Numatic Henry Allergy HVA160 review: MORE power, better filtration

By adding an additional HEPA filter, the Numatic Henry Allergy HVA160 ensures dirt is locked in, making it a great choice for homes with allergies. Otherwise, it’s a regular Henry vacuum: a solid, reliable and powerful vacuum that works well on all types of floors. It’s a bit messy to put away and can be hard to push on some surfaces, but those are minor complaints about an otherwise cheap vacuum.

Introduction

The Henry range is popular for good reason: the vacuums are powerful, simple to use and deliver a huge amount of power.

The Henry Allergy HVA160 adds enhanced HEPA filtration to the mix, preventing any harmful particles from escaping into the wild. If you have a home with allergy sufferers, this is a great choice.

Design and features

• Onboard storage
• Two floor heads
• A little bulky

From the outside, the main difference between the Henry Allergy HVA160 and the standard Henry is the color; the Henry Allergy is adorned with a light blue color. The eyes and the smile are always present, giving this vacuum cleaner all the usual charm of Henry.

At 7.5kg, the Henry Allergy is a real beast of a vacuum cleaner – although for the most part you can just drag it around on its wheels. With a total cleaning reach (hose plus cable length) of 12.5m, the vacuum can tackle an entire floor using just one power outlet.

The Henry comes with a manual top handle rather than using a spring-loaded cable tidy. It takes a bit more work to wind up the power cable, but the upside is that there’s one less feature that could go wrong.

On the back of the cleaner you will find slots for holding accessories, which will accommodate two of the supplied tools plus the extension tube.

Tools included include Crevice Tool, Stiff Brush and Soft Brush/Upholstery Tool. There’s also the standard floor head in the box, with a foot switch to switch between carpet and hard floor mode, plus a dedicated head for hard floors. I didn’t find the latter particularly useful; I found it easier to stick with the regular floor head. There are no power tools here.

As has been the case for years, the Henry Allergy HVA160 has a three-piece wand: a curved section that houses a vent for adjusting power, plus two sliding poles. Connected together, the wand provides great reach, and it’s easy enough to get the floor head flat on the floor to get under furniture.

The only minor issue is that metal studs tend to get stiffer over time and therefore harder to separate. I recommend that you separate them at the end of each cleaning as a precaution.

There’s room on the vacuum’s body to store a single floor head, but the hose and tubes need to be stacked on top, so storing the Henry neatly will take some effort.

Unclip the sides of the vacuum and the motor lifts off. Inside is the main filter – standard for Henry vacuum cleaners. Take that out, and there you have the huge 6 liter HEPA bag. This will get you through some time, self-sealing when it’s time to take it out. Own brand bags are excellent; Avoid cheap compatible ones, as they don’t offer the same level of filtering.

In the lid there is an additional HEPA filter which can be removed and cleaned. It’s the filter that keeps everything locked inside the vacuum’s body.

A single power switch turns the vacuum on and off. Note that there are no selectable power modes except for the aforementioned vent.

Performance

• Huge amounts of power
• Excellent cleaning
• Can be difficult to push head off floor at times

I measured the raw power of the Henry Allergy HVA160 at a whopping 402AW, dropping to just 281AW with the vent open. It’s about the same power as the Stihl SE 33 wet and dry cleaner, and much more powerful than the Shark CZ500UKT.

The reason for this is that the Shark vacuum relies on its motorized brush to agitate dirt, so it doesn’t need as much suction power to clean well. The Henry Allergy uses dumber attachments, relying on power to suck up dirt. It works well, but the slight downside is that the floor head can be hard to push on some surfaces and tends to suck up lighter carpets and the like. I found that I had to open the vent when vacuuming on certain surfaces.

On the other hand, cleaning with the nozzles is lightning fast. After a bit of tinkering – drilling holes and stripping wires – the Henry Allergy made short work of the mess, quickly sucking up debris, including some rather large wire scraps.

In my tests, the vacuum cleaned brilliantly. I started on a mat, spreading an X of flour on the floor. A forward and backward pass left a perfectly clean path through the mess.

The same was true for my hard edge test, where I dusted flour all the way to the baseboard on the carpet tiles. Here, the Henry Allergy worked perfectly.

Pet hair wasn’t an issue either – the Henry Allergy removed all traces of cat hair that I had combed through the carpet.

Moving on to the hard floor test, I sprinkled a teaspoon of flour on the floor. I used the hard ground head first, but it proved quite difficult to push, so I swapped out for the regular head, set to hard ground mode. Again, the pickup was perfect.

I measured the sound at 69.1 dB.

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