The Professional Sebo D8 – Better Than a Numatic Henry Hoover

By | December 10, 2021

So you want a vacuum that is better than a Henry hoover?  You want a Professional Sebo D8.

Let me explain why……

If you want a tub or cylinder vacuum cleaner (that is, one that you pull along behind you) most people default to the Henry. The red bucket thing with a smiley face on there.

The Henry vacuum does have a following among those who don’t know any better, but there’s next to no technology there. An asthmatic 680w motor encased in a red plastic bucket with what looks like a garden hosepipe coming out of it. It’s as simple as a vacuum gets. That’s why it’s only £120 or so. You get what you pay for. 

Before long, your Numatic Henry will need a new hose, new floor tool, the hose end will break or the motor will prematurely expire. You’ll soon go off and get another and then you’re £100-£120 down the drain again. He’ll still be smiling but you won’t.

Cheap vacuum cleaners are a false economy. You’ll buy a new one each year and before you know it you’ll have spent much more than buying a proper vacuum in the first place would have cost. Not to mention another half a dozen smiley Henry Hetty things are off to the landfill to join their pals.

better than a Henry hoover

Product development shouldn’t consist of just painting something pink and calling it Henrietta or Hetty instead of Henry.

If you’re in the cleaning business, and for some reason, you don’t want a Sebo BS360 – the default upright vacuum that most of the cleaning industry uses, you may have decided to use tub or cylinder vacuums instead. That’s fine, some people prefer a different type of vacuum.

When you’re starting out in the cleaning business, working out of the back of an estate car perhaps, just you and another staff member maybe, you buy something cheap and cheerful that gets the job done. In the early days, you’re just putting food on the table and making a few quid. But later on, as your business grows, you realise it’s time for something better. That’s when you begin to wonder if there is something better than a Henry hoover out there, or more correctly put, something better than a Henry vacuum.

Tools are an important part of the job. They help you do the job more efficiently. When we first started selling goods online at the dawn of the internet, we used slow old Lexmark bubblejet printers. You could make a cup of tea while they printed a page. Nowadays, we’re the largest independent vacuum business in the North, our order processing desk has half a dozen laserjet Brother printers there alongside a few specialist thermal printers. You move on. You progress. You upgrade your tools along the way. Your mechanic uses Snap-On tools and not something from Halfords, the tradesman working in your house probably uses DeWalt power tools and not B&Q’s own brand or something Chinese from eBay.

Your cleaning business deserves the right tools for the job too. That means if you want to do the job better, and your customers to take you seriously, or you want to attract a better class of customer, you need to start using a proper vacuum. That means Sebo.

Now in case you are not familiar with Sebo, they’re the world’s largest manufacturer of upright commercial vacuums in the world and are hand-made in Germany.

You can find Sebos being used in Buckingham Palace, the security services, the civil service, the NHS, cruise ships, hotels and most professional cleaning companies. They even use them at the Whitehouse.

If you want the vacuum that’s like the iPhone among phones, the Heinz among beans, the Range Rover among 4x4s, the Waitrose among supermarkets and the Rolex among watches, you’ll choose a Sebo.

Forget hopelessly sawing away at the floor with an asthmatic 680w Numatic Henry machine. If you want a pull-along commercial bagged vacuum cleaner, you want one of these.

Sebo D8 commercial vacuum

This is the Sebo Professional D8. A full-size heavy-duty cylinder vacuum with variable speed control.

Better than a Henry hoover - the Sebo D8 commercial

In 2017, the EU forced on the UK a 900w maximum power limit on all vacuums. >>Here<< is a news piece BBC Breakfast did in our shop on the subject. This vacuum at 890w sits right on the limit.

That’s over 30% more wattage than an asthmatic Numatic Henry.

Designed for the cleaning trade, this D8 model has a 15.5m cleaning range enabled by a 2.4m hose and a 13.5m power cable (that can be replaced in moments by anyone if it gets damaged). No complicated spring-loaded cable rewind to go wrong. And the flex is orange so your staff don’t trip over it and want a few days off at your expense.

Of course, they’re not £120 like a Henry – the price of a restaurant dinner for two. Some online platforms are charging £299 or more for these (or as we say, “you’ll pay more at Candor”). £230-£240 is typical from us (2022), but you generally get what you pay for. That really isn’t awfully expensive for this level of German engineering. They’re priced competitively for the cleaning trade.

A Sebo D8 will cost you twice what a Henry costs. But it’s 30% more powerful and five times the machine. Plus it will last you far longer than a Henry would.

Sebo Professional D8 vacuum - better than a Henry hoover

If you’re familiar with the Henry, you’ll see the floor head on the D8 is broadly similar in appearance. But the Sebo Kombi head (as it’s called) is better designed and better built. You’ll not be buying a new one every five minutes like with a Henry.

Better than a Henry hoover? The Sebo D8 is a joy to use in comparison. The handle and hose is a true piece of engineering on the Sebo, not a bit of bent tube and a hose that looks like it belongs on your garden downspout like a Henry.

Sebo D8 professional vacuum

See how the hose gets slightly fatter as it gets closer to the machine? That reduces the possibility of hose blockages and increases suction at the business end.

Better than a Henry hoover? the flex on the Sebo is orange (to keep the health and safety drones happy) and if you damage it, you just plug a new one in and keep working. No need to take it to the repair shop. Downtime costs you money.

Better than a Numatic - the Sebo Professional D8 - better than a Henry hoover

Better than a Henry hoover? None of that two-speed toggle switch nonsense like you find on a Henry (that looks more like it belongs in a 1960s Morris Oxford). The Sebo has a full dial up and down speed control. Not to mention a cool ice blue light around the switch. The Germans just love the little details like that.

How about bags? Similar to the Hepaflo bags you can buy for the Henry, the Sebo uses a six litre microfibre bag. Six litres means you’re not changing them too often.

better than a Henry hoover - 8120ER Sebo bags

Sebo bags are designed to give optimum performance and filtration. Offering fade-free performance and highly effective micro-filtration, the virtually tear-proof fleece material uses electrostatically charged microfibres to filter dust particles from the air stream without clogging. Sealing caps ensure that dust and dirt is locked in the bag for hygienic disposal. Again, a step up the ladder from poor old Henry. Or Charles, or whatever the coloured plastic buckets are called this week.

If you’re a professional cleaner, you want a Sebo. That’s a given.

If you’re a professional cleaner that wants a tub or cylinder “pull along behind you” type of vacuum, forget the asthmatic Numatic – you want the Sebo Professional D8. With no stick-on eyes or smiley faces.

The Sebo Professional D8 vacuum cleaner: The Sebo D8 vacuum cleaner represents the best value for money for a commercial cylinder vacuum by far. It is our best-selling commercial cylinder model for that reason and you can find them on our site with free next working day, fully tracked DPD delivery by clicking the button below.

Better than a Henry hoover

 

The Sebo Shop at Manchester Vacs are approved Sebo dealers offering next day UK delivery on all domestic and commercial Sebo vacuum cleaners.

The Sebo Shop