Dyson Made an Even Better Mop Replacement
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With five dogs trotting around my house every day, I’m constantly battling to keep my floors as squeaky clean as my neuroses desire. That’s mostly doable thanks to the rotating arsenal ofrobot vacuumsI’m always testing, but they’re not the right tool for every job. For instance, sometimes I want to spot-clean where the new pup’s been trying to mark his territory, or I just want to do things by hand to make sure everything’s cleaned to my standards.
In the past, I’ve used Swiffer mops andspin mopsfor such occasions, and they’ve worked quite well. That said, both require me to vacuum by hand before mopping to ensure the mops don’t pick up any nasty debris. That’s not an issue with Dyson’s new Clean + Wash Hygiene, a hard-floor cleaner that picks up small bits of dirt and other particles as it mops your floors. It’s an improvement over the first-generationWash G1in nearly every way, and my floors have never been cleaner.
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It does more than simply mop your floors, but it’s great for that, too
The G1 was easy to use, but its bulky design made it difficult — sometimes impossible — to maneuver into tough spots like corners or underneath a bed. The Clean + Wash, which looks like a sleeker version of the G1, has a narrower build that’s significantly lighter and easier to control. Because its cleaning head is both lighter and less bulky, it can reach closer to the edge of baseboards (but still misses by about a quarter of an inch) and into corners than its predecessor.
The Clean + Wash has the same display and button configuration as the G1, plus a slightly smaller clean-water tank (0.2 gallons rather than 0.26). Unlike the G1, which had both clean- and dirty-water tanks attached to the handle, nearly every functional part of the Hygiene sits on the cleaning head; only the clean-water tank lives on the stem now. The bottom of the cleaning head has a thick pad that sweeps up bits of dirt and debris as well as a dirty-water tank.
I wouldn’t consider the Clean + Wash a full-blown vacuum replacement, but it works quite well for picking up dirt and debris. I’ve seen it suck up piles of dry oats, clumps of dog hair, and bits of dirt my dogs drag in after playing outside. The motorized mopping pad, which is covered in microfiber, manages to sweep it all up without any hiccups thanks to an anti-tangle comb, and the Hygiene’s battery lasts about 40 minutes before needing to recharge.
The wet-cleaning function is even better. It works with just clean water, though you can also add a non-foamingcleaning solutionif you’d like. I ran the Clean + Wash over tile that hadn’t been cleaned in two weeks, and after one run over the entire floor, it felt as clean as after a good manual mopping. You have to run it forward and backward over every spot, but it’s much smoother than scrubbing with a mop. I even tested the Clean + Wash’s capabilities by letting some maple syrup dry on a piece of tile. After 20 seconds of scrubbing, the tile was spotless again. That’s not much faster than using an old-school mop, but with that method, I’d typically pick up some of the syrup by hand with a paper towel first. I didn’t have to worry about that with the Dyson; it handled everything.
Dealing with the dirty-water tank is not as gross as it was with the Wash G1
After every cleaning job, you can remove the dirty-water tank by pulling a red tab at the top of the Hygiene’s head and empty the tank into a sink or bathtub. It’s much less prone to collecting gunk and getting clogged than the Wash G1, as suction isn’t used to carry dirty water and particles into another container, but I wish the tank weren’t so drippy. Multiple times, I had to wipe up dirty water that leaked out of the tank when carrying it from the Hygiene’s base station to my sink. That issue aside, the Hygiene avoids letting the dirty-water tank get too gross by separating debris from dirty water, so you’re never left with a nasty sludge to dispose of.
With all the gunk the Hygiene can pick up, it would be easy for it to get gross and tough to clean. That’s not a problem thanks to the built-in self-cleaning function. After every cleaning job, you can dock the Dyson and trigger the cleaning function. It starts by running clean water over the mopping pad, which can take more than 20 minutes and produces a loud but not obnoxious hum.
By the time it’s finished cleaning, the pad is as good as new. It uses up quite a bit of water, though — over half a full tank — so you’ll want to refill the clean-water tank and empty the dirty-water tank before starting the self-cleaning cycle. Once the cleaning is done, the dock uses a hot-air drying system to ensure the Hygiene is ready for use again.
That’s all mostly hands-off, but you should empty the dirt and debris holder after every cleaning job as well. It’s simple to pull it out of the same piece the dirty-water tank is attached to, at which point you just have to rinse it under running water before returning it to the cleaning head. Even without vacuuming beforehand, this container never got unbearably dirty.
It’s an effective, but pricey, way to keep your floors squeaky clean
At $500, it’s frustrating that the Clean + Wash suffers from things like a drippy water tank when not handled just so. A traditional vacuum and a mop (or Swiffer) may take more time, but they get the job done almost as well for those who don’t scrub their floors multiple times per week. That said, I’ve never spent less time getting my floors this close to spotless. Combined with the fact that it’s fairly low-maintenance — and much less annoying to deal with than the Wash G1 — I don’t have to worry about the cleanliness of my floors nearly as much as I used to. That to me makes the Dyson worth its high price.
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