Bissell PowerClean FurGuard review: Best for basics

Stick vacuums hate to see pet fur coming. The nightmare tangles they create have sparked a plethora of solutions from brands, from inbuilt combs, to dual roller brushes, all labelled as “anti-tangle”. Writ large these anti-tangle rollers are disappointing. While some will keep tangles at bay, they’ll create furballs instead, while others entirely miss the mark. Bissell’s Self-Cleaning Brushroll is one of the first we’ve tested that truly lives up to that premise, although its other fur-related features aren’t as impressive.

When it comes to vacuuming performance on the floor, the PowerClean FurGuard is as good as it gets. Both small and medium debris had a 99%+ clearance rate on carpets, hardwood, and edge performance was the same. It tackled our testing materials of sprinkles and oats without issue, and easily pulled up bundles of fur shed by my border collie x kelpie, all without being loud enough to bother her. At its most basic, the stick vacuum exceeded my expectations.

For the most part the functional performance of the main brush head is up there with the best, but other parts of the design let it down. The head itself is 6.5cm tall, which isn’t huge, but it is still too big to fit under furniture that other stick vacuums can. As many other pet parents will know, fur tends to gather underneath the bed and book shelves, and in between crevices. It would be great to be able to get deeper in there with the brush head. 

This is where I would expect the crevice tool to do some of the heavy lifting, but I found it to be too short to properly get into the spaces the main brush head missed. While it was somewhat effective to just take off the head and use the angled connector at the end of the nozzle, it wasn’t enough to get into the small nooks and crannies.

I was similarly disappointed by the FurFinder tool which claims to remove up to 95% of embedded hair from upholstery. It worked fine on some upholstery like the couch, but when I tested it on my mattress (the biggest fur fiend in the house), the roller would stop spinning and the device would throw an error. This was a persistent issue, and in the end I just gave up and vacuumed it with the main brush head instead. Overall I got a better result with this approach across the board.

Similarly the FurFinder Headlights were touch and go. These illuminating headlights were originally put forward by Dyson in the Detect series, and have since been integrated across almost every stick vacuum brand. Unlike the Detect series, Bissell’s version uses white LEDs which don’t illuminate small dander as well as the green ones used on the original. I found the Headlights to be most effective when the house was dark, but to make little to no difference when the sun was shining, or the overhead lights were on. You can even see this in Bissell’s own marketing below. While their version does have a wider light range, you can clearly see more debris using the Dyson vacuum.

Bissell makes good use of clever design to keep the PowerClean FurGuard at an affordable price without compromising on user experience. It utilises removable and interchangeable batteries to up the battery life, stands on its own, and handles corners well despite lacking a 180 pivot on the brush head.

Out of the box the device comes with two batteries, each rated for up to 50 minutes of cleaning on low. Realistically you’ll get around 15 minutes from each on high, but I found that was enough time to vacuum my whole three bedroom home on just one battery. If you do happen to run out, you can slide the new battery in, and plug the other one in the charger in a snap. Each battery takes around three hours to fully charge, and annoyingly you only get one charger, so that can be a bit of a pickle if you’re not organised. Still though, the option to switch out batteries makes the PowerClean suited to larger households, and you can always buy extra batteries to prolong the life of your vacuum.

It also comes with a wall-mounted storage solution, but it is also able to stand entirely on its own so you don’t even need it. Admittedly without the wall mount there isn’t anywhere to put the attachments, but that is par for the course with most stick vacuums these days. Except for Samsung - they all come with an accessory holder.

Finally the design is balanced well enough to feel light and navigate corners and edges. The brush head doesn’t have a full range pivot, but even still you can work your way around the edges of a hallway without needing to get at it from three different angles. At a measly 3.2kg, the vacuum never feels too heavy, or too cumbersome, even on longer cleans.