I love it.

I have a husband, a teen age step son, two toddler boys, and an enormous white dog (hey, he's a male too; I'm surrounded) in my house. Needless to say, the floors get dirty fast, and before this amazing mop, they stayed dirty much longer than they should have. Now, I go out of my way to find things to mop! I've got hardwood on the first and second floors, laminate in the kitchen, and tile in the basement and bathrooms, and the Bissell cleans them all. For the first time in YEARS, I can walk around on my floors and not stick to them. Even with regular mop and bucket or with the Swiffer, my floors were always sticky. They are SO clean these days. And you can't go wrong with cutting the floor cleaning time in half. It takes a long time to sweep, vacuum, and mop a three story house. This machine cuts those three steps down to one. The only thing you have to stop and do is change the pads or refill the water tank. Time saving anything is a big deal around here.

The only real "downside" is that it doesn't so much clean the grout, but then again, nothing really does. If you want your grout to be clean, you have to get down on your hands and knees and scrub it with a brush, so that's not really the mop's fault. It picks up almost everything too - dog hair, food bits, paper scraps, pins. It even picks up those stupid annoying helicopter tree seed doodads that the kids and dog are always tracking in from the outside. It won't pick up the bigger things like marbles, Lego's (which is too bad; I'd love to vacuum them all way), and random balls of tinfoil (don't even ask).

The dirt chamber is easy to empty, and the filter is easy to clean. The steam gets my floors rockin' clean, but I do have to admit that it took me almost half an hour to open the door to the water tank the first time. Wow was that ever hard. It's easier with each subsequent use though, and it was worth the initial frustration. My floors really have never been this clean, and I have no idea how it is that I've gotten old enough to be super excited about a MOP!

First of all, I have to commend Bissell for even attempting a product like this. Why? Because of SUS (Stupid User Syndrome) that is typically rampant in both floor steamers and vacuum cleaners by themselves. SUS is amplified x2 when combining these two products. I don't understand why quite a few people here find direct manufacturer replies to these reviews as suspect. I find it to be excellent customer service!

If you read through the 1-star reviews, the majority of them say the Bissell Symphony worked perfectly the first few times/months they used it, but then it stopped performing well. Guess what, people? You have to maintain your housecleaning tools! I own three different vacuum cleaners, two different steamers, one hard floor scrubber, and one carpet cleaner. After every time that I use any of these, I thoroughly clean them.

With my vacuums after each time that I use them I remove hair and debris from the power brushes, I wipe out the inside of the dirt cup with a wet paper towel, and generally clean the entire outside casing. Every two or three times that I use the vacuums I clean the filters as directed in the operator's manual. About every six months or so, I actually remove the hoses and run water through them to remove any built-up dust, and then allow to drip dry. These are all things you must do or every vacuum is going to fail over time. If you don't want to do this, then I suggest you revert back to a broom and dustpan, as they don't require any maintenance. Have fun with that!

With my steamers I only use distilled water. The reason why stares at me every few months when I get a shower -- all of my shower heads in my house are crusty with mineral build-up because most city water is ridiculously hard. You should be doing the same thing in all devices in your house that produce steam -- steam cleaners, steam mops, clothing steamers, irons, etc. There's no place for those minerals to go when tap water is converted to steam, so it stays in the product and affects performance. Usually you can resolve this by running a cycle or two of diluted vinegar/water through it, but it's just better, easier, and usually cheaper or about the same price to simply use distilled water. You should especially use distilled water when the manufacturer specifically recommends it. Not doing that is, frankly, SUS (Stupid User Syndrome) and definitely not the fault of the product or manufacturer.

Also, a lot of the complaints seem to be centered around cleaning up heavy messes. This isn't a shop-vac or an industrial steam cleaner -- it's more of a regular, routine cleaning device. If your home is really so filthy that this device cannot clean it, then you probably need to either clean more often or switch all you devices over to industrial/commercial models that are made for cleaning the apparent restaurant/hotel level of filth that you seem to be encountering. I have pets, I have children, I have women in the house with long hair, and I've never encountered messes that my consumer home appliances couldn't clean or maintain.

Now, all that being said, the Bissell Symphony works just fine for me, even after months of owning/using it. Does it vacuum as well as my dedicated vacuum (Shark Rotator Liftaway Professional)? No. But even a Dyson vacuum doesn't clean as well as my Shark does, so I really didn't expect this product to either. I expected it to clean as well or better than my Hoover Lynx cordless vacuum (which is an excellent cordless vacuum by the way), and it does do this.The Bissell Symphony does steam just as well as both of my other steam mops (if not actually better because the steam starts faster), and it is nice to not have to vacuum the whole floor first. Admittedly, if I want my home to be as thoroughly clean as I can possibly get it (like I do once or twice per month), I vacuum the whole house with my dedicated vacuum and then steam mop all the hard floors with a dedicated steam mop. However, between these ultra-thorough cleanings, the Bissell Symphony does an excellent job of maintenance cleaning, and because it's combo device, I can get it done in roughly half the time. My time is valuable -- so it's nice for housecleaning to not take as long every time. There are several problem areas in my home -- by the guinea pig cage, under the bar stools, and under the dining room table. I usually hit those areas (and only those areas) with my Hoover Lynx cordless, and then just use the Bissell Symphony on the entire floor.

I originally rated the Bissell Symphony 4/5 stars because I feel there is room for improvement on both the vacuum and steam mop sides. I do feel that if this item was improved it would most likely cost a lot more than it does, so given the price/performance ratio, I feel this is overall a very good product to excellent product as-is, which would probably get it more like 4.5 stars, so I rounded up.

I purchased this product and was actually a little scared because it has received mixed reviews. My cousin owns one and he convinced me to purchase this item and stated, "You are gonna love it. Mine works great!" So, I ordered a display model that had never been used. It was missing two pads and the instruction manual and this is how the product was offered. So, no complaint there. This gadget is so self explanatory that I did not need the manual anyway. I absolutely love the thing!!! I swear this is the best gadget I have every purchased. I have a cat and a dog that both shed profusely. I also live in the country with no pavement around my house, dirt floors in the garage, and a huge garden. The piles of dirt that are drug into my house are immense. This gadget picks up all that dirt very well. I have vinyl plank flooring in my kitchen and laminate flooring through the rest of the house.

Someone did state that it would not pick up big objects and I say what vacuum will? If I find that it is pushing the dirt rather than picking it up I tilt the machine back, place it over the big chunk, and it will pick up the dirt. I have always had to do this with vacuums.

This gadget came in four pieces. The handle snapped right in and is adjustable. The body of the machine snapped right into place on the head of the machine. I placed the cleaning pad on the base of the machine and it snapped right into place when I sat the machine on it. There is a tab on the pad try that you step on to remove and once you get used to the idea that this is not what you have to do to tip the machine back it is great. I just put my bare toes or stockinged foot on the machine head itself to tip it back. I did all of this without the manual. I did follow the other reviews of this product and have been using distilled water. To put the water into the machine, you pinch to tabs at the side of the machine and pour the water in. The entire dirt catcher comes off the machine by sliding a lever over. I was a little confused about the operation of that. I tried to take the filter off the top but then realized the dirt dumps out the bottom. This is the only time that I thought the user manual, other than the need of distilled water, would have been handy but it truly was a no brainer to figure out. There is a slot that the dirt cacther slides back into and the lever just flips back. When I started the machine for the first time I let the machine sit for a little bit to prime and then the light comes on saying the steam is ready. You can use this with high or low steam. I have only used high steam as my floors are usually filthy. The steam will stay on, as other reviews state, until you shut it off. The steam control is in the handle and you pretty much have a squeeze on the thing the entire time it is in use but you can shut the steam off on the handle. So, if you think of the other complaints that you can't just vacuum and the wet mop pad causes problems with just vacuuming--you could just put a dry mop pad on--but why I say would you not want to steam at the same time?

When you shut the vacuum and you do need to shut off the steam or it will keep steaming and run the machine out of water but if you unplug the machine when your are done this is not a problem. This machine also comes with an extra filter and the filter can just be rinsed out.

I say bury your Swiffer. I have used one of those swiffers with the wet pads for years & that just seems to leave dirty streaks all over the floor. This machine will not reach into those little corners behind the toilet and such but I would like refute the claims that it does not clean well by the mop boards or get under the cupboard to the kick board. It does take a little longer at the mop board for a good clean but it most certainly works better than my broom and wet swiffer. There are some little corners that you may need to wipe by hand but this is the cleanest my floors have every been. I am walking barefoot and I have no grit on the bottoms of my bare feet!! I also always have hairspray with dirt and dust stuck to it caked on my bathroom floor & this gadget cleaned this up so much easier than any other method I have ever tried. Prior to this I have found myself in the bathroom with baking soda and water scrubbing to get this dirty mess off the floor.

I did order the smelly disks for the mop pad and they do give off a nice smell while in use. I removed the disk when I washed the pad and cannot say what would have happened if I had forgot the disk in the pad when tossed in the washer.

As far as the durability of this product, I can not attest but so far I am in love. I have always hated sweeping and mopping and this is the best thing that has ever happened to my house and I actually love this task now.

Perspective:
I've been a long time owner of several Shark Steam Mops. First, the original pump mop and a few of the Shark Pro Pocket Steam Mop. When the last Shark Pro finally quit on me (it was popping the mop head off the mop with hot steam due to clogging) I was in search of a replacement. My original intent was to purchase another Shark Pro since I have several mop pads already. I quite liked the fact that I could flip the mop head over and get more coverage. However, I was well aware of the fact that the Shark gave a superficial cleaning. Scrub the floor after a Shark and you'll see all that it left behind.

Symphony:
The Symphony is completely different from the Shark so it took me a while to wrap my head around how this might be more effective even though I would have to replace the mop heads more often during my cleaning. One reviewer mentions that cleaning with the Symphony reveals the mop heads to have an even distribution of dirt across the entire surface of the mop pad while the Shark would have dirt areas at the edges of the mop pad. From my own experience, I knew this was true of the Shark. The Shark doesn't have a vacuum so naturally I'd, also, find myself stepping on grit and crumbs after a cleaning which was another annoyance. The activity I hate most is cleaning, and having to make two passes at everything from vacuuming and then steaming just sounds like a bad use of my time when I'd rather be playing or relaxing. Cleaning is much better left for others that enjoy it right? The Symphony just might change my mind on this. Some points about the Bissell Symphony:

Pros:
* Vacuuming while steam mopping your floors was the way it was meant to be done. I pick up dust, feathers, and whatever else is on the floor while I'm steam mopping the floors.
* The floors are much cleaner using the Symphony compared to the Shark Steam Mop.
* Bissell Engineering. It's a well built machine with good function design. The mop pads come off with the press of your foot. It also clicks nicely in place after changing out the mop pad.
* Emptying the vacuum canister is as simple as removing from the machine and walking it to the trash can without dragging dust around the house (there's a lid on the canister). There's an air filter as well though I'm not sure if it's Hepa rated.
* Can vacuum your expensive rugs with a pull motion over the area. Mop pad off of course which is easy to do.
* Stands upright. The steam is trigger activated so no worry about steaming pumping through the same area on the floor as you move furniture around.

Cons:
* The power cord is about 5 ft shorter than the Shark. While noticeable it's easily forgiven. I suspect they'll add extra cord length in future revisions.

Important to note that coming from a Shark this thing was much harder to push on the floor. I didn't list that as a Con because I attribute the better cleaning with the grippier action of the mop pads and the focused steam on the floor which results in better cleaning but requiring more effort to push. However, it's significant enough to mention especially if you're already having difficulties managing the Shark steam mop which required very little effort. The Symphony requires double the force which I don't mind at all...

In summary, this is a great tool for cleaning hardwood floors and linoleum. I can't imagine there's a more innovative way to clean floors than vacuuming and steam mopping the same time. And glad to see this american company take the lead. I'm a Bissell fan. Btw, I have horrible unsealed linoleum floors in the kitchen with glue smeared on the surfaces that's primed for dirt. I use a Magic Eraser to give it a quick wipe down and you'd be amazed how effectively it'll clean those troubled areas.

I have been looking for a good machine that can handle the tough job of cleaning hardwood floors after a 2 year old toddler has been running loose. I think I have found such a machine in this device. Is it absolute perfection? Not quite (I will explain below), but it does an amazing job for the price and is probably the best vaccum/steam mop combo on the market that I have found.

The Bissell Symphony arrived on time packed in an average-sized box for an upright vaccum cleaner. There was very little assembly required, which made set up super easy. The only annoying part of setting this up is filling the water tank. You also have to "prime" the machine the first time you use it, but thats not a big deal. Refilling the water tank is a pain because you cant really get a good grip on the tank door and it takes an excessive amout of force to get it open; more force than it should take because I feel like I am going to break the dang thing. Using the provided cup ensures there are no water spills. The tank has not leaked so far. It has enough water to last 30 mins of continues steam, I believe.

Now it comes down to operation: how does it perform? Lets break it down.

Bissell states you can vacuum AND steam with this machine at the same time. I dont really find this to be true and had poor performance when trying to do both simultaneously. The issue is that it seems like there is not enough power going to the machine to accomplish both tasks. While vacuuming AND steaming, the steam generation seems to take a back seat to the vacuum and generates an anemic amount of heat and steam. Plus you have the fact that over time the cleaning pad becomes wet from the steam and ends up actually impeding your ability to suck up dry debris. The pad becomes gross, dirty AND wet, just spreading a thin film of gunk over your floors.

The best way to use it is as a vacuum first to pick up the dried stuff and then as a steam mop afterwards. This will ensure the pad stays DRY so that the above mentioned dirty film thing doesnt happen. The vacuum function itself is middling, at best. There are no roller brushes on this machine and it has a small dust tank, so mostly its good for loose stuff like cereal and such. Its adequate for hardwood or tile, though. You wouldnt use this thing on carpet.

The steam function is where this machine shines, but only if you are using it on steam alone. There are two steam settings: low and high. Low is absolutely pointless. I dont know why they included a low steam mode, actually, because to do any real cleaning it needs to be on High. Also, you will need to wait until the pad gets thoroughly moist before you will see actual "steam lines" on your floors and see nice little clouds of steam doing its job. Be patient with it and you will like the results. There is not too much steam, making your floors sopping wet, but there is enough steam to clean and ensure the water evaporates quickly enough. I give it about 10 minutes to dry and my hardwoods feel barefoot clean. I also use this for my bathrooms. You can expect the same results with tile. Just dont expect this to clean deep-seated stains and such out of your grout. It does surface clean ONLY. Additionally, Bissel includes 3 steam pads that you can wash in the washing machine and reuse over and over (they are made from terry cloth and elastic).

All in all, I would recommend this machine for day to day use and to keep up on light cleaning needs. Just remember: vacuum first, steam second for best results.