After hours and hours of testing models priced from $140 to $750 in 2022, I confirmed that nothing performed better than the cordless Tineco Floor One S5 Combo. It was our recommended mop vac until last year, when Tineco released the Floor One S7 Pro, a more advanced model with a handful of new smart features and nearly double the runtime of the S5 Combo. But the real selling point for me is the upgraded brush roll design. Great cleaning performance, a lot of cool features and a price much lower than comparable models earned Bissell’s IconPet Turbo Edge its spot as our best value pick.
No mop vac is fun to clean, and unlike robovacs, there isn’t a pricey model that has an auto-empty feature… yet. But many have a self-cleaning cycle that you can engage after cleaning once the mop vac is back on its charging dock. You still have to empty the dirty water tank and deal with the debris, and some are easier to clean than others. So I looked at how easy/hard/gross it was to clean the dirty water tanks, debris traps, dust bins, and washable filters.
Even though it’s a corded model, it’s relatively lightweight and easy to store. Right now, based on our tests, the cordless vacuum with the best suction power is the Dyson V15 Detect, which offers 230 air watts of suction. Not surprisingly, the V15 Detect was a powerful performer in our tests, particularly in our sand tests, where it removed the largest cumulative amount of sand from our hardwood, shark stick vacuum low-pile carpet and midpile carpet test floors. Upright vacuums are one of the most popular styles for deep cleaning, and the Shark Navigator Lift-Away was the top-performing upright model in our testing. The swivel head makes the vacuum easy to maneuver under low pieces of furniture, and the whole machine is also light enough to easily transcend a flight of steps at under 15 pounds.
It comes with a floor nozzle, scrubbing brush and crevice tool, plus there’s a docking station that keeps everything charged up and in place when you aren’t using it — no more misplacing your vac’s accessories. And as I side note, both Sharks have lights on the vacuum heads that help illuminate dirt and dust which is a feature I really like that the Dyson v10 and v11 don’t have. The Dyson v15 have a similar feature to the Sharks but it’s a bit more advanced with a laser that illuminates unseen dust and debris. I also like that the Dyson v15 and Dyson v10 Absolute have a fluffy roller head that gives them a leg-up for cleaning on hardwood floors and is gentler on them too.
We also appreciated its decent battery life, though you probably won’t be able to cover a large space on a single charge. Yes, the iRobot Roomba Combo J7 Plus is very expensive, shark handheld vacuum especially since it comes with a self-emptying base station and mopping ability. But, those additions are also part of what makes this high-end model from iRobot so great.
To start, we tested it on crumbs of toast with jam, which it soon ate up, leaving no sign of any stickiness. Then we emptied some cereal and milk onto the floor, and it handled that perfectly, too. Although you could use a dustpan and brush on hard floors, you’ll only be getting up less than a tenth of what the Dyson omni-glide will remove from your floors. At 2.75kg, it’s also lightweight for lugging around the house, while the handheld unit on its own is a mere 1.5kg. However, it’s the lack of maintenance that was our favourite feature. After each use, you can return the stick to the base, and it automatically empties it’s own tank, deep cleans every part of the vacuum (including the brush), filters out 99.9 per cent of dust, and recharges itself.