Bissell CleanView Pet Slim Cordless Stick Vacuum review

One-minute review

Bissell is a brand that’s most commonly associated with carpet cleaners, but the floorcare stalwart has been producing vacuum cleaners for almost 150 years, while it’s only been making machines that can shampoo carpets for 65 years.

As well as offering traditional corded vacuums, the brand also has a range of cordless vacuums cleaners that make collecting dust and debris from carpets and hard floors a breeze. 

The Bissell CleanView Pet Slim is a cordless stick vacuum that doubles as a handheld cleaner, by simply removing the wand and cleaning head from the main unit. It offers two levels of suction, along with a 0.1-gallon / 0.5-liter dust canister, which is relatively easy to empty. The cordless cleaner ships with a crevice tool and dusting brush alongside the main cleaning head. 

The cleaner head features LED lights, making it easy to clean in dark corners or beneath furniture. In addition, a handy anti-tangle feature stops human and pet hair from becoming wrapped around the brush roller.

The Bissell CleanView Pet Slim is powered by a rechargeable battery built into the cordless vacuum cleaner, which will last up to 30 minutes between charges, although this is on the lowest power setting.

This is one of the most affordable cordless vacuum cleaners we’ve tested, and while its suction power can’t match that of rivals such as the Dyson V15 Detect and the Miele Triflex HX1, considering its price, we think it’s worth considering.

Bissell CleanView Pet Slim Cordless Stick Vacuum price and availability price and availability

• List price: $229.99 / £199.99

The Bissell CleanView Pet Slim Cordless Stick Vacuum, which is known as the Bissell MultiReach Active 21V in the UK, will set you back $229.99 / £199.99 and is available from Bissel as well as major electrical retailers. In the US, the cordless vacuum comes with a pet hair tool, as well as a crevice tool and dusting brush. 

Design

• 0.1-gallon / 0.5-liter dust canister
• Comes with one floor head and two tools 
• Converts into a handheld cleaner

The Bissell CleanView Pet Slim Cordless Stick Vacuum is one of the bulkier cordless vacuum cleaners we’ve tested, measuring 10.6 x 9.44 x 47 inches / 27 x 24 x 119.4cm (w x d x h) and weighing in at 8lb / 3.63kg. The main unit features a power button, plus a second one that controls the suction power on the handle. Plus, there are three LEDS that indicate the battery level. 

The Bissell’s design is what we’ve come to expect from such stick cleaners that can be converted into handheld cleaners. The motor, filter and 0.1-gallon / 0.5-liter dust canister make up the main unit at the top of the appliance. This is attached to a wand that has a floor cleaning head at the bottom. As already mentioned, the floor cleaning features eight LEDs at the front to make it easier to see the dark corners you’re cleaning. 

Detaching the wand and floor cleaning head turns the CleanView Pet into a handheld cleaner, to which you can connect either the crevice tool or dusting brush. In the US, you can also attach the pet hair tool that’s included. 

Similar to the majority of cordless vacuums, the floor cleaner isn’t freestanding. As such, to ensure it remains stable while being charged, Bissell includes a wall mount in the box. 

Performance

• Good suction
• Cumbersome to use in handheld mode
• Heavy in use

On test, the Bissell CleanView Pet Slim Cordless Stick Vacuum made light work of collecting fine dust, cereal and cookie crumbs from carpets. It sucked up every scrap of the debris we scattered in just one sweep, on both suction levels. We found the vacuum gilded easily, on both hard floors and carpet, although we did notice its weight while pushing it around. 

On hard floors, the CleanView Pet Slim was just as competent at collecting dust. However, the weight of the vacuum cleaner meant that some nuggets of cereal were crushed by the cleaner’s wheels as we maneuvered it around the floor, meaning we were creating more mess than we were collecting. 

We also found the vacuum cleaner cumbersome to use in handheld mode, as a result of its weight. It made our arms ache and we struggled to clean up high with it for more than 30 seconds at a time. 

The Bissell CleanView Pet Slim Cordless Stick Vacuum is relatively easy to empty – the canister can be removed from the main unit using a button on the front, and the filter pulled out. However, we were disappointed that there's no mechanism to automatically eject the debris into the trash. Instead, we had to empty the dust canister manually. 

The vacuum is one of the quietest we’ve tested; it registered a maximum of 72dB on hard floors, and a pleasingly 63dB on carpet, on the most powerful setting. This is the equivalent to the levels a TV might reach when watched on normal volume, with no background noise, which we think is a more than acceptable level. 

Battery life

• Ranges from 16 to 30 minutes, depending on the power setting 
• Battery takes up to five hours to fully recharge
• The battery isn’t swappable battery

Bissell claims the battery lasts up to 30 minutes between charges on the lowest power setting. However, when we used the cleaner on the most powerful setting, we only managed 16 minutes vacuuming before the battery required recharging.

We were disappointed, too, that the battery is built-in; models such as the Dyson V15 Detect come with swappable batteries. This means that when the Bissell battery runs out of steam, you’ll have to interrupt your cleaning session to recharge the vacuum before you can continue cleaning.

Should I buy the Bissell CleanView Pet Slim Cordless Stick Vacuum?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed: August 2021

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