Bissell Clearview II Bagless

After five months of living in this bi-level apartment of ours, we got ourselves a vacuum, pictured at right. It's a Bissell Clearview II bagless upright and it has a HEPA filter.

It's bitchin.

I had asked for a little hand vac I think two Christmases ago and it had done me well in my tiny studio, but not so handy in a larger apartment witch much more stuff to clean.

We picked up this badboy on Sunday morning and quickly put it to use. Lady put it all together [a few attachments to stick onto the upright and such] and fired it up. Worked like a charm. She took it downstairs to take it through the kitchen which has terra cotta tile flooring. No problemo. I used the hose attachment thingie and took it over to the carpeted stairway. A quick swipe along the corners revealed a whole different shade of carpet underneath a layer of, well, scuzz. Hair, dirt, crumbs, junk, gunk, blech.

Going from a zippy hand vac which gives out after about fifteen minutes to this larger plug in 12 amp badboy is quite a change.

It's got one of those funny vacuum headlights too, so you can see the larger pieces of crap on the ground in the path of the wide mouth. I've always thought they were funny looking, I still do. A headlight on a vacuum!

Watching the clear chamber fill up is quite freaky. Seeing all that crap just whirl around and then settle when you hit the off button. We have a Sharper Image Ionic Breeze in our bedroom which is pretty good at catching the airborne gunk and it's alarming to wipe that thing clean every few weeks, but to see all the crap in the clear chamber of a vacuum, that's another story.

Lady took it into the little hallway of our building and cleaned the entrance area in front of our door. She did this while I was out for a few hours. When I came back, I was astonished at how clean it was. She stopped at our doorway and the difference from right at our door to the rest of the stairs leading upstairs is/was amazing. So much crud!

This thing was only $65 after a 20% off coupon and it has a HEPA filter! The hose thingie has a few attachments that are handy. A crevice [hehe] tool which is a two-headed triangle-shaped attachment; one head with bristles, one without. And there's the 'Turbo Brush' which is more like a mini-vacuum head that you can use to cean things like couches - sorta like what a hand vac would be used for, but with a vacuum brush thingie inside the cleaning head.

Anyone in need of a good, cheap, HEPA enabled vacuum? Get this thing.

Comments

[Ellen]

I couldn't afford it for another pay or 2, but even at full price under $90, sounds like a steal - where'd you get it?

[Lee]

we bought one of those. it lasted about a year before losing significant suction/cleaning power. got the oreck upright now which came with a free canister vacuum.

[albert]

hmm, significant loss in suction/cleaning power, eh? i'll keep an eye on how much this thing sucks.

and a note on oreck. i recall seeing ads for oreck donating money or vacuums to people in the gulf coast for each vacuum bought. their main factory was down there if i recall correctly.

[addie]

we have the same one! i love it, but it freaks me out a little to actually be able to see the amount of dirt and doghair that gets sucked up. ew.

[acm]

I've avoided bagless so far, in part because once I was doing an intense cleaning for moths, and the thought that a moth egg could be left behind on the filter and reinfect my household would have been enough to keep me up nights. I have an awesome (and cheap) Dirt Devil (I think, heh) that has made converts of borrowers...