8 best floor mops for sparkling surfaces without the hassle
Whether you have hardwood floors, vinyl, tiles or laminate, there’s something deeply satisfying about having spotless floors. And thanks to modern mops, this has never been easier to achieve.
There are a few different kinds on the market nowadays, and choosing the right one will depend on what you’re trying to do. There are flat mops which are often rectangular, and have a removable microfibre pad attached to the head. These pads can be removed and washed, and are great for a quick swish around and getting into corners. They are not heavy duty though, so couldn’t take on the heft of, say, dried on Weetabix.
Spray mops are also having a moment. They come with a trigger in the handle, and you can fill a reservoir with water and a dash of cleaning solution. Then you push it round, spraying out solution as and when you need it. The heads on these tend to be microfibre, and rectangular and you can ditch your bucket entirely, meaning they’re great if you’re limited on space.
Of course the traditional mop – the stringy ones that come with a bucket and a disposal head – are still around too. However, they’ve had quite the makeover and shouldn’t be overlooked as they’re durable and can do some serious heavy lifting in the cleaning department.
Lastly, there’s the sponge mop. These have fallen out of fashion recently, as they can hold onto bacteria and so need properly looking after, but they are fairly heavy-duty and have wringers built into the handle so you can squeeze out excess water.
How we tested
We have a lot of hardwood and tiled floors in our house and we have three astonishingly messy children, who dutifully created mud-caked, cereal-encrusted floors for us to clean up. So, we used these mops every day for a month, clearing up filth from the floor. We also asked professional cleaners to have a go with them, to see how they fared with them.
We were looking for how easy they are to store, how well they got different types of mess cleaned up, and how easy they were to clean themselves. Extra points were awarded to mops that minimised wasted water and were therefore a bit more eco-friendly. These are the ones that cleaned up the competition.
The best floor mops for 2022 are:
Best overall floor mop – Leifheit clean twist disc mop: £62.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Best mop for hardwood floors – Bona premium wood floor spray mop: £42.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Best mop and bucket for small places – Beldray flat head mop and bucket set: £29.99, Robertdyas.co.uk
Best spray floor mop – Oxo good grips microfibre spray mop: £40, Johnlewis.com
Best budget floor mop – Kleeneze spray mop: £23.83, Amazon.co.uk
Best electric floor mop – Bissel spinwave floor mop: £139.99, Bisselldirect.co.uk
Best floor mop for simplicity – Lakeland hard floor spray mop: £34.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Best floor mop for quick drying – Spontex full action system mop and bucket: £29.99, Spontex.co.uk
Leifheit clean twist disc mop
We were thoroughly impressed with the clean this mop gave, as was our professional tester. The large-capacity bucket means it’s great for large floor areas, and the wheels mean there’s not too much heaving it around. But it does take up a lot of real estate in our cupboard, so if you’re limited on space this might not be the one. One other thing we liked in “set up” was that you can adjust the height on this mop very easily at the lever halfway up.
When you press your mop in the wringer, it spins around to get all the excess water off. This meant our floors dried much quicker than when using our old mop and bucket set up. Plus, there was less wasted water and cleaning product used, which in our eyes is a win-win. This mop is great for big messes, cleaning the worst our kids could throw at the floor.
Buy now £62.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Bona premium wood floor spray mop
This mop feels quite fancy. It comes with a bottle reusable “cartridge”, which is already filled with fluid specifically designed for wood floors. Plus a sachet of concentrated detergent, so you’ve got two full bottles before you need to restock. A trigger in the handle shoots a smattering of cleaning product as and when you want and we found the rectangular pad was great for getting in and out of corners and under sofas with ease. It’s quite a wide head, which means we got our mopping done in double-quick time.
The Bona is clearly very well made and feels pretty heavy-duty. The two microfibre pads mean you have one to use and one to wash at all times, so it isn’t harbouring grim floor germs. The pads aren’t very abrasive though, so aren’t suitable for hardcore scrubbing.
Buy now £42.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Beldray flat head mop and bucket set
Beldray have created the answer to those with scant storage, but who love a mop and bucket combo. This bucket takes up a minuscule amount of room. Yet you can still use good old-fashioned steaming hot water and detergent – great for killing nasty germs on the floor.
The rectangular bucket has one side for soaking the flat-head mop and another for wringing out. This meant we didn’t have an excess of water slopped across the floor. But we did find it a touch fiddly to angle the mop to get it in the slots in the bucket. And you have to fill the bucket to the top to be able to fully submerge your mop. We have marked this as adjustable height, but to adjust it involves unscrewing the handle and taking sections out, so it’s not something you’re going to want to do on the regular.
Having said this, we loved that there’s a scraper on the side of the bucket for cleaning the mop head. And the small bucket doesn’t feel heavy for taking up and down stairs. The mop itself doesn’t feel the sturdiest, and we felt this performed better on low-level dust and dirt than anything too high octane.
Buy now £29.99, Robertdyas.co.uk
Oxo good grips microfibre spray mop
We found this spray mop to be a great versatile option. The rectangular head is quite short width ways, but it’s also angled which meant it was great for getting into tight spots. Plus, the removable microfibre mop head was great for slinging in the wash.
The handle is one of the most sturdy we tried, and there’s a hook integrated into it for easy hanging if you wish. The reservoir is also a decent volume – we were able to get around the whole floor of our house easily without refilling it.
The best thing about this mop though, is that you can detach the mop head without touching it with your hands. This then reveals a scrubbing brush at the end, which shifted dried-on dirt easily. A clever trick elevated the mop above all other spray mops we tried. It can handle light dust and dirt as well as heavier messes.
Buy now £40.00, Johnlewis.com
Kleeneze spray mop
Although we’ve put this in the spray-mop category, Kleeneze has produced so much more than a spray mop here. It comes with three microfibre pads: one for cleaning and scrubbing, one for drying and shining your floor and one for dusting and polishing. If that’s not enough, it also has a scrubbing attachment so you can get into grout on tiles. Of course, there is also a reservoir for holding water and cleaning detergent, and a spray trigger in the handle.
We found that this all-rounder meant we could ditch every other mop in our house, and just use this on whatever mess our family threw (quite literally…) at it. The mop head glided over tile floors and hardwood floors, getting into awkward corners with ease – and without slopping too much water around.
Our professional cleaner who tested the mop was also thoroughly impressed and said it was their favourite mop they’ve come across. You can’t argue with the professionals. It also takes up little room in the cupboard as the rectangular head flips down to create a very slim profile. The purse-friendly price point on this mop offers insanely good value, too.
Buy now £23.83, Amazon.co.uk
Bissell spinwave floor mop
This is the Rolls Royce of floor mops, with a price tag to match. It is pricey, but if you want your floors absolutely sparkling with very little input from you, then this is the mop for you. Fill the reservoir – there are markers on the side so you can be sure you’re putting in the right ratio of water and detergent, whether you’re cleaning a big area or small. Then switch on and two large rotating mops whirr into action, buffering the floor and getting rid of every inch of dirt.
When not switched on the Bissell is quite heavy, but when operating it’s one of the lightest mops we tested. And little kids and pets fear not – it’s incredibly quiet. We managed to clean every hard floor in our house in about 20 minutes, and normally that takes a good hour. A spray trigger in the handle means you can decide how much detergent to dispense, and going back and forth over stains eradicates everything in a couple of swipes. It even got rid of paint that has been in the grain of our wood floors for years. Honestly, we are total converts to the electric mop world.
Buy now £139.99, Bisselldirect.co.uk
Lakeland hard floor spray mop
Lakeland is surely one of Britain’s best-loved homeware brands, so you know you’re in safe hands with this no-nonsense spray mop. Fill the onboard water tank, use the trigger handle to dose out the detergent and water and you’re away. There’s one microfibre pad, so you’ll need to cover all areas before slinging it in the wash, or invest in a spare (£5.99, Lakeland.co.uk).
The rectangular pad is easy to swivel into corners, around obstacles and under furniture. It’s also nice and lightweight. However, the microfibre pad isn’t amazing at scrubbing dried-on dirt from floors, so this is better suited to dust and light dirt.
Buy now £34.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Spontex full action system mop and bucket
This mop is so much fun. Admittedly the novelty wears off, but it also makes speedy work of cleaning floors. Push the microfibre-headed mop in the bucket and it spins the head in the water, getting all the dirt off and giving the mop a thorough rinse. Then as you lift the mop out, give it another push and the mop head spins again, getting rid of all the excess water. This meant we didn’t have loads of water slopping about and our floors dried in no time.
The microfibre head is not amazing alone for scrubbing off dried-on grub, but with the help of hot water and detergent it made pretty light work of our floors. The bucket is average size for storage and includes a carry handle for easy moving about (no wheels here though). The handle on the mop is tactile too and meant our hands didn’t ache even after a good scrub.
Buy now £29.99, Spontex.co.uk
The verdict: Floor mops
We highly rated the Leifheit mop – it’s well made, and gets to work on the grimmest of floors with no fuss. It lifted up the very worst mess and left our floors sparkling. If you’re limited on space, the Oxo good grips mop is a great space saver with everything you could want from a mop. Got some cash to flash? Go for the Bissell – you’ll never go back to manual floor care again!
For a powerful deep clean, check out our best steam cleaners that will keep your floor sparkling
