I will start this review by saying that I have a confession to make and that is that ...........I'm a school cleaner!.........well I've said it now and so that means you have already gone on to the next review. If you haven't then I will explain why I said that, as for some reason some people on this planet seem to think that doing cleaning is for the lowest of the low and for some people you just seem to become invisible even if you are the only person in the room with them a "Hello" you are just not worthy of. Luckily not all the people are the same and there are some really nice people out there that are not judgemental. Now for my review!

As you might know I already own a "Hetty" which I love and wouldn't change her for the world as she is so reliable, so when I went to help a friend out when they were let down by their usual cleaners I was really pleased to see Hetty's big brother there "James".

Coming in a bright yellow colour with his smiling face on the front I knew straight away that I was going to enjoy using him. Being different from Hetty, James has a deep caddy top which is supposed to be for sticking your polish, dusters ect... in and also for storing your cable. I also use this for putting in any stray bits of pens, pencils, wrappers ect.... that are to big to hoover up and can keep them all together until I reach a bin to throw these in.

I believe that the James is the only one of the numatic range that has a replaceable cable, which is just as well as when some people don't use these properly and they get caught under classroom doors the lead gets yanked and the wires will split. These are really easy to replace as it is just a phillips screwdriver you will need to undo the two screws.

These can be bought for around £15.00, which is a bit on the pricey side as the whole hoover can be bought for around the £85.00 mark, but having a few of these spare in the school is handy for an emergency.

Having a powerful 1100 watts motor, it has as you can imagine a strong suction on it, which comes in handy when doors have been left open and half the streets trees have blown in to the reception area or if there has been a bit of snow about and a lot of salt has been put down because it is parents evening, the next day the carpet looks like the antartic with the floor completely covered in salt from parents and childrens treading it through the school!......but James soldiers on and clears it in minutes leaving everything looking like new.

Using microflo dust bags, these are really clean and easy to dispose of and with the James having an 8L capacity this doesn't need to be changed to often. James also comes with a very thoughtful black handle on the top that has a groove so that when you pick him up the hose will sit in the slot so you can carry him with one hand. Weighing in at 5.2kg he isn't to heavy either.

The head on the hoover is much the same as most other hoovers with a flick switch for carpets or floors, which works great on either. There is just a simple red button on the top for pressing on/off. I'm told that the Airflow is 40L/sec, the Suction is 2200mm, and the cleaning range is 26.8m which is good as you can reach a long way without having to change sockets all the time. coming on four castors James just seems to float about with the slightest tug following your every command.

So now I have confessed my top secret , which turned out from helping a friend into a part-time job which gives me some extra pennies every few weeks ( and pennies I mean!!!). I really love the Numatic range and am trying to hunt out a "Charles" which is a wet and dry cleaner to try!

A really worthwhile 5 Dooyoo Stars!