Bissell Zing Bagless Canister Vacuum 2156A: Review & Buying Guide

You probably remember seeing one of your parents pushing a huge and heavy vacuum around the house. You’ve probably pushed around one of those heavy, bulky vacuums yourself and wondered whether there was an easier way. There is the Bissell Zing Bagless Canister Vacuum.

Not only does this vacuum weigh less than your traditional vacuum, but it’s also easier to clean and cheaper without the need to buy more bags. The real question is whether this bagless canister vacuum is the right one for you and if it’ll really get your house as clean as they advertise. Keep reading to find out what we discovered.

Bissell Zing Bagless Canister Vacuum At a Glance

• This vacuum cleaner is small enough and light enough that it’s easy to carry around with you upstairs or around the home.
• It does not do as well on deep or thick carpeting, although it’s easy to transition from hardwood flooring to carpets with a push of a button.
• You can retract the power cord when you’re finished—which is a 16-foot power cord length, by the way.
• There are no brush rolls in this vacuum cleaner, which means that it doesn’t handle pet hair as great as advertised, but it does have powerful suction with the cyclonic technology.
• It’s easy to empty the 2-liter canister without ever needing to touch the dirt.
• You won’t be able to use this vacuum cleaner well in larger houses, if only because it’s a smaller vacuum.
• It’s completely a bagless vacuum, and the filters that it uses can be washed and reused.

Key Features

• Using the switch on this vacuum cleaner, you can go from cleaning carpets to hard floor effortlessly. This means that you don’t need to remember.
• You have 15 feet of cord to help you clean, which retracts with a touch of a button Just click the button when you’re done for the day.
• The Easy Empty dirt cup is large enough to grab 2 liters of dirt using the powerful cyclonic technology and filters out more of the particles out of your air.
• It also comes with a multi-surface floor nozzle and automatic cord rewind button.

Product Specs

• The filters in the dirt cup capture more fine dust and debris, which means that you won’t need to deal with so much dirt and dust in the air. It helps that these filters are washable and reusable too.
• Since this vacuum cleaner only weighs about ten pounds, it’s fairly easy to carry around.
• Includes an integrated carrying handle for easy use. This is especially helpful if you need to go up and down the stairs.
• Cyclonic technology provides continuous suction across both carpets and hard floors, although the carpets cannot be very deep.
• Easy Empty™ Dirt Cup (push button bottom emptying)
• Includes a dusting brush and crevice tool to help you get every part of your home. These are separate tools, however, which are not connected to the vacuum cleaner.
• Attachments: crevice tool, dusting brush, extension wand

Pros

• One of the best things about this Bissell zing canister is the strong suction, which is especially impressive considering the small size of this Bissell. We tested out this Bissell zing canister and found that it was able to pick up a large portion of dirt and dust.
• It’s easy to use this vacuum on bare flooring, although you can still use it on some carpeting as well. It does tend to work best on the bare flooring though, and all types of bare flooring too: tiles, wood, etc.
• We liked the automatic rewind cord, and the fact that the dust canister was easy to empty—just click it open and empty it without ever needing to touch the dirt or deal with bags, which will save you a little money too. Honestly, emptying the canister was as easy as clicking a button, although if dirt is stuck up in there, you might need a pair of tweezers to help you get it out.
• The actual vacuum cleaner is inexpensive, which makes the suction and the washable filters that much more impressive. Just reuse those filters to get the most out of your vacuum.
• One of the best parts of this Bissell zing canister vacuum 2156a: it’s not too loud. It’s not necessarily quiet either, but it’s something you can use even late at night without worrying too much about the noise.
• You have only two buttons on this vacuum, which makes it incredibly easy to use. Just click the button to turn it on or off, and click the other button to retract the cord. You don’t need to struggle with figuring out anything too complicated when it comes to this vacuum.
• This Bagless vacuum comes with a 1-year limited warranty and is ideal to use on a low pile carpet (Can clean bare floors well)

Cons

• If you have medium or deep pile carpeting, you’ll find that this vacuum can’t handle it well. It’s best to use this vacuum on the hardwood flooring and only sparingly on rugs.
• Admittedly, 15 feet of power cord might not be as long as you’d like, although, in a smaller apartment or home, this may not bother you.
• There’s no brush roll in the cleaner head, so despite the advertising, we found that it doesn’t necessarily clean pet hair as well if you happen to have an animal with lots of thick hair. In all, performance on pet hair is fairly mixed. Some people find that it works okay, and we found that it wasn’t always problematic either. The biggest issue was that the hair had a tendency to get caught up in the vacuum and we would have to remove it ourselves.
• You can’t use this vacuum well if you have a large house—it’s just too small for you to comfortably clean large spaces at one time.
• The biggest problem with this vacuum, and the most contentious issue, is that the attachments do not click together with the vacuum. They are just pushed on, so no pieces are locked together and the extension wand often falls off, as do the other attachable tools. We found this frustrating, to the point that we considered duct taping them together.
• The buttons are all easy to click, but they do look a little too similar. The power cord rewind button and the on/off button look so similar that you might end up pushing the wrong button often enough that it annoys you.
• Not ideal to use on a medium pile carpet

Why get the Bissell Zing Bagless Canister Vacuum?

Do you have a small apartment? Or maybe you have a mix of carpeting and hard flooring? You might also have a tight budget? Well, if the answer is yes to any of these questions, that’s all the reason you need to pick up this Bissell Zing.

The Bissell Zing canister is a little smaller than what you might normally think of when you think of a vacuum, but that’s what makes it so impressive. It’s small enough to fit in a small closet and travel around with, while also packing enough punch for you to clean up most areas in your home.

This is what makes it such a great option for those of you who have a smaller home and who don’t have space to fit a huge vacuum.

In addition, this vacuum has simple controls. It’s just easy to use, so anyone can use it with just a couple pushes of the buttons. You don’t need to deal with odd buttons or strange levers with this vacuum, nor do you have to pay a lot to pick up this vacuum.

It comes at quite an affordable price, making it perfect for those of you who are on a little bit of a tight budget.

These aren’t the only reasons why you should pick up the Bissell Zing Bagless Canister Vacuum though. There are a few features that make this vacuum especially unique, and which we were impressed by when we tested it out for ourselves.

Suction

Any vacuum you choose needs to have powerful suction if you want to pick up the most amount of mess possible. That’s why it’s a good thing that the suction in this Bissell stands out.

Using cyclonic technology, you’ll get powerful and continuous suction on all of your flooring—even when you want to transition between carpet and hardwood flooring.

Since the suction power is continuous, you’ll know when you have a clog or something if you notice that the power is fading. You only really have to turn it on to get one level of suction.

You already know though that this bagless vacuum doesn’t perform too well on thick pile carpeting. It can’t reach down deep in certain carpet types, but it does grab dirt and debris well on rugs and hardwood flooring—and of course tile too. So the cleaning reach is not that great.

It can work on thicker carpeting though as long as you only move in one direction instead of back and forth like you normally would.

Despite the powerful suction though, do know that this Bissell isn’t particularly noisy. It’s fairly quiet—not silent, mind you, but compared to other options, it’s not the loudest vacuum out there.

Maneuverability

One of the best things about this Bissell Zing is that it’s easy to move around your home. That’s because it’s compact and lightweight, and includes a carrying handle to help you pull it along with you if you need to go up and down stairs or between rooms.

It’s actually so light that you can pick up the canister in one hand and push the hose with the other. This makes this vacuum a great option for taking outside to clean your car, although you may need an extension cord if you want to do this.

Don’t forget about the swivel steering either. The steering is made to make it easy to maneuver your vacuum into small spots and over large swaths of space. Thanks to the size of this vacuum too, it’s easy to use around furniture and small corners.

Let’s talk a little more about the weight for a second too. Because of the way this vacuum is structured, with the canister and the suction separate, you can leave the canister on hard floors while you reach up to get corners and edges on your ceiling.

Instead of lifting an entire stick vacuum above your head then, you only need to lift up the wand portion of it.
In addition to the steering and the weight, the actual wheels make it easy to move this vacuum around. They move well on carpeting and hardwood, and don’t catch.

This is part of what ensures that this vacuum isn’t too bulky, and thanks to the oversized wheels, you don’t have to struggle to pull it around with you.

Filtration

First off, know that the Bissell Zing has three-stage filtration, which means that you don’t need to worry about there being any dust flying up in the air while you’re using the vacuum. Those of you with allergies will definitely love this feature.

There are also two filters installed right in the dirt cup, so all of that dust and dirt are caught up before they reach the post-motor filter. And the part that’s even better? That these filters are reusable.

Instead of spending lots of money buying new filters like you might need to do with many other vacuums, you can just take these filters out and wash them. Once they dry, you can put them back in the vacuum. All of this really just makes maintenance that much easier.

Additional Accessories

Beyond the parts of the vacuum, know that you do get a few accessories along with it. You’ll receive a multi-surface cleaning head with a manual height adjustment function, along with an extension wand that you can just slip on to attach. The crevice and dusting tool is great to have as well and will help you catch smaller areas too.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the Bissell Zing Bagless Canister Vacuums are a great option for those of you who live in smaller residences, or who want to get a good vacuum without spending too much money.

It’s easy to use and has good cleaning performance, although you might not want this vacuum if you happen to have a lot of thick carpeting in your home. Keep your home clean without breaking your back—literally since this vacuum is so compact and lightweight!

Similar Review Guides:

• Best Vacuums for Thick Carpets: Reviews & Buying Guide
• 24 Best Vacuums for Tile Floors