Bissell PROlite Multi-Cyclonic Upright Vacuum, Bagless, 17G5
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at
3:51 pm
Bissell PROlite Multi-Cyclonic Upright Vacuum, Bagless, 17G5
|
 List Price: $199.99 Sale Price: $133.54 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible For Free Shipping 
|
Product Description
New ProLite
Details
- Bagless, multi-cyclonic, upright vacuum cleaner with powerful 12 amp motor
- Automatic height adjustment; stretch hose and attachments for above-floor cleaning
- Includes TurboBrush, crevice tool, extension wand, dusting brush, bendable wand, and deluxe floor tool
- Easy-empty dirt container; washable pre-motor filter; HEPA media post-motor filter
- Measures 13 by 14-1/2 by 45 inches; 5-year limited warranty
Filed under: Bissell
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Rating
This vacuum is great! It is lightweight, and easy to use. It picks up more dirt than any vacuum I have ever used. I can now easily clean underneith my couch without having to get on my hands and knees. My mom borrowed it once and loved it too, especially the automatic height adjustment so she doesn’t have to change it when she goes from her hard floors to her carpet or area rugs. Bissell has created another great vacuum!
Rating
I was offered this Bissell through the Vine program. This is my review and comparison of this Pro-Lite vs the Bissell Healthy Home.
The Pro Lite:
-Offers the same power as the Healthy Home in a more compact and lightweight frame.
-Auto height adjustment really makes the Pro-Lite feel as if it is gripping the
-carpet better.
-Bending wand allows you to get under furniture without getting down on your knees.
-Offers a brush roller power button, same as the Healthy Home.
-Offers a variety of attachments and a bag to store them in. Since the vacuum is intended to be a lightweight, non-primary vacuum I don’t find having them in a bag all to troublesome. I keep the bag hung up on the back of a door on a coat hook.
-Shorter power cord than the Healthy Home, and it is noticable. The Healthy Home can get my whole lower floor done using an outlet in the dividing wall. The Pro-lite can’t quite do it.
-Roughly 25% less in cost than the Healthy Home.
-Same easy to clean dirt cup, which is located at the back of the vacuum for you to see the level better. I can’t say what a blessing the new model dirt cup has been! I have filled the dirt cup to the tip top with no noticable loss of power.
-If you care about cosmetics (lol) the Pro Lite is a sharp little vacuum and the power buttons light up.
- An annoyance found would be the hose detachment site..when you go to grab your handy dandy vacuum wand from its port the whole entire bottom comes up with it which makes you have to bend over and fight with it to put it back in place.
If you are looking for a nice Bissell and can’t afford the Healthy Home, then you should consider this vacuum. If you are looking for a high end sidekick then this fits the bill nicely. If you are looking for a primary vacuum and money is not an issue then you probably want the Healthy Home vacuum.
One small warning: The Turbo Wand is really strong and best used for carpets or sturdy materials. I would not use it at all on delicate, woven or embroidered fabrics or curtains or it will rip threads for sure. I can’t use it on my woven couch since it just pulls too much.
Overall I find this vacuum to be very sturdy, powerful and attractive. It grips my carpets and cleans them in one sweep. Wood floors are done with the push of the brush power button.
Rating
I read the review by someone stating that this model didn’t have as good of suction as their Dyson…I don’t doubt that is true for them, but wonder if maybe there was a fault in their Bissell vacuum? I have the best Dyson made, but the suction on this was still better. Here’s the first-hand comparison of what was better for the Bissell and for the Dyson.
My comparison is with Dyson’s “animal”. The animal is Dyson’s most expensive model because it is made for households with multiple animals. I have five (pets, not Dysons. All indoors because we have coyotes, unfortunately, behind our home.) but I’m also a clean fanatic so I’m like the “tester ideal.”
I will start by saying I selected the Bissell to use on my upstairs floors so I wouldn’t have to drag my heavy Dyson out of the garage where it’s stored and then up and down the stairs…and because there is less dirt and fur and rugs up there and I figured the Bissell wouldn’t clean quite as well. But, because of how well this Bissell cleaned, it now resides downstairs with the heavier dirt. My formerly beloved Dyson has been moved upstairs.
WEIGHT: the Bissell weighs in at just 17 lbs ( weights on Amazon product page are messed up because it actually lists the shipping weight as less than the weight of the vacuum!) The Dyson is far heavier so Bissell won hands down. But this is why they call it the Prolite, afterall.
Note; the following test was done by first looking at its fur suction then, this morning, spreading a half cup flour on tile floor to test on a 3 foot patch on the left side of the floor for dyson and a half cup on the right side for Bissell, then on small looped pile mixed with shag as well, In order to be totally scientific since I measured the flour I put down, I then remeasured in each canister how much was sucked up.
SUCTION: My Dyson is far over twice the price of this vacuum; about three times the cost…so if you’d have told me anything sucked up dirt better I would have called ya a liar. Seriously, I LOVE my Dyson. I am, however, sorry to say that this Bissell sucked up dirt and fur so well that it sucked up dirt far in FRONT of the vaccum cleaner rather than just beneath it. Fur and flour was pulled from about 12″ in front of the Bissell! The Dyson has a good reach but not as strong. However, the Dyson’s extension wand had more suction. Bissell won for sucking up the most dirt aka flour. Dang impressive. More importantly, when I vacuumed up the flour on the side of the floor that I measured it out for the Dyson, it made the flour fly into a dust on my two bar stools. The Bissell did not cause flying flour.
COST: Bissell is WAAAAAAY cheaper than my Dyson “animal”
EXTENSION WAND: I hate the Bissell’s extension wand in comparison. When you remove it from the machine, your hand on the handle is right at the end of the extension wand (the suction opening) so you have to bend ALL The way down the floor to suck up something. If you don’t feel like doing this, you can stop and unattach another piece, clip it onto the wand, suck up something, unattach it, put it back….whereas with the Dyson you simply pull out the extender in one piece and it reaches anything. Dyson won hands down.
EXTRA PIECES: Suprisingly, the Bissell had a similar set of tools as the Dyson animal, (surprising to me because part of the extra cost of my model of the Dyson was some of these pieces) even the mini vacuum head attachment made for getting fur off of furniture and perfectly cleaning cars. The Dyson had a bigger mini vaccuum attachment but the Bissell’s appeared to work just as well. BUT there is no place on the Bissell to house the attachments. My Dyson holds all but the minivac head. If I’m in one room and discover I need the lint brush attachment, I don’t want to have to walk to another, find the bag of attachments, get it out, use it, walk it back…Because the Dyson, and many other vacuums, now have notches and places on the vacuum to house most if not all the attachments for utmost convenience, the Dyson wins.
BUILD: It’s a tie…because, while the Dyson is built stronger with no lightweight plastic parts in order to last, the Bissell’s goal is to be lightweight so it purposefully has lighter parts. So that’s a toss up. If you want one vacuum and you have to carry it up and down the stairs, you may want the Bissell.
GETTING UNDER THINGS: The Bissell is far easier to reach under things that my Dyson makes difficult. The head on the Bissell is long and very skinny, so it fits easier under my couch, dishwasher, etc. It also just bends easier to go all the way under my dining room table’s bench, for example. It just does…because it’s whole body is thinner whereas Dyson has a bigger base and bigger canister.
FUTURE COSTS and “GREEN” factor: You can wash out the Dyson’s filter and never have to pay for another piece after the initial purchase. You will have to dispose of the Bissell’s and buy replacements, upping the future costs. Neither require bags, however.
ADDITIONAL: The Bissell is ESPECIALLY better on hard floors. The reason I say this is that the Dyson seems to have excellent suction but on my hardwood floors and stained concrete, if I have the brush on, it will actually kick back some of the dirt so that it flies from beneath the vacuum onto my legs. I feel this happening. However, the Dyson I chose was designed to be used on both carpet and hard floors and the Bissell cleaned better on both. And if I use the Dyson without the brush moving to prevent kickback, it doesn’t suck as well. The Bissell never kicked back dirt even with the brush on. Bissell won here.
CONCLUSION: Bissell cleaned better than the best Dyson made but I hate the inconvenience of its wand and attachments. However, I can live with inconvenience for spotless floors. I no longer use the Dyson on my downstairs floors. And I never thought I would say that as I was a raving fan of Dyson prior to now.
Also, If you are comparing this to the Oreck which is another lightweight vacuum so it stands to reason you might be, I can personally say from experience that the Oreck was one of the worst cleaning vacuums I’ve every owned…sorry Oreck!
Rating
If you have been looking for a powerful vacuum cleaner that wont take up too much space, and isn’t too heavy to carry around this is the vacuum for you. The Bissell 17G5 PROlite is small and lightweight and with the excellent build quality it won’t stop working months after you bought it. It is the perfect vacuum for any house, but especially those with apartments or who don’t have a lot of storage space but still want a good vacuum.
This bag-less vacuum packs a huge punch with 12 amps of power and features Bissell’s new multi-cyclonic system that sucks up everything it touches. Just try it if you don’t believe me but this vacuum is powerful enough to clean pet hair, sticky gummy bears – you name it – straight off your floors! Bottom line, I think this is an excellent vacuum and it will make my cleaning up a lot easier.
Rating
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R11KDPD67R7IQH I put together a video review of the Bissell Prolite. Here’s what you’ll see in the video…
1. A review of how easy it is to put the thing together.
2. Basic features.
3. Included attachments and the use of the hand-wand.
4. A demo of the cleaner in-action.
5. How to clean the chamber with 2 clicks.
It really is a great cleaner, because it’s quiet, powerful, has a variety of attachments and cleaning options, and more importantly it is SUPER easy to clean.
I hope you enjoy your new Bissell Prolite!
Rating
I’m a guy, and not generally one to enthuse about stuff like this, but I am so enamored by this Bissel PROlite multi-cyclonic vacuum that I have to point out its excellent features. It’s not the vacuum per se that’s extraordinary, though it is very fine, with plenty of suction and ample room for dust and dirt. Rather, it’s the construction and design. Lately most vacuums out there feel flimsy, as though they won’t be around in three years of use. And so often the design is poor–the machine quickly clogs, as Mr. Dyson points out in his TV spots with his machine, and when you have to empty the canister it’s a dirty job, and much dust and grime sticks in the nooks and crannies of the innards, leading to eventual loss of efficiency. These nooks have to cleaned to unblock them, and it’s unpleasant and messy. Not with this baby. Like the Dyson, it’s cyclonic, and it’s true: the thing doesn’t clog and lose suction. Or at least, it would take a heck of a lot to clog it (maybe if you sucked up your cat). Emptying it is a breeze: remove the canister with the click of one button, hold over trash, press another button and the bottom opens like a trap door–out goes your gunk. The cyclonic fixture inside the canister, should it become enmeshed in hair et cetera, is easily removed (it unscrews) and shaken out, then reattached. The whole canister then just clicks back into place. Your contact with dirt and dust is minimal. The power cord wraps up high on the unit, so there’s no squatting down when unwrapping and rewrapping. The power buttons are placed high and are almost feather-touch; a few reviewers said their power buttons got “stuck” and would no longer work, either in the on or off state. Since that piece is assembled by the user, and is the only part that requires assembly, I think they just had to press the two sections together more firmly to make sure the power supply makes contact with the motor. We pressed ours very tightly (make sure you hear it *click* into place) and have had no problem after about three months of frequent usage. Tools do not store on the unit and come in a separate tote bag. You may or may not like this. Not toting tools around means the unit is slimmer and lighter, which allows it to corner better (it corners fine in our tight home without the Dyson’s fancy round ball). Some have said the attachment hose is flimsy. It may be and that’s one criticism I might have with it (though we don’t use attachments too much); the other minus is that the unit has no floor light, and I think it really should. Aside from those two negatives, this is a great unit–strong, stylish and well-designed. It’s hard to believe in a world of flimsy vacuums this very sleek, strong and, it seems, durable model isn’t better-known, or more Bissels aren’t designed with these characteristics. If you just have a typical house and are not looking for an industrial-strength, industrial-suction device, this 12-amp machine, as light and skinny as a supermodel, should do a more than satisfactory job. As vacuums go, it’s fairly quiet, too. At one-third the price of a Dyson, it leaves more expensive machines–dare I say it?–in the dust.
Rating
Okay, I admit it. I’m a complete Dyson fanatic. I don’t really think that any vacuum can be nearly as good as my Dyson (the second one I have, and only because I got it on sale and sold the first Dyson for what I paid for it.)
So why would I like a Bissell? Well, because I had a brand new Bissell right before I got my Dyson, and I loved it!
This ProLite model is even better than the original Bissell I had, and that’s saying something.
It picks up like a champ on carpets, and the attachments are easy to use, in fact, even easier than the Dyson. A quick clip and swing, and the attachments are on. (If you ever had a Dyson, you’d understand that while the attachments work great, actually putting them on the vacuum is akin to an aerobic exercise workout.)
The other important thing is how much lighter this Bissell is than my Dyson. It’s about a million percent easier to push, which is a nice thing when you feel like vacuuming is giving you carpal tunnel syndrome.
So how about the pick up? Well, in my opinion, the Dyson is still better. I have a huge, hairy dog, and from what I can see, the Dyson does a better job of sucking the hair out of the carpet.
But how much better? Not more than THREE times better, which is roughly how much a Dyson cost next to the Bissell ProLite.
So if you aren’t housing Noah’s Ark in terms of pet hair, this Bissell is an excellent choice. You’ll also save some money as well, and maybe your wrists.
I’m still a huge Dyson fan, but I have to admit, for the less-hair dog household, the Bissell wins, in handling, pick up, maneuverability, and most importantly these days – cost!
Rating
I ordered this vacuum cleaner mainly because of the lighter weight. I also trusted the Bissell name, as I have had good experiences with Bissell products. So far it has the best suction, easy to clean out dust collector, and a snap to carry up and down my stairs. I’m pleased.
Rating
This will be a short review because we are waiting for a response from Bissell on the problem described below. The vacuum was easy to put together and all went well until we tried to use it on our oriental rugs (machine made). The suction is so great that the vacuum sticks to the rug like a suction cup and requires a lot of force to break it free. If you look carefully at the video review, the reviewer has the same problem initially (it actually moves the rug until he breaks it free).
We were very surprised that nobody else mentioned this problem on any of the reviews because of the four oriental rugs that we have the vacuum sticks to three of them and the suction is so great that we have to tilt the unit to one side, raise the handle to upright or push very hard to break the suction. As soon as we start to vacuum again the suction grabs the carpet and won’t let go. This is the one time that we wish the unit did not have automatic height adjustment.
We called Bissell customer service and it is obvious that they are aware of the issue because they are sending us a “bottom plate” to attach to the bottom of the vacuum to “solve this problem.” We are hoping that the bottom plate fixes the problem because we like the other features of the vacuum. We’ll return to this review when we receive something from Bissell. If the problem is solved the rating will improve if not the vacuum will go back.
Update 4-29-10
Bissell shipped a replacement “Sole Plate Assembly” for the 17G5 (part # 2032099) and the replacement solved the problem. They beveled out four areas, each about one inch long and one eighth of an inch deep into the trailing edge of the sole plate assembly. The result – no more sticking to our oriental rugs. If you have a problem with the vacuum sticking call Bissell customer service to get the sole plate assembly.
We have now upgraded the review from a three star to a five star. The only issues that we still have with the vacuum are minor and are pretty much mentioned in several of the other reviews (tool storage and tool connection only fair). Overall we really like this vacuum.
Rating
When I started looking at vacuums my sister had convinced me I should get a Dyson, but I was having a hard time stomaching the price tag…could a vacuum be that worth $400? Well I decided to find one that compared well against the Dyson and I started reading the reviews on the PROlite. There were a few reviews that compared them and this Bissell PROlite won.
Although I have never tried a Dyson, I am super happy I bought this PROlite. After vacuuming once, empty the container 3 times(apparently my carpet was dirtier than it looked), my carpet feels like it was professionally cleaned. I couldn’t believe how much dirt it picked up. I have a single story house, but I have a step down carpeted area in my living room so I was able to use some of the attachments for stairs and they work great.
I thought I would wish for a wider brush base to suck, but really it is great because it can go in between places like table legs, chair legs a whole lot easier that a bigger vacuum base.
I was debating buying the Healthy Home Vacuum, but with the PROlite I really liked how you could take the wand and attach to one of the brushes and get under furniture.
Pros:
Inexpensive for the excellent quality
Bagless (i never knew exactly how much my other vacuum picked up, but seeing it in the container tells me)
Automatically adjusts between rugs, bare floors, and carpet. (awesome!)
light weight (You won’t go into labor/have contractions if you are pregnant by pushing this vacuum)
plenty of attachments
easy to maneuver
very easy to empty the dirty container
washable filter
nice looking vacuum
not super noisy
cons:
can’t do bathroom rugs…suction is too great, but it can do kitchen rugs and large area rugs just fine. Height adjusts just like it would on carpet. I suppose you can’t have it all.
READ OTHER REVIEWS that compare to DYSON. They will help you decide if you are debating between a Dyson and Bissell. Really glad I read the reviews because now I know you can buy a good vacuum that doesn’t cost $400.