Flips but doesn’t clean very well.

I was looking for an easy way to clean my tile floors downstairs. They are dark brown tiles, and most products such as the Swiffer left a streaky sheen on the dark tiles. I am not very good with a bucket and mop and the cats run around on the wet floor leave wet marks and streaks everywhere, so I needed a better solution. For about $70 at Target, I thought I would give this a try since it came with a vacuum, a “mop” and some cleaning solution.

The vacuum is about 15 pounds, has 3 cleaning modes, including dry vacuum, wet vacuum and drying. It comes with a washable soft scrub brush and also an interchangeable machine-washable pad depending on what kind of floor you are cleaning. The scrub brush is for tile and deep cleaning and the pad is for gentle cleaning on wood floors. It has a 22-foot power cord, which is plenty for most homes and also has a trial size of the cleaning solution.

Putting the vacuum together was fairly easy. You have to screw the handle in and remove some packaging foam from the brush. It is slightly confusing if you have never used a wet/dry cleaner to understand where the cleaning solution goes and how to fill up the water bucket area. It took a couple times reading the directions, and then it all made sense. The Bissell Floor Cleaning Solution sample smells great with a clean fresh scent. Once the water reservoir and cleaning solution tank are filled up it is ready to go.

You are supposed to vacuum before using the wet vacuum. The vacuum performed poorly with suction and if you have a vacuum you are pleased with, then half of this product is wasted because the vacuum is no better than a cheap sweeper vacuum. After vacuuming, you can simply flip the vacuum so the front is now the back and you can use the vacuum’s mopping capabilities.
When you hold the trigger built into the handle, water and cleaning solution come out. Then when you release it sucks up leftover solution to help dry the floor. I felt not enough solution came out and I had to hold the trigger a lot to soak the floor otherwise it would squeak and leave dry non clean spots to go over again. The drying didn’t really dry well. And worst is it left streaks on the floor. They do not recommend using other solutions so this product just wasn’t as good as expected. It went back to the store.

I would not recommend the Bissell 5200 Flip-It Bare Floor Cleaner. If you are looking for something to wet and dry vacuum your floors, maybe try the Hoover SpinScrub FloorMate. I did a review on that and my only complaint was the bulkiness of the product.