Customer Ratings & Reviews

I’ve had the Bissell Smartclean Robot Vacuum for two weeks now and it is an excellent robotic vacuum that offers great suction, ease of use, several different modes, great battery life, and an awesome auto-docking feature. When opening the box you will be greeted by the robot itself, a power adapter, the battery, two edge cleaning brushes, an “invisible wall”, the docking station, and documentation. The battery is 2800 mAh and Bissell says that you will be able to get up to 80 minutes of runtime, I’ve had no issues with the battery dying on me and would say that their estimate is quite accurate. Charging time is around 3.5 hours from 0-100%. The robot has 5 different cleaning modes consisting of spiral, along the wall, “z” formation, random, and auto. You can configure between 30, 45, 60 minutes of cleaning, in addition to until the battery runs out. There’s also an option to change between normal and turbo suction modes. The robot has a bumper on the front of it which allows it to detect and go around objects in its path. The edge brushes underneath the device let the robot clean the edges of walls and other crevices. They work very well and can get further into the crevices than normal upright vacuums. The main brush itself is also very good. I ran the Bissell Smartclean after running my Dyson on carpet, and the Smartclean picked up more pet hair and dirt even after running the Dyson, that’s impressive. The brush will however get tangled with hair if you have a shedding pet. I’ve had to cut off the hair from the brush a few times now, it hasn't much of an inconvenience as I’ve had to do that with my Dyson, but just something to be aware of. The waste bin can hold a decent amount of debris and is as simple to clean as, emptying the bin and washing the filter with water. The “invisible wall” is great for when you have a room you don’t want the robot to clean. It takes 4 AA batteries and prevents the robot from entering the room. The docking station has the ability to charge the robot and configure when the robot will clean on its own each day. You do not need to charge the robot from the docking station, the robot itself has a charging port that can be used. As mentioned, you can set the robot to automatically return to the docking station to recharge on its own. Some of the most impressive features of the robot include the automatic return to docking station, the ability to detect stairs before it drives over them, and an easy to understand manual the details each error code you may encounter. It also doesn’t make as much noise as my Dyson, you’re able to watch TV while having the vacuum running. Overall, this is a fantastic autonomic vacuum cleaner that you don’t have to worry about. It’s nice being able to come home to a clean home after work each day. It has great suction and cleaning power that overshadows my mighty Dyson. It’s very flexible with the different modes it has and can be configured to meet your needs.

Once I opened the box, the Bissell SmartClean was easy to assemble (you only have to insert the lithium ion battery pack and snap on the edge cleaning brushes). Everything is included in the box except for four AA batteries for the “Invisible Wall” device that will prevent the SmartClean (SC) from exiting an area or entering an area. There is a charging dock where the SC “lives” when not working. The instructions show that the charging dock be placed (usually along a wall) so that there is unobstructed space 40 inches to one side of it, 12 inches to the other side of it, and 79 inches to the front of it (and it needs to be within about four feet of an electrical outlet for the charger’s “wall wart”). Our house is mostly small rooms and there is something sitting along the walls virtually everywhere, so these placement restrictions on the charging dock might be an issue for some other people too. The SC is circular and measures 13 inches across and is low enough to tuck under kitchen cabinets to clean in the “toe kick” area. The main level of our house consists of three rooms of frieze carpet, while the kitchen, half-bath and a hallway/entryway are sheet vinyl, and there are a few thick throw rugs on the vinyl. The transitions from carpet to vinyl are the old style metal strips which means the SC has to “climb” up from the hard surface onto the carpet or up onto the throw rugs. I was surprised at just how easily the SC managed these transitions (including the rugs) as I thought they were going to be problem areas and cause it to hang up on them or avoid them altogether. However, navigating these transitions becomes harder for the SC as the battery gets depleted. Based on my observations, I would probably set up an every day cleaning schedule as the SC does not vacuum in the same type of thorough and defined pattern that a human would do with a conventional vacuum cleaner. The noise produced while cleaning is such that most people could have this run during the night on another level of the house and would not be disturbed by it. My wife and I live alone and do not have pets, so I cannot comment on how well the SC handles pet hair. The debris that is collected goes into a small plastic “dust bin” located under the main cover on top of the SC. You open the hinged top of the dust bin and empty the collected material and use a small brush (like an old toothbrush) to clean the filter that is enclosed in the dust bin. It is a rather simple procedure. Having observed about a half dozen cleaning session so far, I think it would be best to confine the SC to a moderately sized area as there were a couple instances where the battery started to run low while it was some distance away from the charging dock and it did not make it back to the dock on its own even though it ran for over another 20 minutes after the “Lo” battery indicator lit up. Confined to our carpet, the SC will run for about 40 minutes before showing the low battery signal, and I would expect the SC would have a longer run time on hard surface flooring since there is less resistance to impede the device as compared to carpeting. I’m also not sure what the long term effect will be on the appearance of our nicely finished cherry wood furniture from the SC’s front “bumper”. The bumping and banging on the oak doors and baseboard do not really concern me, but it can get a little annoying at times. I’m not quite sure of how the SC detects obstructions in its path as sometimes it stops before making contact with an object and other times it will run into an object repeatedly as it tries to find its way around it. Is it a replacement for a conventional vacuum? I could see how it might provide relief of this mundane task for some people, but for large families with children and pets, you would still want to use a conventional vacuum for “deep down” cleaning on a regular basis while the SmartClean helps to keep things under control on a daily basis. This is our first experience with a robotic vacuum so I have nothing to directly compare this Bissell to, but our conventional upright still earns its keep.

I had high hopes for the Bissell SmartClean Robot Vacuum, but it just didn't meet my expectations--especially for the price. I live in a fairly small place with couches, tables, chairs, and other items that just get in the way of this vacuum. While it's able to navigate around the larger items (and walls) just fine, it had problems with things like end tables and other lighter objects (decorative plants/planters) which it ran into and physically moved them. It didn't knock anything over, but it did give them a good nudge. I found this to be a little concerning as there are breakables on the end tables that I can see possibly getting bumped off. The features on this vacuum are pretty straight forward. Timer to schedule cleaning and settings on the vacuum that tell it the method to clean. I did find that it was very good at moving around the perimeter of the room and getting right up against the baseboards, much better than a normal vacuum could perform thanks to the edge bristles. I wouldn't ever recommend using this while you're planning on being in the room as it is quite loud. Cat wasn't scared by it, but was definitely intrigued. It also did fairly well navigating over some hallway runners and cleaned off some of the top fuzz that can accumulate. I expected it to get stuck, which it did a couple of times, but it was able to back up and try again with success. I would recommend this for anyone who has tile/hardwood flooring and mainly wants to keep tabs on the dust bunnies along the edges as it does this quite well. The fewer obstacles, the better. By obstacles, I mean any kind of furniture. I can see this being extremely useful in a kitchen to get up under the cabinet overhangs and around the edges where things can tend to accumulate. If your living areas are fairly spartan, this would be good as well. Bedrooms as well if you don't have clothes and shoes all on the floor as it would be quite useful at cleaning under the bed. In summary, this vacuum will either work for you or it won't. For me, it doesn't, but that's just because my home setup isn't ideal. If you have a fairly spartan house or only need it for areas with minimal furniture, then it should be fine and save you some trouble.

The BISSELL - SmartClean Robot Vacuum - Titanium/Disco Teal is an excellent vacuum and it works great on tile and wood floors. I am very pleased with the build quality of this vacuum. It is very well designed and is very solid. The vacuum has a bumper that helps the device navigate around walls, corners and large furniture. The bumper also prevents damage to the device as well as scratches or damage to walls and furniture. The vacuum has two brushes underneath the device to help sweep up dirt or loose sand, dust and or any other debris. The vacuum has settings to control the pattern in which the device cleans and also the power of the suction. This vacuum worked great on my tile floors in our home it effectively picked up litter, loose dirt , dust and cat dander from our pet cat. It is very easy to setup this vacuum the process took less than 6 minutes and the instructions were very easy to follow. Initially you have to charge the vacuum directly from an AC outlet for atleast 5 hours once that initial charge process is complete you can then maintain the charging of this vacuum using the docking station that is supplied with the device. I am very impressed how the vacuum goes back to the docking station to recharge once the assigned task is completed. There is also an invisible wall included with this vacuum that you can use to confine the vacuum to a room and/or a selected area for cleaning. I am very impressed with this vacuum thus far and highly recommend it especially if you have tile and/or wood floors in your home.The only thing that I would love to this vacuum have is a remote control to program and control the device. The vacuum's filter and storage compartment is very easily accessible to discard debris picked up during cleaning. Again I am very pleased with this vacuum and it is a welcome addition to our home.

When I got this vacuum, I was under no impression that it would replace my existing upright vacuum. However, I was not aware that is would do so well and cover so much area. For me, I live in a 12XX sq/ft apartment and I have young children. So, with that you have some additional challenges that the average user will not face. Specifically, toys, small food spills that you don't notice right off, toys, various furniture obstacles, and of course the toys. So, right out of the box I thought I would challenge the vacuum and put it on the maximum setting and see what it would do. For the maximum, it will go as long as it can and will still return to the charging area. This is of course is after I allowed it to charge while the vacuum is off and not connected to the charging hub. To my amazement, the thing does it. I set it so it could go anywhere it wants to randomly and it did. All over the living room, dining room, kitchen, hallways and into bedrooms. It covered some distance and it did it over carpet, wood flooring and laminate. Granted, it goes slower over the carpet, but it handled it well. The results, it charges itself. Runs when I schedule it to, and goes home each time. It does exactly as it is programed to do. Each time. Each run, I get about a handful of waste in the onboard bagless container. The container is EASY to empty, and it has a filter that is easy to remove and clean. As I mentioned before, toys are all over my place because my little 2 1/2 year old cannot allow there to be any sort of order in my house. She is into age appropriate toys, which tend to be larger. The vacuum will see the larger ones and avoid them. Sometimes it will run into them and back away to find another path. Other times it just push it until it runs into something else and reroutes itself. For the most part, this is not the problem and it handles the obstacles well. The challenges come from the tween and his room. The 11 year old is no that best at picking up after himself at times. If he leaves clothing on the floor, rest assured the vacuum will find it and suck it up. Will it damage the clothing? No. But it will suck it up, get caught and at times drag it. I have seen the vacuum get caught up on a shirt my son left on the floor and continue to try and work. It had a hard time moving and all of a sudden the wheels lost traction and it was like a 2X4 truck in the mud. Then all of a sudden something interesting and unexpected happened. The suction stopped. At first I thought that was a bad thing then I continued to watch it and learned why. The vacuum started to move again allowing it to release the shirt and move on like it was never there. The vacuum suction started again immediately and it moved on. That was cool. So, this little all terrain vacuum handles the day to day work well for your mail traffic areas. It is challenged by the table and chairs in the dining room and the living room furniture. It still tried to go under and around it, but it will not cover all the areas. The little whiskers that pull the debris into the suction area of the vacuum really try to get things, but no matter what it will not get EVERYTHING. The vacuum is not going to substitute for a full size vacuum for a better deep cleaning. It will be needed for the corners and other hard to get areas. And you will still have to move some furniture to get the dust under it and behind it. The little vacuum will go under the edges, but not too far under things. The sensors realize it and will reverse out of it most times. I think it sees dark are reroutes. Finally, as I mentioned I live in an apartment right now and I would be willing to bet this thing would do even more in a larger open area. Still, for me and my family it is worth it and it takes most of the vacuuming burden off us. It is completely self efficient and programable to your schedule. I don't know how it will do with pets, because I don't have any. For the price, this vacuum is about $100 or more cheaper than the other brands you see on TV and in the stores. The features are the same when you read them and it looks just as nice. So, in my opinion this vacuum has more bang for the buck if you are money conscious. This is my first experience with a robot vacuum and I and really into having a connected home. This fits well into my lifestyle and that of my family. Meaning I trust it to do the job on its own while nobody is home during the day and I don't worry about it. The only thing you need to do is make sure there are no major obstacles in its way and that you have made sure the bag is empty so won't fill up. Do the basic maintenance on the machine and I feel it will last for a long time. I am very impressed with it and I would definitely buy it again and recommend it to a friend.

After using product for a few days I will say I like: How well it cleans my hardwood floors. Like the way it navigates from room to room even under my furniture. Easy to empty the trash compartment. Setup was really clear and simple. What I did not like about the Bissell robot vacuum are: How loud it was. (if you are not home when it's cleaning that solves this issue.) Love when the robot finds the charging dock on its own. Cover for trash compartment feels cheap and flimsy. Brush on vacuum sometimes get stuck on my area rug so be careful when using it on some carpets. Robot does not always return to charging dock. Sometimes the robot is close to dock but for some reason it lose the course to the dock. I made sure to follow the directions clearly to make sure there is no obstruction but I sometimes still have to bring it to the dock. Overall I really like the Bissell Robot vacuum because it simplify some of my cleaning. When it works 100% it's an awesome feeling. Overall quality is good and the features for what it does makes the price a good value when compared to some of its competitors. I would recommend this to anyone without a lot of clutter in their home because the Bissell robot will have trouble navigating around some obstacles.

Here are my thoughts after using the Bissell Smartclean robotic vacuum for about a week. When I first setup the vacuum and began its initial charge, I got an "E6" error code ("battery not installed properly"), so I doublechecked it to make sure it was inserted properly with the correct polarity, which is was, plugged it in to start charging and got the error code again so not sure why this was happening. Eventually it started to charge and the error code went away, but that was rather confusing. The power switch must be set to "on" in order for the vacuum to charge, so in other words, you basically have to leave it turned on all the time. During the initial charge, there were blue LED numbers on the unit but I'm not sure what they were telling me since they are not mentioned in the instruction manual. Regarding the manual, it gives some basic setup information but it does not provide much detail with regard to operating the vacuum. I found the manual to be lacking in explanation. Let's move on to how it actually performed. First of all, its fairly loud so its probably best if you program it to run when no one is around or when you are watching TV, etc. As it starts its cycle, I must say its pretty interesting to watch it operate. My kids and my dogs were just as entertained and interested in watching what it was going to do next as I was :) You find yourself kind of rooting for the little thing when it, for example, gets underneath the dining room table and tries to move itself around and through the chair and table legs. Come on little guy, you can get out of there! But then when it just can't seem to get out from under the table after a few minutes I would pick it up and help it move on its way but that produces an "E4" error code ("Unit picked up from the floor") and when you set it back down the cycle stops, therefore, you have to reset it and start it from the beginning of its cycle again. After watching it for about 5 or 10 minutes the entertainment factor wears off so I'd go about my business and let it do its thing. I'd check on it periodically and found that it would sometimes seem to get confused or stuck in certain locations (like under tables), and its success rate in re-docking itself into the docking station was about 50% so sometimes I'd have to help it get properly seated. I would check its performance after a cycle and could see that it certainly was picking up debris when emptying its dust bin. We have mostly woodfloors on our main level with some throw rugs and the vacuum was good at picking up dog hair, especially from the rugs. But it definitely required cleaning the hairs from the brush roller as well as emptying the bin after every use/cycle. I don't think its possible for it to clean the corners of rooms since the device is round and backs off immediateley when it touches or approaches a wall. After a cycle I could still see some debris on the floors so I guess I could either increase the length of a cycle or change its pattern, not sure. But overall I honestly think robotic vacuums like this are more gimmick than a useful cleaning device. Yes, it is somewhat entertaining to watch it, but the truth is it doesn't do that great of a job at actually keeping our floors clean. You could vacuum your floors yourself in far less time than this thing does, but I guess that defeats the purpose of having a device that does it for you. In fairness, I have only used it for about a week so perhaps my thoughts will change over time and if they do I will update this review. But at this point I would not recommend it from a price-to-performance standpoint.

We live out in the country with three indoor cats and an indoor/outdoor black Lab, so I knew our house would challenge this vacuum. After charging it and picking up a few things on our tile floor utility room and kitchen, I turned it loose. It really did surprisingly well. It’s not going to replace a thorough, human-powered floor cleaning, but if you want an assistant to keep things civilized in between cleanings, this is the robot you’re looking for. Having had some experience with older robot vacuums (7 or 8 years ago), I was pleasantly surprised by some of the features and improvements with this model. It moves faster across the floor, is lighter and shorter, and it also seems “smarter” in its pattern of movement and obstacle avoidance. The default mode seems to be random where it switches between modes, and this worked pretty well. When it went into the “along the wall” mode, the edge cleaning brushes grabbed all the pet hair it could reach against the wall and also under the edges of the washer and dryer. Given our environment, the dust bin did fill up quickly with pet hair. I had to empty it every 15 minutes or so. Once caught up with the cleaning, though, I expect this won’t be a problem when it runs a couple of times per week on a schedule. I don’t mean to gross anyone out, but I’ve included a picture of the dust bin the first time it filled up. I think it’s impressive how much it picked up. This leads to the next thing I liked about the vacuum. While small, the dust bin and filter were super easy to take out, empty, and clean. I keep an old toothbrush around to lightly brush hair off the filter. The plastic bin is easy to rinse off. Most importantly to me, the roller brush on the bottom is very easy to pop out and clean. The bristles are far enough apart that you can easily pull hair from the roller and have it looking like new. Literally, in 2 or 3 minutes, I can have everything emptied, cleaned, and ready to go again. This is something I couldn’t do with the older robots. It does have a few limitations, though. It seems to clean best on hard floors, but it doesn’t do too well with throw rugs. It would go over the thin braid rug in our utility room, but that also caused the robot to leave a trail of pet hair at first. It eventually cleaned it all up, though. In our living area, larger area rugs were thick enough that it treated them like barriers and wouldn’t go over the top. It did do pretty well on a carpeted area, but as I said I think it’s better on hard floors. The edge brushes aren’t too effective on the carpet, and the 4” or so width of the roller brush doesn’t clean a very large area at a time. I’d go insane if I had to do the floor with a 4” brush, but the robot has nothing but time on its hands and doesn’t seem to mind. It eventually covered the whole area and it looked clean. Finally, the docking station placement can be a little tricky. If you have a clear 4’ stretch of wall that happens to have a power outlet, then you’re in business. But if you’re like us, you either have furniture along the wall or stretches of wall space with no power. I finally had to settle for an area that didn’t have quite the recommended clearance, but it was still able to dock. Overall, and given the price, I’d recommend this to someone interested in a robot vacuum. Oh, I almost forgot to include the pet opinions: Two cats run and hide, one cat keeps a close eye on the robot, and the black Lab sleeps through the whole process.

I have to admit, I am pleasantly surprised! I have looked at robot vacuums before but I have been skeptical as to how well they really work. I can now say that this Bissell SmartClean Robot vacuum works very well! To start, the unit is about the size of a typical vacuum but without a handle attached. It is lightweight and easy to move from room to room. The controls are pretty straight forward but a quick read of the well written instructions should really be done before first using it. Charge time to go from a dead battery to full charge is about 4 hours. Once charged, it will easy run for a 90 minutes or more. There are various settings for how it will cover the area to be cleaned. Random (auto) mode, circle, zig zag, and so on. There are two settings for suction. The regular suction works fine but I suggest leaving it on the more powerful setting. It will run a little slower when using the more powerful setting, but not by much. It picks up all kinds of dirt, including pet hair, very well. Aside from the edge brushes that can be seen while it's running, it has a nice bottom brush at the intake. It does a very good job of going from one type of surface to another. I have not seen it having any issues going from the main carpet to right over an area rug. It has a pretty powerful drive for its size. It is well buffered for when it runs into a piece of furniture or a wall. It won't scuff anything nor will it hit a table so hard that it will knock anything siting on it over. There is an "invisible wall" sensor that requires batteries that can be placed to keep the unit from going into a certain area that you choose. Nice idea! Also, the built in sensors that keep it from driving off the ends of the steps work great. What I probably like best about this vacuum is its ability to be set on a timer. You can schedule it to run at set intervals. During the day when at work, at night while you sleep, and so on. It can be set to run once a day, every other day, once a week, ect. Very handy! I would say that a great use for this would be for an apartment, dorm room or condo. Also, I can see where this could be of great benefit to someone with any mobility issues that make using a traditional vacuum difficult. It has a base/charging station that it will run back to automatically when its done or if it running low on power. Aside from emptying the dust bin and the occasional cleaning of the unit, it really is plug and play. Particularly if you plan to only use it in a one level dwelling. I really only have two cons for this vacuum. One, is the size of the dust bin. It is satisfactory but could stand to be a bit larger. However, I must say that it is super easy to remove and empty. Also, I think it would be nice if it included at least one more "invisible wall" sensor. I think I will check to see if extras can be purchased. All in all I am very impressed with this vacuum. It works as advertised and I have no doubt it will last for a very long time. I would gladly recommend it!

Bissel Smartclean Review On arrival the unit was packaged very nicely, pretty well protected. The side brushes are underneath the unit, and the battery is in the top portion of the box, it is not installed inside the unit so be sure to locate and install it. The side brushes were very easy to install, just line up and snap in place, couldn't be simpler. The unit has a power port so you can plug it into the AC adapter directly if for some reason the dock isn't working or if you don't have a convenient place to put the unit and would rather run it manually. Setting the clock on the base unit was very straight forward, pretty much like any other digital clock we've had over the last 20 years. Press "Set" and the icons start blinking in the LCD display, then "select" is used to move between HR,Min, and Day of Week, couldn't be easier. There is an invisible wall unit included and it takes 4 AA batteries, this is used for areas you don't want it to venture into and works like it should from the little bit of testing I gave it. Our house is tile and laminate throughout, no carpeting except for area and throw rugs with very short pile. One of our throw rugs has some 3-4" long fringe on both ends and that did trip it up, but instead of getting completely tangled and shutting down it immediately stopped, turned off the vacuum and brush the reversed itself making a rocking side to side motion and freed itself, "pretty neat seeing this", but this is also a reminder that you need to remove any rugs like that or use the invisible wall to block off that area. We also have a medium sized indoor dog that sheds quite a bit and figured this would help keep the huge dust bunnies in check and it did. I really like that fact that it got under the coffee and end tables, as well as under the bed and dresser. As long as there's enough height for this to clear it will go under and clean up everything really well. The dogs waterbowl was something i wanted to see if it would hit hard enough to spill and thankfully it didn't. I've noticed it's sensors work pretty well when approaching objects then slowing down till the bumper barely touches, It made just a slight ripple in the water, and no sloshing it out. The dust bin is a little small but I've owned other robotic vacuums "3" to be exact and they were smaller, I was pleasantly surprised by that. What I do like about it over the others is that the bin comes straight out of the top in a litte container with folding handle and lid. This makes it very easy to dump without spilling stuff all over the place and the one thing I really dislike about another brand of robotic vac we currently have. With this one the filter is inside the dustbin and snaps right out for cleaning, it has a lot larger surface area than the other ones we have but you will want to purchase at least one spare as you'll want to brush or blow it off after each use as it gets really clogged with fine dust and fuzz, which also means it's doing it's job. The side brushes "two of them" one on each side, stick out a lot further than the competetors brand, and really get along edges of cabinets and walls. They also bring debris around to the small center mounted brushe for pickup. The main brush is about half the length of the competetors model but I think this would help give it more suction than spreading out over a larger area, will know more after we've used it awhile. Another thing I really like is the ability to adjust the suction "fan" speed of the motor, there's a "Turbo" setting and normal, the turbo is really handy if your floor is dirty or are cleaning carpeted areas. I can't report how well this does on actual carpet as we have none, but for bare floors, and throw rugs with short pile it does a good job. As for programming it, it's also pretty straight forward, "just read the manual", for me it wasn't hard to set up at all. Also, as for how long the battery last, I have it running on 45minute intervals and it hasn't run out of power during those cycles, I can't run a full hour with the fan being set on turbo, I should run that long if the fan were set to normal. The automatic return to base works well as long as it's not too far away before it runs out of power. Be sure to read the instructions on setting up the base unit and you have proper clearances around it. Overall I would have to give this a buy and try rating, it works very good for us in our situation. This probably won't replace regular vacuuming but it sure helps keep things clean in between.

This my 1st experience with a robotic vacuum. The vacuum and documentation were very well packaged and the Quick Start Guide and User Guide very well written and diagramed for easy reference. I have had the unit for about 2 weeks putting it through its paces and I am overall very impressed. I have several young children (who are fascinated by the robot vacuum by the way) and it is hard to keep small items (think legos) and clothes off the floor. I was somewhat limited in places to let it run by itself without supervision (like my children). Our House has mainly hardwood floors with floor rugs and carpet in bedrooms with carpet in upper level room and basement. Main area I used for testing was a 11' x 6' with a thin floor rug next to a shoe closet that was fairly high traffic. There is an adjacent bedroom 12' x 12' with low pile carpet that I would pair with it for cleaning. I also used several other spaces in the home. See attached picture of a before and after cleaning of this main testing area. Programming base is easy and straight forward and performed well with scheduling. The Invisible wall works as described to confine it to intended area and away from areas where it could have difficulty. The feature that allows it to avoid a drop down a stairway was tested and worked well. Buttons on the vacuum for Power/Time, Mode, and Suction all were very clear and easily seen on screen of the vacuum. When they occurred #not often#, the error codes were appropriately displayed and accurate to the problem. I typically tested with 30 min working time and docking function turned on. I usually use the Auto Mode for pattern and turbo suction selection. I think it does a very good job cleaning with hardwoods and small pile carpet and floor rugs. Due to its low profile it can also go under beds which is an area that is usually not vacuumed, so it does pick up a lot of carpet fiber from those locations especially. It picks up hair well. Cleaning the dust bin is straight forward and would agree as the User manual suggests a soft bristle brush to clean it more easily. The capacity is not large but able to usually make 2-3 30 min runs before cleaning. Cleaning is quick and easy. I have also cleaned the intake and brushroll and is similar to most vacuums. I had to open up one of the wheel housings to remove a string #I let it roam without picking up area 1st, my fault not the vacuum# and it was easy to perform. Materials in vacuum seem very durable. The vacuum was very good about finding it's way how to the docking station when finishing it's time, low battery, or manually programmed to return to docking station #Kids like watching this feature# The Vacuum did have some trouble manuvering with some kitchen chair legs and stools. Otherwise did very well and bumper feature would get it unstuck. From what I have read after getting this product to review and testing it, the vacuum seems to be priced well and a good value. I think for the right flooring space and set up, it would be a welcomed addition for anyone to keep flooring vacuumed and looking nice regularly. It would be a very good compliment to use with a more traditional vacuum with less frequent use.

After receiving the Bissel smartclean robot vacuum I was pretty excited to try it out. The set-up is fairly easy, though it would have been nice to have a "quick set up" guide like most electronics have. It took longer than it should have to figure out where everything goes. The unit does have to charge for a while before first use as well. It comes with a docking station, cord, the vacuum and an invisible wall. Other models have a remote that might actually be handy. The automatic-docking feature is interesting. With a touch of a button you can set it to stop vacuuming (which immediately makes it quieter) and go "home" to it's dock. It takes it a few minutes sometimes depending on how far away it is, but the few times I've tried it the vacuum has always found it's way back. It then sits there and charges until it's ready to use again. It also has a "time remaining" indicator on top that is handy and has been very accurate from my experience. One of the best uses is to set it to run if you're leaving for a while. The docking function is on with the first button press, so it will run until it's almost out of power, then make it's way back to the docking station and will remain there charging until you run it again. I've used this a few times and it has always been in the station charging when I've returned home. You can adjust a few settings on it to make it run in different "patterns" such as an x, z, spiral, random or "along the wall" pattern depending on the size and shape of your room. there is also an "invisible wall" device included which is pretty cool. It blocks the robot from going into certain areas that you'd rather it not try to clean (for us this is our front hallway where shoes, coats and random various things are). It takes batteries and can be set up and "forgotten" about. By far the best use for this is the situation I'm in--hardwood floors with a large dog that sheds a lot (we have a lab). You can run it for an hour to an hour-and-a-half a charge depending on your floors. It takes roughly four hours to fully charge it the first time. We have an area rug that slows the robot down quite a bit. On hardwood floors it picks up a lot of dust and pet hair. After running for 90 minutes the collection bin will definitely be full if you have a pet that sheds. There are a few cons: It is quieter than a standard vacuum, but still noisy enough that you have to talk louder or turn up your TV if you're in the same room. You can't really set it to run and go to sleep unless you're on another floor. It does next to nothing on carpets and doesn't really have the power or battery-life for that kind of use. You do occasionally have to help the robot--it will get tangled on smaller cords, and sometimes can get stuck under things like chairs, though if you give it enough time it does always work its way out. Also, my dog does not like it haha. She is mostly indifferent, but every now and then the robot finds its way to her and she is not happy about it. We've had a few barking spells. Overall if you have a need for this kind of product (and let's face it it's a pretty specific need) then this product will work for you. It will not replace a regular vacuum by any stretch, but it will save you from the dreaded 'daily sweeping of the pet hair' that most pet owners go through.

I received this product in exchange for an honest review. This is one of those cool-to-have products that I would have been reluctant to purchase on my own. The price isn't bad compared to the competitors, and Bissell is a well-known brand when it comes to vacuum technology. The robotic vacuum includes a docking station that needs to be plugged into an outlet and have adequate space on either side (12 in. on the right and 40 in on the left according to the manual). You also need to place the back of the dock against a wall. It's light, so the vacuum can push it back when trying to dock. The docking process includes the robot trying to connect two metal contacts to contact points on the dock. When you plug the dock in, you have to set the time and set up any cleaning schedules. After initially charging the vacuum, I let it go and observed. It navigated around furniture and managed to fit under my relatively low ottoman. The first thing I noticed was that it filled up pretty quickly. We have 2 long-haired cats and two dogs that shed (plus my wife). That equates to a lot of hair around the house. With the color of our carpet, I didn't realize how much was there. It made me feel bad about how frequently we vacuumed before. We did have to pull some of the longer hairs out of the roller on the intake, but it didn't hinder the operation. We had one instance where it got caught on our Christmas tree skirt, but overall, it seems to manage rugs on top of hardwood pretty well. The automated schedules are probably the most interesting feature of this device. The idea that I can program it to run while I'm away at work every day is pretty cool. It's on the louder side during operation, so I figured it would be better to have it do its work while we were away. It's also neat to watch it automatically return to the docking station when it is finished. It comes with an "invisible wall" as well. This is just a battery operated device that you place in front of an area such as a door frame to indicate that you want the vacuum to stay out. I didn't have a use for this as of yet, so I haven't tried it. This vacuum would be great for apartment dwellers or individuals with the majority of their living space on one floor. Unfortunately, I don't fall into that category. This can't replace a regular vacuum in my house, but it can certainly keep my main floor cleaner. While I can carry the device between floors to clean, it can't do the stairs. The docking station also resets each time it is unplugged, as there is no battery backup. What this means is that if you want to relocate the dock, you have to reset the time and schedules. This doesn't take a lot of time, though, so it's a minor complaint.

The 1605 is Bissell’s entry into the robotic vacuum market and offers a mid-tier feature set for an entry level price. The package includes a wall charger (which is also set up to easily mount to your baseboard and function as a dock for the robot to return to after cleaning), the robot itself, detachable side brushes, and a single “invisible wall” unit intended to confine the robot to a room or portion of a room. The charging base actually includes time/date and scheduling functions, so these are programming on the base rather than the robot. The base causes the robot to initiate the cleaning cycle according to the set schedule. The robot itself appears reasonably well constructed, although the plastic finish can definitely pick up nicks and scratches as the robot knocks into walls, stone fireplaces, etc. The sensor package includes “cliff sensors” on the front and sides (intended to prevent the robot falling down stairs), and a single IR receiver to assist with docking back with the charging base. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Lithium Ion battery rather than the older tech NiMH types I’ve seen on some other models. The underside includes two detachable (for cleaning) side brushes which ostensibly direct dirt from baseboards into the suction intake. The actual intake is slightly more than one-third the width of the unit, so the side brushes are definitely needed to get dirt into the right location. In theory, the unit can automatically switch between several cleaning modes: following walls, a Z pattern, expanding concentric circles, and a random pattern. You can also manually select any one of these modes if you prefer, although I found the unit would override my choice after a while. The unit moves around in what appears to be a random fashion without a systematic approach, frequently going back over ground already covered. In practice, the cleaning experience with the Bissell was inconsistent. I’ve tried the unit in three distinct settings: a relatively clear hardwood kitchen area with an island but no table, a living room with hardwood floor and area rug surrounded by chairs, and a carpeted upstairs landing with adjacent hallway. Here’s what I’ve observed in each situation: 1. Kitchen. The robot did best in this setting, picking up most of the loose dirt on the floor and generally navigating around obstacles well. It ran for about 30 minutes and successfully returned to its base, although it had trouble docking. This might be because I hadn’t attached to dock to the baseboard, but just set it against it. The unit did struggle a little with a thin rug by the kitchen door, but never actually because stuck. 2. Living room. This was the most difficult environment for the unit. It struggled consistently with transitioning from the wood floor to the area rug and was generally unable to climb back up once it got onto the floor. When it was on the rug, it failed to pick up visible loose dirt, including some fluff from the relatively new rug. I had to stop the cleaning cycle manually because it just wasn’t accomplishing anything. The dirt bin was almost empty despite the dirt and fluff on the rug. 3. Upstairs landing. The unit did much better on the carpet upstairs, covering most of the area with its meanderings and leaving the carpet at least appearing cleaner. It did leave behind some visible lose debris despite being on the “turbo” setting. The biggest issue here is that the toward the end of the cycle the unit actually fell down the stairs. The cliff sensors, which appeared to be working find when I first started it, later failed to detect the stairwell and it proceeded to roll down the stairs and stop at the bottom. Give Bissell their due – it appeared undamaged, but obviously it’s not a recipe for feeling confident about letting it work unattended. The dirt bin was nonetheless quite full at the end of the cleaning session, so at least it was vacuuming well. A word about the “invisible wall”: I like the concept of a single “post” that sends out a straight line signal to confine the robot. I didn’t see anywhere in the manual that specified an “effective range”, but in my experience it is limited to about 10 ft. It the opening you’re trying to cut off is wider than that you will need a second unit or some other obstruction. In both my downstairs scenarios, the robot broke through the wall and needed to be physically placed back in the target area. All units of this type have some limitations, but the Bissell does seem to involve more trade-offs than would be ideal. In fairness, it offers reasonable performance for the price if you have cleaning scenarios that are suited to its strengths (smaller areas with hard flooring and no stairs). I’m not sure if software updates are possible on this model, but if so it may be that the pathfinding and cliff sensors improve down the line. As it stands, I would recommend this product for kitchens and hallways or other limited areas that are reasonably free of obstacles, rugs, and steep drops. For more challenging environments, you may be best served with a more advanced (and admittedly more expensive) alternative.

First off, most of the time ignored, is packaging. This has great packaging, which kept the device and all components dry as it was left out in the rain for a few days #thanksfedex. Setup was a breeze, however I wish the 'station' had a battery backup to retain the time / schedule. This is my first robotic vacuum so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into and the one thing that could be better, is the documentation talking about "what this thing is going to do." Yeah, clean -- but how, and do I worry about stairs? Well, hasn't fallen down the stairs yet (and I haven't used the invisible fence) and it goes over heating grates and transition bumps without issue. It seems to be a little cautious with walls after it bang into them, forcing it to miss 'stuff' right along the baseboard. But now that I know, I'll just sweep the stuff off the wall, so that the little guy can pick it up. It ran for a while and it went low battery - but didn't venture back to its charging station, which I find -- odd? I guess when the juice runs out, it just stops where it is. I ended up having to cut its cleaning short and just put it right back at the base. Oh and it's pretty quiet as well -- which was nice to experience. Definitely a nice addition to the house.

My first robot cleaner and I love it. It was a Christmas present from my husband. It goes on every day and makes the rounds, then usually puts itself away on the charger. There is a bin full of dust, hair,etc. when it's done. It has occasionally gotten stuck on the thin, rubber-bottom rugs, which might curl up under it. It does rotary moves to get around on to them, usually successfully. I find it easier to just pick those up. Area rugs are no problem, though you can hear it working harder on carpeting. Under a table, it is a bit like a person in a house of mirrors, though it eventually gets out. Some days I flip the chairs onto the table to give it more time for the rest of the house. Every day I empty it and every 2-3 days, I clean the brush of hair, dust, etc. We live in a 3 bedroom single story with wood floors and area rugs. Overall, I find it works well and am thrilled with little "Rosie". My dry mop is retired.

First! this is my first purchase of this kind of smart vacuum and i'm so excited about the way it cleaning up the hard places beneath the Tv table and beds. very smart when moves seamlessly over different surfaces. i tried few tricks to check its efficiency out by dropping crumbles on the carpet and the goal was achieved perfectly it went over it and sucked it up! happy with it and my family either.

I love this product. I haven't touched my broom since. It really picks up everything, except anything bigger than a marvel ball obviously. Floor dust free, trash free, dirt free. I like that it even goes thru the corners and with the extended brushes grabs things that the regular vacuum cant reach. The only cons is the that it bumps pretty hard into things sometimes when the sensors dont sense and when the timer is up and goes around v theere looking for its base. It should at lewst map its base so that it know where to return instead of bumping into everything. Also maybe in a the future an app that will allow you to turn it on and off whEnever.

Awesome product. It cleans better than my regular vacuum. The only two issues I have is programming could've been simpler and the invisible wall is terrible. The light will turn on to tell the vacuum not to go past it and the vacuum will run the invisible wall over or go right by it.

2700sf /hard floors. I looked at all the different brands and decided on this one based on price point and the lithium battery(9/10). I've heard and read about other brands/ models not cutting the mustard when it came to battery life, this little guy goes for a pretty decent amount of time before he quits (8/10). I was also worried it wouldn't clean the whole house, it does pretty ok but could probably use a friend(8/10),again 2700sf. When it comes to cleaning I'd say I'd does an okay job. It picks up quite a bit but not everything (7/10). It could be easier to program, but you get what you pay for (7/10). This won't replace your old vacuum, but may reduce the time and frequency you have to push it around; so a win. The good: competitively priced, relatively easy to maintain. Parts are available should you need them (I have not). Reduces time pushing old vacuum. The bad: AI could be more systematic in cleaning, doesn't always find its way to the charging dock, can clog with pet hair. (But to be fair we have more pets than I care to admit). Bottom line: For the money (~$225 +/- $25) it does a pretty ok job. Maybe at a higher price point it'll clean itself and pick up everything.