( 119 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 14 2009
My old vacuum quit on me, and with a st. bernard, a weimaraner, 2 rabbits and the occasional dog we watch, we needed a vacuum. We don't have a ton of money, so a dyson was not an option for us right now. This vacuum was at the top of our budget, but after reading so many great reviews on it we decided to give it a go. We just received it today, and while it was decent at picking up fur out of our area rug (only 6' X 4'), it left some fur behind. I haven't vacuumed it again. However, I expect it to pick the rest of the fur up (we have been vacuum-less for quite some time now so the fur was pretty intense). The attachments worked great on our furniture. Too bad my dog jumped on the couch as soon as I finished so I had to do it again... I must say, though, that while using the attachments, the vacuum brush still spins, so if the vacuum is in one place on the carpet, it will destroy it. Mine destroyed a 2" x 2" area on the rug even though it was in the highest carpet setting and the rug itself is very short. When I moved the vacuum to the wood floor while using the attachments, it fell over when I walked more than 3 feet away because the vacuum hose is not light and flexible enough. I never thought I'd want more weight in a vacuum, but it needs something to keep it in place on a hard floor while the attachments are used. Overall, it worked decently enough out of the box. I'm not impressed with the fact that my area rug is now noticably damaged beyond repair after the vacuum sitting still for about 30 seconds, but I guess over time I'll get used to the fact that it's just different from my old dirt devil. All in all, I would probably not buy this again, but the attachments have proven very useful, assembly was easy, and it did a decent job of picking up hair and dust.
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Posted: Aug 11 2009
Worked great for the first few times I've used it, but after the first four months I started having trouble with the brushes which had trouble rotating on any kind of surface when the vacuum was in use. Today, the motor for the brushes died completely (and started smoking) and it wont pick up anything.
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( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Aug 10 2009
This vacuum sucks. Not in the way a vacuum should suck. Which is to say, it does not suck at all. Like 0 suction whatsoever. I've seen an air compressor with more powerful vacuum action that this thing. I made the ill-advised purchase of the Bissell Pet Hair Repositioner in March of 2008. Since then, it has yet to actually "collect", let alone "erase" any pet hair from my rugs. Just to be clear, I do not have a yak with mange, a buffalo that's shedding it's coat, or anything like that. I have two short haired cats. So we're hardly looking at a mountain of fur here. And I vacuum weekly. In addition to the lack of suck, there's also the lack of a rotating beater bar. The nice part about that is the very loud shrieking noise that the vacuum cleaner makes when this happen. It's a handy way of informing you that not only does it hate you and your family, it will actually personally ensure your children fail out of college. Some of them may become waitresses in restaurants of ill repute. I'm really not certain what the knob for the height adjustment does. As far as I can tell, it's mostly a volume control for the infernal hellish shrieking that also masks the dull roar of fury this unit emits the second you turn it on. Perhaps it controls a tiny man who has been tasked with waterboarding the vacuum's mother. Lower setting, more water boarding. Higher setting, less water boarding. It's really anyone's guess. The most confusing feature of the Bissell Hell-Inducer is the quick-disconnect on the suction hose. You know, the one that connects the beater bar area to the collection cup. It doesn't really disconnect randomly as much as every time you use it. But only after about half an hour of usage combined with dazed wonder at how poorly this machine performs. Putting things back together makes it perform about as well as trying to suck a bowling ball through a juice box straw. I think I'm going to chop this thing up into a million pieces and bury it. My only worry is that it can actually spawn tiny, increasingy evil versions of itself which will come to haunt my dreams. And move pet hair around my apartment.
