Sebo K3 Premium

By far the best vacuum cleaner on the market - very powerful suction - as good as a Dyson - the main benefit is you dont get a plume of dust in your face when emptying the contents in the bin - as the case with a dyson...

Well built powerful bagged cleaner

I'm a proud owner of many Sebo vacuum cleaners. Our first example of a Sebo was our cherished (but much abused) X1 Automatic upright that lasted around 12/13 years before it's drive belt had to be replaced. Economical on dust bags and with very few downsides, we've changed our old X1 to a Sebo Felix which has been perfect since last purchase.

I've also owned Sebo cylinder vacuums too, from a K1 Komfort to Sebo's basic K series - both vacs do what they suggest and both of them have very few downsides. When the opportunity came to be able to buy Sebo's flagship K3 Premium vacuum cleaner, I thought this was the best that money could buy from the Sebo cylinder vacuum range. However not all has been rosy.

Sebo's K series appeared as early as 2002 with the K3 Premium always taking the top slot. Originally at a cost of around £350 to £400, the price has fallen (perhaps due to popularity) in recent years and I was able to purchase one at a cost of £287 online brand new and with Sebo's excellent 5 years guarantee and 2 year parts and labour. However, the K3 Premium is quite a different vacuum to the rest of the K series. For a start you only get two floor heads; the ET-H electric power head that lacks the stop button on the Felix upright, and a deluxe Parquet soft bristled brush floor head that is great on hard floors.

Whereas Sebo have a full size canister option (the much older C series and very heavy at around 7kg to 8kg depending on the floor head choice) the K series has always weighed 5.5kg putting it into a compact and lightweight market similar to Miele and Bosch rivals. This means the K series are extremely light to cart around helped by three smooth castors that pivot themselves over hard surfaces and being rubber-coated means they aren't destructive to floors. Quality is a word that Sebo are very good at displaying too. Then there are the safety caps you can fit to seal the bags once and for all for no dust escaping come the time to dispose of. Soft touch plastics, easy to use tubes and a generally easy to dislodge filtration system and high filter 4 layer 3 litre dust bags that lock in with a slight push of a finger means maintenance and general use is extremely easy and rewarding. The standard tubes weigh 500grams so they are lighter than Miele's tubes, still as height adjustable and makes the case of the K series as being perfect for small flats and homes.

The K3 Vulcano and Premium models have slightly heavier tubes (500g versus 570g) and an additional swivel neck built into the hose with a plug at the top to counteract the fixed design of the plug-in electric hose on the machine. Sebo offer an increased amount of hose at 2.1 metres for extra reach on the K3 Premium though.

With all this extra reach the K3 Premium should be an easy vacuum to use. Having the ET-H floorhead on board means complete edge cleaning on each side of the roller brush and a wonderfully easy oiled movement thanks to four wheels on the underside of the floor head means carpet cleaning is extremely efficient. Everything gets picked up with this electric floor head and like the rest of the Sebo range, if you get a clog you lift a flap on the base to get rid of it. If the brush needs cleaning you can press a button on either side of the floor head to remove two sections of the roller brush. In terms of maintenance the ET-H is very easy to fix without the need for screw drivers. It also has two lights on top to show you when it is powered up and an additional orange light that acts as a warning if something gets clogged. There's also a rotary control that allows the floorhead to move from hard to soft floor coverings that you can manually adjust. It is also quieter than the ET-1 floorhead that comes with my Felix upright so it is a welcomed cleaning component that does what it suggests. If you have to leave the vacuum for a moment, the floor head also allows the hose and tubing to sit locked in an upright position just like an upright vacuum too. Once cleaning is done simply pull the cord at the entrance and the cord automatically rewinds back in. So much quicker than manually pressing a pedal for retraction on other vacuums, here.

So why don't I recommend the K3 Premium? Added weight is the biggest downside and unbelievably for a Sebo, electric problems.

Since January 2010 when I bought my K3 Premium I've not used it much because I find it very heavy and unreliable. The body of the vacuum weighs 5.5kg and that's okay until you clip/lock the tubes to the electric handle and then the electric floor head, itself weighing 2kg. Now you have 7kg of weight to pull and push behind you/in front of you and I just don't think that justifies or qualifies the basic blueprint of the Sebo K series vacuum cleaner design. They are meant to be lightweight and whilst the K1 and K1 Komfort lack the electronic head, I'd have been better off considering either model for a better time of it. It is true that whilst the electric floor head has an automatic light gliding feeling on carpeting, it can become a pain to lift the whole machine up stairs if you require to clean rooms on second floor for example!

Whilst the floor head is wonderfully easy to maintain, the plug that attaches from the handle to the top of the electric pipes has broken twice. This means £50 each time the plug breaks and if you don't replace the plug then you can kiss goodbye to using the electric floor head.

Moving around with the Sebo K3 is also a bit of a problem too - this is thanks to the fixed hose from the body of the vacuum - it doesn't swivel like the rest of the K range and although Sebo may have added a swivel neck under the main handle-to-the-hose to counteract, it doesn't move as much to the left or right as I'd like it to. The fixed hose has an embedded electric cord stitched into it and if the hose gets in the way it can twist uncontrollably which means more time spent untwisting it! Then there's the handle itself - smaller and stubbier than Sebo's basic K series hose handles, the handle itself is more difficult to take apart than the basic K series, so if anything gets clogged between the handle and back end of the hose, be prepared for a lot of pushing and shoving the clog out! Holding on it seems to be a better case than actually gripping it which I could do more comfortably with the Sebo K1 and K1 Komfort.

At the end of the day a vacuum cleaner such as the Sebo K3 Premium should be better thought out, particularly in view of its fixed hose, difficult to turn floor head and the increased weight that all the electrics bring. If you must have an electric floor head with a separate motor, the Sebo Felix upright has a lot more manageable room even if the hose once pulled can topple the machine over. The K3 Premium should be able to offer the best of both worlds, cylinder vacuum versus upright. But in this case, it is a disappointment and I strongly recommend that if you want the electronic slider suction control to consider the Sebo K3 Vulcano with an air driven turbo brush - the K3 Premium simply doesn't live up to its name. Thanks for reading. Content also appears elsewhere. (c)ukconsumer75 2010

We have used Sebo Airbelt Vacuums for over five years.

Overall this is a very good product - not the best looking vacuum you can buy - nevertheless it is well built and functions superbly. I wish that the manufacturer followed up on customer opinion so that they could (and should) finish up with a faultless product.

Would most definately recommend the product even though there are areas for improvement.

The Sebo K3 Premium is a German made vacuum cleaner, and it has to be said, it is one of the best vacs on the market. You can keep your Dyson and the gimmicks. Keep it looking real and do the job it's meant to do. That's not to look pleasing to the eye, but to pick up your dust!

Sebo are one of the best vacuum cleaners known to man. The German build quality means they will last longer than other vacuum cleaners you may buy. They are pricey, but you get what you pay for, and that's quality!

I don't want a bright yellow Dyson gimmick ridden peace of junk. I fell for the marketing ploy of a Dyson before and I won't be taken in again . Dyson's may look cool, but Sebo's vacuum carpets.