Product Review: Bissell Upright Vacuum Cleaner

Bissell Clean View Complete Pet, Multi-Cyclonic Upright Vacuum Cleaner

About the Product: Bissell vacuums have been around since 1876 when the first one was invented by a crockery shop owner, Meville Bissell. According to the Bissell website, Queen Victoria insisted on her palace getting cleaned with a Bissell vacuum every week. This specific vacuum that I am reviewing was advertised as having great suction, special features to insure sweeping up pet hair on both floors and furniture, bag-less, washable filter, and "one-pass technology" that gets all the dirt on the first pass-over. As you can see, this is an upright vacuum with a canister that you take off and empty.

Why I Chose This Product: To be honest, I chose this product because I just broke it two weeks ago. This vacuum actually has a little bit of a story: When Jason and I got married, we didn't have a vacuum. (Actually, I think I broke his vacuum a week before we got married!) I think we borrowed a vacuum for a while, and then I acquired a yard-sale reject (that still worked) from my friend, Brittany. About a year later, that vacuum also broke, and we were without. For some reason I was postponing the buying of a new vacuum. Then one day Jason came home with this Bissell vacuum that he picked out, and said it was supposed to be good for pets. (We had a very hairy, fast-growing, Gunther-puppy at that point.) It claimed to have 12 amps of power, and 3 surface settings.

Cost: Less than $100, I believe. The low cost was something Jason was proud of at that time.

Use: This is where is gets interesting. Jason thought it worked like a charm, and thought that the "Pet Turbo Eraser" attachment was fantastic. And, in all honesty, it did get most of the hair off of the furniture with a little work, and I would use it to vacuum off the duvet cover of our bed. Unfortunately, it stopped working after about a year. I never found anything broken on the attachment, even after taking it apart; we never did get it to work again. My own personal experience with the vacuum? Well, I noticed a few things about it. First, when vacuuming hard floors, it blew dust, dirt, and pet hair away from the vacuum head as you ran it across the floor. Whenever I vacuumed the hard floors, I always ended up just using the hose and nozzle attachment, and vacuuming all the hard floors "by hand," so to speak.

Secondly, it didn't seem to hold very much dirt, dust, and dog hair, especially when vacuuming up after a shedding, long-haired dog. When I vacuumed, I usually had to empty the canister at least once or twice during the process. If Jason was vacuuming, he just kept on going until he was finished, and the canister was usually jam packed full up to the hose. (The suction power meter was usually all red by that time, but Jason never paid attention to it.)

My third observation was that it seemed to harbor lots of dirt within the canister, even after being emptied. And, whenever I emptied it, I would usually take out the "cyclonic" center piece, and smack both the canister and the cyclonic center part with my hand to try and dislodge as much dirt as I could. (That's actually how I broke the vacuum- the bottom to the canister broke off while I was whacking the dirt out of it.) I also washed out the filter, canister, and cyclonic center multiple times a year. It probably would have benefitted from it every week, to be honest.

Conclusion: In a house with lots of hard floors, I did not like using this vacuum. Since the vacuum head blew the dirt away from it, instead of sucking it in, I felt it was pointless to use on a hard floor. And, using the hose and nozzle attachment was not ideal; I had to bend over to use it on the floor as it wasn't very long. I also wasn't able to reach the corners of the ceilings very well due to the short length of the hose extension/nozzle attachment.
For carpeted floors, it actually did fairly well. Unless the filter, canister, and cyclonic center had not been cleaned recently. I could always tell a difference in the suction power right after I washed those parts. If I hadn't washed those parts in a while, it definitely took more than one pass over the carpet to get all the dog hair, or little snits of paper, or threads, etc. off the carpet. I really didn't think it was user friendly, though, for carpeted stairs. Trying to hold the entire machine, yet keep the vacuum head mobile, and vacuum each stair step was a bear. Not fun. I usually just used the hose and nozzle attachment and did each stair "by hand."
On the canister/bag-less style: I did not like it. It may be different if you don't have a pet, but I always felt like half the dirt/dog hair just floated back into the air whenever I emptied the canister into a trash bag, or trashcan. And, if I didn't get the bottom closed back up while holding it over the trashcan, it would "sprinkle" dirt onto the floor until I closed it. If I could, I preferred just taking the canister right out to the dumpster and emptying it outside. I also didn't like that I had to empty it multiple times during one vacuuming session. In our current house, I usually had to empty at least twice before I was finished vacuuming the entire house.
The washable filter feature: I thought it was a great idea, but only if you have an appropriate place to do so. With the dirt and hair I was washing out of the filter, canister, and cyclone center, I didn't want to do it in my kitchen sink, or in the bathtub. Plus, it needed a high-powered spray to get it clean. I always did it outside with a garden hose and sprayer. But, that doesn't work so well in the winter. If I had a large utility sink type of area, I think I would be more prone to using a washable filter vacuum.
In all fairness though, this vacuum has lasted us almost 5 years. And, the motor and most everything about it still works. It is just the Pet Turbo Eraser attachment, and the drop-bottom of the canister that have not survived our use.

Would I recommend this product to others? No. I would not recommend this vacuum, even if you didn't have pets. The reason being that it did not suction well for hard floors, and actually blew the dirt away from the vacuum head. And because it was not user friendly for stairs.

Feedback: What type of vacuum to you have, do you enjoy using it, and why? (Since we are in the market for a new vacuum, I am interested in your recommendations!)

*I, nor A Journey Thru Pictures Blog, was not reimbursed, paid, sponsored, or given free product for doing this review.*