Bissell 3990 Total Floors Velocity Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner

Ok! So, I got this little green monster a couple a months ago based on the great reviews it got! As soon as it came to my door (not a day too soon, as my house had not been vacuumed for some 4 months! yuck!) I put this bad baby to work! And boy! It sucked so much dust out of my carpet I could not believe it! I mean, it just kept on going, and going! I tought the dust would never end! And that is just the half of it. I have hardwood floors in the majority of my house and boy, was I in for a pleasent surprise! After going over the whole area with my new machine, the floors actually felt squiky clean! I had, or thought I had a good vacuum cleaner for my hardwood floors before, but the Bissell exceeded my expectations by far!! It could not do a better job on hard surfaces! I was extatic!
Now, the extasy started to fade away a bit the next day, when, of course, I was at it again, sice my three year old forgets to remove his shoes when coming from the back yard sometimes....All the excuse I needed to try the green monster again! Well...not so happy anymore, because it kinda started to make a funny noise, like the whirring other reviewers talk about on this very site, and I have no idea why! There is nothing stuck in the hose, or anywhere, I cleaned the bin before the dirt even reached the "full" mark...so, that is a bit of a mistery.
But I said oh well, maybe that is just the way it sounds after it gets some dust in its pipes. BUt, to my not so pleasant surpeise, the suction action was not the same anymore either. Now, it still sucks a heck of a lot better than anything I ever tried, but when cleaning hardwood floors, I sometimes have to go over a little crumb twice before it picks it up, whereas the first time I used it, it sucked everything but the floor itself!
So, that being said, those two are some of the things that are starting to eat away at my love affair with my Bissell Total Floors Velocity....
Other things would be: 1. the weight!! This thing is a far cry from the 8 punder I used to have! It is sooo heavy, you really need to switch arms every few minutes! Maybe I'm just out of shape?
2. It does tip over on your head, or whatever body part is closest to it while trying to use the hose extension. So beware!
3. The cleaning of the cleaning machine mechanism and such: not as "dirt free" as one would think. Yes, you do not touch the dust itself, there is no bag, and such, but you DO have to shake the thing against something to get the dust to loosen up from the receptacle, an you DO get dust flying around all over the place! So, either put the whole thing in a plastic bag (which then means you have to wahs the container, becuse dust will stick to the outside of it) or, definitely empty it outdoors! No such thing as not getting ANY dust on your hands or in your lungs!
Other than that, I can't think of anything that I do not like about it. For the price, it is definitely worth it!

Very happy with this vacuum. Easy to put together. Use it on hardwood, tile, Oriental rugs and wall to wall. Cleans all well. Love the self propelled. Not too heavy. Love the long cord. Like the attachments. Does everything I was looking for in a vacuum. Leaves the air smelling clean after vacumming while other vacuums left my house smelling like dust or other odors.

All the years I have owned vacuums--this is the worst! I thought Bissell was supposed to make good products--WRONG! It's only a year and a half old and ready to be replaced---it's too broken to be fixed. I vacuum probably once a week. So here are the problems with it---canister is way too small which causes dust to back up and clog another filter area which is difficult to clean. The hose attachment is always coming loose so you are sucking up nothing. Plastic pieces have broken off---the hose holder at the bottom, the attachment holder. It doesn't have very good suction and that is the basic problem with it--why else would you buy a vacuum? Never Bissell--never again.

This is a heavy, wide machine with a visible dirt container which is dusty to empty. I like the long power cord, but the brackets make it hard to wind up. The attachments are well-designed and easy to use. There are controls so you can raise and lower, and even turn off, the beater brushes. The best thing about the Bissell 3990 is its ability to clean deeply and completely, and that's what I bought it for.

Reasonable good, pretty comfortable. Since I have it only for few weeks, do not know about the reliability.