Verdict

Pros

• Folds flat to get under sofas
• Exceptional carpet cleaning
• Good with pet hair
• Solid build

Cons

• Unstable when using hose
• A little tricky to put together

What is the Sebo Felix Vogue Eco?

Sebo vacuum cleaners have built up a very loyal following over 36 years in the cleaner business, and many people who have owned one simply won’t use any other brand. Looking at the sumptuous design of the bagged Felix Vogue Eco, it’s not difficult to see why. The unique look and the comprehensive features list demonstrates the company’s experience and heritage.

Sebo Felix Vogue Eco – Design and Features

A bagged model with S-Class dust filtration and British Allergy Foundation approval, the Sebo Felix Vogue Eco has an innovative Flex neck that makes it highly manoeuvrable. The design means the main body will lay right down flat to the floor, allowing you to clean under low furniture and parts of the home that other upright cleaners simply won’t reach.

Its power head can be switched on and off from the handle. It’s very deep front to back and unusually L-shaped.
This allows the narrower side to slip easily under radiators or radiator
covers for getting to these otherwise tricky recesses. The brush bar is removable for cleaning.

Using just 700W – almost a third of some of the models we tested earlier in 2014 – and coming with a five-year guarantee as standard makes the Sebo look a very attractive proposition from any angle. And if the subtle colours and trim of the Vogue isn’t your thing, the Felix Eco is available in a range of other colours and designs, too.

Sebo Felix Vogue Eco – Accessories

Assembling the Felix Eco from the box took a little head scratching, and reading the instructions is essential. There are a few parts and the unique design means putting them altogether isn’t as intuitive as it might be with a more traditional design. The hose loop is quite floppy in the holder, but it never fell out in use.

This Sebo offers on-board storage for its crevice tool and upholstery brush, plus a separate parquet floor head with adjustable bristles. Several other heads and accessories are available as optional extras, including a turbo brush head, radiator tool and extension hose.

Sebo Felix Vogue Eco – How well does it clean?

The shape and feel of the Felix Eco takes a little bit of getting used to, as it feels slightly off-balance to start with. That feeling soon goes, as the moderately light weight and that innovative flex neck make for a very manoeuvrable and nippy cleaner.

Its hero feature is the ability for the main body to drop right down to floor level without the head coming up off the ground as would happen on a traditional upright. This enables you to slide the whole cleaner under fairly low furniture such as small tables and even taller sofas. This, too, becomes second nature and is a great feature for speeding up house cleaning if you have plenty of furniture around this height.

On carpets its noise isn’t obtrusive but maybe a little more than we’d have expected from a 700W machine. At 83dB at ear height, it’s far from deafening – about the same as standing near light road traffic.

Our carpet test produced an exceptional result for a sub-1000W vacuum cleaner, and the well-thought-out brush bar was as happy clearing up pet hairs as it was regular dust. Our patch of carpet freshener was cleaned comprehensively in the standard three sweeps, and the edge cleaning was very good indeed.

Our test carpet, before and after

Moving to hard floors is easy thanks to the switch on the handle that allows the brush bar to be turned off completely. On either surface the Felix Eco never wants to ‘stick’ down under its own suction power, and remains nippy and manoeuvrable.

In the lab test we noted that some of its exceptional performance for a 700W machine was down to the fact that it actually uses quite a bit more than 700W. With the brush bar running at full power, it actually drew nearer 1000W, although this remains a fraction of that used by older upright cleaners and is well within the EU’s 1600W power limit.

Sebo Felix Vogue Eco – How does it perform on stairs?

Without a turbo-head as standard, we weren’t expecting great things from the Felix Eco on the stairs test, but we were pleasantly surprised. The upholstery tool is, in fact, very good on stairs, being compact and fitted with tough bristles around the edge that can be used to agitate dirt and dust that’s stuck into the carpet fibres.

The hose is easy to access, pulling away from the lower half of the machine and leaving it attached to the top. While this increases the hose’s reach up stairs, it does nothing for the cleaner’s stability. If it’s left at the bottom as you climb the stairs, the hose easily pulls the standing machine off balance.

Thankfully at around 7kg the Felix Eco is relatively easy to carry up with you, resting on a step and holding it for stability as you go. This technique is aided by the usefully long power cable.

Sebo Felix Vogue Eco – How does it cope with pet hair?

The Sebo Felix Vogue Eco manages surprisingly well with pet hair. For a lower-powered Eco machine, it proved exceptional at pulling fur from the carpet with the main brush head. Cleaning our 30cm patch of mixed Labrador and Collie hairs rubbed into the carpet, it was done within 10 seconds – a feat few other cleaners not specifically made ‘for pets’ have managed.

Again the stiff bristles on the upholstery tool proved their worth, although it did take a little more elbow grease than would have been required from a proper turbo brush head such as the one on the Dyson DC41 Mk2 Animal.

Should I buy the Sebo Felix Vogue Eco?

The design and aesthetics of the Felix Vogue Eco will polarise opinion, but its great features, excellent cleaning ability and low power consumption simply can’t be argued with.

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