Bissell Zing Rewind Review

The Zing Rewind delivered a mediocre performance in both of our cleaning metrics, doing a relatively sub par job at picking up debris on both hard and soft floors. It has a relatively small intake, allowing it to become totally blocked when collecting larger debris, like Cheerios. This model is quite handy for cleaning stairs with, but, on the whole, this model definitely leaves much to be desired.

Performance Comparison

To evaluate these products and find out which one came out on top, we bought and tested the top models available for purchase today head-to-head in a variety of challenges, ranging from how easy each model is to use to how well it cleans up pet hair. These tests were grouped into five weighted rating metrics --Carpet Cleaning, Handling, Ease of Use, Hard Surface Cleaning, and Pet Hair.

Carpet Cleaning

Earning the most weight out of any of our test metrics, our series of Carpet Cleaning tests take credit for 35% of the total score for each vacuum. We tested this by spreading a decent amount of oats, cereal, rice, and flour on our test swatches of flat and fluffy carpet and seeing how well each vacuum performed when tasked with collecting it. The Zing Rewind didn't do a terribly good job on the whole, earning a 4 out of 10 for its somewhat poor showing.

This model basically matched the performance of the bagged Zing when it came to picking up rice on the flat carpet, but did worse on the fluffier carpet. This model tended to push rice around and pile it up as much as it collected it, with rice also becoming trapped in odd places in the brush head, only to fall out later.

This model did do a decent job at collecting flour, matching the performance of the Zing. However, it did a terrible job at sucking up Cheerios, with them becoming clogged in the intake. We had to manually unclog it multiple times to complete the test.

This vacuum performed about the same as the rice test when tasked with collecting oats, tending to push them around haphazardly rather than collect them cleanly.

Ease of Use

This metric accounts for 25% of the overall score for each product, consisting of our assessments of how easy it was to transition between floor types, clean under furniture and close to edges, as well as the maximum reach of the vacuum and its noise. The Zing Rewind actually did a decent job in this group of tests, meriting a 6 out of 10 for its above average showing. It is easy enough to switch between hard and soft floors with this product, with a foot switch right on the brush head.

This model does an alright job cleaning close to edges, but an excellent job at cleaning under furniture, reaching the entire way under our simulated sofa.

This vacuum doesn't have a terribly long reach, having a cord that is significantly shorter than most, but it is relatively quiet, only measuring in at 79.1 dBa in our test.

Handling

To test how well each vacuum handled, we compared how difficult it was to clean a flight of stairs, the effort required to push or pull the vacuum, and its overall maneuverability. The Bissell Zing did quite well in this metric, worth 20% of the final score, again earning a 6 out of 10 for its good performance.

This vacuum is exceptionally lightweight, making it very easy to move up and down a flight of stairs.

However, this vacuum does have a short reach, only reaching about 7 steps before it has to be moved. It's about average effort to push or pull and is relatively nimble when it comes to maneuvering, though it's not even close to the Dyson Cinetic Big Ball or Shark Rotator in terms of agility.

Hard Surface Cleaning

Accounting for 10% of the total score, our set of hard surface cleaning tests are relatively identical to our carpet cleaning tests. We spread out flour, rice, Cheerios, and oats on a small section of laminate hardwood floors and evaluated how well the Bissell Zing Rewind did at picking up the different types of debris. It didn't do particularly well, earning a 4 out of 10 for its below average showing.

This model did quite poorly at collecting rice, absolutely refusing to collect the rice cleanly and only pushing it around in a pile. It did do much better at collecting flour, even extracting some from the cracks between boards if you applied enough pressure. However, performance dropped again when it came to our final two tests in this metric. Oats would become trapped in odd places in the brush head, then fall out at a later time.

This vacuum wouldn't pick up any Cheerios with the brush head on, but did an alright job if you removed it and just used the bare hose.

Pet Hair

Taking responsibility for the remaining 10% of the score, our Pet Hair metric evaluated how well each vacuum did at picking up after your pet. We spread out pet hair donated from a local pet groomer on a section of medium-pile carpet, then assessed how well each vacuum fared. The Zing Rewind didn't do well at all, leaving the vast majority of hair behind and collected plenty on the brush head, similar to the bagged Zing.

Value

The Rewind is a relatively mediocre vacuum at a low price. It's an alright value if you are on a tight budget.

Conclusion