Ever wondered how good a Harry Hoover is? Have a read of this review and you will know pretty much all there is to know about him!
- Model: HHR200
- Capacity: 9 Litre
- Warranty: 2 years
- Made In: United Kingdom
The Harry hoover is one of the very latest additions to the Numatic domestic vacuum cleaner range. He is ideal for people who own hairy pets (cats, dogs or mountain goats). He gives great performance and includes a special “turbo tool” and odour neutralising filter for keeping pet “pongs” under control.
Harry The Hoover The Perfect Vacuum for Pet Owners
Harry the pet hoover was introduced to fill a gap left in the range after the carbon filter was removed from the Henry Extra in 2013/14. Many people who had the Henry Xtra wanted him for cleaning carpets with a bit more “oomph” but did not necessarily want or need the carbon filter to control odours.
The Harry was therefore born through a need for a pet focussed machine in the range, and he really is good at it! Harry is based off the same chassis and motor as the Henry. He does have a few key differences that are important to look for to ensure you don’t accidentally end up with a green Henry.
Firstly, Harry the pet vacuum has a paw print on his head as well as his name instead of the normal AutoSave style logo that features on many of the other models in the family. Secondly he will always be supplied with a Hairo brush.
Like our other reviews we will rate the Harry on a number of factors, including cleaning performance, reliability and ease of use. These “sub ratings” are then averaged out to give an overall score out of 100.
So let’s get to it!
Harry Hoover Performance Rating
Like many of the other machines in the Henry range the Harry is equipped with a very power efficient 620W motor that really delivers on performance. Most importantly though the extra Hairo brush floor tool dramatically improves the cleaning performance when removing hairs and loose fibres left by pets.
We will look further into how the Hairo brush works later in this article. For the moment we can safely say we found that large fibres that are “matted” or intertwined into carpet or sofa fabric were easily sucked up into the Harry.
With regards to standard performance with the normal combination floor tool Harry very much matches Henry. This is because he is effectively the same machine underneath. You can find out more about how we found Henry here.
We have attached a copy of the EU rating label to this page which shows that Harry performs well all around. He achieved an ‘A’ for energy efficiency, whilst cleaning to a good standard. We did notice that he only achieved a ‘D’ for carpet cleaning, we are unsure why this is as we found he cleaned carpets better with the Hairo tool than Henry.We noticed no difference when using the standard floor tool when compared to Henry (who achieved a ‘C’ rating).
Performance – With the above in mind we gave the Harry hoover a score of 89 out of 100, this is due to the improved performance of the Hairo brush when dealing with pet hair.
Ease Of Use
Like all Numatic machines ease of use is a critical factor that a lot of time has been spent on during the development of the vacuum cleaner. We found this green dirt devil to be just as easy to work with as the rest of his family members.
He is very easy to work with when cleaning this is mostly because of his long 2.4 metre hose and 10 metre cable giving him loads of reach. This extra length means fewer stops to find another socket to plug him into. The long power cable can be neatly wound back into his head ensuring that your cleaning cupboard is not a mess of cable, and that you don’t constantly trip over a tangle.
Wand docking on the back of the machine keeps your floor tool (the combination tool) and hose / wand neatly stored out the way. This is a nice feature that has only been on the Harry hoover for the last 2 years or so now. We found it really does make a difference when moving from room to room.
The hand tools are all easy to change, with the most popular for us definitely being the soft dusting brush and Hairo brush. As we have already mentioned we found the Hairo Brush to make a real difference.
The accessories are all very easy to change with no difficult to press clips or buttons. The tools are just a simple push-pull friction fit that keeps the tools in place and seems to work very well.
Changing the bags is a very easy task, and not one that you will have to do very often as the 9 litre capacity takes a while to become full. The bag is changed by releasing two clips on either side of the head and then lifting both the head and filter basket away. The dust bags even have a flip over cap to seal them when changing them to prevent unwanted dust leaks.
Ease of Use – For the above reasons we gave the Harry a solid 96 out of 100 to match Henry with the only thing we found to be somewhat disappointing with the Harry is the lack of hand tool storage. As the only tools we really used on a regular basis were the Hairo brush, soft dusting brush and the standard floor tool we just kept the spare tools in our cleaning caddy which immediately solved the problem.
Harry Hoover Durability
Harry has been built from a very well tested platform that has been refined over many years of commercial use through the industrial range of machines that he shares many of his parts with.
Common elements that he shares with the industrial range include motors, accessories, filers and even body and drum components. Numatic have an extensive testing program that quickly identifies any issues before they make it into production, this involves switching Harry on and off until the switches fail and even lifting and dropping him over and over again to ensure that he can take the everyday knocks and bumps of household cleaning.
When we tested this Harry we certainly could tell that he was not “flimsy” in anyway and felt that he was well put together and eager to deliver many years of service.
He comes with a standard 2-year warranty which is backed up by Numatic the manufacturer, covering anything that might fail due to manufacturing issues. All the accessories are covered by a 6-month warranty which is very generous considering all the hard work they do.
Reliability – For durability we have scored the Harry a well-earned 95 out of 100 we worked him hard and he did not flinch or flex.
Accessories
Well, what can we say, when a machine comes with even more kit than the standard Henry you really cannot complain, and every piece of the accessory set felt durable and well put together.
We have put together a guide to what all the different parts are that come with Harry and what they do and are specialised in.
- 4 Metre anti crush hose, this is actually one of the most important bits of the kit supplied with Harry, without it you would not be able to connect up any other tools. The hose its self is well made, flexible but still has an anti-crush design.
- The standard floor tool is great for cleaning large areas of hard floors or carpets, a simple ‘kick switch’ raises and lowers brushes on the underside changing the tool from carpet cleaning mode to hard floor mode.
- 32mm three-part wand set, this includes a bend tube that has a volume control to alter the suction of the vacuum, and can also be rotated to increase or decrease the height of the wand to better suit the user.
- The soft dusting brush is brilliant for cleaning ledges, edges and around the TV and Hi-fi. We found it was really good for cleaning around delicate items and carrying out “dusting” tasks.
- The crevice tool gets into corners, not much more we can say about that but it is still certainly handy to have!
- The slide on brush set is good for cleaning some upholstery and carpets where you cannot fit the Hairo brush into, the stiff bristles can be used to comb out fibres where needed.
- The star of the show is the Hairo brush! It uses the suction of the vacuum to spin a rotating brush head, boosting cleaning performance considerably. This rotating brush is one of the key reasons to consider buying the Harry.
- Not pictured above you have the activated carbon filter, this is what keeps the vacuum smelling fresh by neutralising any odour in air passing through it. This is why this machine is brilliant for pet owners!
Accessories – We have giving Harry a scorching 92 out of 100 for his accessory selection. He really is the pet hair master, as even with a long haired golden retriever in the house, he removes the hair and we did not so much as catch a whiff of “doggy” from him at any point during testing.
Value For Money
Harry currently is on the market for around £120 – £130 including delivery, of course this does change on occasion with lightning sales etc. With the extra equipment he is supplied with costing a lot more than the £20 more expensive he is than a Henry we thing Harry offers an absolute bargain for pet owners.
The only consumable item with harry is his bags and these are as cheap as chips (literally, even for genuine ones!). They last ages with the large 9 litre capacity and controlled and held onto dust well. We did not find that they blocked at any time, either.
Running costs are kept to a minimum thanks to his A rating on the energy scale, so we do not feel that he will cost you in the long run by running up your electricity bill.
Value for Money – So for a value for money score we give Harry a sterling 96 out of 100, just beating the standard Henry.
Conclusion
After using Harry for a while we thing he offers a really good solution for those who are inundated in pet hair, whether that is on their sofa, floors, stairs or car boot Harry is happy to take on the job and won’t complain or smell about it.
We will say that if you do not have pets you can find better value for money by going for a machine without the activated carbon filter. Something like the standard or ‘Xtra’ Henry may be worth taking a look at. It all ultimately depends on your home setup and how much carpet or hard floors you have.
In total we gave Harry the excellent little pet vacuum cleaner a score of 94 out of 100! This was mostly due to the extra value for money offered by the additional kit, and the extra performance he offered when dealing with stubborn pet hairs and odours!
Further Reading
Different Models
Harry has been known by a few names and model numbers throughout his development. The very latest model number is HHR200-11, however you may find him listed has HHR200A, HHR200-12 and HHR200H2 the important thing to check is that the machine is a Harry, and comes with the right tool kit. Old 1200W machines are no longer made, and offer poorer performance than the current 620W machine due to them being of an older design.
Need more accessories?
Don’t worry, there are loads to choose from! All of Numatics domestic machines use a common 32mm hose system that allows for easy fitting of many different accessories, including specialist dry floor tools and even the exotic “banana pipe cleaner”.
Is he Judging me?
Not too keen on being watched whilst you clean? Don’t worry you are not alone, and for this reason his face can be unclipped and removed (don’t worry this doesn’t hurt him in any way). This is great if you have children who don’t like things with faces on!