Verdict
The Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 is a good mid-range cleaner and an impressive first vacuum cleaner from the company. Its huge amounts of power set this model apart from the competition. Its chrome-effect plastic looks a little cheap, and the brush bar does get hair (loosely) wrapped around it. But cleaning performance is good on all surfaces, and battery life is impressive.
Pros
- Very powerful
- Flex makes it easy to clean under sofas
- Battery life shown in minutes
-
TypeThis is a cordless stick vacuum cleaner with an automatic mode. -
Battery lifeRuns for up to an hour on the lowest power setting, but expect somewhere over 20 minutes on the automatic setting.
Introduction
If there’s one company that I wasn’t expecting to make a vacuum cleaner, it is Tefal. Yet, here we are with the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60, and it’s far better than I could reasonably expect.
In fact, it’s a lot better than much of the competition. It is well-priced, exceptionally powerful and able to clean well on most surfaces.
Design and features
- Space-age looks
- Good choice of accessories
- Live battery time in minutes
Finished in silver and with its curved body, the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 looks a little like a space-age ray gun from a distance. It’s a nice look, although closer up, the chrome-effect plastic looks a little cheap; this kind of plastic always looks cheap, and a solid colour tends to lessen the effect and make products feel less plasticky.
This vacuum cleaner gets its Flex name from the wand, which bends in the middle so I can clean under the sofas without bending down. That’s a handy trick that makes cleaning easier, but the wand doesn’t fully bend in half for storage, as with the similar Shark Stratos IZ420UKT.
Instead, for storage, there’s a simple wall mount that the vacuum cleaner slides into, providing storage for two of the tools. The box has a good selection, including a motorised floor head, mini pet tool, crevice tool, sofa tool and a brush.
In addition, the main vacuum cleaner body and the end of the wand have a brush built in, for quick cleaning up without having to attach any tools. That’s useful in some situations, but given that the crevice tool is probably the most used accessory, a built-in one of these, as with the Dyson Gen5detect, would be more useful.
As it stands, the brush on the main unit slightly obscures the inlet where accessories and the wand are connected, which can make tools a little fiddly to connect.
The dock doesn’t provide power, and the battery must be removed from the vacuum cleaner and plugged in separately to charge.
While charging, the battery’s three LEDs light up in sequence to show the current charge level. Not that I had to rely on such a crude battery level meter when using the vacuum cleaner, as the LCD on the back shows live runtime remaining in minutes.
There are four main power modes to choose from, plus an auto mode, which adjusts power based on the floor type detected. That’s useful, although not as accurate a power mode as a vacuum cleaner with a dust sensor, which will vary power based on how dirty the floor is.
There’s no need to manually select the highest power mode, as Boost setting can be activated by pulling the dedicated trigger. That’s handy, as I mostly used the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 in its auto setting, adding a bit more power when required.
Weighing 3.4kg, the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 is about average for a cordless stick cleaner. Certainly, its weight is well balanced, and it was easy to pick this cleaner up, for higher cleaning jobs.
This model has a 0.9-litre bin, which will hold enough dust to clean an entire house. The bin must be removed from the vacuum and the filter assembly removed (made of more of that chrome-effect plastic), but this design does mean that it is easy to wash out fully.
I did find it hard to get back together, and I needed quite a bit of force to clip the bin back into the vacuum cleaner.
Tefal provides two washable filters in the box, so I could clean one and leave it to dry while continuing to vacuum with the backup.
Performance
- High suction power
- Decent cleaning performance
- Gets a little tangled with hair
Suction power is an important factor for any vacuum cleaner, and I measure that in airwatts (AW) at the handle, which combines suction and airflow. I measured a low 26AW on the lowest setting, a general purpose 90AW on the middle setting and a huge 330AW on the highest setting. That’s immense and compares well with the Dyson Gen5detect.
Very high suction tends to be more useful with hand tools, letting you work faster and pulling dust out of hard-to-reach areas, such as behind furniture or in cars. To show this, I line up a column of rice next to a tape measure and then see how far from the crevice tool the vacuum can suck.
With the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60, it picked up rice grains from almost 2.5cm away, which is very impressive.
For the most part, vacuum cleaners will pick up dust from the floor using a combination of suction power and agitation from the motorised floor head. As such, cleaners can usually be run on lower suction settings, to improve battery life.
I started with my carpet test, adding 20g of flour to my test carpet. Running the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 through the middle of the mess on its automatic setting, I got a nice clean sweep. At the end of the full carpet clean, I measured the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 as having collected 91.05% of the mess.
There was no visible mess left on the carpet, but the dust that didn’t make it into the bin could be in the wand, or deep in the carpet.
Next, I went for the hard edge test, adding 20g of dust to the carpet, right up to the skirting board. Running the vacuum cleaner down the skirting board, there was a little pile of flour left.
Attacking the mess from different angles and using the boost mode, I improved collection. At the end of this test, the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 had collected 93.2% of the dust, which is impressive.
Hard floor performance was good, with the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 collecting 99.55% of my 20g of rice. The reason this wasn’t 100% is because a couple of grains of rice fell out of the floor head at the end of the test.
I combed cat hair into my test carpet, and then used the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 to collect it all in a single pass.
Tefal says that the extra large brush bar means a reduction in hair tangling. I put this to the test by adding strands of human hair to the carpet. All the hair was picked up, but quite a bit was wrapped around the brush bar. On closer inspection, this hair was only loosely wrapped around the bar, and it was easy to pull out without needing scissors.
Even so, if you have a lot of hair to deal with, a vacuum cleaner with anti-tangle technology may be more useful.
Battery life is good. On its lowest setting, with the floor head, I got 58m 13s. This dropped to 25m 28s on the medium power setting and just 7m 28s on the highest setting. For automatic mode, tested on carpet, I managed a reasonable 21m 52s, which would prove enough to clean most of a house, given the power on offer.
Maxing out at 74.5dB, and running at 68.1dB on its medium setting, this vacuum cleaner is no louder than the competition.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You want power on a budget
This is a hugely powerful vacuum cleaner, but a little cheaper than the competition, making it a good mid-range choice.
You want more flexible auto cleaning
If you want a vacuum cleaner that will adjust power based on the level of dust detected, look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
An accomplished vacuum cleaner, the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 is well priced for the huge power, decent battery life and range of accessories that you get, making it a good mid-range option.
If you can extend your budget further, the Shark IZ420UKT will get you two batteries, anti-tangle brushes and an auto mode that responds to dust levels. Otherwise, check out my guide to the best cordless vacuum cleaners for alternatives.
How we test
We test every vacuum cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main vacuum cleaner for the review period
Tested for at least a week
Tested using tools to measure actual suction performance
Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other vacuum cleaners
FAQs
Yes, the battery can be removed, and it has to be removed for charging.
This is the ability of the vacuum cleaner’s wand to bend in the middle for easy cleaning under sofas.
Trusted Reviews test data
Verdict
The Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 is a good mid-range cleaner and an impressive first vacuum cleaner from the company. Its huge amounts of power set this model apart from the competition. Its chrome-effect plastic looks a little cheap, and the brush bar does get hair (loosely) wrapped around it. But cleaning performance is good on all surfaces, and battery life is impressive.
Pros
- Very powerful
- Flex makes it easy to clean under sofas
- Battery life shown in minutes
-
TypeThis is a cordless stick vacuum cleaner with an automatic mode. -
Battery lifeRuns for up to an hour on the lowest power setting, but expect somewhere over 20 minutes on the automatic setting.
Introduction
If there’s one company that I wasn’t expecting to make a vacuum cleaner, it is Tefal. Yet, here we are with the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60, and it’s far better than I could reasonably expect.
In fact, it’s a lot better than much of the competition. It is well-priced, exceptionally powerful and able to clean well on most surfaces.
Design and features
- Space-age looks
- Good choice of accessories
- Live battery time in minutes
Finished in silver and with its curved body, the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 looks a little like a space-age ray gun from a distance. It’s a nice look, although closer up, the chrome-effect plastic looks a little cheap; this kind of plastic always looks cheap, and a solid colour tends to lessen the effect and make products feel less plasticky.
This vacuum cleaner gets its Flex name from the wand, which bends in the middle so I can clean under the sofas without bending down. That’s a handy trick that makes cleaning easier, but the wand doesn’t fully bend in half for storage, as with the similar Shark Stratos IZ420UKT.
Instead, for storage, there’s a simple wall mount that the vacuum cleaner slides into, providing storage for two of the tools. The box has a good selection, including a motorised floor head, mini pet tool, crevice tool, sofa tool and a brush.
In addition, the main vacuum cleaner body and the end of the wand have a brush built in, for quick cleaning up without having to attach any tools. That’s useful in some situations, but given that the crevice tool is probably the most used accessory, a built-in one of these, as with the Dyson Gen5detect, would be more useful.
As it stands, the brush on the main unit slightly obscures the inlet where accessories and the wand are connected, which can make tools a little fiddly to connect.
The dock doesn’t provide power, and the battery must be removed from the vacuum cleaner and plugged in separately to charge.
While charging, the battery’s three LEDs light up in sequence to show the current charge level. Not that I had to rely on such a crude battery level meter when using the vacuum cleaner, as the LCD on the back shows live runtime remaining in minutes.
There are four main power modes to choose from, plus an auto mode, which adjusts power based on the floor type detected. That’s useful, although not as accurate a power mode as a vacuum cleaner with a dust sensor, which will vary power based on how dirty the floor is.
There’s no need to manually select the highest power mode, as Boost setting can be activated by pulling the dedicated trigger. That’s handy, as I mostly used the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 in its auto setting, adding a bit more power when required.
Weighing 3.4kg, the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 is about average for a cordless stick cleaner. Certainly, its weight is well balanced, and it was easy to pick this cleaner up, for higher cleaning jobs.
This model has a 0.9-litre bin, which will hold enough dust to clean an entire house. The bin must be removed from the vacuum and the filter assembly removed (made of more of that chrome-effect plastic), but this design does mean that it is easy to wash out fully.
I did find it hard to get back together, and I needed quite a bit of force to clip the bin back into the vacuum cleaner.
Tefal provides two washable filters in the box, so I could clean one and leave it to dry while continuing to vacuum with the backup.
Performance
- High suction power
- Decent cleaning performance
- Gets a little tangled with hair
Suction power is an important factor for any vacuum cleaner, and I measure that in airwatts (AW) at the handle, which combines suction and airflow. I measured a low 26AW on the lowest setting, a general purpose 90AW on the middle setting and a huge 330AW on the highest setting. That’s immense and compares well with the Dyson Gen5detect.
Very high suction tends to be more useful with hand tools, letting you work faster and pulling dust out of hard-to-reach areas, such as behind furniture or in cars. To show this, I line up a column of rice next to a tape measure and then see how far from the crevice tool the vacuum can suck.
With the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60, it picked up rice grains from almost 2.5cm away, which is very impressive.
For the most part, vacuum cleaners will pick up dust from the floor using a combination of suction power and agitation from the motorised floor head. As such, cleaners can usually be run on lower suction settings, to improve battery life.
I started with my carpet test, adding 20g of flour to my test carpet. Running the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 through the middle of the mess on its automatic setting, I got a nice clean sweep. At the end of the full carpet clean, I measured the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 as having collected 91.05% of the mess.
There was no visible mess left on the carpet, but the dust that didn’t make it into the bin could be in the wand, or deep in the carpet.
Next, I went for the hard edge test, adding 20g of dust to the carpet, right up to the skirting board. Running the vacuum cleaner down the skirting board, there was a little pile of flour left.
Attacking the mess from different angles and using the boost mode, I improved collection. At the end of this test, the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 had collected 93.2% of the dust, which is impressive.
Hard floor performance was good, with the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 collecting 99.55% of my 20g of rice. The reason this wasn’t 100% is because a couple of grains of rice fell out of the floor head at the end of the test.
I combed cat hair into my test carpet, and then used the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 to collect it all in a single pass.
Tefal says that the extra large brush bar means a reduction in hair tangling. I put this to the test by adding strands of human hair to the carpet. All the hair was picked up, but quite a bit was wrapped around the brush bar. On closer inspection, this hair was only loosely wrapped around the bar, and it was easy to pull out without needing scissors.
Even so, if you have a lot of hair to deal with, a vacuum cleaner with anti-tangle technology may be more useful.
Battery life is good. On its lowest setting, with the floor head, I got 58m 13s. This dropped to 25m 28s on the medium power setting and just 7m 28s on the highest setting. For automatic mode, tested on carpet, I managed a reasonable 21m 52s, which would prove enough to clean most of a house, given the power on offer.
Maxing out at 74.5dB, and running at 68.1dB on its medium setting, this vacuum cleaner is no louder than the competition.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You want power on a budget
This is a hugely powerful vacuum cleaner, but a little cheaper than the competition, making it a good mid-range choice.
You want more flexible auto cleaning
If you want a vacuum cleaner that will adjust power based on the level of dust detected, look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
An accomplished vacuum cleaner, the Tefal X-Force Flex 14.60 is well priced for the huge power, decent battery life and range of accessories that you get, making it a good mid-range option.
If you can extend your budget further, the Shark IZ420UKT will get you two batteries, anti-tangle brushes and an auto mode that responds to dust levels. Otherwise, check out my guide to the best cordless vacuum cleaners for alternatives.
How we test
We test every vacuum cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main vacuum cleaner for the review period
Tested for at least a week
Tested using tools to measure actual suction performance
Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other vacuum cleaners
FAQs
Yes, the battery can be removed, and it has to be removed for charging.
This is the ability of the vacuum cleaner’s wand to bend in the middle for easy cleaning under sofas.
