This article is part of our seriesBattle of the Brands, in which we compare category-leading products to their counterparts to determine which are actually worth your money.
When it comes to finding the best tools to clean your floors at home, we’ve got you covered. We’ve tested the best vacuum cleaners available, including robot vacuums, robot mops and cordless stick vacuums in our testing this year.
Now we’ve taken two models — the Dyson V12 Detect Slim and the Bissell 3177A IconPet Turbo Edge — and pinned these cordless stick vacuums against each other in a battle to see which one is best. Each one is a powerful cordless stick vacuum, but the Dyson is more expensive (even on sale) than the Bissell. Now we’ll find out if one is a better bang for the buck.
Both models are marketed toward users with pets. They are both powerful and versatile, coming with upholstery tools that you can use to get stubborn pet fur out of couches or other crevices — or use even if your home isn’t filled with pet fur.
We compared both vacuums on their ease of setup and different aspects of design like maneuverability, dustbin size and ease of emptying. We also compared both vacuums on various aspects of performance like suction power, effectiveness on different floor types and pile heights, as well as their effectiveness on various surfaces and battery life. Let’s get ready to … rumble these vacuums across our floors.
Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Stick vs. Bissell 3177A IconPet Turbo Edge at a glance
This cordless stick vacuum from Dyson did an outstanding job picking up dog hair on dog beds, wood floorsandlow-pile carpets. It’s a powerful, lightweight vacuum with great maneuverability and a digital display that alerts you to battery strength and other useful information.
This cordless stick vacuum from Bissell works well on low-pile carpets and throw rugs, and its swivel head allows it to reach under furniture easily. It has a bright light that illuminates where you vacuum, and it comes with several attachments, including a useful bendable hose and brush. It never clogged during testing, even after sucking up piles of dog hair.
Quick comparison
| Weight | 5.22 lbs. | 7 lbs. |
|---|---|---|
| LCD screen | Yes | No |
| Parking brake | No | Yes |
| Charge time | 3.5 hrs. | 4 hrs. |
| Warranty | 2-year, includes parts and labor | 2-year, limited |
| Run time | 40 Minutes on Eco Mode | 40 Minutes on Low Mode |
| Bagless | Yes | Yes |
| Cordless and rechargeable | Yes | Yes |
| Crevice tool | Yes | Yes |
| Easy-empty dustbin | Yes | Yes |
| Swivel head | Yes | Yes |
| Wall-mounted docking station | Yes | Yes |
| Price | $480 | $397 |
Setup
Cordless stick vacuum attachments. Suzanne Kattau/CNN Underscored
Both the Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Stick and the Bissell 3177A IconPet Turbo Edge are quite intuitive to set up right out of the box. All the parts of both vacuums are safely and snugly packaged in their respective boxes upon opening. Each vacuum comes with its own set of attachments, which makes cleaning a much more enjoyable and effective endeavor, though both vacuums let you disregard its stick body and turn it into a handheld vacuum instead.
The Dyson hand vacuum assembly comes with multiple attachments to help you clean in a variety of scenarios: a battery charger, a wall-mountable dock, a wand clip that stores the included crevice tool and the hair screw tool on its extension wand (its stick body) so they’re always within easy reach, a brush tool, a Motorbar cleaner head and a Fluffy Optic cleaner head.
The Bissell also comes with multiple attachments: a battery charger, a wall storage and charging station, a lighted crevice tool, a dusting brush, a hose that lets you maneuver into hard-to-reach spots, an extension wand, a motorized tangle-free cleaning foot and an LED motorized TurboBrush tool.
Suction power
When it comes to suction, the Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Stick is a powerhouse. The video above was taken as a time lapse over the course of just under a minute. So you see in about seven seconds how well it cleaned the rug in that short span of time, totally cleaning off dirt, debris and dog hair from our outside welcome mat. The Dyson also worked quickly and thoroughly on the hardwood floor of our living room and our low-pile bedroom carpeting.
While we don’t have a video featuring the suction power of the Bissell 3177A IconPet Turbo Edge, it also did a great job at picking up dirt, debris and dog hair from a variety of surfaces in our house, including hardwood floors, low-pile carpeting and throw rugs.
Ease of use and maneuverability
Both vacuums are powerful, lightweight models with great maneuverability. Both feature heads that turn to the left and right to get into corners and tight spots without too much effort. The Bissell 3177A IconPet Turbo Edge features a headlight that works with all the vacuum’s attachments. We liked that it illuminated anywhere we moved the vacuum head, even while using the crevice attachment.
By contrast, the only time the Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Stick provided any type of headlight was when we were using its Fluffy Optic cleaner head, which the company says “reveals microscopic dust on hard floors” in real time as you vacuum. We tried using it on both wood floors and in our low-pile bedroom carpeting (below), and the illumination of Dyson’s optic technology was cool to look at as our carpet was lit up in green, though we weren’t really sure what we were looking at, except to assume the green illumination was showing us a lot of dust!
However, the Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Stick felt easier to glide around since it is just a tad lighter in weight and its handle was more comfortable to grip for long periods of time. So, when it comes to ease of use and maneuverability, we preferred the headlight of the Bissell but thought the lighter-weight stick body of the Dyson made it more comfortable to use.
Effectiveness on pet hair
Gizmo, our Pembroke Welsh corgi, continually sheds on a daily basis, leaving piles of airy dog hair all over our house. He spends a considerable amount of nap time on his dog bed, so that is where we put both vacuums to the test. The Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Stick made easy work of sucking up any evidence of Gizmo’s weekly amount of shedding. We noticed, however, that we had to reach down a couple of times and clear away some tuffs of hair from the end of the vacuum since it wasn’t all getting sucked up at once.
We also put the Bissell 3177A IconPet Turbo Edge to the same test to see how it would fare. The Bissell also did a great job of vacuuming up all of Gizmo’s hairballs, though it, too, left a balled-up bunch of hair behind in the end that it just couldn’t suck up through its thin stick body.
Though both vacuums’ dustbins were soon full of hair, the Bissell never once clogged on us. We vacuumed dog hair throughout the house, without the Bissell ever jamming, though we did need to empty its relatively small dustbin a few times.
But there was one time when the Dyson actually paused during vacuuming, showing us a warning message on its LCD screen that read “Airways blocked,” which surprised us. We had to turn off the unit and clear the dog hair out with our fingers in that instance. Once the jam was cleared, the Dyson once again began vacuuming with ease. But this was something that concerned us since both vacuums are specifically marketed as great to use with pet hair. Point goes to Bissell here for not ever getting blocked.
Battery life
Dyson V12
Bissell 3177A IconPet
Battery indicators Suzanne Kattau/CNN Underscored
Both vacuums let you know in real time how much battery time is left. The Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Stick features an LCD screen that has a countdown timer that tells you exactly how much run time is left, changing to reflect the power mode you choose. For example, if we chose Eco mode (low), it showed us a green battery and green numbers indicating 40 minutes left. If we chose Auto mode (medium), it showed us a blue battery and blue numbers indicating 22 minutes left (we took the photo above when there were 21 minutes, 38 seconds remaining). Boost mode (high) is the most powerful setting, and with this mode we were shown a red battery and red numbers showing just five minutes run time.
On the other hand, the Bissell 3177A IconPet Turbo Edge does not feature an LCD screen, but instead, shows its three power modes as one dot (low), two dots (medium) and the word “Turbo” (high) located above the one battery indicator on the handle. The battery indicator is divided into three sections: If all three sections were still lit, then we knew we had a full battery. As we used the vacuum, the battery would only show two, then one blue light and would finally peter out altogether when the battery needed recharging.
Both methods of showing remaining battery strength got the job done, so to speak, but we did appreciate the Dyson’s countdown timer more since it let us know exactly how much time we had left to vacuum before we had to charge the battery again.
Bottom line
The Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Stick did an outstanding job picking up dog hair on dog beds, wood floorsandlow-pile carpets. It’s powerful, lightweight, is easy to maneuver thanks to its swivel head, has a long-lasting battery and a useful digital display that alerts you to battery strength and time left to vacuum. If you do not need to vacuum up copious amounts of dog hair on a daily or weekly basis, then we recommend the Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Stick.
The Bissell 3177A IconPet Turbo Edge works particularly well on low-pile carpets and throw rugs, and its swivel head allows it to reach under furniture easily. Its headlight helpfully illuminates where you vacuum, no matter which attachment you’re using. Its array of attachments matches that of the Dyson but adds a useful bendable hose and brush.
For vacuums marketed to handle pet hair, both vacuums performed well, but we need to give Bissell the win here for never clogging during testing, even after sucking up piles of dog hair. So, if you are a pet parent with a hairy dog or cat who sheds a lot, we recommend saving yourself a few bucks and picking up the more affordable Bissell 3177A IconPet Turbo Edge.
