With Vacuum Lighting, Seeing is Believing

Power on a BISSELL® PowerClean® FurFinder™ 200W Cordless Stick Vac and you’ll be amazed at how the FurFinder™ lighting illuminates dirt, debris, and pet hair. The high-powered, wide-angle vacuum foot beams are ultra effective at spotlighting messes for a thorough cleanup. But the exact reason they work so well may not be obvious – unless you’re an engineer.

“Vacuums with FurFinder™ Headlight Technology have built-in high beams and low beams,” says Patryk Akhurst, Development Electrical Engineer at BISSELL. “The low beams are close to the floor while the high beams are lifted and project out and down. When they illuminate debris, the shadows become larger and easier to see than the debris itself.”

That innovative approach is one reason FurFinder™ lights outshine the rest. Here, Akhurst digs deep into the engineering of these powerful vacuum headlights, from why they work so well to how they support BISSELL Pet Proven™ certified products in cleaning even the toughest pet messes.  

Key factors for vacuums with illumination 

When BISSELL first set out to improve its lighting performance the initial goal putting headlights on vacuums was simply to light up the cleaning area, says Akhurst, who’s been with the company since 2017. But the team quickly learned that lighting plays a much bigger role in product performance. Light placement, color, direction, and whether or not they’re always-on can all impact your ability to clean.  

The importance of vacuum light color

Bright white lights on a vacuum sound like a good idea. But in a dimmer area, such as when vacuuming under the bed or in a dark closet, they can almost hurt to look at – like turning on the bathroom light in the middle of the night. What’s more, bright lights are best for illuminating at a distance – thus the shift to brighter white headlights on vehicles – but they’re less effective at showing detail up close.

To find a light color that's easy on the eyes and shows detail at close-range the team at BISSELL began playing with color temperature, testing lights that fell more into the gentler soft white range.

“The warmer the temperature, the less strain it puts on your eyes,” says Akhurst. “And as a bonus, with soft white lights it’s easier to see debris in the first foot or so around the vacuum, which is where it matters most.”

Soft white light is also effective at highlighting dust and pet fur in well-lit areas – something that can’t be said of other light colors such as green, which becomes invisible in a brightly-lit room. 

Why FurFinder™ Lighting includes high and low beams

Automobile headlight design influenced vacuum high and low beams. “Like cars, BISSELL® vacuums with FurFinder™ Lighting have low beams that show you what's right in front of you and high beams that light up everything around you,” says Akhurst.

The name “FurFinder™” came because of the lighting style’s incredible ability to illuminate errant pet fur on the floor: by shining light both across the floor and down onto it, you are able to see even thin strands of hair – or at least their highly visible shadows.

FurFinder™ Lighting is always on when you run your machine. There’s no on/off switch because it delivers benefits no matter what lighting conditions you’re cleaning in.

“When I vacuum my bathroom, I don't even bother turning on the bathroom light,” says Akhurst. “I just go in there and vacuum in the dark because I can see everything I need to on the floor.”

Side lights that are “cool” and useful

BISSELL product innovations are often spurred by extensive consumer research. But one aspect of FurFinder™ Headlight Technology, which can be found on the PowerClean® FurFinder™ 200W Cordless Stick Vac and the CrossWave® OmniFind™ Cordless Wet Dry Vac was dreamt up by a group of engineers goofing around in a meeting.

“Someone on the Advanced Development team taped a rectangular flashlight to the side of one of our prototypes,” says Akhurst. “And we thought that was very cool because all of a sudden you could better see where you needed to vacuum next, and any areas you missed.”

By adding wide angle lights that illuminate both front and side, users are not only pushed forward by the light path – they have the full picture of what’s happening alongside where they're cleaning. To fine-tune this, our engineers studied where people looked while vacuuming – generally just a few inches away from the vacuum foot – then angled the lights so no light was wasted.

Making cleanup even easier

When BISSELL embarked on its Pet Proven™ certification system, thousands of pet parents were surveyed about the cleaning tasks they liked least. Picking up pet fur and hair was overwhelmingly the most dreaded chore, which made it a top priority for our innovation teams.

Interestingly, although people wanted help with fur removal, a lot of consumers were wary of vacuum lighting – until they tested our machines.

“They came in skeptical,” says Akhurst. “But when they left, they pretty much all said they would look for lighting on every vacuum they buy in the future.”