Verdict

The Bissell Icon 25V has some clever features that make cleaning easier, including the ability to lie flat to get under furniture and a crevice tool with a neat LED to show you what you're cleaning. Performance on high power mode is generally good, although the vacuum could offer better edge cleaning, and the bin is fiddly to empty without causing mess.

Pros

• Flexible design
• LED on crevice tool
• Neat wall mount

Cons

• Edge performance could be better
• Bin is fiddly to empty

Designed for everyday cleaning, the Bissell Icon 25V has a few smart features to make dirt pick-up less of a chore, including a crevice tool with an LED light and lie-flat operation.

A smart design and good looks help the case, but you get relatively few accessories and emptying the bin can be tricky.

Related: Best cordless vacuum cleaner

Bissell Icon 25V design and features – The light-up crevice tool is great, but the bin can be a pain to open

Long and thin, the Bissell Icon 25V’s main body sports quite a futuristic look; more ray-gun than a vacuum cleaner. Not that I’m complaining. This model has an integrated battery, too, which you can charge by plugging the supplied mains adapter straight into the vacuum cleaner.

You can charge the integrated battery directly

Alternatively, you can use the wall mount threading through the power adapter, so you can drop and charge the Bissell Icon 25V. I like this type of mount, since it makes charging easier and means you don’t have to fiddle around finding a cable.

The charging dock has an accessory mount that clips into place. This can hold the combination crevice tool and dusting brush, but it’s a shame there’s no on-body storage for the tool, however. Alongside these accessories, you get a motorised floor brush and an extension wand.

The wall mount provides charging and accessory storage

Used with the extension wand, the Bissell Icon 25V is similar to pretty much every other cordless stick vacuum cleaner. It’s fairly nimble and, neatly, can be positioned completely flat on the floor for getting under furniture. Manoeuvrability could be slightly better: I found the floor head didn’t turn quite as much as I wanted around chair legs, resulting in contact with the floor being lost slightly.

You can lie the vacuum flat to get under furniture

This model uses a Tangle-Free Brush Roll to keep hair from wrapping around the brush, which worked well in my house of four cats and three long-haired people.

The brush bar has been designed to stop hair becoming tangled

At just 3.18kg, the Bissell Icon 25V is very light to use in handheld mode. I like the combination crevice tool and dusting brush, with the brush sliding out of the way when not in use. Combination tools make cleaning faster, since you’re not wasting time constantly swapping out tools. Even better, the crevice tool features an LED, so you get a good view of what you’re sucking up and, more importantly, if you’ve got it all – handy for cleaning down the back of a sofa.

There’s no trigger to use this vacuum cleaner; a power button turns on the vacuum in the High power mode. There is a button to change this to Medium and Low power.

There’s a power button and a mode selector button

There’s a relatively small 0.4l bin in this model, which may require emptying a couple of times when cleaning a house, depending on the amount of dirt. To empty the bin, you first have to remove it from the vacuum’s body. There’s then a seal and internal filter that need detaching, too.

On that point, the rubber seal made such good contact it needed a bit of force to open. This made it all too easy for dirt to fly out as the assembly popped loose. Take my advice and open this bin carefully, pointing it downwards into your dustbin.

Emptying the bin can be tricky

Bissell Icon 25V performance – Needs a few sweeps to get most of the mess up

I put the Bissell Icon 25V through its paces in all of my usual tests, starting out with the carpet test. To balance out battery life, I started with the vacuum cleaner on the Medium power setting. A single sweep along the skirting board left behind a fair amount of the teaspoon of flour I’d sprinkled onto the floor.

Carpet test: Dirty carpet (left) vs Clean carpet (right) – move slider to compare

When I laid the vacuum cleaner on the floor, a lump of flour spilt out of it, showing that this had become stuck in the roller. Continuing to run the vacuum cleaner for a little longer after dirt pick-up seemed to fix this issue.

Some flour fell out of the brush head after cleaning

Following up with a swipe of the vacuum set to Maximum power picked up much of the mess left behind, but there was still a reasonable amount remaining by the skirting board. Even turning the cleaner around, so it was perpendicular to the skirting board, couldn’t quite get everything. I had to resort to using the crevice tool to get the last bits of dust. This time, all of the flour stayed in the vacuum cleaner.

Edge performance could be better

Next, I put the Bissell Icon 25V to work on a hard floor, with a scattering of rice. Again, I started with the vacuum cleaner on the Medium power setting. A single sweep through the middle of the rice seemed to pick up everything, bar a couple of grains caught in the grouting.

Carpet test: Dirty hard floor (left) vs Clean hard floor (right) – move slider to compare

As I put the vacuum down, some grains of rice dropped out of the floor head. Again, running the vacuum for a bit after dirt collection helped prevent such issues. Re-running the test again on the High power setting sucked up everything.

Next, I combed in hair from my four cats into some test carpet. This time, I ran the vacuum cleaner on Maximum power. Thankfully, it picked up everything, leaving the carpet nice and clean. No residue fell out of the floor head, either.

Carpet test: Dirty carpet (left) vs Clean carpet (right) – move slider to compare

There’s certainly the capacity for the Bissell Icon 25V to clean well, but for larger areas of mess I found that it needed to be on the High power setting to avoid some mess coming back out of the cleaner. Average household dirt is easily handled by the lower power modes.

Bissell quotes the Icon 25V as having a maximum run-time of 50 minutes on the lowest power setting. Upping the vacuum to Maximum power reduced run-time to around 16 minutes in my tests; Medium power saw it last 32 minutes. As such, the combination of pick-up ability and run-time makes this feel more like an additional cleaner to accompany a plug-in one, rather than a replacement for a whole house’s vacuuming needs.

Sound performance is generally very good. I recorded 77.7dB at Low power, 78.1dB on Medium and 79.4dB on Maximum.

Should I buy the Bissell Icon 25V?

Given the relatively few accessories you get in the box, the Bissell Icon 25V is comparatively expensive at £349.99. At this sort of price, the competition is fierce. The Hoover H-Free 500 is slightly cheaper and folds up smaller, while the Samsung PowerStick Jet is a touch more expensive but gives you a mopping option, too.

That isn’t to say that the Bissell Icon 25V isn’t a decent vacuum cleaner, but the competition is so strong at this price that you’re likely to get more for your money elsewhere.

Trusted Score