Chris Eubanks & Tina Turner and a vacuum cleaner (Sebo Automatic X1)

Member Name: cata

Product:	Sebo Automatic X1
Date:	03/10/01 (2770 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Best vacuum cleaner in the market place, Cheap to run and maintain, Easy to use

Disadvantages: Stairs needs longer hose

Heresy:
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Okay I am about to commit the ultimate heresy, as far as most members of dooyoo are concerned and that is the Dyson vacuum cleaner are not the best cleaner on the market. As far as I am concerned it is a good cleaner but the hype surrounding it makes it the most popular but certainly not he best cleaner in Britain today.

Okay you can all pick yourselves off the floor, somebody has dared to say it now read on and see what I have to say about the cleaner others and I consider a far better vacuum cleaner. It is of course the Sebo X1. Now I realise that many of you will not have heard of this particular vacuum cleaner and will probably be shaking your heads in disbelief.

Brief very brief history:
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Before I start on about the cleaner the company started up a few years ago and is run by a small family concern in this country, they are very hands on and have a small team of dedicated people that make them a pleasure to deal with. The macjone is German in design and they import it under license.
They do not have a service engineer as such, they don’t need one, in all the years I have dealt with them the only fault that occurred was customer misuse a common fault of a lot of vacuum cleaner problems. No the bosses son is the service agent and is able to deal with all problems that arise. Something he cannot fix at your house the machine part can either be posted direct to you or you can post the relevant part back for fixing.

Who has one:
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They are a popular brand with hotel users and indeed they are currently used at Buckingham palace to keep the royal corridors and rooms clean. I also have one and it is now seven years old.

Original colour:
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The original machne was brown and yellow, yes vile the Germans could not understand that in Britain the colour would be an important factor in buying a cleaner rather than how it perform
s.Now available in a blue grey & white.

The Guts:
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Right then the machine comes in three snap together parts that you assemble when getting the machine home. They consist of the handle with integral mains lead, long enough to vacuum a standard three bed roomed house from a central plug point. The main body, which contains the cleaner bag and main filter, this runs the entire length of the bag. Lastly the motor unit, the thing that actually drives the thing. All three units are snapped together and you do not need to resort to your tool box.

The motor unit contains a 1000-watt motor, which is an upgrade on the original, which used to have an 850watt-power source. If truth were told the increase in motor power in consumer driven the machine outperforms others even on its lesser strength version. Cleaning is not about suction power alone; it is how the machine uses it. Here the Sebo has a sensor head that automatically raises and lowers the beating head to the optimum cleaning point depending on the surface it is on. Go from carpet to hard floor and the head adjusts to clean the floor rather than aimless work high above it. The exhaust from the machine is also very diffuse and does not blow a gale thus stirring up dirt into the atmosphere where no cleaner can get at it. Try a DC01 on hard dusty floor and stand back it blows out so much exhaust that the dirt is blown away from the cleaning head before the machine even reaches it.
This part of the machine contains the motor filter and this will need changing on average twice a year, it is people’s failure to change their motor filters that result in loss of suction and eventual death by strangulation. I wonder how many dooyoo users are vacuum cleaner murderers: >)

The main body is the housing unit for the cleaner bag and this is put into the machine by means of a clever lifting device. The front of the machine has a lever that you pull up and the cleaner front come of
f with the bag attached to it. You clip a cover on the full bag and slide the bag off its carrier, in this way you throw away all the dirt the machine has collected without getting any back into the atmosphere. The s-class filter is also contained here alongside the bag; again like the motor filter it is advisable to change this filter every six months.
An S-class filter means that it is suitable for asthma suffers in that the air expelled from the machine does not contain dust allergens. Now I realise the Dyson DC01 does this but it falls down like the models that follow by the way the dirt is disposed of. With the Dyson you tip the dirt away and no matter how careful you are it will swirl up and either get on your clothes or get back into the atmosphere. In fact Dyson do not recommend asthma suffers empty the machine they but get somebody else to do it. Sebo has been acknowledged as the cleanest all-round vacuum cleaner in the market place and comes with the National Asthma authority recommendation.

The body also holds the integral hose attachment as you lift this clear the machine switches power to this part of the machine and automatically raises the beating head to the highest position. All the tools house on the back of the machine fit on the end of this wand enabling you to reach ceiling corners to clean away those hard to reach cobwebs. The tools the machine comes with are the important crevice tool for all those hard to reach little places, upholstery brush basic but you can buy others if you so desire.


The handle, what can you say it is how you push the machine around, sturdy and very hard to break. As I have already said it come with an integral lead and has a clip that doubles up as cord storage. Here you get no fancy cord rewind, how often they go wrong anyway, you simple wrap the cord round the carrying handle on the back of the machine and the clip on the handle.

Extras:

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So the basic machine en
ables you to clean hard floors and carpets, it contains an integral hose unit for skirting boards and high places; you also get two tools that either fit onto the end of your wand attachment or just the hose if you prefer. Do you need anything else, well no not really but there are some useful things that you can buy if you wish.

A motorised stair and upholstery brush, this makes the cleaner act like a cylinder model and is very useful on stairs.
An extension hose that make the in built hose long enough to reach the top of a standard staircase without moving the main machine. (Something the Dyson has already I hasten to add).
Various brushes for various types of soft furnishing, I would recommend a separate brush for those of you that like to vacuum silk lampshades for instance.
Dry cleaning powder, sprinkle onto the floor rub in with a stiff brush leave and then vacuum up, this stuff works very well and will remove most stains very well.

Lastly I come to the bag, hah all the Dyson owners now look smug, no bags for me. Well the bags for this machine cost £6:75p for ten from my local supplier and last for simply ages, just how long depends on how large your home is and how dirty you are. On average a bag lasts 4-6 weeks mine actually last a lot longer but my home is not very large and I am very clean. You can also buy a service box that contains ten bags and the two filters you need to maintain the machine. A rule of thumb is changing your filters after your first ten bags are used then after the next ten and so on. Remember the motor filter is what lets the motor breath if it can’t breathe it can’t work as well.

Drive belts Dyson owners you know what they are don’t you. Well the Sebo drive belt comes with a five-year guarantee that it will not snap. Yes five years the reason is what it is made of and the fact that if you suck up something and jam the cleaner it cuts the motor out. Thus no strain on the belt an
d no need to replace every few months due to stretching, or snapping.

Running Costs:
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Average running costs, well if you buy a service box that will see most people through the year and they cost £14:75p not bad for any cleaner really. Dyson owners you have to replace your filters so do not feel to smug about not buying bags.

Now I used to sell a whole range of cleaners and the Dyson was the easiest to sell due to the excellent marketing, however if ever anybody asked anybody on the team to honestly recommend a cleaner we all sold Sebo. At the time the Sebo was cheaper but as we did not work on commission that did not affect our choice. No we sold the machine we considered the best, a fact back up by which whom gave it the highest rating in two separate issues. It is also a lot quieter than the Dyson, which to my ears sounds like a jet taking off, it is easier to handle and does a far better all-round job.

Aside:
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Miele who make excellent cylinder cleaners have taken a Sebo apart and come to the conclusion that they could not better it so why bother.

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Lastly your cleaner has to be a personal choice and whatever you like go for, the Sebo X1 however as Chris Eubanks used to say and Tina Turner used to sing this is “SIMPLY THE BEST”.

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Summary: