Bissell Total Floors Velocity Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner (Model 3990) Review
Written by Karon on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 19:16
Bissel Total Floors Velocity Upright Vacuum
We live in a two-story house. The vacuum I’d been using was a Kirby that’s about 10 years old. It still works fine, but it’s heavy and bulky and does a rotten job on stairs. While it’s got a lot of power, it’s difficult to maneuver and has this weird shutter when used on carpet sometimes. The hoses are time-consuming and complicated to attach and aren’t contained on-board. Anyway, this isn’t a Kirby review… back to the Bissell.
I wanted another vacuum to use upstairs and on the stairs, so I shopped around for a while. I found the Bissell Total Floors Velocity vacuum cleaner and it looked like it had all the features I would need so I bought it.
Pros
Assembly was hassle-free. Only a couple of clips to snap into place and 3 screws and I was done. Less than 10 minutes. I turned it on and immediately wondered if it had any suction at all. It was very quiet! I pulled the hose out and held it to my hand. Yep! This thing definitely had suction.
Next, I noticed that it was practically self-propelled. It almost took off on its own and vacuumed the carpet when I turned it on due to the force of the brushes turning. I didn’t hardly have to push at all. It did most of the work.
I watched it carefully as I vacuumed my living room. It picked up all the little bits and pieces as well as the big stuff. We have 4 pets so I was particularly interested in how it would do on pet hair. Worked like a charm.
Next up, bare floors. There is a foot switch that controls whether the brushes rotate or not. It is a little hard to push, but my guess is it will loosen up as it is used more. The flip of one switch and a quick adjustment to the height (another foot pedal lets you easily click through 7 heights) and I was off to the kitchen.
Again, no problems. The front is sloped low enough to easily get underneath the cabinet doors and up against the baseboards. Sometimes vacuums will throw bits and pieces of dirt across hard floors… not this one. Everything got sucked right up into the cup. It’s bagless so you’ll never have to pay for bags.
Last, I tried the stair/upholstery tool that has a rotating brush. It attaches to the hose for use as a hand tool. I really questioned if this would do any good. The only thing causing the bristles to rotate is the suction power from the hose. I was very impressed! While it couldn’t get into the crevices, it did an excellent job on the tops and fronts of the stairs. I just popped the brush tool off and used the crevice tool to get into the folds of the stairs. Finished the entire flight of steps in about 10 minutes.
Cons
The Bissell Total Floors Velocity is a little heavier than I wanted it to be, but still lighter than my Kirby. Like most upright vacuums, it’s a trick to balance it on the stairs while vacuuming the steps. I found it’s best to put the vacuum in front of me and stand behind it, pressing my hip up against the handle so I can have both hands free to do the stairs.
It is also is a bit top-heavy and tends to fall forward when I’m using the hose attachments. No big deal… it doesn’t have to stand upright to do its job with the hose. But to some, it might be an annoyance.
The cord is plenty long enough to reach from room to room, but this also means wrapping it around the hooks takes a bit of time. I’ve always wished someone would find a way to include a pull and wrap cord feature on an upright. Seems you only get that with canister vacs.
Overall, it’s a great vacuum for its price range. Over the last few days I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to put the Kirby upstairs as the secondary vacuum and move the new Bissell downstairs where it will get more use.
Recommended? Yes
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