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Wow – I still can’t get over my shock. This Bissell MultiClean wet/dry “garage and auto vacuum cleaner” (2035M) – essentially a small shop vac – is marketed very differently from all other shop vacs than I have ever seen before.
It’s advertised differently from all of the many wet/dry vacuums from Shop-Vac, Vacmaster, Craftsman, Stanley, Ridgid, Workshop, and Dewalt.
Here’s the part that shocked me, and maybe you should be sitting down for this. Here’s a shop vacuum where the brand is advertising it with respect to electric power draw – 11 amps. There’s no BS “peak horsepower” rating, anywhere!
On the other hand, Bissell is a vacuum and cleaning tool company but not really a shop vacuum company, and so maybe they don’t know that the trend is to give consumers seemingly arbitrary horsepower numbers.
The Bissell MultiClean is currently on sale alongside other models such as the their “Garage Pro” wall-mounted vacuum.
It features a 6 gallon capacity, 11 amp motor, and an “auto tool kit” with storage bag. Given them 6 gallon tank, this is a fairly compact vacuum, which I suppose fills its roles nicely as a garage and auto cleaning vac.
The “specialized auto tool kit” includes a crevice tool, precision blowing and suction tool, precision wet suction tool, upholstery brush, and combination detailing and inflation nozzle.
This vac comes with a “premium 6.5-foot hose,” extending stainless steel wand, and floor nozzle. It has a 19-foot power cord.
There’s a similar-spec’ed PowerClean vac with plastic extension wands, “standard 4.5″ hose,” and without the auto-cleaning accessory kit, but it seems like a big downgrade for very little savings.
I cannot find any details on the hose size (1-1/4″??) or filter setup (foam? bag?).
This looks to be an interesting small car/shop vac option, and it can also serve as a blower.
Bissell says the blower function can be used for “clearing dirt and debris from porches, garages, and doorways,” and it also comes with convenient inflation accessories for use with air mattresses and toys. By “toys,” they mean low pressure inflatable pool accessories and the like, and not sports balls or similar.
Sale Price: $125
Discussion
Unsurprisingly, some of the customer questions ask for peak HP values, unaware that such figures won’t really mean anything. In reality, while shop vacuum peak horsepower specs and marketing claims can be useful for comparing products from a single brand or product line, the values they give you are often meaningless in brand-to-brand comparisons.
Current draw (amps/amperage) doesn’t describe suction power or vacuum performance either, but it’s a useful spec to know – certainly more so than “peak HP.”
But, Bissell also doesn’t describe the filter configuration or options, or hose size, or what makes the “standard 4.5-foot” hose from one model different from the “premium 6.5-foot” hose included with this model.
On Amazon, they vaguely describe this Bissell MultiClean vacuum as having “2-stage filtration designed to help extend the life of the filter and provide easier cleaning,” while on Bissell’s product page they list the filtration spec as “1 stage.”
The telescoping wand also seems like a nice feature, compared to traditional snap-together plastic wands. This seems like a nicely kitted and conveniently designed shop vacuum. Just be aware that it’s a 6-gallon vac.
User reviews seem to be very positive, and the negative ones tend to reflect more on user expectations than the vacuum itself. For instance, one reviewer complains that the vacuum clogs when trying to vacuum up leaves from a trampoline outdoors, and another complains that it tips over when they pull it by the hose.
At least one reviewer commented on this vac being quieter than other like-sized shop vacuums, but there are no official noise ratings for objective comparison.
