Tefal's X-Force Flex 15.60 cordless vacuum is indeed quite the flex

Price When Reviewed

£479.99

Best Prices Today: Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner

£349

How often do you vacuum under your sofa? Or tackle hard-to-reach areas, like the long-forgotten corners of your ceiling? Or the crevices of your car? If you’re shaking your head thinking ‘never’, then the Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner could be the best vacuum cleaner for you and your long neglected spots.

That’s because the stylish, lightweight and highly versatile vacuum bends, twists and turns with ease. It also comes with a comfortable 80 minutes of battery life when used in eco-mode. Plus, coming with a mountain of accessories – like an extra large roller, a turbo brush, a crevice tool and more – the Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60 is a cleaning chameleon that’s ready to change tack at the click and switch of an accessory.

Plus, once you’ve finished vacuuming, you can pop this cordless stick on its stand, which has a spot for each accessory too. So all in all, Tefal’s X-Force Flex 15.60 is an impressive all-rounder and makes doing the weekly clean a clear-cut task.

Design and Build

• Versatile design with bendable stick
• Weighs 3.4kg
• Dimensions: 38.07cm (L) x 12.57cm (W) x 29.39cm (H)
• Multiple parts feel a little overwhelming at first
• LED lights on motorised head
• Handy stand keeps things stored

By way of design, the Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner comes with multiple parts – 14 to be precise. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it will mean you will need to re-enact your best LEGO-making skills to bring this cordless stick vacuum to life.

That’s because the cordless stick comes with a head and accessory for everything. Along with two wash filters, a 0.9L dust container, a separator, a removable battery and a docking station (more on that later), it also comes with a motorised head complete with LED lights, a mini flex head, sofa brush, crevice nozzle and animal turbo brush. So you could technically use it in at least six different configurations.

Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry

But, as its name gives away, it’s the Tefal’s flex stick which is its main selling point. The corded stick has a grey ‘push’ latch at the back which effortlessly enables it to bend at least 90 degrees. This means reaching under furniture, like tables or beds is no longer an awkward task.

Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry

The main motor head is where your removable battery sits, alongside the fine particles filter, a 0.9L dust container and its filter and separator. To turn it on and off, you simply push the silver button. Or you could use the red button for the boost mode for extra strength suction.

The LED screen is satisfyingly straightforward to use. At the push of a button, you can switch up the mode (from Eco, Eco+ and Max) and keep an eye on the battery time you have remaining. It will also alert you when your filter needs cleaning.

Once you’ve finished your cleaning, just know that the vacuum won’t stand up on its own. So you need to place the 3.4kg gadget back on its dock, which also plays host to the battery charger and accessories.

Performance and Features

• 230AW suction when using boost mode
• 99.9% filtration
• Brilliant 80-minute run time when handheld
• Automatically adjusts the power level
• Short 5-minute usage when in boost mode
• Reasonable size 0.9L dust container

In my opinion, when it comes to vacuums, the real decider on performance comes down to not only how much debris the machine picks up that you can see, but the small particles you can’t. And if a full dustbin is anything to go by after a quick 15-minute clean, the Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60 exceeds the call of dust duty.

I have a partner who suffers from allergies, and despite having a pretty clean home, I need a vacuum that can pick up dust and dirt you can’t see with the naked eye. With up to 230AW of power and a 99.9% filtration level, the X-Force Flex can do just that.

Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry

And it worked just as well on carpet as it did on wooden flooring. One of the best things about this vacuum is how effortless it is to use. Sometimes when vacuuming it can feel like you’ve had an upper body workout. But this machine does all the hard work for you.

The five wheels at the bottom of the motorised head make manoeuvring the vacuum breezy. And the grey ‘push’ latch at the back of the flex stick was also smooth to use and made reaching under tables and my low sofa uncomplicated.

Another plus point? When on Auto, you won’t even need to change the mode as it automatically detects the type of floors being vacuumed and adjusts the power level accordingly. You can, of course, override this and doing so with the +/- button on the LED screen is easy.

Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry

But it’s not just floors that the Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner can tackle. A quick click of a button releases the long corded stick so you can use the crevice nozzle, which is spot-on for cars, the animal turbo brush for sucking up pet hair, a sofa brush for your couch and a more-handy-than-you’ll-realise mini flex brush, which can make reaching the corners of your vehicle dashboard, where the window meets the dash, painless.

Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry

Throughout testing, it was hard to spot many downsides to Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60. However, constructing the gadget at first was a little fiddly (but so are most things when you’re doing it for the first time). And if you do have high-pile carpets or trodden-in mud you need to vacuum from your car, vacuuming in boost mode will only give you five minutes of run time.

Price and Availability

The Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60 has an RRP of £479.99, and that’s its current price if you buy from Tefal. However, it’s currently on offer from Amazon for £349 and at this price, we think it’s good value. For even better value, you can buy it from Tefal in a bundle with the Aqua cleaning head, which allows you to vacuum and mop at the same time, for £329.99, down from £549.99.

If this isn’t the perfect model for you, see our other top recommendations in our round-up of the best vacuum cleaners we’ve tested.

Should you buy the Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60?

The Tefal X-Force Flex 15.60 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner is a formidable force in the vacuum world – and I don’t say this lightly. It would work in most small to medium-sized homes that have a mix of carpet, hardwood flooring, and low furniture you’re keen to reach under.

While the rechargeable battery won’t last forever – on average when using this on Eco mode, it will last for just under 70 minutes, while Eco+ zaps the usage and gives you half an hour of run time – it should be more than enough to tackle the must-reach spots in your home, like your floors and furniture.

Your best bet is to keep an eye on the usage time you have left during and after each clean because if you let it run right down, you’ll have to wait three hours until you can use it again.

So, while you might spend most of your time using the Tefal as a cordless stick vacuum cleaner with its motorised head and its flexible design, it’s all the ingenious add-ons – like the sofa brush, mini flex, and animal turbo brush – that will win you over.