My Henry is great. Have 2 long-haired dogs, 1 long-haired cat and 2 short-haired cats. You just put the brushes out, gets all the hair out. Although it does come with bags- i never use them, they're not necessary. We also use one at the stables, for shavings, straw, hay etc. Nothing phases it.
Sebo. Recommended to us by john lewis, can't fault it. It has a bag but never seems to need emptying. We have a cat with resulting hair & fluffy bits (!) and it does the job beautifully.
sara3, not had to do anything to mine, had it 3 ish years now.
Maybe you got a "Friday model" ?
I am sad to say, I passed my Miele on to my son.
I also have the Kirby G7, but that does not meet your price criteria.
hi sara, i have recently got unreasonably excited about my dyson, for which i bought a "tangle free turbine head". We have 3 dogs and a cat. It's great (the head that it)
In my time I've had many vacs. I had a Miele cylinder which was good at its job but it was a cylinder type and I always ended up with backache.
I currently have a bog standard Dyson (my third) and my only complaint about them is that the hose at the back always splits after time. I also have a Henry someone gave me and I am not overly impressed, plus it is a cylinder
I'm currently on my 2nd Dyson in the past 20 odd years and they've had to deal with kids and hairy, messy animals and I think they've done it pretty well. Perhaps the brush isn't working properly or it's not correctly set for the flooring.
sara, if you are not familiar with the turbo brush head are you using an upright? I never use them as I think cylinders are more versatile. If yes you could try one. There are offers on the net for under £250.