REASONS TO BUY
Fantastic at picking up pet hair
Great value
REASONS TO AVOID
Not the best for tight spaces
Can't clean small gaps or corners
Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Review
This vac excels at picking up pet dander and is a great choice for those that don't want to spend a ton
The Pet Hair Eraser is great at erasing - you guessed it - pet hair.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
By Austin Palmer ⋅ Senior Review Analyst ⋅ January 11, 2022
Contributions From: David Wise
RELATED: The Best Handheld Vacuum of 2025
Our Verdict
If you are on the hunt for a quick and easy way to clean up small messes without sucking away your savings, then you should consider the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser. This vacuum holds its own against top-tier vacuums while retailing for much less. In particular, this handheld vacuum does exceptionally well with tougher messes and pet hair, though it isn't the best suited for cleaning all the hard-to-reach nooks and crannies in your home. However, it is one of our favorite handheld vacuums in its price range.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Pet Hair Eraser is an excellent option for tough messes and pet hair, and the battery life is among the best of the models we tested. The icing on the cake? The price is very approachable and more than fair for the level of performance this device offers.
The Pet Hair Eraser has an upholstery brush if you prefer not to use the motorized brush on leather.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Tough Messes
Initially, we looked at how well the Pet Hair Eraser did at cleaning up flour from a section of automotive-style carpet. We spread out a tablespoon of flour onto the carpet, then attempted to clean it up. This powerful device did a phenomenal job. We used its motorized brush tool, and it easily collected the most flour from the carpet on the first pass and compared to others, it got the carpet the cleanest after multiple passes. It did similarly well at collecting oats, easily getting 99%+ of all the oats we spread out on a couch cushion and a section of carpet, only leaving trace amounts of dust behind. This vacuum also did fine at collecting Mini-Wheats with the motorized attachment, but it became clogged if we used any of the other tools.
The Pet Hair Eraser has a motorized brush which makes quick work of oats.
Credit: Austin Palmer
The Pet Hair Eraser got registered speeds of 1210 feet per minute (fpm) of airflow, roughly an average measurement among the group.
Hard-to-Reach Areas
The Eraser did rather well at cleaning out a window track, easily sucking up all of the mess with its crevice tool. However, it didn't perform as well at reaching deep into narrow slots. It could only reach about 7" into a 3" wide slot, which was a shorter-than-average reach for products in this lineup. It did a little better with a narrower 1.25" slot, able to clean up to 5.75" underneath — just a bit further than the group average of 4.6".
Dust & Dirt
This vacuum is at a bit of a disadvantage right from the start in these tests, as it doesn't come with a dusting brush, forcing us to use its upholstery attachment for these assessments. However, we were pleasantly surprised by its performance in our first test, where it only took about 22 seconds to clean all of the statically charged flour off the plastic sheet.
Dusting a large area with the crevice tool isn't very efficient, but this vacuum still completed this test in a respectable amount of time.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
The Pet Hair Eraser also did very well at cleaning off dried-on dirt and mud from a flat surface, matching the speed and efficiency of the top products. We used the upholstery tool for this test, which is somewhat oddly shaped and not ideal for small edges or corners. We found cleaning baseboards, shelves, and window sills to be a bit awkward.
Battery Life
This vacuum lasted for 20 minutes and 42 seconds before dying without the motorized brush head, which is better than most in our lineup. When using the brush tool, its run time decreased to 17 minutes. Still, this is an impressive showing for handheld vacuums.
The motorized brush head is great for cleaning, but it can drain your battery faster than stationary attachments.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Convenience
This vacuum weighs about average, weighing 3 pounds with its heaviest tool attached and 2.6 pounds without tools. It is also quieter, though it has a slight whine that can be annoying.
The Pet Hair Eraser is on the quieter end of handheld vacuums.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
We like that the Pet Hair Eraser has a larger than average collection bin, which is relatively easy to empty. However, we wish this vacuum had a convenient way to store and manage all its tools, such as its main base.
Pet Hair
As its name suggests, the Pet Hair Eraser finished our testing process with a strong showing in this metric.
The Pet Hair Eraser did a phenomenal job in both tests, collecting over 99% of the hair from each test patch with only a strand or two remaining after two passes.
Should You Buy the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser?
The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser is an excellent option if your main priority is getting fur off your chairs and couches and is a great choice if you have given your dog a buzz with a pair of dog clippers. It holds its own against much more expensive and premium vacuums, standing up to tough messes and pet debris. However, it struggles with small areas and narrow slots.
What Other Handheld Vacuums Should You Consider?
If vacuuming pet hair will be part of your cleaning routine but not the main concentration, as you'd like to tackle other areas and messes around your home, we suggest purchasing the award-winning Black+Decker Flex Vac BDH2020FL. This handheld vacuum is a more well-rounded machine than the Pet Hair Eraser. Most notably, it's considerably better at cleaning hard-to-reach areas, a facet of our testing where the Pet Hair Eraser struggled.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Compare Bissell Pet Hair Eraser versus top competing products:
—Austin Palmer and David Wise
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