Customer Ratings & Reviews

BISSELL AirRam "1984" cordless stick vacuum cleaner It seems that the Bissell AirRam cordless stick vacuum is a rebranded Gtech AirRam Mk2 sold in the UK. Gtech also sells a "K9" variant of their AirRam Mk4, where high wear and tear plastic parts, inside the head unit, are replaced with more durable metal parts. The Bissell AirRam does not appear to have any of the heavier duty "K9" metal components. The Bissell AirRam is also not a "2-in-1." The AirRam is strictly for floors, crucially with no crevice and/or vertical surface cleaning capability. The AirRam is intended for dry vacuum cleaning only, no fluids may be vacuumed. Also, for very delicate carpets/floor coverings, the AirRam's brush roller can be removed (and replaced by a special cap/plug) to turn the AirRam into a pure vacuum device. This mode of operation is also recommended on floor surfaces with deep crevices. The AirRam is not intended for use on rough concrete or tarmac surfaces. The AirRam has a user washable, pre-motor air filter, but this is not a HEPA rated filter. (Apparently, the AirRam's ability to expel micro particulates into the air is enough of a problem that Gtech's K9 Mk2 variant comes with scented plugs, that are inserted inside the washable pre-motor air filter, to cover the aroma of flying pet dander.) After washing, the cleaned air filter can't be re-inserted into the AirRam until it is completely dry. The AirRam cannot be operated without a filter in place or else the motor will be damaged. I tested the AirRam on carpeted and hard tile floors. The roller brush is driven by the air flow of the motor. Where ever the roller brush makes direct contact, the AirRam is fairly effective in removing dirt. One problem that I noticed with runner carpets, is that the tiny gap along the sides of the runner significantly degraded the AirRam's ability to remove debris from the adjacent surface below the runner. This necessitates a minimum of three or more passes to fully clean along raised edges. The AirRam is also not very effective along the wall edges of wall-to-wall carpeting, where the roller brush makes no contact. While it is a novelty to have the air flow drive the roller brush, that same air flow is not available for edge pickup vacuuming. Removing and replacing the roller to leverage edge pickup can become a tedious chore. The charge level LED indicators perform double duty. All four LEDS flash red anytime the roller brush becomes entangled and jams. Once a roller jam has occurred, the AirRam automatically cuts power. The LEDs will remain red for approximately 10 seconds thereafter. At that point the AirRam can be restarted, provided that the jam has been physically cleared. As charge level indicators, the LEDs glow green, but they only provide a very rough gauge of charge level. I was very surprised to learn that when the AirRam's battery drained down to two LEDs (50% charge), in use, immediately thereafter plugging the charger into the battery resulted in only one LED flashing green. I want to maximize the calendar life of the AirRam's Lithium ion battery, so I want to start recharging whenever the Lithium ion battery drops to 50% of a full charge. It's very annoying to me that two lit green LEDs during operation can routinely conceal that the battery is really somewhere between 25% and 50% of a full charge. The relatively small dust cup fills up quickly, requiring several cycles of emptying before a large room has been completely vacuumed. You will know that the cup requires emptying when the AirRam begins leaving balls of debris behind, rather than picking everything up. Also, too, the AirRam does nothing close to pelletizing/compressing debris inside the dust cup and emptying can take many swipes of the ejector slider to completely empty the cup. Proof that you can't believe everything you see on YouTube. I can identify two very likely points of failure on the AirRam. The tab that secures the dust cup emptying cap is made of very thin plastic. That tab can also make potentially damaging contact with the dust cup ejector slider, if you accidentally try to close the cap without first pushing the ejector slider further back. (The ejector slider should have a spring that automatically pushes the slider out of the way when closing the dust cup cap, but it doesn't.) I predict that the dust cup cap closure tab will break sooner, rather than later, from normal wear and tear. The surprisingly fragile item is the washable permanent filter. The closed end of the filter has a tongue-and-groove rubber gasket that fits over the corresponding end of the hard plastic filter housing. I was astonished to see that gasket fall away with ejected dust cup contents in the first day of AirRam use. Somehow, debris got lodged around the seam, between the rubber and the open cell foam filter, such that ejecting the debris tore the rubber gasket off the the filter. When I called into Bissell about this showstopper problem, I was informed that Bissell has no replacement filters in stock at this time, with no estimated date of inventory relief. This is simply not acceptable for a brand new product line. Keep in mind that the Gtech AirRam in the UK uses the exact same filter and has been on the market for several years. When functionally intact, I can only rate the Bissell "1984" AirRam stick vacuum as a light duty floor vacuum, with very problematic edge cleaning capabilities. Given the lack of spare filters in inventory and the seeming fragility of the filter in everyday use, I cannot recommend the Bissell AirRam to others, at this time. Once the parts shortage is corrected, only then can I resume evaluating the AirRam for possible recommendation to others. This item was originally mis-described as a 2-in-1 vacuum. It would be significantly better for edge/crevice/corner cleaning if it were a 2-in-1, or was offered with a comparable companion hand held vacuum.

This unit would have benefitted from having an optional corded system. Yes you get 30 mins of run time but it takes 4-7 hours to recharge to 30 mins. It is powerful for what it does plus the transition from wood floor to carpet without a change in settings is cool. I don't think I'll use this often enough, it king of reminds me of those little robot vacuuming machines that go back to recharge to their station. This vacuum has a lot of space to hold them those snack size zip lock size robot vacuuming machines.