Customer Reviews

Bissell Versus Bare-Floor Vacuum with Brushless V-Shape Technology, 76T8

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

Okay..let me start by saying that I have 2 (SHEDDING) dogs who have a doggie door to the backyard and are in and out all day long tracking dirt/leaves inside constantly. Let me also say that I have all hardwood floors throughout, and have been called OCD on the cleanliness of my home. Before purchasing the Bissell Versus, I owned 1 standard (HEAVY) upright vac (Dirt Devil), 2 cordless vacs (one being a Shark), and 2 handheld vacs.

Always on a mission to find the perfect vacuum cleaner, I got sucked (pun intended) right into the infomercial on the Bissell Versus. After reading online reviews (some great, some bad), I decided what the heck..I'll give it a shot. Here is what I found after using it last night for the first time:

1) Hard to find in-stores, but finally found at a local Target on sale for $59. (Yay!)
2) Easy to put together. REALLY easy.
3) Worried about the reviews saying it was hard to maneuver, I found it quite easy (I'm puny)! I didn't find it to be too "top-heavy" at all. WAY lighter than my normal upright vac, and the "V" head makes vacuuming around tables/chairs/furniture so much easier.
4) Vacuumed all of my dog-hair-tumbleweeds without any problem at all, regardless of how big they were, including some larger leaves that had fallen from my houseplants, and one (LARGE) dead bug that appeared sometime while I was out buying this vacuum. I was also very happy with how much dust it picked up! I personally didn't have a problem with the expelled air blowing around hair/debris..the vac sucked it right up before it got too far away.
5) The many reviews complaining about how short the cord is, had me worried I'd spend half my time unplugging/replugging. Although it IS shorter than my normal upright vac, it wasn't AT ALL as bad as some said.
6) Reviews also had me worried about it not getting hair against the floor's baseboard due to the "V" shape - but I didn't have any problems at all. I thought I'd need to use the Crevice Tool/Hose to get against the walls, but thankfully found I didn't even need it (well, just once to get behind the fridge).
7) I LOVE the fact that it is bagless..and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the fact that it doesn't have a roller underneath to get hair/yarn/fuzz wrapped around! I hated trying to cut/unravel that nastiness from around my upright's roller. The Versus just has a big hole that everything gets sucked up! The most interaction I had with the underside, was to pull the fur off of the little "squeegee" thingy after I was done vacuuming my whole house..all of 2 seconds.
8) The only CON I could find, was that I tried to use it to vacuum the dog hair off of a couple floor mats, but it just wasn't doing the job. I'll still have to use my HEAVY one for that, or one of my handhelds.

So, needless to say..I highly recommend the Bissell Versus. :)

I would give it a 4.5 if I was allowed, because it doesn't do much on low-pile carpet, but it's a bare floor cleaner, so I won't ding it an entire star. It does exactly what it is made for.

I'll be honest, this vacuum was my husbands idea. I wanted something cordless.
We have new laminate floors, and our old 'carpet' vacuum wasn't working. It was just kicking dirt back out at us. I have a little cordless sweeper, that is handy for small areas, but it's just not strong enough for the whole house.
The Versus is.
It is a little awkward to drive, because of the large V shaped front and the swivel body, but once you are used to it. it's fine.
The thin vacuum head is great for the crumbs that fall under the fridge and the edge of the counter.
The V shaped head sort of pushes everything to the center, where the suction is strongest and no debris is safe from this vacuum.
This is by far the best thing for bare floors I have used. Even better than the micro-fiber duster. Much better than a broom. My only complaint is that it isn't cordless, but that's why it's so powerful.

I highly recomend.

Decent power, mine does not pick up on the end as well as the one on t.v.It was awkward at first but easily mastered.The only real complaint is the cord is about 6 feet too short, but it is head and shoulders above any cordless vac I've used. Of corse it's not cordless but it's about the same size and when you turn it off stuff does not fall out.{I ended up adding 10 ft. to the cord and it's the perfect length}

I got Bissell Versus for tile floor for two main reasons. First, I swear by Pledge Grab-it cloths which I still use with Swiffer stick. But I found that even this simple cloth system knocks dust into the air which must then settle on everything, wasting part of the effort. This made me question if ALL powered roller brushes knock dust into the air, even on vacuums designed with bare floors in mind. Bissell online customer service was then honest enough to confirm my suspicions about this drawback with powered roller brushes. This is why the non-roller brush V head design of the Versus got my attention. This leads to my second reason for getting Versus.

I had previously purchased the tea-green Bissell steam mop after studying various steam mops in same price range. I was totally impressed with Bissell's attention to detail with the mop and the "microwave oven" simplicity of cleaning the floor with it; excellent results. The mop isn't perfect but I'm not looking for perfection. The mop's instructions said to vacuum or sweep the floor before using the mop. So I looked for a vacuum to reduce the amount of Pledge Grab-its I'd otherwise use before using the steam mop.

The piano-black Versus, with its "horned" sweeping head, looks like something you'd see in a science fiction movie, but I didn't get it for its looks. And after playing with the Versus for awhile I'm as impressed with its power and design as I am with the steam mop.

As a side note, rechargeable vacuums simply can't deliver enough suction, in my opinion. In fact, you can definitely see and feel the kick of the 12-amp motor when the unit is turned on.

Also, while the Versus doesn't have a constant-suction cyclonic system, it has two washable filters. And remember, the powered roller brushes of the constant-suction systems sneak dust into the air which doesn't work for me.

Finally, I basically agree with everything that M. Perkins "Maggiperk" said about the Versus so I also gave it five stars. Note that I try to hold the unit at roughly 45 degrees to the floor so the motor exhaust blows upward, minimizing disturbing the dust on the floor, probably a design compromise with many vacuums.

My only reservation is that the vacuum's head design seems to be the first of its kind. So Bissell may eventually introduce an improved version. In the meanwhile, I'm very satisfied with my under $200 Bissell state-of-the-art dry / wet cleaning system for tile floor.

Added later (Mon, 1/26/2009). The Versus is being used in an office and the boss's clean-freak wife got hold of it to see what it could do; she said that it looks like a scorpion. The biggest surprise for me was the following. I hated the little rechargeable vacuum that we had been using in the office because you could smell the dust that this joke vacuum put into the air. This airborne dust was evidenced by the layer of dust that accumulated on the outside of the vacuum when it was used, likely because of static charges on the vacuum case. In fact, I would cover the computers with plastic garbage bags when the little vacuum was used; probably overkill.

So when the boss's wife finished vacuuming, I decided to do the following. I grabbed a clean Pledge Grab-it cloth and ran it over the outside of the Versus to find out how much escaped dust had accumulated on it. This is a merciless test because the Pledge Grab-it cloths can embarrass any "clean" surface, in my opinion. So I was pleasantly shocked that the Grab-it cloth showed no traces of dust on the outside of the Versus. In fact, the only smell in the area after 5-10 minutes of running the Versus was the faint smell of new plastic.

We have minor complaints about the vacuum, but none that haven't already been touched on in these write-ups. It could use a longer hose, for example, which we'll ask Bissell about anyway. But I'm still happy with the five stars that I gave it because the Versus has not only exceeded expectations but is well under $100.

I was totally amazed at the pick-up power of this inexpensive little vacuum. My husband forgot to remove the cardboard insert in the suction area and I still managed to pick up animal hair and fill the filter twice. I have 5 cats and a dog and all hardwood and tile floors. I also own a $500 Dyson animal vacuum and this Bissell Versus is just as good if not better. It's light weight and does a great job manuevering around furniture although there is a slight learning curve. With my Dyson I end up chasing the dust bunnies around. With the Versus the bunnies seem to magically find their way into the washable filter. The bottom line is I have not used my Dyson since I bought the Versus.

I have stained concrete and tile throughout my house (tile in bathrooms, stained concrete everywhere else.) I also have an 81 lb greyhound. While greyhounds aren't huge shedders, he's still losing his kennel coat and we've been noticing little pieces of Cairo in every room. I purchased the Swiffer set (Wet-Jet and vacuum) when we bought the house but haven't been happy with the level of clean they deliver. I picked up the Versus through Amazon and have been completely happy with it... it picks up everything from dog fur to dirt to small rocks (don't ask.) I finally feel like my floors are clean and I'm not just pushing the debris about.. I highly recommend this vacuum to anyone that has hard floors.

I love this vacuum. I have hardwood throughout my house. The old fashioned dust mop just doesn't do much for dust and pet hair on hardwood, mostly just pushes it around or distributes it through the air. Awhile back I bought a cordless sweeper that uses the disposable dust cloths but the battery didn't last long enough and buying all those cloths, ugh! After seeing this vacuum demonstrated on t.v., I checked out prices and reviews online and decided, for $49.95, I could take a risk. I am well pleased with its performance. I actually conducted an 'accidental' comparison between my dust mop and the Versus. About an hour before this was delivered, I swept with my dust mop. Of course, as with all new toys, I had to play with the new Bissell ,so I put it together (takes a couple minutes) and used it on the same areas I had just swept manually. I could not believe how much dust and pet hair it picked up from the floors I thought I had just cleaned! It cleans edges and corners well, I like the 'wings' of the v-shape because I can slip one side under the edge of my area rugs and pick up the dirt that collects there without having to roll the edes of the rug up to sweep. I appreciate the hose with crevice tool feature. That's one of the things I like about my other Bissell vacuum cleaner. I appreciate that Bissell included it on this machine. It takes a little practice moving the vacuum. The v- head is quite agile, which is good, that's why it's so effective, but at first, it seems awkward. I have already recommended it to several of my friends who have hardwood.

I have been searching for a quality vacuum to clean my wood floors for years. I was excited when I found this. It was affordable and from a respectable company. Unfortunately, I found this product to be quite useless. I have 3 dogs who shed. This vacuum seems to only have suction in the middle so when you vacuum along the wall clumps of hair would collect on the edges of the vacuum but do not get sucked in. The cord is annoyingly short. The vacuum was awkwardly balanced which made it difficult to maneuver. If you use the attachment the whole vacuum will fall over unless you hang onto it to keep it upright. Overall I was completely unimpressed and returned it.

Before I purchased a new vacuum, I did extensive research. Finally I chose the Bissell Versus and I could not be more pleased. It's compact and stylish so perfect for my one bedroom flat. By far the most powerful machine I've owned; dirt actually moves towards the nose before I can get to it! The bagless feature is convenient and easy to clean. Its V-shaped nose goes around corners nicely; I don't even have to move furniture half the time. My place is wood with floor rugs and works very well on both surfaces. Only word of advice is the attachment feature. There were no directions with my box on how to detached the hose to add the attachment. I twisted and twisted until I discovered I was suppose to pull instead. You can see what I'm talking about here as well see how it works. Highly HIGHLY recommend. [...]

I love my Versus. I have old fashion plank flooring with gaps between the boards. Before my Versus the gaps could only be cleaned well using the wand of my old vacuum, very time consuming, didn't get done on a regular basis. The Versus sucks up the dirt from the cracks in normalvacuuming - a miracle!!! Surprising to me the Versus also does a good job on my low pile rugs. On the negative side, the wand is very short and the electric cord is a little short also, but the good outweighs the bad big time.