11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
It doesn't suck--it blows!
Date of Review: Jun 26, 2006
The Bottom Line: Only buy it if you have wall-to-wall carpeting. The other functions are minimal to non-existant.
I have had the Bissell lift off bagless vacuum for almost 2 years, so I think I can give it a good, in-depth review.
If you have mainly wall-to-wall carpets, this would be a great vacuum. I loved it for my rugs. For those with bare floors and large oriental style rugs, this vacuum cleaner is really not the one for you. It works really well on the rugs, but not so good on the bare floors.
You can use it to clean bare floors in two modes; one as an upright with the brushes turned off, and two, as a canister with the hose/wand implements. Neither mode is very effective at picking up dirt, pet hair or anything else. In fact, it spits and blows the debris around rather than sucking it up. I found that the suction was good only at the point of the entrance to the wand/hose area, and anywhere else it either left the dirt there or blew it around. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a vacuum cleaner!
Canister lift off: I liked this feature, but the whole thing was too heavy.
Filters: It has three filters, two of which are cleanable. I found that I had to clean them every time I used the machine, or there was even less suction than the pitiful amount noted above.
Bagless bin: I own two dogs and a bird, so it was great to be able to empty the bin instead of buying bags all the time.
Attachments and hose: the hose is way, way too short. The wands are also too short, causing you to have to lean over to vacuum any bare floor. Anyone with back problems would have a real issue with the length of the wands. The wand pieces have a "twist" lock mechanism that doesn't seem to stay "locked", so the tubes collapse together unexpectedly and frequently.
The floor/furniture attachments (crevice tool, curtain/furniture brush and bare floor attachment) look fine, but, again, no suction except at the point of the wand attachment, so it defeats the purpose of the latter two tools. Also, there is no on-board storage for the floor tool, so I ended up drilling a hole in it and stringing a ribbon on it so I could drape it over the handle of the machine to avoid misplacing it.
All in all, I would save the money and try another vacuum cleaner, unless you have wall-to-wall carpets.
