Bissell Easyvac Compact Cylinder

I’ve been meaning to buy a new vacuum cleaner for ages and after spending hours browsing around various internet sites reading reviews and comparing specs I decided to save up and buy a pretty expensive model. My current cleaner annoys me though so when I spotted the Bissell Easy Vac compact cleaner for just £25 in Asda I decided to buy it, after all if it was no use in the house then it would be handy for taking outside to clean the car. Bissell is a make I had not really heard of before but the box told me that it is America’s number one selling brand of cleaner. This model of vacuum cleaner is not widely available in the UK, the only place to buy it seems to be direct from the manufacturer for £49.99.

The Easy Vac Compact is a cylinder cleaner with the hose coming from the top of the machine and joining onto plastic extension poles to join the cleaning head. The extension poles measure a total of around 65cm when clipped together which means that someone of my height of 5 foot 6 has to stoop slightly when using the cleaner. Although the poles are plastic they seem to be solidly constructed from thick plastic so hopefully will not break with heavy use which is a problem I have experienced with plastic tubes before. The only other embellishments on this section are an air flow regulator which allows you to create less suction, those with long hair like mine need to be careful not to allow it to be sucked inside the tube when the hole is open and a crinkly extendible hose which is 143 cm long.

The Easy Vac Compact is a very simple vacuum cleaner to operate as it comes with so few extras. There are just two buttons, one to draw the cord inside the body of the machine and the other to switch the machine on although the placement of these two buttons almost side by side means it is very easy to push the wrong one. The cord is a respectable 4.57 metres long meaning I can move between my living room to the hall without unplugging the machine and I really like the fact the cord retracts at the push of a button which coupled with the fact that the nozzle on the cleaning head clips onto the back of the machine means that the whole machine is easy to put away and store.

The Easy Vac Compact performs well on carpets, the small wheels on the floor head means that it glides along easily and it has an impressive suction which happily picks up everything even dog and cat hairs. Flicking the switch between on the floor head to change to cleaning hard surfaces is a piece of cake and this has probably been the best vacuum cleaner I have used for lino and tiles as the head glides so easily along the surface and picks up all bits of dust and debris. The 25.7 cm cleaning path may not be the biggest but in a fairly small flat like mine then it is adequate. The machine is fairly quiet when I use it and hot air blows out of a vent at the back of the machine.

For cleaning surfaces other than floors you will need to supply your own cleaning tools, the only tool provided is a woefully inadequate combination crevice tool and dusting brush. The tool itself is a fairly nifty design as you just flick the tool to move between the interchangeable heads. The crevice tool is not the thinnest one I have ever seen but is still good for getting into corners but the brush on is only around an inch long and half an inch wide and looks more like a large toothbrush than a piece of cleaning kit. The tool cannot be stored on the body of the cleaner either which is a bit annoying.

The Easy Vac uses a four stage filtration system to remove and store dirt inside the machine. Emptying the dust cup is simple as you just remove it from the cleaner with a single touch of the button and then hold the cup over the bucket and release the bottom to empty it meaning it is a lot less messy than emptying a lot of other dust canisters. The problem is that the dust cup is seriously tiny, I don’t know what the capacity is but I need to empty the cup very frequently. The filters can be removed and shaken out and washed in mild detergent, luckily these are also very easy to remove. Replacement parts are available directly from Bissell and the prices seem pretty average for these parts.

Overall I am fairly impressed with my Easy Vac Compact, I live in a fairly small flat and it cleans my carpets efficiently which is the main reason I bought it. The main downside for me is the fact I need to empty the dust cup so often but since it is such an easy process it doesn’t bother me much, I also have tools from old vacuum cleaners I can use since the tool provided isn’t much good. I think I got a bargain for £25 but wouldn’t really want to spend the £50 to get it directly from the manufacturer. A good basic cylinder vacuum cleaner idea for use in a small home which does its job well.