Verdict

If you're looking for versatility, the Bissell CrossWave Multi-Surface Cleaning System is a hard to beat. It has sufficient vacuuming power to suck up spills and debris, and can wash hard floors and carpets alike. Performance is slightly better on hard floors than on carpets, but if you have a mix of flooring (or, mostly hard floors) then this is a brilliant all-rounder.

Pros

• Excellent cleaning on all floors
• Leaves surfaces almost dry
• Excellent vacuuming suction
• Easy to use and manoeuvre
• Excellent build quality

Cons

• A little pricey
• Rather noisy
• Can be messy to empty

Quite frankly a star in the universe of floor cleaners, the Red Dot Design award-winning Bissell CrossWave Multi-Surface Cleaning System offers multi-surface adaptability as it vacuums, mops and dries in one. It’s equipped with two cleaning modes so you can use it on either carpet or hard flooring.

The Bissell CrossWave swiped out mud, crumbs and pet hair like a boss, leaving us with sparkling flooring across the whole home. It’s easy to manoeuvre, thanks to the flexible floorhead and overall light weight, making it a versatile multi-surface cleaner that delivers fabulous results.

Bissell CrossWave Multi-Surface Cleaning System – What you need to know

• Hard-floor cleaning – Laminates and tiles are cleaned with dual washing and vacuuming action, leaving a great-looking clean surface
• Low-pile carpet cleaning – Even cream carpets are left looking rejuvenated and brighter. Carpets also dried in just a few minutes
• Spilt cereal test – One slow forward pass over the area gave perfect results, with not a drop of milk or grain of oat remaining. Super impressive

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Bissell CrossWave Multi-Surface Cleaning System design – Excellent stain removal and dry flooring in minutes make this an attractive all-rounder

The CrossWave is a unique floor cleaner that washes, scrubs and vacuums. This isn’t dissimilar to most dedicated carpet cleaners, but Bissell’s Multi-Surface Cleaning System claims to handle hard floors as well, and promises beefy enough vacuuming power to clean up day-to-day debris in the same operation. No more having to pre-vacuum your floors before getting out the wet cleaning tools.

As with previously tested Bissell cleaning products, the CrossWave feels durable, sturdy and well made. It’s super-easy to assemble and has a rather edgy look with its blue and titanium shades. Equipped with a lengthy 7.5m cable, it offers plenty of cleaning flexibility with the cable wrapping around the back of the machine for easy storage.

The pivoting floorhead gives serious manoeuvrability and features a large microfibre and nylon brushbar that’s great at cleaning tough messes. Cleverly, the brush bar can be kept clean without removing it from the floorhead.

The CrossWave is supplied with a cleaning tray that you simply fill with water, pop in the machine tilting it backwards, and press the hard-floor button for around 15 seconds. The brushbar spins in the water, cleaning the brush and fibre; the dirty water is deposited in the machine’s dirty water tank.

The clean water tank holds a mix of 828ml warm (tap warm) water and Bissell’s cleaning solution with indicator lines. This is easily slotted on and off the back of the main body for easy filling.

The dirty water tank has a 620ml capacity and is also easily clipped on and off the main body for emptying. Where the CrossWave does a great job of picking up dirt from around the home, the dirty water certainly lived up to its name.

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Bissell CrossWave Multi-Surface Cleaning System features – it’s remarkably easy to use and much lighter than a full-size carpet shampooer

The handle controls are nicely positioned within a finger’s length of the trigger and are described as digital touch controls. That title might be a little grand for push-buttons, but they feel solid and are easy to use.

Rug and hard-floor modes are distinguished purely by more cleaning fluid being dispensed onto the brush in carpet mode. The brushbar speed and vacuuming power remain unchanged on either setting.

In something of a clean-sweep in our tests, the CrossWave turned in a superb performance on carpets, hard floors and tough stains. The cleaning fluid and bar-scrubbing action were tough enough to remove dried-on mud stains but gentle enough not to scratch more delicate surfaces such as a sealed-wood floor.

The CrossWave’s vacuuming power is exceptional and its ability to handle day-to-day dirt as well as spills is impressive – although, be warned: a tank full of mixed dirty water, dog-hairs, egg, milk and cereal isn’t for those with delicate stomachs!

Carpet cleaning was very good, but it doesn’t quite have the deep-down cleaning abilities of Bissell’s larger and more aggressive carpet cleaning machines. Yet, for a quick carpet freshen-up or to address a recent spill, it does the job very well indeed and leaves the surface only lightly damp and quick to dry.

The CrossWave is far from a budget machine and it’s fairly noisy in use, but for all-round floor cleaning versatility, we struggle to think of a better all-rounder.

Should I buy the Bissell CrossWave Multi-Surface Cleaning System?

If you’re looking for an ultra-manoeuvrable, lightweight machine that produces excellent wet cleaning results across both hard-flooring and carpets, then the CrossWave is a strong front-runner. It looks great, is super easy to use, and you can even clean the floorhead without removing it.

It isn’t designed to offer deep-pile carpet cleaning like a dedicated shampooer, but for all but the deepest stains it does a great job and leaves the pile clean, groomed, fresh and only slightly damp. Hard floor cleaning is better still, mixing a very effective washing action with powerful vacuum drying.

The CrossWave is quite noisy and the asking price is high, but this Bissell start performer doesn’t compromise quality or cleaning effectiveness in any way.