Do Henry Hoovers Need Bags?: 4 (Critical) Reasons Why

Henry hoover can be used without bags but it’s not a good idea to do so. Without a bag emptying out the vacuum will be incredibly messy, your filter will get clogged and be filthy whilst the motor could also be damaged shortening the lifespan of your beloved Henry.

In this post, we’ll dive further into why it’s a good idea to always use your Henry vacuum cleaner with a bag correctly placed inside.

Let’s jump straight to it.

Do Henry Hoovers Need Bags?

Though Henry hoover can be used without a bag, it is not a great idea to do so. Here are the main reasons why you’d want to use a bag with your Henry.

1 – Bags Capture Dust and Dirt

The official Henry hoover bags sold by Numatic are high-quality HepaFlo with a 3-stage filtration system. These bags are crucial in capturing dirt, dust and all manner of allergens that get sucked into your vacuum cleaner. Without the filtration system, there’s every possibility a lot of this dust ends up back in the air you breathe.

2 – The Bags Protect Henry’s Filter

Henry is equipped with a large pre-motor filter that sits on top of the bag and underneath its motor. The bag essentially acts like a filter and is the first line of defence for the pre-motor filter. Whatever the bag doesn’t manage to capture, the pre-motor filter will do its best to stop before it gets to your motor.

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Without a bag, in place your pre-motor filter has to try to capture all of the dust and dirt something it was not designed to do.

The filter will get quickly clogged and need much more frequent replacement. So you may think you’re saving money on bags but end up spending more on replacement filters.

3 – Bags Protect Henry’s Motor

Both the bag and pre-motor filter act together to help protect Henry’s motor from dust and dirt.

If too much debris works its way into Henry’s motor it can become clogged which could lead to overheating and cutting out as well as malfunctions.

Prolonged use of a bagless Henry could seriously shorten the lifespan of your vacuum.

Also worth noting is that this is very likely to invalidate your product warranty if the motor does fail as a result of not using a bag.

4 – Bags Reduce Mess

Trying to empty your Henry after not using a bag will be a very messy exercise. As soon as you open Henry’s tub and remove the filter you’ll likely be greeted with a dust cloud which can be harmful to your air quality as well as those who suffer from allergies.

Henry’s genuine bags have a self-sealing mechanism that helps to prevent dust from escaping into the air, a problem all too familiar to bagless vacuum cleaner owners (I know all too well!).

Best Henry Hoover Bags

Now we know it’s a great idea to use Henry bag – how do you know which Henry hoover bag is best? There are plenty of options available out there and you could be forgiven for thinking they all do the same job just as well but that is not the case.

Genuine Numatic Bags

These bags are the ones made by Henry’s manufacturer (Numatic International). It’s the type of bag that your Henry would have been fitted with from the factory.

Pros

They’re fabric type which provides more strength and durability than the paper alternatives. This is useful in case you pull too hard on the bag you try to fit it onto the suction end.

• Designed with 3 separate layers of filtration protecting your motor as well as your air quality. This means they’ll fill up inside rather than allowing dust through to clog your pre-motor filter
• They will be well tested to Numatic’s high-quality standards.
• Unlike paper bags, they’re not prone to bursting if they start to get too full
• You’re very unlikely to see much of any dust escaping into the side of the tub or pre-motor filter

Cons

• They are more expensive than their counterpart alternative

Alternative (Non-Manufacturer) Cloth Bags

These are cloth bags but not made by Numatic.

Pros

• They’re cheaper than the official Numatic fabric bags whilst still proving some of the same benefits
• They’re more resilient than their alternative paper bags

Cons

• Difficult to know what type of quality you will be getting
• Some may be prone to bursting

Paper Bags

The third type are paper based bags.

Pros

• They’re the cheapest of all the bag types available
• Great if you accidentally hoover up valuable items (e.g. jewellery) and you need to retrive them from inside the bag
• Can be useful stop gap if you can’t get the cloth bags

Cons

• They can burst quite easily
• They can restrict filtration
• You’ll likely find more dust and dirt inside Henry’s tub and on the pre-motor filter than with Numatic’s official bags
• The quality can be quite hit and miss

Which bag is best for you depends on your view on cost as well as preference. Based on our experience, using Henry’s official HepaFlo bags is best though we have also used alternative bags (as you can see in some of our images). What we’ve noticed is that Henry tends to be a lot messier inside the tub and on the pre-motor filter when using the paper bags vs the genuine Numatic bags.

How Often Do You Change Henry Hoover Bags?

Typically most households will change their Henry hoover bag every 3 – 4 weeks depending on regularly they vacuum. That works out to roughly 12 bags a year give or take a few. You can grab a pack of ten bags for around £10 meaning it’s pretty good value for something that will help extend the life of your beloved Henry.

Can You Use Henry Without A Bag?

Despite all these reasons why it’s a great idea to use Henry with a bag, you may still be wondering but can you use Henry without a bag?

As stated, you can use Henry without a bag but you’re risking a few potential issues cropping up if you do.

What Happens When You Use Henry Hoover Without A Bag?

1 – Your Motor Could Be Damaged

Without a bag in place, you’re risking your pre-motor filter and motor from the brunt of whatever you accidentally suck up.

If you happened to suck up a sharp or heavy item which would usually be trapped by the bag this could end up damaging your pre-motor filter.

Worse yet if you accidentally suck up some liquid, this could make its way to your motor and cause all types of problems likely leading to more costs for you in the worst-case scenario.

2 – Reduced Performance

Without a bag your pre-motor filter will quickly get clogged. Aside from being messy and potentially harming the motor, this will also reduce the overall performance of your Henry.

3 – Reduced Air Quality In Your Home

Perhaps the biggest secondary factor when not using a bag is that it will lower the air quality inside your home. If dust makes its way into your motor some of that is likely to be pushed back out of the back of your Henry as your motor has no way to deal with it.

This means allergy sufferers in your household will find it tougher as dust that may have previously been dormant is now circulating again in the air.

Though it may seem convenient in an emergency to use your Henry without a bag; in the long-run it will likely create more issues for you and reduce the lifespan of your machine.

Why Do People Seem Confused About Whether Henry Is Bagless?

Despite the fact Numatic International recommend that you use a bag with Henry hoover, there does seem to be a lot of confusion online about whether or not Henry is a bagless vacuum.

This is partly due to the history of Henry as a bagless or bagged machine. When Henry was first introduced most vacuum cleaners tended to be uprights with small paper bags that had to be regularly changed out. Due to the small size of the bags, they would quickly get clogged leading to many believing vacuums were an expensive inconvenience.

As part of Henry’s marketing, it was touted as a bagged or bagless hoover helping it to appeal to those who didn’t enjoy the bagged variety.

It was possible to run Henry bagged as the design back then had a less powerful motor than the one used today. Henry was also equipped with a large secondary filter (something it doesn’t have today). This combination of a secondary filter and less powerful motor meant Henry coped very well without the use of a bag.

The bags were paper based and their large size gave them a bigger filtration surface area.

With the modern and more powerful motors of today though, Henry is no longer officially marketed as a bagless vacuum cleaner. The newer motors sucked in so much dust and dirt that the secondary filters were becoming quickly clogged resulting in lost suction. With the use of bags, they soak up the bulk of the dust leaving the secondary filter to deal with any leftovers prior to the motor.

This setup not only protects the filter but also ensures dust and dirt don’t end up causing damage to the motor.

Conclusion: Do Henry Hoovers Need Bags?

So, do Henry hoovers need bags? In short, yes they do. Though technically your Henry vacuum cleaner could still operate without a bag in place, it is not advisable and could end up damaging your machine as well as leaving you with a less clean living environment. The vacuum bags serve an important purpose in Henry hoovers and should be used at all times to get the best from Henry.

Do Henry Hoovers Need Bags? – FAQ