BISSELL - CrossWave All-in-One Multi-Surface Cleaner - White/Titanium/Cha Cha Lime

Very Impressed! We received the CrossWave a few days ago and I wanted to give it a couple good uses first before writing anything. We also a different branded floor scrubber and I wanted to test this against it also. Unboxing was simple, it came in a large cardboard box with plenty of paper egg shell type liners. Inside you'll find the machine wrapped in plastic, in basically two pieces. Just remove the handle and body assembly, remove all the plastic bags and little advertisement flyer attached to the side, slide the handle into place till you hear it snap in and you are done. The cord is nice and long, we can reach around our kitchen and dining area easily using one plugin. Also inside the box you will find two small bottles of cleaning solutions, one multi floor and one for hardwood, two brushes - one for hardwood and one multi floor brush, there's one multi floor brush already installed and ready to go. There's also a plastic tray for setting the machine in after use and to be used for cleaning out the machine, a plastic brush holder is also included and snaps into the side of the plastic flor tray, nice for storing and drying your brushes after use. A manual, guide and warranty registration card are also included, it's nice to see Bissell has given this a two year warranty also. For our test I first ran our normally used vacuum over the area rugs in the kitchen and dining area, figured I wanted to give it a good test and see if it actually picked up anything our vac didn't. I filled the solution bottle to the large area marks "figuring two rugs and the tile floor around may take a lot", but I only used about half of the solution recommended, I've found over the years I can use less than what's recommended in all the machines we've owned and this seemed like a lot to me, "just personal choice". I started the machine up and began with the runner in the kitchen, be sure to select the "Rug" power button for which floor type you'll be cleaning on. When you depress the solution release trigger two leds light up the solution path on the head and you can see the solution flowing "neat", a great way to see that the solution is coming out. While running the machine is a little heavy to run around as it cleans and vacs it really sticks to the rug and takes a little effort to move, "not bad by any means" and less than our full sized carpet cleaner. With the clear head surrounding the brush you can see the solution doing it's work, foaming up and being sucked in. I didn't pay much attention to the dirty water tank at this point, I focused on getting that carpet clean. After a good run over the kitchen runner I ran it around the tile floor around it "switching the power switch to hard floor", I could visually see the floor getting cleaner and a second quick pass after the solution application really pulled off a lot of the water leaving the floor just barely damp. Next I went over to the are rug in the dining area "breakfast nook" and started there, also setting the power switch to rug. I did notice the solution tank really didn't use a lot of solution and was surprised, I expected more, but the floor and runner were definitely getting enough as they were left slightly damp. After running over the throw rug in the dining are, I did the tile around it with a couple quick passes and then shut off the machine for cleaning and inspection. We were really surprised as to what came out of those rugs, the visibly were a lot cleaner, and the dirty water tank looked like a cup of hot chocolate with chunks "eww", can't believe that came out of the carpets even after going over them with the regular vac "and it's a high end popular model to boot". The water was absolutely dark, lots of what looked like mud laying in the bottom "see pic". Taking the unit apart for cleaning couldn't be easier, first just take out the water tank, dump, remove the air filter, wash out the tank assembly and set aside to dry, I also rinsed out the air filter according to instructions and set it aside to dry out. Next, cleaning the brush was easier than expected, just lift up on the back side of the cover and it pops right off, then there's a small tab on the right side of the brush marked "pull", pull up and the brush comes right out. I took that to the sink rinsed and squeezed out all the water I could and put it in the drying tray. I noticed the head and intake tube had a lot of dirt in them so I took it to the bath tub and rinsed it out and placed in the try to dry, I had actually forgotten you can use the tray to rinse the whole thing out, just used to cleaning our old carpet cleaner that way, I'll try that sometime. Oh, and the solution tank, it only took half of it to clean up those areas, wow, our other one took at least one tank "and it's bigger". So this appears really economical to run. In all I'd say this beat our other floor cleaner by simple versatility, how well it cleaned and how little of the solution it actually used. It probably doesn't get right down into the grout as well as our other one, but I'll know more as time goes on, and it's easy enough to use more often so that may be a moot point. My wife is really pleased with the outcome, some of the spots on the runner in the kitchen are now gone and it looks great. The throw rugs colors in the dining area look like new again, "didn't realize they were that dingy till after cleaning". I'll highly recommend this floor cleaner and if you have a lot of hardwood, laminate, tile and throw rugs "which we do, no carpet anywhere" then this would be a great machine for you. I did see Bissell is coming out with a area rug specific brush and have that on my want list as I think it will do an even better job on the throw rugs even though the results are already outstanding.

Let me start with something important - I really, really wanted to like this product. The ability to vacuum and clean the flooring at the same time with the same machine? What is there not to love? In practice though, there are a few things that just ruin this concept for me. Setup: getting this 11lb cleaner ready to go is pretty easy. Fill the tank with your cleaning solution, pick the beater that you are going to use (either ‘hardwood’ or ‘multi-surface’) and get started. One minor annoyance is that to get the solution container out of the unit while having the cord wrapped up, you need to very carefully maneuver the bottle between the rungs. It’s a little annoyance, but I think that we have the technology to have designed it better. Don’t expect this unit to be light on the juice either - in the box you will find two different cleaning solutions (one “hardwood” and one “multi-surface”). At 8 ounces each, I expect to be able to clean about four “small messes” as determined by the solution bottle. The side of the box advertises that this machine can be used for quick mess cleanups - their example is a bowl of spilled Cheerios with milk. Keep this in mind, I’m going to reference this later. Design wise, its pretty. Almost all surfaces are textured with a honeycomb shape and those that are not feel like high quality plastic. It uses a swivel joint between the cleaner head and the vacuum body allowing near 360-degree movement. When you first turn the machine on it just turns on the suction; the brush head is only activated when you unlock the swivel. Cleaning: my apartment has three different types of surfaces that I used to test on: carpeting, fake wood linoleum, and tile. My first test was on the tile surface - and I was thoroughly impressed. The brushes took care of the tiles and the grout - something that normally requires getting on your knees and grabbing the brush to clean by hand. Next on the list was the fake linoleum wood floor - it cleaned acceptably, but compared to grabbing my vacuum and mop, I’m not sure it was much better. Carpet cleaning performed as expected and as one would expect from any other carpet cleaner in that the carpet was slightly damp after cleaning. As a regular vacuum it performed pretty well. Seemed to pick up everything that was in front of it with ease. Speaking of which... This thing eats more cords than a bored cat. You might not need to clean up many items on the floor to work with this machine (assisted by the swivel neck on the unit), but you do need to move cables. Normally I’m pretty good missing the ones I left on the floor, but this thing had no problem snacking on two cables while I was testing it. Cleanup: this is where the concept of the cleaner quickly left a sour taste in my mouth. The unit disassembles into a number of pieces, which is good because you wouldn’t want mold forming in your appliance. This comes at a cost though - to clean it, you need to pull the following components: the carpet brush, the cover for the brush, the cleaning solution tank (and its cover), the dirty water tank, which also includes a filter, a screen for said filter, and the float. That’s eight parts. Yes, there are only a few parts, and yes, they are all mostly cleaned by a quick rinse, but there is more than that. For starters, remember that this functions as a vacuum which picks up all the debris before using the cleaning solution. Now you have debris mixed in with the dirty water and it doesn’t always want to come out easily as it is now thoroughly soaked (ew.). So, we’ve now cleaned the vacuum, lets throw it all back together! Hold up, you need to let everything air dry for 24 hours individually. Those eight components suddenly take up a lot more space as a whole. Anyway, think back to the imagery on the side of the box. You (or your child) spills a bowl of cereal and milk. Would you prefer to clean up this cleaner in addition to the mess? Or would you prefer to grab a paper towel and wipe the mess up quickly with no follow up cleaning. For what it is worth, Best Buy/Bissell provided this unit to me at no cost for a fair and honest review. As I hope you can tell, I do not let this put a bias on my reviews.

Ok, two revelations: 1) I’m a guy. 2) I hate to clean. So, I thought the Bissell Crosswave would help me out with the second one. It vacuums and washes at the same time. It has a clean water tank, where you also add cleaning solution — Wood floor and “multi surface” versions included. “Multi Surface” includes wood, carpet, and tile — and another tank to collect the dirty solution that it sucks up. After unpacking the Crosswave, I was struck by two things: It was light for all its features and it felt very well made. As I assembled it (which literally involved pushing the handle onto the body), I was impressed that it seemed very well designed — all the buttons, latches, and parts seemed thought out to be easy to use. When I started reading the documentation, all that changed! I thought, “too much work!” Too much set up, too many rules, too much cleanup. I could’ve used the vacuum and a bucket and mop with less effort. But I was wrong! Here’s why. It’s simple to fill with water and cleaning solution. Using it was *almost* fun. It cleaned my kitchen floor, which is porcelain tile, so much faster and with so much less work than a bucket and mop. It swivels easily to get into corners and has a good long cord. (One complaint here: the cord is attached to the unit at the bottom, rather than the top and I found this to be annoying to hold the cord out of the way while sweeping.) You can fill the Clean Water Tank partially or fully for small or big jobs. Since I was trying this out for the first time, I went with the small fill. I was able to clean my whole kitchen floor as well as my living room and dining room! I’m sure I could have done most of the house with a complete filling. Note: Much of my work was tile and wood floor, plus one small and one large area rug. The documentation notes that the “Rug” mode uses twice as much solution, so your mileage may vary. Also note that the clean water tank is not huge — when full, it takes about 3 1/2 cups (or about 800ml) of water and solution. So the amount of liquid in use is not a lot compared, say, to a professional wet vac rug cleaner with a multi-gallon tank. When I was finished, I noticed that the kitchen floor was almost completely dry. Much more so than when I used a bucket and mop. When I removed the dirty water tank, I was struck by HOW dirty it was. Having a dog, I was also happy to see the amount of fur it had collected. What I originally thought would be too much cleanup, turned out to be super easy and fast. Simply running the parts under warm water was all it took. Here’s where the documentation failed me. It shows how to clean the dirty water tank, filter, and brush and then separately shows you how to use the included storage tray to clean the internal mechanisms and the brush (again!) I think, in practice, it would be smarter to clean the brush and internals using the tray, and *then* disassemble the dirty water tank, filters, etc to clean them. Finally, remove the brush and clean it and you’re done. Please note, this is not a problem with the Crosswave, but with the directions. Just use the cleaning tray first, then rinse the dirty water tank, filter, and roller. I’m not sure I’ll pull this out for routine vacuuming, but I’m ready to retire my bucket and mop, and will certainly use the Crosswave when company’s coming!

FIrst off, the Bissell CrossWave is definitely better than a mop. With a mop, you're often sloshing around the mess. With the BissellCrossWave, the mess is temporarily pulled up by the brush to let the vacuum portion draw it into the dirty water tank. Since the brush roll (with bristles) is spinning at about 3,000 rpm, it's doing the hard work of scrubbing the floor for you. I had a dried up spot that I probably would have spent a minute or two scrubbing by hand, and the CrossWave took it out in a few seconds. I was pleasantly surprised at how little solution is used. I think part of that is because the solution is pulsed onto the roller instead of constantly streaming. I also liked the suction level provided by the vacuum. However, the CrossWave does have its faults. The manual leaves much to be desired. So much so, that I couldn't understand the purpose of the Easy Clean Storage Tray. I found a YouTube video of the CrossWave as demonstrated by HSN which did a better job explaining most of the features and usage of the CrossWave than the manual could. The machine itself needs quite a bit of cleaning after use. After dumping and cleaning the dirty water tank, you'll need to remove and rinse the brush roll window. Then remove the brush roll and clean that up, then you need to wipe down the rest of the brush roll chamber and let each separate item air dry overnight. It's definitely not a machine you can throw into a closet just after use. So make sure you're cleaning an area of floor that is worth the hassle of cleaning up the CrossWave. I also noticed that you're not going to be able to clean to the edge of a wall. I estimate you will clean up to an inch away from all walls. Also, if you have deep grout lines, the CrossWave might not be able to clean the grout lines very well. I question the longevity of the squeegee wiper on the bottom of the unit as well. Even through these faults, I still maintain that the CrossWave is better than a mop. My floors are definitely cleaner than a simple mop can achieve. It will work harder and save you time when cleaning a large area, but be prepared to spend a few minutes cleaning the machine after use.

Disclaimer - I was given this product in exchange to test it for a fair and honest review. The TL;DR (or short) version: I think the Bissell CrossWave is the ultimate hard surface cleaning machine. While it's marketing material claims it will clean any flooring surface, I felt it excelled with hardwood, tile, linoleum, and even bare cement, but came up short with carpet. It's easy to set up and easy to clean after use - no tools required in either case. It has a lot of nice touches that make it a good all-around cleaning machine. There are a couple of weak spots that come from what I feel is a design flaw, but otherwise it's a solid way to cut down on the amount of time one spends on floor care. The long version: The Bissell CrossWave is the floor care machine I've been waiting for for years. It's a great way to vacuum and "power mop" your floors at the same time, and - in my case, at least - extract an unexpected amount of filth from your floors. In terms of unboxing and initial setup, it couldn't have been easier. The CrossWave comes mostly assembled - just insert the handle, assemble the storage tray, mix up a container of solution, and plug it in. You're ready to go at that point. Other things that come in the box are cleaning solutions for hardwood floors and general purpose usage, a second hard surface/carpet combination brush (one comes preinstalled in the unit), and a wood floor brush. Disassembly of the CrossWave for cleaning the unit is just as simple as the initial assembly is - the dirty water and debris collection bin pops out once you hit a button and the clear roller brush cover and the roller brush pop out the front of the unit with ease. Did I mention you don't need tools to assemble this machine? Using it is also simple. The handle has three controls on it - a trigger to dispense cleaning solution, and mode buttons for carpet and hard surface that double as the machine's power buttons. Press them to power the unit up or switch modes; a bright white LED in each button indicates which mode is active. Press the active mode button again to power it off. The only difference between the two modes, btw - carpet mode dispenses cleaning solution twice as fast as hard surface mode does. To activate the roller brush, tilt the unit back; tilt it forward to turn the roller brush off. When it comes to cleaning performance, its hard surface cleaning amazed me. It's performance on carpet was adequate, but not enough to wow me. I started on ceramic tile using the combo brush and general purpose cleaner. Not only did it get dirt off my kitchen floor that I didn't know was there, but now I know where all my scratched and cracked tiles are. I also used it to clean the area where my stove sits, and it got things off the floor that I'd normally need some sort of scraper to get. I then moved to hardwood, using the same brush and cleaner since this was about getting the floors cleaned. Even with the standard cleaner, I noticed my flooring didn't look as dull. It also managed to get drywall dust off the floor that didn't come up during either regular moping or while using a disposable wet pad mop. I then tried carpet, again with the same cleaner and brush combination. I was disappointed that it didn't do much for an old stain that normally sits under a chair, but I did find that fresh spills come right out with ease. Finally, I took it to my basement to clean some old, abused linoleum. While it didn't make it look brand new, a few passes with the cleaner did bring back some of the original shine this tile had. The one thing all the hard surfaces had in common was the amount of filth I got off of them. The wastewater was definitely filthy, as evidenced by the fact that it was grey and you couldn't see through it. From both the tile and hardwood floors, there was also sediment that collected in the bottom of the wastewater container. The water from the carpet was also a little grey, but not nearly as filthy as the water from the hard surfaces. The CrossWave does have a lot of positives going for it. The aforementioned tool-less assembly and disassembly makes cleanup easy. Roller brushes are dead simple to swap. The cleaning solution container has markings on it to make mixing solution painless. The unit also has an LED headlight on it that activates while you're dispensing solution. The biggest positive, however, is the hard surface cleaning performance. You even don't need to vacuum while you use it to clean floors. There are a few negatives though. Personally, I think the power cord is a little short; my living room is 16x20, my kitchen is 12x5x25, and I had to move where it was plugged in in both rooms in order to completely clean them both completely. The carpet cleaning performance is okay with fresh spots but it lacks the ummph to clean older spots. Also, the way the filter assembly is designed, some dry debris does get caught in the pre-filter; however, the pre-filter is at least designed to be cleaned every time. Also, on the roller brushes, I do understand the pull tab side will never be flush with the edge, but that doesn't mean the unit can't be redesigned where the drive side of the roller brush can approach the edge of the brush roll housing. While it does get close to edges, there's still a small gap between the wall and where it cleans. All in all, I thought the CrossWave was a very solid idea and an even more solid execution. Being able to vacuum and "power mop" at the same time cut my kitchen floor cleaning time down by at least 33%, if not more. The job it did on my hardwood was great, and the amount of filth it got off my floor makes me wonder how I ever thought the floors were clean before using this machine. At it's recommended price point, I can happily recommend the CrossWave to anyone who has a lot of hard surface flooring, hates traditional mopping as much as I do, and finds that wet pad mops don't work as well as advertised.

I would like to preface this with the statement that I used this in the absolute worst possible scenario in order to see how effective it really is. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Bissell has made a lightweight hard floor and rug cleaner (read: not carpet). It's both easy to use and pretty decent at what it does, with only a few minor gripes. To begin, I used this on carpet, which I understand is not its intended use, but I did it for a reason. First, it was the messiest area I could find, second, I wanted to see just how far I could push it. I have to say it fared far better than expected. The other reason I didn't use it on hard floors is because my hardwood is currently being installed and was not ready for me to try this on, so unfortunately I cannot speak to the effectiveness on wood, though I do have some concerns with voiding the warranty and such as most wood flooring does not want you to use liquid unless in the most dire of circumstances. It cleans well, as you can see in the pictures, this is an area that has experienced numerous spills and has been mostly ignored because of its location (basement... out of sight, out of mind). Again, this is carpet and not an area rug or hard floor as the machine is designed for, so the fact that it is not perfect is to be expected. That said though, the few gripes I do have are these. Pushing the unit is more difficult than you'd expect. Sure on hard floors it is fine, but even on an area rug it takes a bit more effort than I feel it should. Bigger wheels might have helped with that. Second, the directions for use, and specifically, for the different brushes that are included are lacking. I had to read the side of the box to figure out which brush was for the rug and which was for the hard floors/wood. There is also almost no information on usage of it on wood. Third, it goes through formula faster than I would have hoped, despite what the limited directions do say. This may be because I was on carpet rather than the intended material, however I cannot see getting 700 sqft out of the full cleaning tank. I used it on the pictured area and a few other small areas (of different floor types), but nowhere near 700 sqft worth of area. Finally, it is nice that it comes with a stand so you aren't sitting the wet unit on your now-clean floors, but the roller holder on the side sits over the edge, and if they are indeed wet they will just drip on the clean floors since they are not held very securely. All in all, used in the correct way, I would say this is a very good unit, just don't plan on using it in a manner that was no intended or it will fall short.

Does the Bissell Crosswave clean? Yes! Is it convenient? That's another story. First, lets cover the good points. Assemble is a snap, literally. From box to using the product, takes only a few minutes. The included instructions are easy to follow. The Crosswave appears to be quality constructed and is backed by a two year warranty from Bissell. Most parts are high quality plastic. The power cord's length is more than adequate to cover most large size rooms. The light weight of the device makes maneuvering easy. If your hard surface floor is free of grounded-in stains, the Crosswave does a respectable job of floor cleaning. Small debris is sucked into the machine, so sweeping before hand is not necessary. That fact is a real time saver. Now for the negatives. If your floor has a lot of grounded-in dirt, the cleaning results are not that impressive. An old fashion sponge mop does a much better job on such dirt. The cleaning head can't get very close to the baseboards. As such, there is an area about 1" wide that is not cleaned. The width of the head might be problematic. If there is a vanity or toilet near each other, the head might be too wide to fit in the space in between. Considering the price of the unit, it is surprising that the included fresh smelling washing solution is only a sample size. The washing solution is mixed with clear warm tap water in the clear water dispenser. The dispenser has markings for two sizes of rooms. Oddly, when the maximum size room is mixed, the dirty water reservoir can't handle to total clean water volume and must be emptied in the middle of cleaning! If the dirty water reservoir is not emptied, the machine will not work properly. Having to stop in the middle of a job is an inconvenience. At first blush, the Crosswave appears to save time and it does, initially. The Bissell will clean the floor without sweeping, and the floor is almost dry when the job is completed. A huge plus! It's when the job is completed the time saved is loss. The machine clean-up is laborious. The dirty water tank is well, dirty. Extremely so. The water tank must be cleaned and washed by hand. None of the parts are dishwasher safe. There is a filter that must be cleaned and it takes 24 hours to dry. The roller pad must be removed and cleaned. There are other parts that should be cleaned as well. Bottom line, the Bissell Crosswave does what it's advertised to do. It makes cleaning hard surface floors an easy task. The cleaning of the machine afterward, is it's biggest issue.

No matter how much I try to keep our kitchen floors clean, they never seem to stay that way. It’s a constant struggle especially when you have pets and the kitchen is a main thoroughfare through the house. I’ve tried regular mops, sweeping the floor every other day, steam mops, and even simple rags with cleaning solution on the floors. While it helps for an initial cleaning, within hours of the floors drying, they are right back to needing to be cleaned. The Bissell Crosswave is truly the ultimate cleaning solution for heavily traveled floors. The Crosswave is a mop and vacuum in one device. It comes packaged as a single unit with the handle insertion being the only assembly required. When I took the cleaner out of the box, I was able to start cleaning the floors within about 10 minutes (operator manual review included). The Crosswave comes packaged with two bottles of cleaning solution - multipurpose and wood floors. The bottles while small stretch out for a long period of time because you dilute it with warm water when you fill the cleaning solution reservoir. The Crosswave is very sturdy. It’s a solid cleaning device and one of the most impressive parts to me is that the vacuum comes with a storage tray for it to live on. This would prevent any excess fluid from spilling onto the floor after using it for a cleaning. So, the big question is, “how well does it clean?” My answer is very well. When I first started it up, the vacuum part of the device picked up dirt and debris right away, but it took a few minutes for me to really notice the mop part working. Because I was using it in a heavily trafficked area of our house, I knew there was a lot of dried grass that had been tracked in, dog food and hair, as well as regular dirt that had settled on the floor. It was a good testing ground for the Crosswave. After about 5 minutes of running the Crosswave over the kitchen floor, I found that the floor felt cleaner. I was walking through the room barefoot and could actually tell the difference between the section of floor that had been cleaned, and the one that hadn’t. It was very refreshing to see a cleaning tool work so well on such a difficult area to clean. The Bissell Crosswave works better than just a standard sweeping or steam mop will do, but every once in a while, you may still have to take a mop to the floor for the hard to scrub places.