got a noise complaint for vacuuming during the day from a lawyers’ office next door.

The company my dad works for uses a Euro Clean vacuum and he says it works great. They’re $550 on amazon. Not sure of their decibel rating/haven’t looked it up.

I noticed a janitor using a Henry vacuum and it’s quite quiet. Looked it up and they’re 47db. They’re $450 w/ accessories on amazon.

Then I saw the James version, which seems to be the same size body and motor, just no retractable cord and only one or two simple accessories. Same 47db and only $350cdn on amazon. Is the James essentially just a stripped down super basic Henry? Or is it actually physically smaller?

I think the Euro-Clean one is a bit bigger capacity, but the Henry size would probably do and I think is a bit smaller so would more easily fit in my car.

6 months ago I would have opted for a larger capacity, but I’ve been working with some guys who’ve been in my trade for 45-50 years and have been learning how to do an ever better job which means less and less sanding & thus less dust to clean up so now I just want to make sure I get something that can handle super fine dust (I’m a Taper, like a Plasterer) annnnd is very quiet for the times I may use it in occupied offices/homes etc and don’t want to disturb people with a loud pos vacuum that sounds like a rocket taking off.

Not urgent or anything, just figured I’d ask here since there are quite a few here from the UK and I’ve literally only ever seen that one single Henry vacuum a few times and my dad’s seen one once. Everyone here just uses shop vacs/rigid vacs because you can buy them on sale for $90 sometimes but they’re loud af and too big to fit in the trunk (boot) of my car.

PS I am very well aware that this topic sucks. :p

Thx!

All I know is that Dyson is an expensive but decent brand here. We tend to call it a vacuum (cleaner) rather than a hoover.

Just did a little looking on amazon and the Henry comes in a couple different sizes w/ the bigger one having twice the power but still just as quiet - more money, though. The euroclean/nilfisk brand from Hungary is a little louder and might be a bit bigger. I’m gonna check the one out that my dad has from work.

We have dysons here, too, and they have a great reputation for a home vacuum cleaner but I’ve never ever seen one on a job site. Plus they’re very expensive. And I THINK they are all canister vacuums with no bags.. which is no good for what I do. I prefer a bag to contain the dust vs having to dump it and make a mess again. The bags also prolong the life of filters and the vacuum motor itself. We sand with 150 & 180 grit paper, some guys even use 220. The dust we make is very fine, like powdered icing sugar fine.

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that vacuuming in the uk was known as “hoovering,” and that vacuums were known as “Hoovers,” just like tissues here are just called “Kleenex,” because of brand recognition being burned into our brains for generations.

No, you were right. It's just less used a term these days. People tend to say, "I'm just gonna use the vacuum".

As for really fine dust, I thought that was precisely what a Dyson would be good for. I did not know that about bags prolonging the filters, I'm not really sure how that works.

Aaah, gotcha. I guess I’m just stereotyping/going based on some Irish girl who said “Hoovering,” a couple summers ago so assumed it was still the lingo.

And since I’m curious specifically about the Henry, I figured I’d ask UK ppl here. I think the Henry is quite a bit smaller than the euroclean one my dad was using - but that’s good for transport And might be totally fine the better I get at my job and there’s less dust to clean up. Gonna have to buy myself a longer trowel or two as well, which will make for fewer ridges to sand and less dust to clean up.

I’m not sure if dysons are designed in a way that debris doesn’t get sucked against a filter ?? But even just emptying them the fine dust can scatter. But regular shop vacs or the most common Rigid brand ones they sell at Home Depot, they’re designed to be used with or without bags, and with or without a filter - no bag no filter for wet vac. But when you just use a filter and no bag all the dust you suck up plugs the filter pretty quick and you lose suction and have to make a dusty mess banging out the filter. MOST contractors don’t use bags and many workers don’t even realize they make bags for them because of this.. and they don’t use them because the paper bags cost $10-15 EACH at full retail. They’re one time use, but you can slice them open and dump them out and then tape them up with ramboard tape (works best) to get 2-3 uses out of them if you’re super frugal. Personally, I’d rather just buy proper bags online for cheap for whichever sucker machine I buy & then throw them out in order to keep the dust mess contained and keep the filter clear and long lasting. (As with a bag in place the dust stays in the bag vs getting sucked into the filter and plugging it up, necessitating banging it out frequently - or at least shutting the vacuum off and letting the dust settle/shaking the whole machine vertically to clear the filter a bit.)

Proper tools proper job and all that good stuff. I just bought myself more goodies, but this year I’ll buy another 2-3 trowels, a vacuum, and likely a pair of short dura-stilts for my tall frame so I can walk around on stilts vs using a ladder and have fun while saving TONS of time climbing up and down.

Huh, you learn something new every day. My mum owned a Henry from the 80s, she said when I was a kid in the 90s that its suction power wasn't that great. That was over 25 years ago though, things could have changed.

I might check out Craigslist and a local used vacuum shop and maybe buy something high end second hand. The Henry is appealing because it’s quieter - but I’d likely get the high power one IF I bought a Henry.

Dyson are overrated and expensive. My household uses a cordless vacuum made by Vax and it does the job really well. Henry hoovers are also a good option.

I don’t think there’s s cordless vacuum on the market that has enough suction to clean up fine dust off of uneven floors very well. They also all tend to have thin cone shaped filters that would plug up almost instantly.

The only one that MIGHT work is a backpack vac by Makita tools, but I dunno.. I think corded is still the way to go, and something with a more typical drum filter & bags. Right tool for the job and all that.

Fair enough. Hope you manage to find something suitable.