Review of the Henry Wash Carpet Cleaner - The Henry Vacuum Range

If you are anything like me, you love the feel of a soft carpet underfoot. When we first moved into our home in 2018, the living room had exposed floorboards with gaps that you could fit your fingers through, and in the winter, it was incredibly draughty. It didn’t take us long to decide to get a carpet fitted, and it immediately transformed this room from a wind tunnel into a cosy paradise. As an added bonus, we now had a cushioned floor that would prevent our children from cracking their heads open.

However, a few years down the line, this carpet was really starting to look quite tired. After countless drink spillages, food smears and Calpol mishaps, it was time to see if we could do something to improve it. I had never used a carpet cleaning vacuum cleaner before, and was curious to see what Henry Wash, a fairly new product offering from Numatic, could do to our once pristine carpeted area both in our front room, and throughout the house.

Table of Contents

Who is Henry Wash for?

Henry Wash is a carpet vacuum cleaner, but he can also be used on hard floors too. He used a mixture of water and detergent, first spraying the detergent onto the floor surface and then applying the water. The last step involves sucking both up the nozzle, into a storage tank.

Henry Wash is best suited for people who want to freshen up carpets and upholstery (including your car interior). Furthermore, he can also be used in case of an emergency, where you need to clean up a spillage quickly. One important thing to note about Henry Wash is that he is not really capable of removing really stubborn stains and dirt (because he does not agitate), but he is good at removing surface-level dirt and grime. In this sense, he is a carpet cleaner that will freshen up your carpets and upholstery, rather than completely revamp.

Henry Wash

Pros:

Large 9 litre storage tank
Ideal for car and stair cleans

Cons:

Not great on stubborn dirt and stains

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What is the difference between Henry Wash and George?

Henry Wash has all of the same wet vacuuming ability as the George, but with none of the dry vacuuming ability. George is the all-rounder, but he is far more expensive. So if you just want a vacuum cleaner for wet use, go for Henry Wash.

Unboxing and assembling

Henry Wash came in quite a large box, but this is not surprising when you consider that he has a whopping capacity of 9 litres. Inside this box was the unit itself, a flexible crush-proof hose, a solution tube and clips (to clip it to the hose), two fishtail nozzles (one smaller one for upholstery and a larger one for floors), a 500ml bottle of shampoo formula and aluminium extension tubes to form the wand. Lastly, also included is a hard floor washing nozzle.

Assembling was quite straightforward. Firstly, I pushed the extension tubes together to form the wand, then screwed one end of the hose into Henry Wash’s nose and the other into one end of the extension wand. I then pushed one of the fishtail nozzles onto the other end of the wand and used the brass fitting to tighten it. The solution tube was a little trickier to install, as I had to attach it to the wand and hose using the clips provided (this was a little fiddly but took perhaps 3 or 4 minutes).

At this point the machine itself was assembled, but I still needed to add the shampoo formula. To do this, I released the clips on the side of Henry Wash and lifted away his head. This granted me access to the filter, ball cage, wastewater tank and clean water tank.

How do the Filter, Ball Cage and Water Tank work?

The filter inside Henry Wash consists of a ball valve trapped inside a plastic cage, which rises up and blocks suction when the wastewater tank has become full. This is a clever, simple way of ensuring that you never accidentaly overfill your machine. Surrounding this case is a mesh filter, which prevents any hard debris from entering the tank. This filter is fully washable, which is another nice, practical feature.

The fresh water (containing the shampoo detergent) sits in an additional circular tank that itself sits inside the wastewater tank. The fresh, shampoo water is sucked up through a small tube, and the wastewater is deposited into the larger tank.

My final step was to add the recommended amount of shampoo to the clean water tank (along with water from the tap), pop it back into the recovery tank, place the filter back on top and clip the motor head back in place.

Floor tools and their uses

Henry Wash comes with two fishtail nozzles. The smaller one is intended to be used on upholstery (such as armchairs and car seats), and the larger one is for floor use. Also included is a hard floor tool.

Large Fishtail Nozzle (carpets)

The large fishtail nozzle is easy to slot onto the end of the wand, and a small metal screw ensures that it does not fall off. The handle of the wand includes a plastic trigger, which controls the flow of detergent through the solution tube. Simply pull the trigger, and the shampoo will spray out of the end of the nozzle.

The size and width of this larger fishtail nozzle make it ideal for large carpeted areas. Therefore, I decided to test it out in our master bedroom. The technique involved first coating the carpet with the shampoo mixture using the trigger on the handle. Then, you simply vacuum back over the area with the trigger released, to ensure that you remove all of the water and shampoo (or as much as possible). I found that following this technique was very simple, and it wasn’t particularly strenuous.

In terms of results, I was pretty impressed, as I could definitely see a difference in just a few minutes of stroking up and down the carpet in our master bedroom. I have to say though, that it did not perform a deep clean, but more of a surface-level one. I believe that because this floor tool does not have any agitation feature, there is only so much dirt it can remove.

Before and After with the Large Fishtail Nozzle

It is difficult to see a big difference, but the before shot is on the left and the after is on the right:

However, for confirmation that this floor tool did indeed remove some impressive dirt from the carpet, here is a shot of the wastewater that was collected in the recovery tank (which can simply be poured down the drain):

Small Fishtail Nozzle (upholstery)

The Small Fishtail Nozzle is exactly how it sounds: a smaller version of the nozzle mentioned above. Its small dimensions make it better suited for smaller upholstered items, such as armchairs, sofas and car seats. The fact that it is smaller means that cleaning power is condensed into a smaller surface area.

I decided to test out this smaller floor tool on the upholstery in my car, which is now over 10 years old and has frankly seen better days. The long 10m cable came in handy, and I was able to reach my car quite easily, without the use of an extension cord.

I followed the same cleaning process that I used on my carpeted area indoors. However, this time, because I was much closer to the fishtail nozzle (leaning over it instead of standing high above it), I could really see the colour of the brown water that was being sucked up through the nozzle, and it was intensely satisfying. The detergent mix was really doing a good job of removing the dirt that was evidently sitting in my car seats, and I ended up spending quite a bit more time on the car upholstery than I did on the carpet in our master bedroom.

It definitely did require a bit more strength to work the nozzle along all of the car seats and other upholstery (including the carpeted floor and sides), but I was very pleased with the results. Furthermore, the wastewater once again proved that this machine certainly was removing dirt quite effectively:

Hard Floor Tool

The Hard Floor tool has two sides to it – one contains very stiff bristles that are intended to agitate dirt clinging to hard floors, and the second contains a squeegee nozzle, for effective pickup of the wastewater.

The same two-stage cleaning process is used with the hard floor tool. First, you use the pump only to spray the shampoo solution onto the floor, and then you scrub the floor using the stiff bristles to agitate the dirt and work the cleaning solution into the floor. Then, you flip the floor tool over and suck up the dirty water into the recovery tank. The squeegee is also really useful if you just want to pick up accidental spillages, or deal with water leaks quickly and efficiently.

The process of switching between the two sides of this floor tool was very easy, and I particularly like the strength of the bristles – they definitely helped to work the detergent into the floor and produced better results because of it.

Storage

Henry Wash comes with a long 10m cable, which is the standard length for the machines in the Henry range but definitely on the longer side when it comes to vacuum cleaners in general. I found this length to be useful because I only had to plug in once per floor, and I was easily able to reach my car across our (albeit small) drive.

In terms of how the cable is stored on the machine itself, Henry Wash does not include an automatic rewind feature or the ability for the cable to retract into a hidden compartment (as with the original Henry). Instead, you have to manually wrap the cable around a hook on the top of the machine, which is fine, but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere for the plug itself to sit, which I left dangling. Cable storage feels like something that could be improved on the Henry Wash.

My Verdict on Henry Wash

Henry Wash is a fantastic surface-level carpet and upholstery cleaner. It has a very user-friendly, practical design, and the attachments and fittings are strong and well-made. I love the fact that Numatic have used brass fittings throughout the design of this machine, as it feels strong to the touch and will likely take a lot of abuse. The attachments/ floor tools themselves are also made from a hard, durable plastic.

In terms of cleaning results, Henry Wash is never going to be able to revive a carpet that is in very poor condition. The lack of any agitation ability with the two fishtail nozzles means that you are really only getting rid of the dirt that is sitting near the surface, and certainly not deep stains.

However, this machine will quickly spruce up your upholstery to an impressive standard, without taking much time or physical strength to do so. I was particularly impressed with the cleaning results on my car seats and other upholstery, and the long 10m cable made it handy for cleaning the stair treads.

So in conclusion, if you are looking for a machine to deal with a carpet in a very bad state, do not opt for Henry Wash. However, for a machine that will make a noticeable difference to your carpets and upholstery, he is a fantastic choice.

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