Five tips for choosing a cordless power mop (2023 update cleaning guide)

16/06/2023
By Ray Shaw
In Featured Guides

A cordless power mop is just like a hand-held one, but a water system and mopping motor replace your effort. It does the work for you.

You will find brands like Bissell, Karcher, HiZero, Tineco and many generics ranging from under $100 to $1000.

A cordless power mop should comprise:

A light and easy-to-use handle with simple, well-identified waterproof controls
Rotating mop disk or roller (or two) or static pad on the bottom of the handle
A system to both mop and wick water and detritus off the cleaned surface
Clean water reservoir to wet the roller
Dirty water reservoir to collect used mop water
A rechargeable battery – needs to be near a power point
Stand and cleaning tray and access to a sink for disposing of dirty water and cleaning rollers
Optionally steam, but that is dangerous to many hard floor surfaces

cordsless power mop — Karcher is a power mop

What do you look for when choosing a cordless power mop?

Simplicity

This is a terrible setup – no water tanks, just spinning wet pads.

Or in this case – not. Many cheaper cordless mops are nothing more than a pair of spinning “fluffy’ pads with no, or rudimentary, water delivery and no water removal system. These are terrible for large areas as the pads quickly become dirty and less effective.

The best design has a clean water tank, a dirty water tank and can remove detritus (not a wet/dry vacuum) that will clean at least 50m2 (100m2 is better) on one charge.

Ease of use

We have reviewed several brands. A few considerations make some more straightforward to use than the others.

For example

The clean water tank can complete at least 50m2
The dirty water tank has a sensor to stop when it is full
The mop glides across the floor under its power, with you applying using a light touch to direct it (important for those with arthritis as too many suffer torque steer and are heavy to lift)
It is not too heavy to lift or heft or to change direction
Optionally can use a floor cleaning concentrate in water to cut through grease and dirt
And it does not leave water drops or streaks – instead, a floor that dries in minutes

Battery life and coverage

The battery lasts at least 100m2 and recharge times are reasonable (typically 4 hours). Avoid any device that has less than 30 minutes.

It is also essential to look for a user-removable and replaceable battery and ensure you can buy one in, say, four years.

Ease of maintenance

To maintain efficiency, a mop needs thorough cleaning, including roller/pad removal and washing, head/squeegee cleaning, and replacing various water and air filters. You need to be near a decent-sized sink.

More important is that the roller/s will require replacement, usually every six months, so make sure these are readily available locally at a reasonable cost instead of online and minimum orders and freight costs

Tineco has a soft roller brush and squeegee as well as vacuum and collects more detritus.

cordless power mops — (L) Karcher has four machine washable microfibre rollers and (R) HiZero has a polymer roller, a brushing roller and uses a squeegee action to wick water away.

(L) Karcher has four machine washable microfibre rollers and (R) HiZero has a polymer roller, a brushing roller and uses a squeegee action to wick water away.

To steam or not

Steam cleans without chemicals, but it can harm most laminate and sealed floors. When you can use steam on tiles, hardwood, ceramics, stone and more, you should.

Eufy Mach V1 Ultras is the worlds first cordless, vacuum/steam/mop – excellent (and you can turn the stream off)

Make sure it is not a fad

Be aware that while a cordless power mop is more efficient than a $30 water and bucket mop, it is an expensive investment. If you hate mopping, that is not going to change.

So part of our testing is to see if it is more ‘pleasant’ than hand mopping and something that we can see ourselves using at least weekly. That comes down to ease of use, cleaning results, and cleaning and storing the mop.