The Bissell Zing is a decent option if you prefer a canister-style vacuum and have a limited budget. It cleans a number of different surfaces and its ultra-lightweight design makes it portable. This vacuum cleaner is easy to take to wherever the mess happens – up the stairs, under furniture and on different types of flooring.
There was a little bit of an issue with keeping the bag in the right position once it got close to being full. It slipped out of place and sent a big cloud of dust into the air a couple of times. Once we put on an empty bag again it was fine, though.
The adjustable suction was a nice feature for getting just the right type of cleaning power for different projects, but the cleaning head was often in the wrong position, at least until we had it attached to the telescoping wand. So even if the suction level was right, it was tough to get the attachment cleaning position right with this vacuum. That was only without the extension wand, though. Once that was on and the wand was pointed straight at the mess, everything worked fine.
There is a switch to go from hardwood floors to carpet cleaning that moves the brush closer or farther away from the surface, as needed. Generally, you would want to retract the brush for cleaning wood flooring.
The automatic cord wind on this vacuum is a wonderful feature. When you are done cleaning, you just push the button and it winds its own cord on an internal spool. When pulling the cord out it will stay extended as far as you want it to, until you push the button and have the vacuum reel it back in.
Once you subtract the difficulty positioning the head and a few other design issues, you are left with a decent vacuum. It could use a little more suction, though. This one needed numerous passes when we were comparing cheap vacuum cleaners. Others in our budget vacuum cleaner reviews did better. For stronger suction, check out the Hoover Tempo WidePath.
The Zing's small price matches its minimal weight. This budget vacuum cleaner can get the job done, although not quite as quickly as some of the other inexpensive vacuum cleaners we considered. It eventually cleared the test floors of every mess we could throw on them, and it is understandable that it cleans more slowly at its relatively low price.
