Sebo Felix Review

Our Sebo Felix Experience

We had somewhat of a love-hate relationship with the Sebo Felix. On the one hand, it's a carpet cleaning powerhouse. On the other hand, it isn't all that easy to use. It'll clean almost anything, but it's a workout to do so (and that's coming from our tester who works out a lot). It grips on tight to the floor, sucking up a lot of fine debris along the way. In fact, it cleaned more than we put down for our tests, meaning it picked up debris that has been so deeply lodged in our carpets that all other vacuums couldn't touch it.

We were very impressed with the Felix on shag carpet, so much so that we consider it a true deep cleaner. It also didn't get caught up on pet hair, and the massive bag holds a lot before needing to be replaced (good because they are pricey).

One of our biggest struggles with the Felix was using it on hard floors. It has two heads: the rotating brush roller and the parquet head. The rotating brush roller tended to spray mixed debris all over. Meanwhile, the parquet had such a grip on the floor that we couldn't actually get anything into the tubing. We either pushed debris around like a squeegee or we had to fully pick up the vacuum and place it on top of our mess. It was the most awkward way to use a vacuum, so much so that we don't recommend this vacuum for a home with mostly hard floors.

Using the Sebo Felix on stairs wasn't a great experience. It is heavy and the width of the vacuum head makes it hard to maneuver on the steps. You essentially need to lift the vacuum up and move it around since the vacuum head is wider than the steps, so it has nothing to rest on. It relies heavily on your strength. We would have preferred to use the hose and attachment, but the vacuum didn't come with a good attachment for cleaning the steps - just a dusting and crevice tool.

Our Analysis and Test Results

Carpet Performance

If it's one thing the Sebo Felix does well, it's cleaning carpet. After a disaster of Cheerios, sand, and rice made its way deep into our low-pile carpet fibers, the Felix was able to clean 95% of it. Most of what was left was larger debris, like cereal, which was pushed by the vacuum. We were pleased to see almost all sand was pulled out of the fibers, as this is typically the hardest to clean. It deep cleans carpet so well that we now use this vacuum to clean up after other vacuums that don't perform as well.

Where we had jaw-dropping results was on shag carpet. After testing other vacuums, we ran this one over the carpet and were shocked at how much sand was sucked up. It its own test trials, it cleaned 70% in the first 24 seconds and cleaned nearly everything in the next few passes.

Previous Next

While this vacuum cleans carpet exceptionally well, it comes with its downside of being hard to push due to the suction strength. Even with the variable suction control, it held on tight to the carpet fibers, needing some muscle to push around. On the highest setting, we measured the suction strength at 995 Pascals. For reference, the average is around 450 Pascals, so this is about double what you'll get with another.

Previous Next

Hardwood Performance

The Felix cleaned most of our hardwood mess, but it was so difficult to use that we wouldn't recommend it to anyone with mostly hard flooring.

Both the roller brush head and parquet attachment had their own troubles. The roller brush head would fling lighter messes, like rice and sand, across the room. In the end, it still grabbed 88% of the mess, but the 12% it didn't get was all over the room, and we had to chase it down, essentially re-vacuuming the entire room for a small amount of debris.

When using the parquet floor head, we were able to capture 97% of the mess. However, it was in a bizarre way. When using the vacuum like a normal vacuum, the parquet head would snowplow debris. The only way we could grab debris was to pick up the entire vacuum and place it on top of the debris, over and over. Given the weight of this vacuum, this is incredibly cumbersome and something we wouldn't suggest.

You can make this work on hardfloor if you're determined. Our preference was to do multiple passes using the roller brush head on the lowest suction mode, though it takes longer to cover the entire flooring, but at least it doesn't shoot debris everywhere. We also think it would be beneficial to sweep larger debris and use the vacuum on hard floors for lighter cleans. Though, if you want a powerhouse vacuum for hard floors, this isn't the best choice.

Along edges and baseboards, the Felix did only okay. It captured most of our coffee ground mess when moving parallel with the baseboard. However, when moving head-on, it struggled to gather larger debris, like cereal. We believe this model would struggle with larger messes along the edges of your home.

Pet Hair

Overall, the Sebo Felix handles pet hair well. On low pile, it cleaned 82% of our extra furry rugs. It missed a few clumps at the beginning of our testing, but then proceeded to capture the rest of the hair with a couple more seconds passing over.

On high pile, it cleaned 78%. The suction power is excellent on high pile carpet and sucked up all the pet hair with only a hint of hair here or there. To be clear, our rugs are very hairy and with just a few more passes, our rugs looked nice and clean.

We also appreciate the large dustbin size (3.5L), which can hold plenty of pet hair between bag changes. The brushroll tends to trap longer hair, and they need to be cleaned periodically. The Felix's brushroll is one of the easiest to pop out and clean. Just pull the tab and slide out the roll. We loved this design.

Ease of Use

With the impressive suction and cleaning power of the Felix, we really wish it were easier to use. As mentioned, it can tricky to push on carpet due to its suction strength and weight (15.5 pounds empty). Even with lowering the variable suction control and raising the height settings, we still needed to use a bit of muscle to get this vacuum around. The swivel head maneuvers well, though, and it tends to clear lips in the floor with ease. It was also fairly easy to push on hardwood with the brush roller head (the parquet head was difficult).

The Sebo Felix includes the ET-1 power head, standard crevice nozzle, dusting brush, and hard floor parquet brush. We weren't all that impressed with the upholstery attachments. When cleaning coffee grounds off our throw pillow, it ground the coffee deeper into the fibers, but still managed to pick up 90% of them. The bristles break up suction power so it doesn't feel that strong, which is good for dusting gentler items like curtains, but not as good for picking up larger debris.

Maintaining the Felix is fairly straightforward. It uses 3.5-liter disposable bags and replaceable filters. You'll need to continue purchasing filters and bags, which weren't the cheapest. At the time of our testing, the replacement filters and bags would cost us a little over $100. The vacuum has an indicator when the bag is full or there is a clog. Should you need replacement parts, a wide selection is available through Sebo, and these are common options that vacuum shops can repair.

Filtration

The Felix has a three-stage filter system: a pre-motor filter, dustbin bag, and exhaust microfilter. During our filtration tests, the vacuum did an excellent job keeping particles inside. We measured an average peak of 47 small particles (2.4-0.5 µm) that escaped the vacuum while sucking up fine flour. Anything under 150 is considered excellent, and the average for our tested vacuums is around 102. So, this vacuum does a good job with its filtration, and it can be ideal for those with allergies or respiratory conditions. New filters can easily be purchased and replaced when the time comes; just keep in mind they are on the pricey side.

The microfilter is the exterior sleeve (in our photos, it is white with grey squares). This is fairly easy to replace, and you can even select from a handful of patterns.