BISSELL 3106A Featherweight Lightweight Vacuum
by Bissell
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of BISSELL 3106A Featherweight Lightweight Vacuum
Customer Review: A cheap quick fix
Summary: 3 Stars
I wanted a lightweight, compact vacuum to use every evening after dinner on the kitchen floor. Our regular vac was too bulky to pull out for quick jobs, and we didn't have a spot to charge a cordless. I settled on the Featherweight because it was small enough to hang from my mop rack and only cost $20.
This vac is ideal for picking up dust and pet hair on wood or tile floors. However, I've found that with larger, heavier items (such as spilled dog food), the vac often has to be lifted up over the item and placed right down on top of it in order to pick it up; if I just push the vacuum over dog food, it often just pushes the dog food in front of the vacuum head instead of sucking it up. Removing the vac head and using this as a hand vac works much better for picking up dog food and the like.
I've also found that items about the size of a marble (again, spilled dog food) get jammed right behind the plastic shield covering the intake opening of the vac. To remove them I need to jam a stick back there, loosen the item and then pry it out. This is a pain in the neck that I really don't need.
Finally, there's no way to clean the dust off the filter without using your bare hands; this vac really needed just a tiny brush that attached to the unit to make dusting off the filter easier and neater. As it is, after every use I need to pull clumps of dog fur off the filter with my bare fingers - yuck!
I think that once this breaks (as I'm sure it will - it's made of quite junky plastic and doesn't seem all that durable) I'll go out and spend a bit more money on a higher quality stick vac. However, for $20 this little cheapie picks up the messes and doesn't take up too much space.
Customer Review: great for a little vac
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been looking and looking for a good, lightweight, corded vacuum without a pleated filter (they are stupidly difficult to clean) and with some sucking power to use between weekly cleanings with the big canister vacuum. I tried the Dirt Devil Lite but it was clunky and noisy. The Bissell Versus Bare Floor vac was difficult to maneuver, heavier than expected, and the "V technology" was not sucking dust out of corners- horrible in medium to small spaces. So i tried this Bissell Featherweight and it works very well for furry dust bunnies, kitty litter, lawn debris and food bits. My floors start getting furry within minutes after I clean (thanks to my 2 kats) and I need an easy, lightweight vac for daily dust bunny wrangling. This little vacuum does the trick.
The cons:
The cord is very short even for a small house.
You must click open the dust cup over a waste basket to empty.
Light weight dust particles and fur collect on the filter, not in the dust cup so you need to use your hands to clean it after each use. The good news it you can rinse the filter gently with water when necessary.
The exhaust in the back seems to kick up some dust and fur but not to the point where it escapes the vacuum.
Not for serious rug cleaning or heavy duty house cleaning
Pros
Lightweight
Very easy to use
Great on bare floors
Gets under furniture easily (better than my regular vacuum)
Sucking power is very good (not sure why some reviews suggest otherwise unless they got a lemon)
Very affordable
Easy to store since it is small
The key is to use it as intended, for between cleanings, lightweight work - not heavy duty.
Customer Review: Good little vacuum
Summary: 3 Stars
I like it. I have an 1800sqft house with stained concrete floors in everything but the bedrooms. I also have a very hairy critter that some people refer to a dog living in my house with me. The other critter is commonly referred to as my husband. Both of my animals bring in lots of dirt and one sheds lots of hair. We live in the country and have horses so that compounds my problem. In my foyer, I have an etched design in the concrete that is really hard to clean because all of the fine sand from outside gets trapped in the rough concrete and is really hard to get out with a broom/vacuum. So, I bought this little guy thinking that it might do the trick and it did. I put it to work on the floors, brick around the fireplace, etched design and generally anything that looks dirty. I love it and it works really well. The only crappy things about it are that 1) It does not clean carpet worth a damn. I have a very flat run under my dining room table and it does not work on that. 2) I usually have to empty the little cup on it three times just to do the living room/dining room/kitchen/hallway. I vacuum the floor weekly...maybe my house is just really dirty? I don't think it is THAT dirty, I just think the cup is too small. 3) The cord falls out of the wall with very little pressure. 4)It will not pick up pebbles/dime-sized bits of leaves/small clods of mud. Other than that, I love it! The suction is very powerful for fine dirt/fireplace ashes/dog hair/bits of food/teaspoon of flour I dropped in the kitchen. If you have a situation like mine, it CERTAINLY gets things cleaner than a broom and dust pan.Customer Review: Still a great vac if not for two issues
Summary: 3 Stars
I was excited to purchase a new stick vac after lots of research and I bought this stick vac for three reasons: (1) I have two toddlers who drop crumbs and food and such in our kitchen every hour of every day in every corner, (2) the price was awfully right and (3) I have rarely seen a 5-star item on this site. The reviews for this Bissell are right on the money -- it is perfect for bare floors, has impressive suction and is lightweight for the quick everyday clean-up. Goodbye broom. Rest easy big and heavy upright. Unfortunately, two issues arose. It is still a hand vac in that the clean-up of the cup (or nose cone) is still a bit messy. When you first open it, the filter is right there -- with the lint, hair etc. dangling from it and some pieces static-clinging to the unit. (My current hand vac has the filter tucked inside so that when you first open it, this doesn't happen.) This vac must be opened over or in a wide mouth garbage can, and I can see trying to hold on to the handle, motor-and-filter with one hand and the nose cone with the other and trying to get all the dirt in the garbage being a bit cumbersome in the long run as the filter gets dirtier. The second issue was storage. I thought that the base would at least bend to 90-degrees. It does not and therefore needs to be propped up in the corner (hard to do on bare floors because it will slide) or hung on the wall with a device to grab the handle. I can understand why this item got 5 stars, but I will be returning mine to LNT ($15) for a new generation stick vac that stands up and has a less messy removable cup.Customer Review: update: this vacuum is worthless - wish I could change rating to 1 star
Summary: 4 Stars
Amazon won't let me submit another review on this item, nor will they let me change the number of stars I gave it. I initially thought the vacuum would be ok but now feel that it is a complete waste of money. The suction is terrible -- it wouldn't even pick up cat litter off my hardwood floors. It just pushed the litter around and left scratches on the floor. I returned it to Amazon and bought a Eureka 166DX Boss Lightweight Stick Vacuum. The Eureka is a million times better. The suction is great, it converts to a handvac just like the Bissell does, and the handle collapses so it takes up less storage space. The Eureka's cord is a bit short, just like the Bissell's, but that is easily remedied with an extension cord. The Eureka is a few dollars more, but well worth it.
My original review:
I bought this vacuum mainly to clean up the hardwood floor around my cat's litter box. It has an acceptable amount of suction and does a pretty good job on litter, pet hair, etc. on wood, tile, and other hard floors. The fact that it can be converted into a handheld dustbuster-type vac makes it much more useful than a regular stick vacuum.
As other reviewers have said, it is not a substitute for a regular vacuum and is not effective on carpet. It is a little loud and the cord is definitely too short. But it is convenient, lightweight, and very reasonably priced.
There are probably better stick vacuums out there but this one is fine for my purposes. I would recommend it for quick, light cleaning jobs.