TechRadar Verdict
The Bissell Crosswave isn't the cheapest or the most expensive vacuum cleaner on the market, but it's affordable considering it will be able to clean up your carpets and floors by vacuuming and washing as well. It's not for everyone – but it may be perfect for you.
Pros
- +
Can clean carpets and floors
- +
Cheaper considering competition
- +
Easy to carry
Cons
- -
Tethered to the wall
- -
Limited design
- -
Removing bin isn't always clean
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Investing in both a new vacuum cleaner and a wash for both your hardwood floors and carpets can be expensive, plus it takes up lots of cupboard space in your home – so that’s why Bissell has created this all-in-one product.
The aim of the Crosswave is to offer a product you can use as a corded vacuum cleaner when you need it, but it’ll also be capable of washing both your carpets and floor using a liquid that’s included in the box.
It’s a novel concept and one that a lot of cordless vacuum cleaners don’t currently offer on the market. If you're looking for something that cleans as well as vacuums, is this up to scratch? Let's find out.
Bissel Crosswave price and release date
The latest version of Bissell Crosswave was released in May 2018, so the price is around what it was at launch.
It costs $249.99 in the US and £249.99 in the UK as well. That’s about AU$350 in Australia, but we’ve yet to hear if the cleaner will officially be made available there.
Design
It’s weird to think of vacuum cleaners as attractive pieces of tech design, but considering people now hang them on their walls, proudly displaying them to all guests, it’s clear people care about how they look.
We don’t love the design of the Bissell Crosswave, but it's functional. It's easy to carry around if you have a large home, and the main body of the cleaner is quite thin so it won't take up too much cupboard space.
It’s a relatively tall device that consists of a large handle at the top to ensure you’ve got a good grip when you’re cleaning. That’s then attached to a metal pole that connects to the rest of the cleaner.
The main wand between the cleaner's body and the handle at the top can sometimes feel a touch flimsy, but it didn't cause any issues in the time we were using it.
It's also one of the ways Bissell has made this cleaner portable and light enough for you to easily move around your home.
At the bottom of that main pole is the bin where everything you’ll be collecting from your home’s floor is going to end up. It’s easy to disconnect this for emptying at the end of a clean with an easy to press down button, and then all you need to do is pull.
We often found some of the remnants of our clean dropping onto the floor when trying to remove it though – it’s not the slickest system that we’ve seen on a vacuum cleaner. We found it a little frustrating when you’ve finished a big clean and you then need to grab a dustpan for the remnants.
On the top of this bin is also where you insert the extra plastic container with hot water and cleaning fluid to use the floor washing feature.
At the bottom of the cleaner is the multi-surface cleaner that looks similar to a lot of other bottoms of vacuums. This is going to be picking up everything from the floor, and consists of a replaceable piece of fabric and lots of brushes to clean up.
You can then remove the plastic lid from the bottom part of the cleaner so you can access the brush to replace it, clean it or just get out things that have been stuck in it while it’s cleaning.
There’s also a swivel bit at the bottom of the cleaner which allows you to put the handle down flat alongside the cleaner so you can reach under items of furniture. It's useful, but it’s not as useful as the feature we've seen on cleaners like the Shark IF250UK.
All in all the Bissel Crosswave is easy to carry and portable, but the design isn’t going to blow you away.
Cleaning performance
Cleaning performance on the Bissell's vacuum cleaner mode is OK, but we didn’t find the suction on this product particularly strong.
It's not instantly a big problem, but it does mean you sometimes have to go over certain areas a few times. The crux of the issue seems to be it'll only clean up where the main multi-surface brush reaches.
That means the far left and far right of the cleaner's bottom section won’t be able to pick up as easily as the rest, and that means you’ll struggle to get this to cover the corners.
When you're cleaning across larger areas, the product works quickly.
The highlight of this cleaner is the fact you can wash both your carpets and flooring as well as vacuuming. One thing to note is you can only use the liquid provided with the cleaner. You can buy more directly from Bissell, but it’s not recommended you use other liquids with this product.
You’ll fill up a plastic bottle with hot water and different amounts of the liquid, depending on how long you will be cleaning for, and then that clicks into the back of the cleaner and you’re good to go. The liquid will gently filter down into the cleaner and onto the floor as you clean.
You can choose between carpet or floor mode, and each of these will then give you a different amount of liquid to clean up your floor. We found we had to go over certain areas a couple of times on both wood floors and carpet to get them as clean as we wanted, but this works particularly well.
When you're going over those tougher areas, there's a button within the handle that will release more liquid and we found this worked particularly well on tough to clean up parts of a wood floor.
If you’re looking for a cleaner to regularly clean up your floors at the same time as vacuuming, the Bissel Crosswave is built specifically for you. It's not the most efficient vacuum, but it does combine the two features together well.
It’s worth making it clear the Bissell Crosswave doesn’t come with a battery inside, so you’ll need to have this plugged into the wall to be cleaning.
That can make it difficult to reach some areas of your home, especially when this is designed to be such a portable device you can carry around. That said, it does mean you won’t run out of battery mid-way through a clean like you can with some wireless products.
Verdict
The Bissell Crosswave is a limited vacuum cleaner and isn’t our favorite product on the market right now, but considering the low price and the extra washing feature it may be appropriate for your budget and, more importantly, your home.
Cleaning performance is acceptable, and while it’s unlikely to blow your mind it may make cleaning your carpets, rugs and floors a touch easier than just your average vacuum cleaner because of the washing feature.
You’ll often find yourself using it as just a vacuum cleaner, and while it may not be the best product on the market for that singular purpose, it works well enough for that task.
Buy this if you’re looking for an affordable way to wash your floors and don’t have room or the budget to buy both a floor cleaner and a vacuum at the same time.
