Happy Hetty Hoovering!!! (Numatic Hetty Vacuum Cleaner)

Member Name: xjemloux

Product:	Numatic Hetty Vacuum Cleaner
Date:	30/07/09 (137 review reads)
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I've been borrowing my mums hoover for weeks now seeing as my old crappy one blew on me, she has Henry but me I wanted to be different and I love pink so I bought his sister, Hetty - she's such a pretty thing. I love Henry, his suck was almighty and powerful and he got in all the nooks and crannys I needed him too but he was a bit too manly for me - Hetty is a one woman hoover who is going to prove that women can do exactly what men can do AND look pretty in Pink, right?!

Nearly £100 this little beauty cost me - and my god has she been worth it! She came sitting neatly in a cardboard box which was full of other goodies too. I had her pink body, her hose, the metal rod pieces and the end tools too, on top of this I had instructions, disposable dust bags AND a Pink shopping bag - which I use to keep the tools in but it is actually given for you to use whilst out shopping to try get you to stop using plastic carrierbags apparently - their clever way of enabling you to 'help the planet'. To follow on the helping the planet and saving energy theme there are two switches on the Hetty one green and one red with a light next to it. When you switch the hoover on with the green switch you automatically start hoovering on the economy setting - the Autosave Low Energy switch this is. If you have extra tough dirt however you can press the red switch to use Hi Power - once this is pressed a light shows next to it so you know you are using the Hi Power mode - once your tough dust or dirt has been sucked up you can press the red switch again and you return to the Low Energy switch and the light turns off.

The picture instructions that show you how to put the hoover together are extremely easy to follow as they are actual photos of the hoover and it's parts rather than scribbled pictures in black and white. Each picture was numbered to follow in order but the majority of putting it together is common sense from just looking at a picture of a Hetty hoover together to be honest.

The main body of the hoover is a chunky cylinder shape with that ever so pretty smiley face on the front, as well as wheels on the bottom. The nose of the face is where the long hose attaches too just by screwing it on the way you would a bottle cap. To attach and unattach the disposable bags it is just a simple case of pulling out two tabs either side of the hoover and lifting the top off. This takes around two minutes max to change a bag so if you are in a hurry it is very convenient. I havn't had to purchase more bags yet as I've only had the hoover a couple of weeks but when I know where you can purchase them I will update this review. This is probably naughty to say but I have used the hoover without bags and this doesn't make any difference to it's sucking power or my cleaning ability, what it does do though is allow dust to gather within the cylinder so it does need a good clean now and then.

The inside of the cylinder is quite large - a 9 litre capacity to be exact - which means the bag or the cylinder lasts a good while before it needs to be emptied or changed.

The wheels on the bottom allow for easy manouvering of the hoover without the need to stop and start and with a long 10m power cord which is simply pulled out or reeled back in you can probably hoover the whole upstairs or downstairs level of your house without the need to unplug and plug in again - unless you live in quite a big house of course.

The poles that attach to the bendy hose are quite long which allow for a good reach in many awkward places and with the added tools you can even hoover under sofas, behind shelves etc without the need to rearrange your furniture. I can actually reach most of the way up my stairs to hoover or if I want a thorough hoovering I can unattach the poles by pulling them out and using a smaller pole - this does mean bending over and probably uncomfortable postures for some people so this isn't something I'd reccomend doing if you do suffer with back problems. Here is where the only downfall comes in for me and that is the weight of the hoover. You see Hetty is a hefty 6.9kg which is quite a weight so not always practical to hold and carry whilst hoovering the stairs - this downfall is redeemed for me though by the long poles luckily as I can either stand at the bottom and reach half way up my stairs comfortably or just carry the hoover to the top and finish hoovering the other half. The cylinder itself is too bulky and wide to sit on a stair whilst hoovering up them too. Although she is too chunky to sit on stairs she is compact enough to fit through doorways and glide around corners smoothly whilst you're hoovering. She seems to have a smooth ride and only once has she toppled over but that was my fault for yanking her over a lifted board on my floor. If your floor is flat however or you are pulling over cupboard she has no problems in steering and gliding along freely.

She, like Henry, doesn't fail to impress on the sucking power - she can suck like theres no tomorow and picks up everything, including my rugs lol. If however I find it is struggling to pick up then instead of just switching my darling on with it's usual on/off switch I can place my finger on her trusted red button for turbo power, you can hear as she gears herself up a little more for some extreme sucking. I have even used my hotty Hetty up my mums and she has a black cocker spaniel who seems to moult constantly Hetty has no problems in picking up them drasted hairs which are forever building up on my mums cream carpet.

Hetty likes to make herself known however and is quite loud, especially when the turbo button has been pressed, I have always been used to loud and brash hoovers though so this doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Storage can be a bit difficult if you havn't any spare cupboards or space under your stairs etc. The loose tools are obviously not going to be used all the time so you need to find somewhere to put these safely in case you ever need to use them and you may find you need to take the poles apart to allow some space for storing too.

I swear by this Hoover, even the Henry, it does exactly what I need it to and that's pick up hell of alot of crumbs from my dear toddlers and unwanted dust and drab that's been blown in my front door now and then. I find her quite powerful and able to pick up most stubborn pieces of dirt and believe me I often have some stubborn sticky mess somewhere which is a nuisance. I'd reccomend this to absolutely anybody and I don't think the 'Pink' novelty will wear off either as she is such a good hoover.

On top of all of this you can even purchase Hetty in a toy version for your darling girls who are so fond of cleaning at such a young age - they are aimed at children aged 3 and over. Boys don't need to be left out either as even her brother Henry comes in a toy version too - and guess what these toys actually pick up dirt and dust!

Happy Hoovering!

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