Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Dual-Cyclonic Upright Vacuum, 3920

Bissell Pet Hair Eraser vs. the Dyson Animal., November 3, 2007

I purchased one of these fellas today after having just returned my Dyson. Yes, that’s right, I RETURNED MY DYSON! To be honest, I am still scratching my head as to why so many people throw praise at the Dyson. I had one of their “Animal” vacuums for one day, and although it was a nice product… really, is it worth almost $500? I mean, I am talking about a LOT of money here, so why should you spend that much money on a vacuum cleaner?

The simple answer is that you don’t have to. The Dyson Animal picked up just a small amount of debris from my fully-carpeted apartment when I tried it out. The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser was almost half-full after I used it earlier today, only 12 hours after having using the Dyson.

I’m not sure what to make of this, to be honest. The Bissell (which costs about 1/3 the price of the Dyson) seems to do the job much better. Although the unit is quite bulky, and requires some assembly (the instructions were a joke), I have much cleaner floors as a result. And my biggest peeve about the Dyson was that, after paying all that money for a product that was called “The Animal,” I still had to pay an extra $69 for the pet hair attachment! Is it me, or is someone trying to rip me off here? (Edit: I have been told that one of the Dyson Animal vacuums comes equipped with the aforementioned attachment).

As for the Bissell, it comes with all of the attachments that you will ever need, and did a great job on my upholstery as well as my carpets. Although the hose isn’t as long as the Dyson, I was able to clean everything that I needed to clean without any setbacks.

My conclusion is this – if you believe that a Mercedes Benz is the best car out there because of its price tag, then you will probably be better off with a Dyson. However, if you just want a vacuum cleaner that does a decent job regardless of how much it costs, then go with the Bissell.

Simply put, my Bissell Pet Hair Eraser vacuum cleaner does a better job than the Dyson Animal, plus I have an extra $300 in my pocket.

Now, does that seem like a no-brainer to you?

-Update 04/04/2009-

People keep asking me how the vacuum is performing now, so I’m going to address this matter. I’m still happy with my purchase and stand by it. No, the Pet Hair Eraser is not perfect, which is why I gave it four stars instead of five. However, it does a great job of cleaning my carpets, still, and I have only had to replace the belt once because of my own mistake. Looking at the other reviews, it seems like people either love it or hate it. My advice, if you are unsure, would be to purchase one from a nearby store so that you can return it if you are not happy.

-Update 10/12/2009-

The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser finally passed away just recently. So, we managed to get two years out of it. Some of you will think that is good for a $150 vacuum cleaner, whereas others will have higher expectations. As for me, I think that we got more than our money’s worth. It performed great until just recently, when it simply stopped working the way it used to. Let me make it clear that we vacuum a lot in our household – at least once a day – so this thing got put through its paces. We’re happy with what we got out of the Bissell, and will be buying another here soon. Although, we may just go ahead and get the slightly cheaper Pet Eraser (model #4101) from Walmart this time.

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Multi Pet home must have, February 26, 2008

In short: I finally have a vacuum that actually does what I need. Read the long review to see what I mean.

I’ll be honest. I destroy vacuums. I’ve had Hoovers, Dirt Devils, Kirby’s, Eureka, and a few odd names I can’t remember. Why so many? Well, my small house is home to 2 very active adults, 5 dogs (4 are over 85lbs), 3 Parrots, 2 turtles, and other animals I’ve fostered for a local rescue. I vacuum daily, some times 2x. I just received the Bissell 3920 Pet to replace my good ol’ Hoover Fusion. So as a test here’s what I did:

Moved everything out of the rooms that have carpet. (2 rooms + hallway.)
Vacuumed with the Hoover in all directions so as to get up as much hair and dirt as I could. Empty the cup and did it again. Didn’t get much the second time. OK, carpet clean right?

Assembled the Bissell. Not to hard, just make sure you attach the cord wind area to the handle before putting in the screws.

Lets look at how the design is:

1. It’s huge and heavy. It towers over my Hoover. I’m almost 6′ and the handle on this beast reaches almost to my chest. Due to it’s size, it seems that it’s gonna be a pain to maneuver. (But it’s not…)

2. Big plus here: The inlet from the rollers (where things get sucked up at) is not way out at one end. This means a more even suction while in use. Great design and it pulls in more junk!

3. If there was 1 thing I would change it would be the cord reel. It’s only about 8″ apart. This thing has a 35′ cord, that’s gonna take a long time to wind up.

4. Filters are in easy to get to areas unlike most of the other vacuums I’ve had.

5. That pet hair attachment on the front folds nicely up out of the way, and stays there.

6. The attachments snap into place and stay out of the way.

7. Noise: Actually, unless you’re used to a really, really quiet vac, this thing is not that loud. Then again, I have 2 Macaws, so noise isn’t really an issue to me.

Ok, now to use it:

Plug it in, flick the switch, and it took off! Uh, it’s not self propelled right? No, the roller is just that strong. OK, re-adjust the height settings and we’re good. Just 2 passes and I already saw stuff flying around in the dirt cup. Eh? Remember I thought the size was going to make this hard to use? Well, it rolls so easy it’s like a 5lb vac! So I finish all the carpets and well, it filled the cup! As far as getting carpet clean, It works great. Pulled out hair I never even saw, got very close to the walls. Even the carpet by the back door that gets all matted down and tracked in dirt on it looks great.

Hard floors: So I saw some reviews stating this thing does nothing on hard floors. Well, hold on a sec let me try… Ok, now I feel lazy. That was too easy. I use a broom normally, I mean that’s what they’re made for right? This Bissell picked up all the dog hair, bird seed and those really annoying fluff feathers like it was nothing! Works good enough Mom won’t know I didn’t scrub it before she visits next time.

Now this critter has a few attachments for furniture and such, lets see how well they work… OK, I just did my sectional couch in about 5 minutes with this turbo brush. I’ve used these before and usually end up tossing them since they run on nothing but suction to drive the roller. Normally, the roller stops moving once it comes in contact with the fabric on the furniture. Uh, not this one. Yes it’s still suction driven, but this Bissell has enough suction that the roller never even slowed down! No joke. Ok, well that’s all fine and dandy, but does it pick up 5 different types of dog hair. YES! Long, medium, short, undercoat, and Bulldog! (if you ever had a bull dog you know what I mean. Needle like hair that can’t be pulled off.)

Unit is well balanced for as tall as it is. Some have stated it falls over when using the attachments. I didn’t seem to have that problem, just make sure you push the handle all the way forward to lock it in place. That also lifts the roller off the floor enough that it’s not beating your carpet to death.

Well. I’m impressed, and that takes a lot for me.

All in all, the only 2 things I don’t like are the cord reel and the power switch. It’s just in an odd place.

Is it worth the $150 I paid? Yeah, and then some. Of course only time will tell how long it will last but while I have it, it looks like it’s gonna work great.

—The vac killer—

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