Evaluating the Bissell Powerforce Turbo Bagless Vacuum

My old vacuum, a Eureka Altima, died today. The motor's drive shaft shelled out. I briefly considered fixing the old vacuum, but understanding that doing so would be a costly and/or time consuming endeavor, I opted to buy a new floor cleaner instead.

I'm a gadget geek and a neat freak. I hate to admit it, but there was a little piece of me that was pleased at the prospect of buying a new vacuum cleaner. Weird, huh? With that said, I may be a neat freak gadget geek, but I don't need to have the best of everything. I need something that's the biggest bang for the buck at the time of purchase. This time was no different.

If you're reading this post, you fall into one of two categories... my small circle of regular readers, or someone who's stumbled across this post because you're in the market for a new vacuum. For the sake of the latter group, I'll refrain from discussing how I decided on this vacuum and get straight to the review.

This vacuum wasn't the cheapest model at Wal-Mart, but it was well under $100. My last vacuum, the aforementioned Eureka Altima, ran around $80 at the time of purchase if memory serves me correctly. That vacuum lasted somewhere between five and ten years, and I believe that I got my money's worth out of it. The biggest gripe I had about that one is that the little vacuum attachment for cleaning stairs didn't work very well at all. It was also heavier than the new vacuum. But I'm digressing... let's get on with the review of the new Bissell Powerforce Turbo.

The price was right. I paid about $65. Putting it together was a breeze... two screws to attach the handle to the body, and I was ready to roll. The power cord is longer than the one on my old vacuum too. This, however, is a mixed blessing. It's nice to not have to change outlets so often, but the long cord kind of gets in the way when I'm cleaning a small room. I'm sure I'll get used to that though.

I also like the weight, as compared to the old vacuum. Another nice feature is the double-sided edge cleaning. Edge cleaning as a general rule works okay, but I still find that I need to occasionally pull out the crevice attachment to get the dusty areas next to the baseboard. (I've got white carpet, so it's kind of apparent when the edges of the carpet are dusty. I REALLY like the attachments on the Bissell. The hose attachment is very flexible and stretchy, and has a built-in extension with a handle. With the second extension and crevice attachment, there was virtually no loss of suction, and I was able to clean those corners while standing up. Way to go, Bissell!

I'm also pleased with the turbo attachment, which is Bissell's beater brush attachment that goes on the extension hose. You may recall that I was disappointed with the performance of the Eureka Altima's version of this attachment. Well, Bissell got something right here, when they made the turbo attachment in such a way that you can take it apart for cleaning and maintenance. That was an awesome idea!

I've got two short-haired black dogs. The resulting pet hair on my carpet is extremely noticeable. The Bissell Powerforce Turbo cleaned the pet hair beyond my expectations. It also captured a LOT of dirt and dust that appears to have accumulated as a result of the slow decline in my old vacuum's performance. Somehow, I expected the dust, yet was pleasantly surprised by how well it captured the pet hair.

After vacuuming my house twice, I've only discovered two downsides to this machine. The dirt receptacle is small, and needs to be emptied often. It looks bigger than most, but with the big vacuum hole in the middle, the container's functional volume is nowhere as large as it appears.

The other problem was static electricity. During the first five minutes of vacuuming, I kept getting zapped by static discharge. I did a little research and found this to be a relatively common problem with vacuums in general, and found a workaround. I figured that I'd try the workaround if the static shocks continued to be a problem, but by the time I finished cleaning he house, the static problem appears to have fixed itself. Maybe the vacuum needed that micro-coat of dust on the insides in order to shield itself from static... I don't know... all I know is that the vacuum has stopped zapping me.

Overall, I'm pleased with how things are working so far. But then again, it's the first day that I've owned the machine, so I can't say how pleased I'll be in the long run.

On an unrelated note, I've got to mention something I noticed when I was actually shopping for the vacuum. It's six days before Thanksgiving today. The Christmas decorations are out at the stores, and the Salvation Army bell ringers are out. I still wish that they'd wait until after Thanksgiving is over to start peddling Christmas stuff, but I know I'll never get my way on this. But what I thought was REALLY funny, was that all of the display model vacuum cleaners had little Christmas ribbons on them... as if they'd be a good gift for the wife. It was obviously a man who came up with that stupid, yet funny, idea. Guys, take it from me... buying your wife a vacuum cleaner for Christmas is NOT going to get you laid.