Henry Quick review: A mixed bag

Henry is a name that’s synonymous with Hoover, which of course is another brand entirely. Henry’s smiling face can be found in many homes, and now it’s on a cordless stick vacuum for the first time.

You might assume the Quick is Henry’s answer to the cordless Dyson, but look closer and you’ll realise there are more similarities with the Halo Capsule than, say, Dyson’s V11.

Battery-powered ‘stick’ Henry might be late to the party he does have a trick, one borrowed from its corded stablemate. Where most stick vacuums are bagless, the Quick is not.

But as the Halo Capsule has proven, while the bagged approach does have some drawbacks, it also brings a good few benefits including the fact that dust and muck doesn’t spray out each time you empty the bin.

But does this make Henry Quick a better choice than the many bagless options out there?

Features & design

• 1 litre pods
• LEDs in floor brush
• Removable battery

Overall, Henry Quick is a lot like most other stick vacuums. The dust bin and motor are built into the main unit onto which you attach the “stick”. You’ll usually attach the floor brush to the other end of the stick, but you could instead fit the crevice or combi-tool to reach hard-to get places, whether down low or up high.

Those three are all the attachments you get: there’s no separate hard floor head or miniature motorised head for cleaning your car or sofas that you get with the – admittedly more expensive – Dysons.

What you will find in the box is an additional handle which attaches to the built-in one with a quick-release mechanism. The manual calls it an extension handle, but says nothing else about it.

You’ll find out soon enough, though, that the built-in handle is uncomfortable to use and the extension gives you more options for gripping it in different ways and holding the vacuum at different angles. But even without it, the Henry Quick is tall enough for even tall people to use it without stooping.

Jim Martin / Foundry

On the front is a panel with a power button (there’s no trigger, which is good), a boost button and a third one to start and stop the brush rotating, which is useful on long-pile rugs or carpet.

Four LEDs give you a rough idea of how much battery power is left, while a long LED lights up when the pod is full.

That’s an important point because, unlike a bagless system, you can’t just look and see whether or not you need to empty the bin.

The quick-release mechanism on the bin is very easy to use. When you point and shoot into your dustbin, the pod slides into it with no mess.

Jim Martin / Foundry

There are 26 pods in the box. It sounds like a strange number, but Henry says it’s a year’s supply, which would mean changing a pod every fortnight. Whether or not that’s realistic will entirely depend upon the size of your home and how dirty it gets.

Jim Martin / Foundry

And, for context, Halo provides 52 pouches with the Capsule, which it says is two years’ worth.

The problem, of course, is that pods are a consumable which cost money – once those initial 26 are used. At the time of review a box of 10 was £12.99.

The company says they’re made from recycled material and are “climate positive”, which means it is carbon offsetting the pods. However, it’s a shame that the phrase used is “up to” 65% recycled rather than “at least”.

And since the bags are not biodegradable or compostable like, say, the Halo Capsule’s paper and cardboard bags, they are still going to landfill.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Of course, there are benefits to using microfibre bags. For one thing, it means you’re effectively changing the vacuum’s filter each time you fit a new pod, and it also means you can use the Quick to clean up fine dust that will block a bagless vacuum. Plus, they won’t tear easily like paper bags.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The brush head has an uncanny resemblance to the Halo Capsule’s and has two large wheels at the back and smaller rollers at the front which help it move smoothly across hard floors.

Unlike the Halo’s brush, a button on top of the Henry’s releases the brush bar for cleaning.  This is something you’ll be doing regularly if anyone in your home has long hair. The design, unlike the latest brushes from Dyson and Shark, isn’t anti-tangle, so hair and other similar things will wind around the brush and need removing. At least there’s a groove which makes it possible to slide scissors under hair and cut it away easily.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Another quick release allows the flexible hose to be disconnected at one end for unblocking.

LEDs built into the head are bright enough to light up your floor when it’s dark, but they turn on and off with the brush, so there’s no light when you turn off the brush. There’s a big difference between these white lights and the laser on Dyson’s V15 Detect: they don’t reveal dust and dirt like the laser does.

Jim Martin / Foundry

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We like that the battery is removable as it means you can buy a second one for longer run time. The charger attaches to the battery itself so it can be charged whether or not it is attached to the Quick.

There’s a wall mount in the box, but the charging cable doesn’t integrate like a Dyson, so still has to be plugged into the battery separately if you want to charge while it’s on your wall.

At 3.2kg (around 7lbs) with the stick and brush head, we didn’t find the Henry Quick too heavy for short periods, but when using it for a full hour the heft did become noticeable. If weight is a concern, the Halo Capsule is a fair bit lighter at 2.6kg (5.7lbs) thanks to its carbon fibre construction.

With the stick and brush head attached, it measures 270 x 240 x 1220 mm.

Performance

The first things you’ll notice about the Henry Quick is the high-pitched sound that comes from the brush motor. Overall, the noise isn’t much louder than other stick vacuums we’ve tested, but it’s much easier on the ears when the brush is turned off.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Suction isn’t up to the level of a Dyson stick vacuum in either the standard mode or boost mode but despite this it does a fine job of cleaning carpets and hard floors.

There isn’t much space for large pieces of dirt to fit under the front of the brush head, which means it tends to push it around the floor. You can either pick those things up yourself or swap over to one of the other tools.

Our confetti test was largely successful, although a few pieces stuck to the bottom of the housing and fell off when we turned the Quick off.

There’s enough suction to pull most debris from edges when using the brush so you won’t always have to use the crevice tool for those bits.

It’s possible to use the brush on stairs, but you might prefer to remove the stick entirely and go with the crevice or combi-tool.

One of the problems with the brush head is that it cannot handle long-pile rugs, which cause the brush to jam. The motor stops automatically, and you can continue to vacuum. But other vacuums, including the Dyson V11 and V15 have no such problems with their motorised brushes.

We also found the head didn’t glide smoothly over all carpets. In one particular room, it became difficult or impossible to push the Henry in certain directions, seemingly because the carpet had a deeper pile than others in the house.

There is a slider which opens a vent to reduce suction, but that didn’t help. The only time it proved useful was when vacuuming thin mats which otherwise got sucked up into the brush.

The most impressive thing about the Henry Quick is its battery life. In its normal mode with the brush on it lasted longer than the claimed 60 minutes, and over 15 minutes in boost mode. And it lasts longer with the brush off, but not much.

It’s relatively quick to charge as well, going from empty to 100% in 2.5 hours. And, as mentioned, you can buy a spare battery which can be charged and ready to go.

I found that the Dyson V15 Detect’s battery ran out before managing to vacuum the whole house. But the Henry Quick did the lot and was still showing it had half of its juice left.

Price & availability

At £299.99, the Henry Quick sits in the middle of what you can pay for a stick vacuum. At the time of review, the Halo Capsule was on sale for £199.99, or £229.99 with a two-year supply of pouches.

You can buy a Henry Quick direct from Numatic, as well as from Argos, Amazon and other retailers. If you’re not keen on red, there’s a pink Hetty Quick version or a more sombre grey without the smiley face.

But if you want a Dyson instead, you’ll pay considerably more. A Dyson V11 Absolute was £399 when we checked, but some models cost as much as £600.

For the price, it’s good you’re getting 26 pods, but at £1.30 per pod after that when bought in boxes of 10, they’re not cheap in the long run.

The Quick Scent Pods only come in packs of 10 and cost £1 each. It’s a shame mixed packs aren’t available, and only one is included in the box, not a sample of each.

Prices may fall in the future, but with the Quick and pods being brand new, there were no discounts to be found when we wrote this review.

In the US, you can’t yet buy the Henry Quick, which is a shame.

To see alternatives, and more recommendations, read our roundup of the best vacuum cleaners.

Verdict

There’s a lot to like about the Henry Quick, especially if you’re fed up of your bagless vacuum’s filter becoming clogged up. The bag is the filter, so you’re getting the same performance every time you fit a new one.

Battery life is very good and it cleans well with enough suction for all the usual household muck.

It’s hard to complain about the lack of extra attachments because you’d pay a lot more for a Dyson with its hard floor and mini motorised brushes.

And if you’re set on buying a bagged cordless vacuum, the Henry Quick is a decent choice. However, there are cheaper alternatives, including the Halo Capsule and Gtech Pro 2, whose bags are larger and cost the same as the Henry’s.