Bissell 2156A Zing Canister Bagless Vacuum

I got this primarily to vacuum my dogs. That's right - I have two very large, very shedding dogs. A first gen Labradoodle - 1st gen don't always get the poodle coat. Mine didn't. He sheds. A LOT. I know people say their dogs shed, but seriously, this guy takes it to a whole new level. The other dog is a Rottweiler, who also sheds, but it's a "normal" amount. I have a robot vacuum, but it cannot cope with the volume of dog hair even running daily. The bin is always full. If I'm home when it runs I empty it twice while it's running. This is currently 4 days a week. The other three it gets emptied daily. Neither of our dogs are really afraid of the vacuum (before I had the robot one) so I figured it wouldn't be a stretch to get them acclimated to being vacuumed. So I ordered this and an attachment specifically designed to brush/vac a dog. The attachment was a waste. In the end I use the hose of this vacuum, without an attachment. Both dogs love it. However, the Rottie, she's obsessed. She begins barking excitedly as soon as I turn the vacuum on. I do use this to vacuum surfaces and corners where the robot can't quite manage - shelves, entertainment center, couches, corners, etc. My Rottie can't wait till it's her turn. And even when I'm done with her and move on the the non-Doodle Doodle, she is still trying to get in on the action. Bot dogs mad the "oh that feels SO good" face - seems to me it scratches the itch that they can never reach! Now - how does this little guy perform as an actual vacuum as opposed to a dog grooming implement? Surprisingly well! It has really powerful suction. Works great on all the items I mentioned. I haven't used it with the floor attachment but I can imagine that the folks who complain about it on carpet didn't read the description very well - there is no powered brush attachment and the suction is so powerful that I wouldn't even try to use it on carpet except with the crevice tool around baseboards, corners etc - I have all hard surface floors so this won't ever be something I do. I also can't speak to the length of the extension for the floor tool because I haven't used it - our robot vac does that job. The extensions do look short though so I can't imagine trying to vacuum my whole house with this - but I can see using them to take out cobwebs! As a lightweight, powerful hard floor vacuum, being used for everything BUT the bulk of the floor, I give this high marks. As a dog-grooming device I'm thrilled - the amount of fur and (shudder) dander that I dumped from the bin was a real eye-opener - and that's before I got to tapping out the filter (OMG that was disgusting!). I would not use this on small dogs.... the suction is powerful enough that you could probably lift a dog of 10lbs or less off the floor. But for my large dogs (+/-100lbs each), it's amazing. They love it, it gets the shed and hopefully it'll help cut down on the wear on our robot vac. It's also small enough that it tucks into our already packed hall closet easily. It rolls smoothly on the floor and even when I took it all over it didn't get tangled in it's cord. I also love that the cord retracts into the body of the machine. Between this and the robot vac, I will likely never use our expensive water basin vacuum again! If you're looking for something to get corners, cobwebs; to vacuum furniture and even large dogs, I don't think you can go wrong with this... just be prepared for your dog to become an addict.

I’ve been trying to figure out for years which vacuum cleaners I need for which jobs in my house. I have a Riccar for carpets and area rugs. It is fantastic and very lightweight. I had another little canister vacuum cleaner that was hand held and light for doing hardwood floors and kitchen floors but the suction was so intense that I couldn’t even use it. I also got, at one time, a Miele canister that was supposed to be so great and I hated it because it was so heavy. So when we moved to a different state and brought my dream home and found out that I hated having cleaners in my house, and I was going to have to clean my house at the age of 75, I read review after review on Amazon about canister, vacuum cleaners and decided to buy this one. It is absolutely wonderful. The suction is fantastic but it has a little slider that you can make it less if you need to which I always use. It is extremely lightweight and can be carried or rolled. It goes underneath the bed to clean the back of the bed behind the bed and underneath furniture that is on hardwood floors and any other nook and cranny that you need it to go. I absolutely love it. I only use it on hard floors because my other vacuum cleaner works so great on the carpet. I also love that it doesn’t have a bag and I can see all the dirt and dust and stuff that I have picked up! It makes me feel so good to know that I actually did something useful and that my house is clean. It is also extremely easy to unlock the canister that has to be dumped in the trash and put it back again. The secret to this little vacuum cleaner is that you have to clean it each time you use it meaning, you have to dump out the contents, take out the filter and wash it and also wash a little tiny filter that’s a little square cloth in the unit itself. Is that a bother? Not to me. I simply rinse everything out and then dry it over night and when it’s dry, I put it back in the vacuum cleaner. So do I love this little baby vacuum cleaner? Yes I do and I’m so happy to have it.

I just ordered this vacuum ( Bissell Zing 2156A) and got to use it for the first time today. The sucking action is excellent, very strong. It is also very maneuverable. The Zing can be held in one hand while holding the wand with your other hand. I purchased this little canister vacuum for cleaning underneath my beds, a large sectional sofa and along the trim (where the walls meet the hardwood floor in my house). It has performed these jobs well. My only complaint, the actual hose, wand (tube) and other attachments are definitely on the cheaper side (feel flimsy). Also the wand does have a tendency to come apart while vacuuming, so I have to use it carefully. I did order a set of extra attachments so I can get into those hard to reach places underneath furniture. Overall, not bad and decently priced. Time will tell if it lasts. I only needed it for specific tasks (as mentioned above), so did not want to spend a lot of money. Update: (1-05-2025). After reading other reviews about the Bissell 2156A burning out/not lasting long, I felt something needs to be said. IMHO, this little canister vacuum is probably not meant to be used as a standard upright or large canister vacuum. What I mean is that it is more suited for smaller jobs, not vacuuming your whole house or large apartment ( again, my personal opinion). I have a 20 year old Kenmore canister vacuum with a large capacity canister that uses bags. It is a beast, extremely well made and still works to this day. However I have relegated it to only cleaning out my garage once a year. It may die any day, hence I only use it sparingly. So keep this in mind if you decide to purchase the Zing. Also make sure to register it, just like any other appliance, etc.

Lite weight, easy to maneuvers & super easy to clean with, which of course (best part) keeps it from retaining household odors. Found it great as a general dusting aid (book shelves, large toys, interior of baskets etc), sweep-vacuuming wood floors and getting those crevices in furniture and hard to reach under furniture dust bunny hide outs. It got used irregularly over the last 4 years (2-5Xper month). We have mostly wood floors but found it worked just fine on the rugs we have. Loved it so much that we bought a new one after our 1st one, the green Bissel, bought last April 2020 (3years 11months ago), stopped working. My husband plans to tinker with the old one in hopes of getting it running again. We felt the $17.5 a year (or $69)we spent on it was totally worth it, even if we can’t get going again. The newer Bissel is now about $10 more, so if it lasts us 4 years as well, it’s still a good price at $20 per year. Just a great all around lil vacuum that even my kids find easy to use ! :0) Update: Discovered our first Bissel was still working about an hour after purchasing our 2nd! We had apparently tripped our basement sockets due to another plug going at the same time, go me! Anyhow, we cancelled our 2nd Bissel purchase for now though if we ever need to we’d still buy it again! New note on Filter: The filter has been super easy to clean. I suspect, that as long as I keep up my cleaning routine (after every other major use) the 2 extra filters I bought won’t ever be used. I use soapy water and the hot kitchen water with medium-hard nozzle spray to get in-between grooves of filter for initial cleaning and one final rinse with kettle boiled water. Then I let them air dry. I’ve used very diluted Clorox for a mid cleaning (after soapy water and before hot boiled water) to rid odor buildup about every 2nd or 3rd time I clean the filter. Generally taken Less than 15 minutes.

Love love LOVE this vacuum cleaner! It is small but mighty! Super lightweight and easy to carry around and the suction is very strong. I have a house of 4 kids 6 and under so it has been put to the test! This thing has sucked up everything thats been thrown at it and has cut my vacuuming time in half compared to my old vacuum. I love the canister that I don’t have to deal with bags and emptying it is very easy. My house is a pretty average size house and I can vacuum the entire thing without having to pause and empty the canister. I do however agree with other peoples reviews that some of the tubes will come apart during vacuuming. I fixed that problem with a little piece of back duck tape and haven’t had any problems since. The only other thing that I did for my own personal preference was get a different head for the vacuum. I paired mine with the Selgo upgraded vacuum floor brush and it’s perfect! I’m sure more expensive models come with an adjustable length for the handle but for the price I would buy this over again any day!

Like the title says: this vacuum sucks. Which: you want your vacuum to do, right? Yes, BUT: there are other features, and NONE of them are good - except maybe the retractable cord. However, given the general poor build quality of this machine, I don't trust that feature to last. I read the other reviews. Based on those reviews, I had almost decided to look for a different vacuum instead, when I saw that there was a "used-like new" (meaning: unused, but no longer in the original box) option for $35 less than the "new" price, and I thought, wow, what an incredible deal! I know the reviews aren't great, but there's no way it could be THAT bad. And if it really is that bad, I can still return it, right? I have learned my lesson. Every single complaint I saw in the bad reviews has proved true, AND I can't return it, because they want to charge me half of what I paid for the thing for return shipping. So I guess I'm going to keep it and figure out how to make it work for me, like several of the other reviewers did. Suction: the suction is so strong that it was pulling apart my area rugs. Yes, there is an "adjustment" valve, but it was still doing this even with the valve all the way open. Adjustment valve switch: this feature is of such poor quality that it's constantly falling shut on its own, AND it's located in an awkward place, so if you're holding it naturally, your hand either completely covers the vent, or pushes the switch shut. Extension rods: these are extremely cheap/flimsy feeling and kept detaching from each other and from the handle. I vacuumed ONE room and it fell apart 10+ times! Floor head: as another review mentioned, the "carpet/hard floor" switch does not really move the components of the floor head very much. So, when you use it on hard floors, it doesn't retract enough, and the plastic scrapes/scratches the floor, and when you use it on carpet, the combination of the overly strong suction & the brush makes it nearly impossible to move, and when I did move it, it either made the extension rods fall apart, or it started ripping fibers out of the carpet. It was particularly bad on my area rugs. I will probably end up taping over the brush like the other reviewer did. Dusting brush: for some reason the bristles of the dusting brush are offset, so that when the overly strong suction pulls the dusting brush hard against whatever you're dusting, it scrapes against hard plastic. This is fine for soft surfaces like upholstery, but not so great for things like blinds or air filter dust covers. Emptying the canister: awful. I put the canister all the way inside my trash can before opening it, and it somehow still got dirt all over the place, AND the filter fell out into the trash, AND I still had to stick my hand into the canister to fish out clumps of cat hair that wouldn't come out on their own. Combined, these issues meant I was basically bent double the entire time I was vacuuming, between trying to keep the attachments attached, trying to keep the suction vent open, and trying to keep my area rugs from being pulled off the floor. This is NOT what I wanted, especially given that the reason I wanted a small, lightweight canister vacuum in the first place was because I have hand pain/grip strength issues! Well, it is small and lightweight, and it's strong enough to pick up "tofu" cat litter pellets, which many vacuums are not. But it hurts me more to use than any other vacuum I've used in my life. I guess I'll just have to hope that what the one review said about the extension rods "settling" eventually and staying together better after a while is true, and that taping over the brush on the floor head will make enough of a difference that I won't have to keep reaching down to yank it up off the carpet. And maybe I'll put a rubber band or something on the valve switch to keep it from closing itself. But I have a feeling that I'm going to continue to regret having bought this machine no matter what.

I like it, but I had to make it work for me. The beater brush is supposed to be retractable, but it doesn't retract high enough for it to not reach the floor and I did not want the brush to touch my area rug. So, I had to put tape over the beater brush (see my photo), and now it glides across my area rug without damaging the fibers. When I first tried it without the tape over it, I flipped over the floor attachment and saw the fibers stuck in the brush. The other attachments like the small brush, and the concentrator nozzle work great. I use them for corners, molding, etc. For my hardwood floor is, my process is to sweep all the dirt up against various walls throughout the space and then go to each wall and use the concentrator nozzle to suck it up. The suction power is good, and the shorter distance from the floor to the main unit, the better. So, for example, for more suction, attach the floor attachment directly to the hose that is connected to the main unit, instead of with that extra hose in the middle. I like that it's so portable, very lightweight and easy to pick up and move from area to area. I also like the retractable cord. You have to make sure that it's laid out flat on the floor and in front of the hole it retracts into in order for it to work properly. But it does work whether the vacuum cleaner is plugged in or not. If you have the cord all bunched up around vacuum cleaner it won't work. And you have to hold the button down until it's finished retracting. At first, I decided to return it because I wanted to use it as my main vacuum cleaner unit for my carpet and hardwood floors and everything. But it does not work for carpet at all. The hole underneath the floor attachment (see my photo) is just too small. If it was the full length of the attachment, then it might work. But it's just too small and you can't know where the hole has already been on the carpet because you can't see under there. So you will end up missing a lot of spots. I would imagine it would be the same for hardwood floors, that you would miss a lot of spots. But you can just use my method of sweeping all of the dirt up against the wall and then using the concentrater nozzle to suck it up. I ultimately decided to keep it because I figured that it would be good to use for my sewing room when there is a lot of thread all over the carpet, to just walk around and use the concentrator nozzle to suck it up. So, I went ahead and purchased my favorite bagged vacuum cleaner for my carpet. That way, I won't destroy the beater brush in that one with a thread in my sewing room. I've since also discovered the tape method to use it on my area rug, so I'm happy with it overall. It comes with one bag, but they are cheap enough to reorder here on Amazon, and I've already used it probably five times or so and I'm still on the first bag. While assembling it, I thought I was missing one of the pieces, but it turned out that it looks different in the manual than does the actual attachment. Dorry, I can't remember which piece it was. But if you think you're missing a piece, just consider that you're not and find the piece that matches closely. Now that I'm thinking about it, it might have been the concentrator nozzle.

I really wanted to like this vacuum, but after owning it a few months, I have grown to dislike it very much! It is such a pain to keep the filter clean. After every vacuuming of the house, I had to take it outside and beat the filter to get the pet hair and dirt out of it, so that it could continue to work properly. I tried washing the filter, but after it dried, it was left with this awful mildew smell. I was not going to vacuum and spread that disgusting smell throughout my house. I bought a new filter for it, and continued using it, but grew to detest having to beat and clean the filter after every use. I would have thought the bagless vacuums would have evolved to a better design, but they haven't. I do not believe it would work good on carpet. I wanted to like it, because it had great suction, a cord rewind, and was lightweight. I opted to buy the bagged version of this vacuum, and am very happy with it. I do not intend to go back to bagless. I really do not understand how bagless would be an advantage, when you have to continually buy filters and touch the dirt and dust (not good for allergies). For me, the bagged vacuum is much less work and much cleaner. I bought the purple bagged vacuum and it has great suction, a metal hose and the floor attachment moves so much better on the floor than the other one and also has the cord rewind. The bags are easy to change and I would give the purple bagged Bissell vacuum five starts!!!