Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Over the past few years I have bought several vacuum cleaners. Some were bagless and some had bags. I've had poor success with vacuum cleaners until now. I had a Eureka vacuum cleaner that was supposed to be specially made for people with pets. But before the bag would ever get full, the brush would get full of fur so that I couldn't use it anymore. I recently got another vacuum cleaner, but I couldn't make one pass through my living room before it too was clogged full of hair. So when I got this vacuum cleaner out of the box, I didn't expect it to be better than all the rest. But I had read a lot of comments before purchasing this one and decided to give it a chance. As soon as I began vacuuming the area rug on top of the carpet in my living room, I was amazed as the rug began to appear under all the fur that previous vacuum cleaners couldn't touch. But as amazing as it looked, I knew not to get my hopes up. Many times I had begun vacuuming this same rug when clumps of fur would finally cough up. But that didn't happen with the Bissell Cleanview! As long as it kept sucking up the fur, I kept vacuuming. Finally I began seeing little fur balls appear. Looking at the canister, I realized I probably should have stopped and emptied out the canister. I had just been so excited to see one work! I liked the way that the canister could be lifted off and taken somewhere to be emptied. When I emptied it, it was so full of fur that I was having trouble getting out fur that jammed up near the filter. No wonder some little fur balls had appeared. I finally took all the fur that got sucked up in the living room and hallway and took some photos of it (I placed it in a plastic container to give a better idea of the amount of fur with top and side views). Then I took a photo of the bottom of the vacuum cleaner - there wasn't any fur down there like every other vacuum cleaner I've ever owned. But this vacuum cleaner is made to pick up all the fur and dirt and make it easy to clean it up. I was only able to get all the fur out of the canister by lifting out the filter. But it is made to do that easily. Then there is a sponge which was caked with fur and dirt in my case. Instructions said that you could use water and mild detergent to clean it so I rinsed out the parts with a little Dawn dishwashing soap. I put a couple of drops of Dawn on the sponge and all the brown dirt came out. The instructions say to make sure that all the parts are dry before using them again. I dried out the canister with a towel then set it aside to air dry the rest. The sponge looked brand new after I washed it out. By the next morning, everything - including the sponge - was bone dry and ready to go again. So it seems like my dog has met his match and not a moment too soon. This is peak shedding season. If I had any idea that it was going to perform as well as it did, I would have taken "before" photos of my rug. Now the vibrant colors are back - it is no longer covered with fur. And one more bonus, it did a great job of sucking up leaves and parts of leaves near my back door! I would give it 6 stars if I could and a definite two paws up!!!