BISSELL 3106A Featherweight Lightweight Vacuum
by Bissell
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List Price: Our Price: $24.14 You Save: $0.85 (3%) Availability: Usually ships in 3-4 business days Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of BISSELL 3106A Featherweight Lightweight Vacuum
Customer Review: Perfect!
Summary: 5 Stars
Note- my unit says it's a Bissell 3Way Lightweight vacuum, but it looks like this picture and was $19.99, so I believe it is the same product. I LOVE it!!!
I have two small children who seem to be increasing their crumb-dropping habit recently. I sweep crumbs into the corner of the kitchen and dining room (both hardwood) every day, but don't always have the chance to use the dustpan right away, plus you can't pick up every last speck that way. I am sick of sweeping and stooping!
So I found this little beauty and it is soooo much better than I expected! For $20, I figured I was taking a chance... but it works REALLY well! I leave on the roller head (as shown in pic) for floors and it's so light I pick it up and roll it across the dinner table as well! I slip the roller head off to get in the tighter corners, I use the crevice tool for the space between the carpet and walls in the halls. It's like a dustbuster on a stick, but since it plugs in, it's more powerful. It fits between my fridge and the wall with that sad, lonely old broom!
It is not a replacement for a big vac... I use my big, heavy Hoover for the plush carpet, but it's great for little touch-ups on the carpet. It does not, however, do great at picking up fuzzy carpet balls that are stuck to the carpet. It picks up beads better than my big vac (which sometimes spits them back out), it picks up crumbs, pieces of cereal, it even picked up an intact teddy graham with no problem.
The motor sounds very tight, smooth, like it will last. But I have not had it long, I will post again when I have more info on longevity. My only complaint is the plug isn't tight in the socket -- any pressure at all pulls the plug right out. I suppose if it's too annoying I can bend one prong slightly. I do wish it was easier to wrap and unwrap the cord since I'm using it so much! A retractable cord would be perfect. But for $20, I'm more than thrilled with this product.
Buy it, you'll like it!
REVIEW UPDATE SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
Okay, we've moved twice and this baby is no longer crammed between the fridge and the wall but it's still going strong! I have quite a bit more floor space now and I still love this little vacuum. I did bend one prong to keep it plugged in tight and that has worked fine for however many years I've now had it. This may be the best twenty bucks I ever spent!
Customer Review: Money well spent
Summary: 5 Stars
Essentially this is a "dust buster" on a stick. The stick easily detaches if you want to use it as a hand vac. When you pop on the floor attachment (simple--it just fits right in the end of the thing), it becomes a floor vac. Or you can pop this off and use the crevice tool. But unlike a hand vac, which usually runs on a rechargeable battery, this plugs in -- which means your battery isn't going to go weak on you and need replacement. Course it means you can't go more than a few feet from the plug. My only complaint: if I want to do more than one area or our stairs, I have to unplug it and replug it in elsewhere to reach, but I realize it isn't meant to do a whole house and that a longer cord would mean a heavier and more cumbersome vac.
I'm surprised some reviews here say it has no power -- mine has so much power I cannot push it on a rug. I tried it on four different low-pile area rugs, and on each of them it grabs the rug so strongly I can only pull rather than push. So what. It's fine for a quick pickup on the rugs and I can do my entire wood floor with no problem. I mainly got it for cleaning around the parrot cage (a constant task), but I found myself going after all the nooks and crannies of the house, one after another, the second I plugged it in.
I like how the floor attachment has wheels so it doesn't suck itself into the floor (why it grabs the rugs so much I dunno-maybe it needs bigger wheels), I like how the handle snaps off and on easily, I like how versatile it is. There wasn't anything I couldn't pick up with it, including dog kibble and parrot pellets. I do agree it pushes this kind of stuff along if the floor attachment is on, but without it, it has no trouble with them.
My husband teases me that in our 25 years of marriage, I've bought more vacuums and dust busters than shoes. This is the last one for quick pickups I'm going to need. I am SO glad to have found it. Bottom line: bigger jobs, get out your main vac; little jobs, this one's a snap. I love this thing!
Adding after 6 weeks: The filter gets clogged easily and you can lose suction. I clean mine with an old toothbrush I leave near the trashcan. Bigger items like dog kibble can get stuck in the little flap thingie and you need a knife or something to get them out. Other than that, I'm still very happy with it.
Customer Review: Bissell 3-way featherweight is a great little sweeper
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had this sweeper for at least two years for use on hardwood and tile floors. I bought it shortly after I started remodeling some rooms - it seems every part of a project creates a tremendous amount of dust. I'm allergic to dust mites so keeping dust under control is a priority. Sweeping with a broom doesn't help control dust, it stirs around more actual dust than it picks up.
The 3-in-1 featherweight is very light to carry and is the perfect size for cleaning stairs. It picks up very fine dust fabulously and light debris very well, too. It will also pick dust out of very low pile carpet or area rugs. I am always amazed at how much 'stuff' is in the vacuum & on the filter. I can't even see most of that before sweeping. BTW, the filter itself captures extremely well, even very fine dust - hence the reviewer comments about frequent & messy cleaning. Some reviewers complained about the frequency of cleaning, yes, it's true, but this means the vacuum and filter are working!!!
The two downsides I found were the short cord and cleaning the filter. It does lose suction when the filter/canister are near full but that's pretty much true of all vacuums. If there's no empty space there, there's no vacuum. :)
The short cord is annoying, meaning you can't clean larger rooms or navigate around large furniture items in some medium rooms without repositioning the plug. Attaching an extension cord permanently to the 3-in-1 solves this and saves time.
The filter cleaning process can be messy, and this is partly because of a design issue. You will need a small brush of some sort to do this without using your hands directly on it - I use the mini-broom I keep by the litter box. Also, the filter is half-oval shaped but the fitting under it is flat so the filter 'implodes' into itself and you have to pull the center part out to clean it. This is the design issue, the fitting under the filter needs an open grid of the same half-oval shape to keep the filter 'open'.
Customer Review: The coolest thing since sliced bread
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I read many of the other reviews before I bought this product. Now that I have it, I think I made a great decision. I live in an apartment with all laminated flooring/tiled floors (with a few small rugs), and this was exactly what I have been needing. I hate to sweep as so much of the dust gets away from you as you do it, and I hate to pull out the big heavy vacuum to essentially sweep the floor. Solution: this $20 wonder. It's very light, agile, and surprisingly powerful. I have one cat and this baby has no problem picking up kitty litter, food kibbles that get spilled on the floor, or the immense amount of cat hair that spreads throughout my apartment. It has no problem getting under things (as you can practically lay it flat while vacuuming), which is very convenient, and it takes no time at all to get it out and get the job done. Other reviewers complained about it being messy when you clean the filter, and it is, but if this is done over a trash can (and you don't have allergy problems, like me) it isn't much different than using any other bagless vacuum. People complained about dirt/dust collecting around outside of the filter, this is also true. Someone suggested having a wet paper towel to wipe the dust off after cleaning the filter, and this works well for me. The cord, as some people noticed, could be a little longer. Another reviewer said it scratched their floors, I have been looking closely and this has not happened to me (laminated flooring). It would be more convenient if they had something to hold the extra attachment physically on the vacuum instead of just being separate, but this is really minor. It doesn't stand up on its own, also, but my fiance fixed that problen by nailing a loop of string inside one of our closet doors, and then cutting a small groove on the back of the vacuum handle so that it could hang instead (which works beautifully). All in all, this vacuum has made my life much, much easier. The price was also amazing. I am a very satisfied customer.Customer Review: Great for the price
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall, I'm very happy with this; I clean more often, which is amazing, considering how much I hate cleaning. I highly recommend it, and so long as you're realistic about your expectations it will exceed them.
What you should expect is a dust buster with a detachable handle and floor nozzle. Be aware that because it's cheap it's made cheaply. It's small, which means a small cup, small floor nozzle, and relatively short cord. People have pointed out that it won't pick up dry dog food or big pieces of cookies or crackers, but I don't expect a dust buster to do that. I don't expect it to vacuum carpets (though it works on my braided kitchen mat). I don't expect it to be functional on large areas.
What I do expect is to be able to keep it tucked beside the fridge, pull it out, clean the floor, and put it back, all without a fuss. I expect it to pick up dust, cat hair, and crumbs. It does all of this perfectly, which means I actually clean the kitchen floor a few times a week. It's maneuverable because it's small and weighs 5 pounds, and it goes almost flat to vacuum beneath my baker's rack. In my view it's worth more than $25, and if it breaks after a year or two I'll happily buy another one.
The only reason this gets 4 stars is that it's bagless. I live in an apartment and can't pop outside to dump it in the trash can and brush the fine dust and cat hair off the filter (using my old dustpan brush, which I now have no other use for). This all means I have to use an empty or nearly empty bag and stick my arms all the way inside my little trash can. If they could make this little thing with a bag at $25 I'd give it 5 stars. However, all this is almost entirely outweighed by its extreme convenience.