BISSELL Lift-Off MultiCyclonic Pet Upright Vacuum with Detachable Canister, Bagless, 89Q9

Extremely Effective in Picking Up Pet Hair and Dust
Must-have features:
- Suction power. Great suction power.
- Lift-off feature. For use on stairs.
- Bagless.
- Dedicated on-off switch for brush. To vacuum wood floor without brush.
- Brush automatically turns off when unit is at upright position. Save brush and carpet wear-and-tear when using attachments.
- Furniture protection rubber guard.

Nice-to-have features, but not absolutely needed:
- Pet brush. "Pet" model means unit come with a Turbo Pet Brush attachment. Pet brush has rubber claws, which grab hair as you rake the surface of carpet or sofa. It is somewhat useful, but not to die for. Buy the Lift-Off models only if you want the must-have features. You can buy the Turbo Pet Brush attachment separately for $29.

Useless features (just marketing):
- Head light.

I was interested in buying the Bissell Lift-Off, but there is lack of info on the web to compare the 2 Bissell Lift-off models:...

So What Do I Really think?
Our old Dirt Devil upright started giving off some burning smells (not the brush belt) a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to start looking around for a replacement. We have a two story house, so something to effectively vacuum the stairs without purchasing two units would be nice. Oh, and under $200 please. Dyson's are cute, but $500 is over the top for such a basic device. That led us eventually to Bissell's two lift-off canister units, the Revolution and this one, the MultiCyclonic design.

Initially, I couldn't tell the difference between the two models. Then, another reviewer pointed out the two "wings" on the side of the dirt container on the Revolution model that one customer accidentally threw its two inserts out with the dirt, only to render his vacuum useless the next time he tried to use it. That narrowed it down to the MultiCyclonic for us. The Revolution also has an additional foam filter to be cleaned in its top section, which the MultiCyclonic doesn't...

Great Vacuum
I bought this vacuum after my old Bissell died. So far I have been pretty impressed with it. The canister lift off feature is great for cleaning stairs or vacuuming your car. I was a little skeptical about the pet hair turbo attachment but it actually worked very well. I have two long haired cats (Maine Coons, so there's a lot of fur!) and the turbo brush attachment got up pet fur from places I had just vacuumed with my previous machine! It is a bagless canister, and if you've ever had a vacuum like that you know it can get messy. It doesn't seem any worse than any other bagless I've had though. As long as you empty them out before getting too full its not a big deal.

Another feature that I really like is that you can turn the brushes off with a separate switch; there is a power switch and a brush switch. It is nice to be able to turn off brushes if you are trying to pick up debris on a bare floor (cat litter) and if you are using the wand attachments.

I gave the...

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