• For pet owners, a layer of fur covering the floor and furniture is a constant.
• I tested out the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser vacuum to see how well it could pick up the never-ending shedding from my dog.
• The vacuum has several features designed for pet owners, such as a dual-brush system and LED lights to illuminate small spaces.

All pet owners know the feeling of giving your home a good deep clean—vacuuming, mopping, lint rolling the hair-covered furniture, and stain-removing any problem areas—just to lie down on the couch to find little dog or cat hairs that were missed in the cleaning process. As the owner of a very fluffy Australian Shepherd, it feels like there’s no real way to get all of the hair off of my floor, couch, and car. The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser DualBrush Upright Vacuum was at the top of my list for use in my home for its strong suction and LED light features, which make cleaning up after pets easier.

And maybe there’s some truth to that. Double-coated dogs shed all year long; it’s unavoidable. However, I decided that upgrading my vacuum would help me get my home as clean as possible and reduce the accumulation of hair.

I previously had the Bissell 2033 Featherweight Stick Lightweight Bagless Vacuum, which is a great budget option for small apartments. I bought it when I lived in a small New York City apartment with limited space for area rugs and a small two-person sofa. Since moving out to Eastern Pennsylvania, I live in a much bigger apartment with larger area rugs, and I’ve upgraded my couch to a sectional. There’s much more material for dog hair to attach to, so the vacuum needed an upgrade as well.

How I Tested

I put this vacuum to the test by covering all the space of my apartment that accumulates dog hair—the laminate floors, the area rugs under my dining table and living room coffee table, my upholstered couch, and the tile in my kitchen area. I also put the hose attachments to the ultimate test by using them in my car, which I recently discovered had dog hair caked on the carpet of the back row after I lifted up my dog's seat cover.

Impressive suction and helpful features for pet owners.

One of the standout features on the vacuum is the DualBrush system, which helps reduce hair wrap around the brush rolls—a common frustration in homes with shedding pets. This way, I can spend less time pulling wads of hair out of the brushes and more time cleaning.

It has LED headlights on the base of the vacuum, which Bissell calls its “FurFinder” lights. The LED lights are also included on both hose attachments for the same reason.

The lights were by far my favorite feature. They illuminated even the thinnest, smallest dog hairs in dark corners in hard-to-reach places like the back of my walk-in closet, in between couch cushions, and under the seats of my car.

While Bissell hasn’t published specific airflow or suction metrics for this model, the Pet Hair Eraser DualBrush delivers the strong, consistent pickup you'd expect from a full-size upright vacuum. In my testing, it lifted all of the pet hair, crumbs, and debris with one or two passes of the upright vacuum and two to three passes of the hose attachments (a turbo brush and a crevice tool).

When I used it on the carpet of my car, I mostly used the crevice tool, and it lifted months' worth of stuck-on dog hair in minutes. My wife was so impressed when she saw how clean our car was that she asked if I secretly got it professionally detailed.

HEPA system and lift-off additions make cleaning easier.

Bissell has incorporated a HEPA Sealed Allergen System that traps and locks 99.97 percent of dust and dander allergens, improving indoor air quality while you clean.

This was incredibly useful for me, as everyone in my household (including the pup) is quite allergy-prone. I run an air purifier daily, but that does not remove any allergens that my dog tracks on the floor or couch. It also means there won’t be any dust kicked up while cleaning or emptying the canister, so I’ll be sneezing less while cleaning.

The Lift-Off detachable pod feature turns the upright into a portable cleaning tool for stairs, upholstery, pet beds, and other surfaces. It’s also relatively lightweight for a larger vacuum and is easy to maneuver around the home with its swivel capabilities.

Plug-in cord is long, but the hose could stand to be longer.

This vacuum is not wireless; it comes with a 30-foot plug-in cord. The long cord was great for cleaning my car. Since I live in an apartment with a parking garage that doesn’t have readily available outlets, I used the Anker Solix C2000 power station (a favorite of our editors here at Popular Mechanics) to get my deep cleaning done.

The extremely long cord was such a luxury to have during this process; I was moving to different sides of my car easily, without having to also adjust the power station. My only gripe with this vacuum is that the hose could be longer and more flexible.

Even when I was vacuuming my couch, I found myself also jerking the whole vacuum toward my body every time I would reach further back with the attachments. I definitely had to be cautious of the vacuum potentially whacking my arms, legs, or fingers while cleaning in a tight space.

Final Verdict

This vacuum performed so well for me that I will now be using it multiple times a week to mitigate my pup’s intense summer shedding. The model handled my floors, rugs, couch, and car with extreme ease and sucked up everything in its way (seriously, it will suck up your whole phone charging cord, so be sure to wrap those up before you start your vacuuming session).

My favorite feature was absolutely the LED headlights; those lights made my cleaning experience so much more thorough and illuminated spots in my home and in my car that I didn’t even realize were starting to collect dog hair and dust. If you have some shed-happy pets at home, or even just messy kids, I highly recommend this vacuum from Bissell.

Buy the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser DualBrush