Best Combo Vacuum-Mops
We evaluated eight vacuum-mops and found that these did a solid job at wet and dry pickup in our tests
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For households with kids or pets, a vacuum-mop promises to mop, sanitize, and dry your floor—and easily handle both wet and dry debris. To determine whether these hybrid machines can make good on that promise, we tested eight vacuum-mop combos from popular brands including Bissell, Hoover, Roborock, and Tineco.
Below are the top performers among the vacuum-mop combos we tested. You’ll find more specifics on each machine, along with more models, in our combo vacuum-mop ratings. You can also read on for more details about how we tested these machines.
The Hoover ONEPWR Streamline Cordless is the highest-scoring vacuum-mop in our tests, acing both our wet pickup and dry pickup tests, and was very good at stain removal. Ease of cleaning was also very good. Run time was average, with some others in our tests running longer on a single charge. An indicator light tells you when the battery is running low. It weighs 11 pounds (empty), as do three of the four models on this list.
The Tineco Floor One S3 Smart excelled at dry pickup and was very good at wet pickup and stain removal. Run time was very good, and our testers found it easy to clean. It comes with some helpful features, such as a battery life indicator and a dirt sensor that adjusts the liquid distribution according to the mess at hand. It weighs 10 pounds.
The Roborock Dyad Pro was top-notch at wet pickup and very good at dry pickup and stain removal. It was also pretty easy to clean, although the run time was just average. For the price, you get a battery life indicator, a dirt sensor, and a nifty auto-drying feature that circulates warm air around the brush roll to dry it out after you’ve washed it. It weighs 11 pounds.
The Tineco Floor One S7 Pro Smart Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner Mop costs twice as much as its brandmate above, but didn’t score quite as well in our tests. Wet pickup and dry pickup were very good, but dry pickup was only so-so. It earned the highest possible score in our tests for ease of cleaning, which is a plus, and run time was above average. It’s equipped with a battery life indicator, a dirt sensor, and an auto-drying feature that circulates warm air around the brush roll that you just washed. It weighs 11 pounds.
How CR Tests Combo Vacuum-Mops
In our tests, we evaluated how well each vacuum-mop combo cleans floors, how easy it is to clean the unit itself after using it, and how long the battery lasts on each speed setting. Here are the details:
Wet pickup: In three tests, we evaluate how well the combo vacuum-mops pick up a spill of cereal and milk, two raw eggs, and a mixture of goopy baby oatmeal and baby peas.
Dry pickup: Employing the same method we use in our bare-floor tests for stick and full-sized vacuums, we see how well the vacuum-mop combos pick up rice, sand, and cereal in separate runs.
Stain removal: We apply spots of three tough stains—hot sauce, baby food, and espresso coffee with milk—to ceramic tiles and allow them to dry overnight before testing the combo vacuum-mops on them.
Ease of cleaning: We score the combo vacuum-mops’ cleaning features, which include self-clean, something all the models had, as well as how easy it is to empty and rinse the dirty water tank and whether the unit comes with accessories that make cleaning easier, such as an extra brush roll.
Run time: We calculate an average of the number of minutes the combo vacuum-mop runs across all speeds (most models have two).
How Does a Vacuum-Mop Work?
Combo vacuum-mops look like an upright vacuum and have a soft brush roll. But the resemblance ends there. Instead of a bag or bin that collects dry debris, they have a clean water tank and a dirty water tank. “Combo vacuum-mops are sort of vacuums, but sort of not because most cannot run without dispensing cleaning liquid,” says Joan Muratore, the engineer who oversaw the testing. “That means they can’t be used on carpet—or as your primary vacuum. A better name for this type of product might be hard floor cleaner.”
And don’t be confused by the phrase “wet dry vacuum” that’s included in many of the model names. These cordless machines are nothing like the squat wet/dry shop vacs you may use to clean up sawdust from a DIY project or suck up water when your basement floods. Shop vacs are strictly vacuums—they don’t have a mopping function that dispenses liquid as these combos do.
The mopping function uses either plain water or a cleaning solution specific to the brand of vacuum-mop combo you buy. But keep in mind that no matter what fluid you use, you’ll have to empty the dirty water tank, which contains both solid and liquid waste, and wash it out each time you use your cleaner. Only three of the combo vacuum-mops in our ratings can run without dispensing liquid: the Tineco iFloor 3 Breeze Complete Mop, the Bissell CrossWave Cordless Max Multi-Surface Wet Dry Vac Mop, and the Eureka Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum All in One Mop. None of these landed in our top four.
