Expert rating
Benefits
- Self-cleaning brush roll
- Hygienic floor cleaning
- Headlights
- Three modes
The inconvenients
- Noisy
- Cable can be limiting
- Extended maintenance after each use
Our Verdict
If you’ve noticed a lack of cordless hard floor cleaners, the Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Pet Wet and Dry Vacuum might be right up your alley. It packs more power than a battery-powered model, so you won’t run out of charge before you’re done and cleans floors hygienically. Unfortunately, its convenience doesn’t extend to maintenance: You may find that the time you save on separate vacuuming and cleaning is spent cleaning the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet itself.
Just as triple chocolate has more appeal than double, a wet and dry vacuum capable of steam cleaning in addition is especially appealing to those with multiple hard floors. The Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Pet is one such cleaner, allowing you to not only leave your standalone vacuum and mop in the closet, but also a separate steam cleaner.
Equipped with LED headlights to spot dirt and hair, and a base that allows the brush roll to clean itself after use, it’s billed as Bissell’s most powerful CrossWave cleaner, boasting 1,100 corded power W.
Design and build
- 820 ml clean water tank
- 7.5m power cable
- Weight of 5.67 kg/12.5 lbs
It’s no surprise that the shape of the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet borrows heavily from Bissell’s heritage of vacuums and carpet cleaners. It looks like a stick vacuum cleaner, with hooks on the back for the 7.5m cable and controls on the top handle. These include two buttons: one for changing modes and one for on/off, as well as a trigger to release water and cleaning fluid from the 820ml reservoir.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Well thought out, the mode button is within thumb reach, so you can change without letting go of the handle. Plus, the self-clean button sits lower on the carry handle, so you don’t accidentally hit it. Its size and weight are no different from an upright either: at H111.8 x W27 x D25 cm and 5.67 kg/12 lbs, you’ll need to find a decent space for it.
The Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Pet is primarily designed to tackle cleaning jobs that any pet owner will experience
On the business side of the cleaner, you’ll find the brush roll, which does the manual work, aided by cleaning solution and/or steam. It’s made from a soft mop-like material, studded with stiff bristles, and protected by a clear cover.
Above it, there’s a trio of LED headlights – perfect for illuminating dark corners – and a dirty water tank. Although physically larger than the clean water tank, the dirty water tank houses a dry filter and strainer to capture large particles and hair, so its capacity is only 640ml.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Performance and Features
- Rapid steam heating
- Noisy in use
- Self-cleaning mode
The Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Pet is primarily designed to tackle the cleaning tasks that any pet owner will experience – muddy paws, hair, dander and accidents – but it’s not limited to them. Its trio of modes cover a range of messes, with hard floor mode citing coffee, grease, cooking splashes and human hair as targets, steam covering sticky messes, pet messes, wine and heavy dirt, and the carpet including animal hair, crumbs. , dirt and, interestingly, confetti – probably for partying pets.
We tested the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet with seed jam (sticky, textured mess) and mustard (smooth mess that may leave residue) left to sit for an hour, as well as oil (greasy mess) on a vinyl flooring. In hard floor mode, the majority of the oil was drained away, but the floor was still slightly greasy to the touch and required wiping. The hard ground mode also lifted the mustard easily but left some residue. We switched to steam mode, which removed this problem, but some tint remained.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
We were surprised, however, by how quickly the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet heated up to produce steam. The instructions said about 30 seconds but we found it to be quicker. What might be clearer is when it’s ready to use in steam mode. Instead of changing color, so that it is understandable at a glance, the icon on the screen turns on and off then becomes fixed. We stayed on steam mode to clean out the jam and the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet worked perfectly. All the jam was gone and no stickiness remained to the touch.
Overall, we found the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet to be quite heavy to push and noisy. Bissell says its noise is 75 dB, but because it interfered with normal conversation, we deemed it more intrusive. We also struggled with the cable and found it difficult to get around. What we liked is that the headlights get brighter when the cleaning solution trigger is pressed, making it easier to get into a rhythm of washing the floor and then vacuuming up excess dirt. water when the trigger is released.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet is the amount of cleaning required after use.
After cleaning the hard floor, there was some debris stuck inside the cover and on the brush roll itself, so it was a good time to run the self-clean cycle before tackling d other surfaces. Cleverly, the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet senses when it is on the base when the self-clean button turns on. We did two self-cleaning cycles because after the first there was still some mustard and jam left. This second cycle made it usable again.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Not having a carpet, we tested it on a small area of carpet covered in mud and pet hair, in carpet mode. He lifted both well and while there were a few pet hairs remaining, we were pleasantly surprised at how many of them had reached the dirty water tank. The strainer inside caught most of the hair in clumps. This was more effective than when we initially emptied the dirty water tank, as the strainer did not catch most of the seeds because the holes were too large.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet is the amount of cleaning required after use. In addition to self-cleaning, the brush roll should be rinsed, cleaned and allowed to dry on the base. The same goes for the filter, which also needed debris removed. Its dirty water tank, strainer and lid had to be rinsed and air dried. There is no brush to make washing easier and although it only took 10 minutes (including reassembly once dry), if you are cleaning a small area you may end up spending more time on maintenance.
Pricing and availability
If you’re in the UK, you can buy the CrossWave HydroSteam Pet directly from Bissell, where it’s available for £349.99, down from its RRP of £399.99. It’s available for the same price at Currys and for £400 at Selfridges.
It’s also available in the US, although it’s a slightly different model than the one we tested. It’s priced at $399.99, but you can currently purchase it for $349.99 at Bissell.
We have other models recommended in our roundup of the best wet and dry vacuum cleaners.
Should you buy the Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Pet?
Part vacuum, part mop, and part steam cleaner, the Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Pet gets it exactly right. It’s well designed, easy to use, tackles most messes, and while you may need to use a lot of steam on stubborn marks, the fact that it’s an option makes it head and shoulders above hard floor cleaners that rely solely on mopping action.
However, while the self-clean cycle is a convenient addition, the level of maintenance required after each use lets it down. For a price of almost £400, you’re hoping for a brush to manually clean debris, while running the self-clean cycle should be enough to keep the brush roll ready for use. That said, if you can live with keeping a machine spotless so that it can keep your floors in the same condition, the Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Pet offers more than some.
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