Why We Tested the Bissell CrossWave Edge Cordless
If you’ve ever had to contend with stubborn food or drink stains on your carpet or upholstered furniture, you’ve most likely come across Bissell products in your search for a solution, and for good reason too. Their spot cleaners have built a strong reputation for removing both the seen and unseen mess left behind by everyday accidents.
This is how I was introduced to the Bissell brand. With two young kids, my spot cleaner is regularly called upon to deal with stains on our upholstered furniture.
While Bissell may be best known for its spot cleaners, the company has also spent years refining its CrossWave range. Designed to vacuum and mop simultaneously, the range aims to reduce the time and effort required to keep hard floors and rugs looking their best.
The CrossWave Edge Cordless, (retailing for $449AUD) aims to simplify one of the more time-consuming household chores by combining vacuuming and mopping into a single cordless cleaning experience. After spending time using it throughout a busy family home with vinyl plank flooring, rugs, everyday foot (and paw) traffic and frequent snack-related messes, I was keen to see whether it could genuinely replace the traditional vacuum-then-mop routine.
Bissell CrossWave Edge Cordless Setup and First Impressions
In typical male fashion, I attempted to assemble the CrossWave Edge Cordless without touching the instructions and, lo and behold, I managed to get everything together without much fuss. That’s more a credit to Bissell than to my DIY abilities though, as the company has done a great job of making the setup process straightforward and intuitive right out of the box. Remove a couple of pieces of cardboard, fill the water reservoir, lock the handle into place and you’re ready to crack on.
The charging dock is a simple one-piece affair too, with only the power adapter needing to be connected before you can drop the CrossWave Edge Cordless in for its first charge, which it will most likely need straight out of the box. You’re looking at around four hours for a full charge from flat, though mine arrived with enough battery to only require around two hours on the dock before I could get started.
Adding the cleaning solution is a cakewalk as well. Simply fill the clean water tank to the first marked line with water, then top it up to the second line using the supplied cleaning solution.
The CrossWave Edge Cordless doesn’t overwhelm you with buttons and settings, which is ideal for someone like me who usually just wants to press the obvious button and hope for the best. There’s a simple power button, a mode selector for hard floors or rugs and a self-cleaning function for maintenance duties back on the dock. After a few minutes of use, everything felt intuitive and easy to navigate without constantly referring back to the manual.
Hard Floor Cleaning Performance
As a combined vacuum and mop, the CrossWave Edge Cordless finds its sweet spot with everyday mess like dirt, dust, pet fur, crumbs and even things like kids paint. Simply set it to hard floor mode and get to work.
Hard floor mode does leave the floor fairly wet immediately after a pass, so it pays to be a little strategic with how you approach each area and work backwards where possible to avoid walking back through freshly cleaned sections and making more of a mess. The upside is that the floors dry reasonably quickly afterwards.
Dried-on food, stubborn marks or paint splatters may require a few slower passes to fully lift, and anything more aggressive than that will still need a bit of elbow grease from yourself. The same applies to hair and fur. I found that if hair wasn’t collected on the first pass, the added moisture could sometimes cause it to stick to the floor slightly more on subsequent passes. Slowing down my movements and giving the vacuum head more time over the area noticeably improved pickup performance.
Resident royalty is also catered for. With Teddy the ragdoll keeping us well supplied with cat fur for testing purposes, the machine had little trouble staying on top of his shedding. That said, ragdoll fur is fairly light and easily vacuumed, so your experience may vary depending on the breed and type of fur you’re dealing with.
Rug Cleaning Performance
When it came to rug cleaning, the CrossWave Edge Cordless was put through its paces on both a high-pile wool rug and a large tatami mat rug. Switching the CrossWave Edge Cordless from hard floor mode to rug mode appeared to reduce the amount of water being dispensed, making it better suited to refreshing rugs without leaving them overly damp.
The difference was particularly noticeable on the tatami mat rug. Being a lighter colour, it was easy to see the improvement after cleaning, with the surface looking noticeably fresher and free of the grit and debris that had accumulated through daily use.
As a result, the rugs weren’t left feeling overly damp afterwards, so there were no concerns about lingering moisture or smells developing while waiting for them to dry. While I wouldn’t view the CrossWave Edge Cordless as a replacement for a dedicated carpet cleaner, it proved to be an effective way of freshening up rugs between deeper cleans.
Manoeuvrability and Edge Cleaning Performance
The CrossWave Edge Cordless is easy to manoeuvre around the home. The vacuum head swivels smoothly, making it easy to navigate around dining chairs, kitchen islands and other obstacles without feeling like you’re wrestling the machine into position. Combined with its cordless design, the machine encourages quick clean-ups rather than turning them into a larger chore.
Edge cleaning performance is decent, though it’s not quite perfect. The CrossWave Edge Cordless still leaves a small gap of roughly half a centimetre or so near walls and skirting boards, meaning you won’t always get a completely edge-to-edge clean in a single pass. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but perfectionists (like me) will probably still find themselves occasionally reaching for a cloth or doing a quick follow-up pass around tighter edges.
Battery Life and Runtime
Battery life is one area where your experience will largely depend on how you’re using the CrossWave Edge Cordless. During my first cleaning session, I deliberately ran the battery flat and managed around 30 minutes of runtime, which is in line with Bissell’s claims.
That wasn’t quite enough to clean my entire home in a single session, though it’s worth mentioning that I wasn’t exactly rushing. I spent a fair bit of time tackling stubborn marks on the vinyl plank flooring, occasionally letting the mop head sit over the area to help soften and lift the mess before making a few additional passes. The same was true in the bathrooms, where hair sometimes required slower, more deliberate passes to achieve a thorough clean.
As I spent more time with the CrossWave Edge Cordless, I found myself becoming more strategic with how I used it. Rather than attempting to clean the entire house in one hit, I’d reach for it after dinner to tackle the inevitable mess under the dining table, or give the kitchen and hallways a quick once-over before dirt and food residue had a chance to build up. Those high-traffic areas are where the machine really shines.
Viewed as a maintenance cleaning tool rather than a whole-house deep cleaning solution, the runtime feels much more appropriate. Whether it’s working alongside a robot vacuum and mop or simply helping you stay on top of the mess between larger cleans, I found the battery life more than adequate for day-to-day use.If you’re planning to do a quick single pass through the house rather than stopping to tackle stubborn marks and problem areas, you’ll likely cover considerably more ground in those 30 minutes than I did initially. For many households, that could be enough to knock over the main living areas, hallways and other high-traffic spaces on a single charge.
Self-Cleaning Features and Maintenance Requirements
If you ever want proof that the CrossWave Edge Cordless is doing its job, take a look at the dirty water tank after a cleaning session. Despite my floors appearing reasonably clean beforehand, the water was often a murky shade of grey that was equal parts satisfying and disgusting. Pouring it down the sink gave me a reassuring sense that the machine was pulling more dirt from the floor than I would have expected.
The dirty water tank should be emptied shortly after use, otherwise things can start to smell fairly unpleasant.
Bissell recommends rinsing the dirty water tank, filter and associated components under warm tap water after use, then allowing them to dry completely before reassembly. I found out the hard way why that’s important after skipping the self-cleaning cycle during my first few uses and noticing a slightly mildewy smell developing around the brush roller.
The maintenance itself isn’t particularly onerous. It’s really more common sense than anything else. Once you’ve seen the colour of the water coming out of the dirty tank, taking a few minutes to clean and dry the components afterwards starts to feel like a very sensible idea.
The self-cleaning cycle does a good job of flushing debris from the roller, while the brush roller itself can be removed in seconds for a more thorough clean. During testing I found myself removing any accumulated hair from the roller after cleaning, then placing it on the dedicated drying tray built into the dock.
The self-cleaning feature definitely works, but it’s worth remembering that it uses water and cleaning solution from the clean tank to do its job, so you’ll want to make sure there’s enough liquid remaining before running the cycle.
Final Verdict: Is the Bissell CrossWave Edge Cordless Worth Buying?
The biggest strength of the CrossWave Edge Cordless is the time it saves. By combining vacuuming and mopping into a single machine, it removes much of the friction that comes with keeping hard floors clean. Rather than vacuuming first, followed by dragging out a mop and bucket, the CrossWave Edge Cordless allows you to tackle both jobs at the same time which is a substantial time saver for families like ours and the cherry on top is the freedom that being cordless offers.
After a couple of weeks of use, it became clear to me that the CrossWave Edge Cordless doesn’t need to replace your vacuum cleaner. It does, however, come very close to replacing your mop, such is the convenience of consistent solution dosing, dirty water separation and the self-cleaning function.
There’s also a lot less water left behind than with conventional bucket mopping, resulting in faster drying times and a generally more pleasant cleaning experience.
For busy households with hard flooring, children, pets or a combination of all three, the CrossWave Edge Cordless makes a very compelling case for itself as a maintenance cleaning tool that can significantly reduce the time spent keeping floors clean. It may not completely replace every cleaning appliance in your cupboard, but it does make staying on top of everyday mess significantly easier and dare I say it, almost enjoyable.
The Bissell CrossWave Edge Cordless has RRP A$449 and is available from Bissell and authorised resellers.
DRN wishes to thank Bissell for sending us a CrossWave Edge Cordless to review.
