Bissell Symphony Pet Steam Mop and Steam Vacuum Cleaner for Hardwood and Tile Floors, with Microfiber Mop Pads, 1543A,Purple

I recently purchased this item, and when I turn it on, it emits a burning smell.

We received our copy of this Vac/Steam unit just a few days ago and, so far - so good. We have two autistic kids, one 7 and one 5 year old and the two of them can make meal time... well, it sometimes looks like someone threw a grenade into a buffet table by the time we're all done eating - food gets everywhere, three times a day. Clean up with this thing has been much quicker and more efficient than by any other means we've employed to date. The vacuum has sufficient power to pick up most anything that I call "UFO's" (unidentifiable floor objects) be they small and sticky or otherwise. What the vacuum does not pick up is simply "mopped" with the steam function and to good effect, I might add. Combining the two functions is a stroke of genius. Clean out is simple enough as you just pull the collection cup and dump the contents out through the hinged bottom; the trick "plunger" action with the pre-filter helps too. The washable filter and other collection bin components are such a 'nice to have' that I now call it a necessity - just dump, rinse, dry and you're ready for another round of ruminatory mayhem. Why this thing gets four stars instead of five is that we have concerns about the robustness certain aspects of this item's construction. The locking tabs which hold the mop plate under the machine, in particular, seem like a potential weak point. They are made of plastic and not metal. Also, as with other stick vacs we've tried, the "neck" or coupling which connects the cleaner head to the vacuum body does not seem overly sturdy. Experience with similar units has shown fatigue failures at this point and there is no effective way to repair a break there. We've thrown away units that still ran as well as the day we bought them because, after a while, the plastic at the head/body junction has cracked from the daily stresses these units are exposed to under normal use. At a lower price for single function vac units, one can argue that such latent disposability can be lived with up to a point but this unit's cost raises the reliability bar in order to make it a competitive value. These concerns are conjecture at this point, of course; only time will tell. While we do take care and are not abusive with anything, we certainly do put an appliance like this to substantial use at our house; the weak will not make the cut. At this price point, I will be waiting for a while before handing over that last star. If the machine is still in service after most of a year, it could certainly be called a great value. At six moths of daily service I should well lose any buyers remorse and the machine will keep the current, four star, standing. A failure before that will get a downgrade. A timely update(s) to this review will be pending. UPDATE - Well... after more than six months, this thing is still going strong. Nothing has broken or failed. The washable filter has been great (I clean ours regularly) and we've only had to replace it once after all this vac has been through. I consider this unit, this cleaning system, to be a very good value. Five stars. :)

2024 Update: we now have 4 dogs and a kid and this thing is still going strong!! For reference, we bought it in 2018! Update 2: one day it suddenly stopped steaming...the filter or something was clogged. Easy fix. Update: I have had it for like six months now and I still love it. It works exactly as it did new. Steaming: This function is great. It can remove some of the hard spots with just water. Sometimes, and I mean it’s rare, I have to spray a spot with some cleaner for it to come up. I live in a one bedroom apartment with three dogs. We like to be outdoors and go on adventures which inevitably means there will be mid and gunk on my floors. This thing handles all our mess. In the kitchen, I had a few cooking stains I couldn’t get up with a swifter mop. First time using this thing and no more stain. If I remember correctly it was a sugar based glaze that had been heated to look like glass on the stove. Vacuum: I don’t even sweep anymore. Like I said, three dogs and lots of dirt and this handles it all. I’ll include a picture of my flooring and my dirty dogs for reference. It gets pretty bad. The suction gets up any and all loose particles and the steam and pad takes care of the rest! Efficiency: I can do my floors in like 1/3 the time I was previously able to do them. The vacuum cuts out sweeping time and the steam mop helps not have to go over and over messy areas for them to be clean. This is a wonderful steamer mop combo. The only complaint I would have is that it sometimes leaves a few streaks. But overall the quality is great and it does such an amazing job. I have linoleum floors and it is amazing.

Let me start by saying I LOVE this product. I have all tile floors with two large, shedding dogs and a ton of sand and grass in the yard. All of this used to equal daily sweeping, a lot of vacuuming, and mopping - although I never found anything that didn't just push dirty water around the floor. Enter the Symphony Pet. I'd been eyeing hard floor cleaners for some time, and the all in one vacuum prospect was just too much to pass up. But I must confess that a Roomba also entered the scene at the same time. So my routine is now to let the Roomba vacuum the majority of things up and I follow up with the Bissell every few days. It's the perfect combo. The Bissell doesn't balk at sucking up dog hair, grass, dirt etc., but I also don't have to vacuum the entire house with it. I tried doing the whole house once with just the Bissell and it did pick everything up, but the tank filled up quickly (did I mention a LOT of dog hair?), and having to do both at the same time still made me a little crazy (if you're going to mop, you have to vacuum first or the dog hair just get wet and pushed around). That's not the products fault, but just know that this doesn't save that much time in the end. What I love: nice long cord, good suction, ability to quickly suck up dirt right before I steam mop, the steam mop itself - left my floors so clean!, steam starts up quickly, and it rolls over the floor really easily in both modes What I don't love: mop doesn't really allow for scrubbing - you do have to do several passes on stickier messes to get it loose, and the Swiffer disposable wet pads that come with it for "throw away messes" didn't do much to help in a pet accident - they're not absorbent so it's not acting as a true "mop" (had to clean first, but was happy to be able to steam clean afterward)

Just got this Bissell yesterday and only had a little while to use it in the evening. Assembled easily. Instructions were pretty clear for operational use. Steam cleaning/ mopping really seems to do the trick on our hardwood floors. It picked up a lot of dirt that our Swiffer mop missed. Albeit a couple days since last mopping I didn't think there should have been that much extra grime on a seemingly clean floor but there was. Vacuuming is great. Suction power seems very adequate and I really like the fact that I'm able to use both the vacuum and stream mop at the same time. I like that it sucks up the loose dog hair before mopping so that the hair doesn't just spread out. Just tried the microfiber useable mop and it worked very well. Easy to clean also. Looking forward to using the included Swiffer steam power disposable pads. I also tried it on carpet for a steam cleaned carpet test. I think it did a good job. It may not be a professional quality deep clean like a dedicated carpet cleaning may offer, but I think it did a decent enough job and saves us $80 per carpet cleaning and we can do it more than twice a year. We appreciate the non-toxic tap water steam cleaning on the floors where kids, babies and pets walk. It helps to know that Im getting sufficient cleaning without the chemicals. Will probably look into tge scented pucks that you can use with this vac/mop so it leaves a fresh clean smell. The top image is the re-usable stream mop. It’s filthy!! Originally the same white color as the scrubbing mop next to it. That’s after 2 uses. I didn’t realize how much dirt and grime is tracked in daily. Well I’m happy with it so far and it super easy to use. I will update when I've used it a bunch more. -08/19/20