Review: Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum Model 6591

When my wife and I moved into our new house we purchased a new vacuum, a cheap Hoover. While the vacuum seemed to do a good job at first, after a year, its deficiencies, namely its poorly designed hose and tools, were too big a liability to live with.

Several friends recommended a Dyson. Swore by them, in fact. But I couldn't stomach paying eight times the cost of our current vacuum to get a vacuum that looked even less durable than the one we owned. Even though they had a five year warranty, I figured I could buy a new vacuum every year if necessary and still come out ahead as long as that vacuum cleaned well.

After several hours of research online, I settled on the Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum, model 6591, which I purchased for around $90 at Wal-Mart. Four months later, I'm very pleased with my purchase.

DESIGN AND ACCESSORIES

The Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum is made of what appears to be heavy duty (and indeed, heavy in weight) plastic. The easily assembled vacuum has an upper chamber in which the dirt initially enters and is passed through, and a large lower chamber in which the dirt, dust, and hair settles for dumping when vacuuming is done. The lower chamber has two sub chambers with ribbing that allows for the smallest dirt particles to be separated from the larger debris and hair. This lower chamber is easily removed by sliding a lever underneath the chamber to the left.

The Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum has three filters. One is a foam cylinder shaped filter on the top chamber in which the dirt swirls. Another is a foam filter below the dirt cup. The third is a fiber HEPA filter that is attached to the side. The first two are easily cleaned, either by vacuuming with a separate vacuum or washing in hot water. The third is not washable but replacements can be had for under $10.

The vacuum's hose is permanently attached to the vacuum (but easily replaced if necessary), eliminating one of my complaints with my old Hoover, a notched hose that wouldn't stay latched into the vacuum. It is attached to a rigid plastic extension with a convenient handle. The hose is large enough that it is not easily clogged, and long enough that it can be used to clean furniture and stairs (as long as you heft the vacuum with you as you climb the stairs). When not in use, it stores easily on the vacuum.

The Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum has a dust brush attachment, a crevice tool, a rigid hose extension and a "Turbo Brush". The Turbo Brush has a vacuum driven beater brush on it that allows you to easily vacuum stairs, floor mats, and furniture. All of these tools appear to be well designed and durable.

The power cord is thirty feet long and should enable you to clean a decent size room without having to move plugs. Unfortunately, the plug is designed to rigidly stick directly to the side of the unit which can make it somewhat difficult to maneuver the cord during normal vacuuming, and puts too much stress on the cord when you wind it for storage.

The off switch is a small rocker switch on side of the vacuum. While the switch is visually easy to find, I would have preferred something larger and more easily accessible for those times when you need to turn off the vacuum quickly (such as accidentally vacuuming up a power cord).

The Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum is a heavy vacuum, so it shouldn't be purchased by people who have trouble lifting heavy objects. At 20 pounds, it can be quite a chore to move, especially on stairs or on thick carpet. It also is rather loud compared to other vacuums.

HOW DOES IT VACUUM?

Our old Hoover was a bag vacuum. As we cleaned, the vacuum bag would slowly fill with dust and dirt. Our assumption form this was that our carpets simply weren't that dirty. On average we'd cycle through two or three bags a year.

It wasn't until we got the Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum that we realized how awful our old vacuum really was. To put it simply, this vacuum works wonders. The amount of dirt, hair and debris pulled out of the carpet by this vacuum is amazing. On one trip through our 2000 square foot house the vacuum picks up enough to fill almost the entire cup. If we were to dump this into the bags of our old vacuum, I'd say we'd be going through one bag every three weeks or so. The performance is at least on par with my mother-in-law's Dyson, and perhaps better. With three cats in our house, each run through our house with the Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum pulls up enough hair to build a new toupee for William Shatner.

If the Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum has a downfall, it is its performance on hardwood floors. Although the vacuum has seven height settings, including bare floor, the beater brush on the vacuum cannot be turned off, so it tends to throw more dust and dirt from hardwood floors than it picks up.

OVERALL

The Bissell PowerTrak Bagless Revolution Upright Vacuum, model 6591 is a great value for the money. It does an excellent job of vacuuming carpet and its attachments are great for vacuuming furniture and hard to reach places. For under $100 dollars, you could buy four or five of these for the price of a Dyson or simply save the difference and buy a whole assortment of other cleaning tools for your house. Highly recommended.

NOTE

This vacuum appears on Bissell's website under the name Bissell Cleanview Revolution Vacuum. It appears that similar models are sold under different names based on where they're purchased.