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The 9 Best Mops For Hardwood Floors

We tested nine mops that are recommended for hardwood floors to determine which ones were the easiest to use and the most effective in cleaning and selected the Rubbermaid – Reveal Spray Floor Mop. With its long pole and wide swiveling mop head, the Rubbermaid makes cleaning hardwood or any other floor type a breeze. We also love the O-Cedar – ProMist Max, which has excellent maneuverability and a unique flip mop-head that lets you switch to the clean side of the microfiber pad when one side gets dirty.

Our Top Choices

Best Overall


Rubbermaid

Reveal Spray Mop

See Price at AmazonSee Price at Home Depot

Also Great


O-Cedar

ProMist Max

See Price at AmazonSee Price at Home Depot

We tested nine mops that are recommended for hardwood floors to determine which ones were the easiest to use and the most effective in cleaning and selected the Rubbermaid – Reveal Spray Floor Mop. With its long pole and wide swiveling mop head, the Rubbermaid makes cleaning hardwood or any other floor type a breeze. We also love the O-Cedar – ProMist Max, which has excellent maneuverability and a unique flip mop-head that lets you switch to the clean side of the microfiber pad when one side gets dirty.

The 9 mops for hardwood floors we tested

ProductPricePole Length (inches)Built-in SprayManeuverabilityBuild Quality
Rubbermaid - Reveal$$$50Yes10/1010/10
O-Cedar - ProMist MAX$$55.8Yes10/1010/10
Turbo Mop$$35-60No10/109/10
Microfiber Wholesale$$$45-70No8/108/10
Swiffer - WetJet$$$29.5Yes10/1010/10
O-Cedar - EasyWring$$35No4/105/10
Bona - Hard Surface$$$$43Yes7/103/10
Panda Grip$$43Yes9/105/10
MEXERRIS$54No3/102/10

Important features to consider

Hardwood floors require frequent maintenance to keep them beautiful. Sweeping and vacuuming help prevent buildup of dirt and grime, but you’ll also need to occasionally clean the floors with a mop. A string mop and a bucket of water is definitely not the way to clean a hardwood floor, since a string mop holds too much water, even when wrung, which can damage the wood and cause it to pucker. Mostly, hardwood floors should be regularly cleaned by just using a damp mop with water and a little bit of cleaning solution.

Hardwood floors are a little more forgiving than laminate floors. This means all the mops we tested on laminate floors will work here, but not the other way around. According to Architectural Digest, floor-cleaning experts agree that the best mop for a hardwood floor is a microfiber mop, which uses a fraction of the liquid than a string mop. As we tested nine mops — almost all microfiber — we determined several features that you should consider when purchasing a mop for hardwood floors.

Mop head size

Unless you’re a clean freak, you might not enjoy mopping floors, so it makes sense to get it done efficiently and quickly. The mop head should be wide enough to allow for cleaning a floor in a few strokes, but on the other hand, it shouldn’t be so wide that you can’t get into corners. Our top picks, the Rubbermaid – Reveal Spray Floor Mop and the O-Cedar – ProMist Max, each measure 15″ wide and allowed for maneuverability along baseboards and right angles.

Maneuverability

To make mopping less of a chore, select a mop that has a swivel or rotating head. Most of the mops we tested had this feature, but depending on the design or the mop’s weight, a few required more strength to push around the floor, like the Bona – Hard Surface Mop. The best maneuverability was with the non-spray mops, like the Turbo Mop. The one drawback to this type of mop, however, is you’ll have to use a spray bottle to dampen the floor as you mop.

Pole length

The length of the mop’s pole proved to be as equally important as the mop-head size. To reduce strain on your arms, shoulders, and back, the mop’s pole should be as high as your chin. The mops we tested ranged from 43″ to 55″ with 50″ being the most comfortable for our tester. Two of the mops we tested — Turbo Mop and Microfiber Wholesale — had retractable poles that could extend to 60″ and 70″, respectively.

Spray angle

For the mops that have a built-in trigger spray, there was a noticeable variance in the spray angle. Several mops we tested had a spray angled too high so furniture got wet. Our top picks and the Swiffer WetJet had spray angles aimed directly onto the floor, which is where you want your cleaning solution to be.

1

Rubbermaid - Reveal Spray Floor Mop

Rubbermaid - Reveal Spray Floor Mop

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Cleaning hardwood floors couldn’t be easier than with the Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop. The full kit comes with two 22-ounce refillable bottles in which you can use plain water or your own cleaning-solution mix and three 16.5″-length machine-washable microfiber pads, which, according to Rubbermaid, can be washed 100 times.

The mop’s pole measures 50 inches in length and allows for long swipes along the floor without you bending over. The mop head has a non-abrasive scraper on its top side and when you want to get out a particularly tough dirt patch, the head can be flipped to use the scraper and then flipped back to return to mopping. A nice design touch is that the scraper can be removed for cleaning.Read more…

The Rubbermaid Reveal has a spray trigger (no batteries needed), which, when pressed, sprays a fine mist with a wide angle, allowing for more floor coverage. The mop’s swivel head easily glides along baseboards and right angles with very little effort. As with most microfiber mop pads, the Rubbermaid’s absorbs any excess moisture so the floor dries in a couple minutes. The Rubbermaid Reveal mop can be purchased separately, but we recommend the kit, since it comes with three microfiber pads, meaning you can clean several hardwood floors at one time.


2

O-Cedar - ProMist Max

O-Cedar - ProMist Max mop

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One of our favorite mops for cleaning any floor type is the O-Cedar ProMist Max. Similar in design to the Rubbermaid Reveal, the O-Cedar is a non-battery-operated spray mop with a trigger spray that has a wide spray angle and a long pole (55 inches) so there’s no stress on your back and arms while you’re mopping. But the O-Cedar has a couple of smart and unusual design features that set it apart from other mops.

To start, the mop head is inserted into the double-sided machine-washable microfiber pad and secured with Velcro, so the head is completely encased by the pad. When one side of the pad gets dirty, the mop head’s U-shaped notch lets you flip it 180 degrees without touching the pad, so you can keep mopping with the clean side of the pad.Read more…

The O-Cedar mop head can also be manipulated to go completely flat, which allows for mopping under low furniture. Like the Rubbermaid Reveal, the O-Cedar has superb maneuverability in and out of corners and along baseboards. The O-Cedar is well-priced for such an excellent mop and can be purchased with one, two, or three microfiber pads.


3

Turbo Mop

Turbo Microfiber mop

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Although we found the Turbo Mop a bit overly complicated to assemble, it’s nevertheless a very good mop for cleaning wood floors. The Turbo Mop isn’t a spray mop, so you’ll need to have a spray bottle of cleaning solution at hand. Manufactured of aluminum, the Turbo Mop initially feels too lightweight for heavy-duty cleaning, but it’s actually well made. Weighing in at little more than a pound, we found the Turbo Mop easy to use and steer around the floor.

It has a retractable 35″ pole that can extend to a generous 60″, and its 18″ mop head rotates 360 degrees, so you can effortlessly clean tight corners. Like the O-Cedar, the Turbo Mop also goes flat, so you can maneuver it pretty much everywhere. The affordable Turbo Mop kit comes with two microfiber pads and two scrub pads that are recommended for use only on laminate floors.


4

Microfiber Wholesale - Mop Kit

Microfiber Wholesale - Mop Kit

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Microfiber Wholesale Mop Kit has everything you need to clean any type of floor: a non-spray mop, two 18″ microfiber pads, two microfiber cloths, and a dust mop pad, which we found to be the kit’s best feature and great for cleaning up dust, dirt, and pet hair before wet mopping.

The retractable stainless-steel mop pole extends from 45″ to 70″ that, as the company’s website advises, should be extended so its tip is just below your chin, which then theoretically diminishes any stress on your arms and back. In practice, however, it didn’t work; no matter what length we adjusted the pole, because of its weight (double the Turbo Mop), we felt strain, especially on our shoulders. That said, the reasonably priced Microfiber Wholesale mop has a 360-degree rotating head, so it’s great for getting around corners and along baseboards.


5

Swiffer - WetJet

Swiffer - WetJet mop

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Swiffer WetJet is one of the most popular floor mops in the world, the main reasons being it’s convenient, easy to use, and it gets the job done. Once assembled, the Wet Jet can’t be unassembled, and it’s intended to be hung in a closet or other location where you keep cleaning supplies. The start-up kit comes with a small bottle of cleaning solution, four regular pads, and six heavy-duty pads.

The main issue with WetJet is that you’ll need to continually buy replacements, since the disposable pads are single use. Also, the small bottle of cleaner included will be used up after a few uses, so, again, you’ll have to buy refills. The biggest drawback for some people is that the WetJet runs on two AA batteries, so you should have a stockpile of them as well.Read more…

However, the WetJet is a very good mop that’s easy to push around and has terrific maneuverability because the mop head swivels in any direction. The WetJet has a low spray angle that hits the floor directly, so it should be used sparingly, since the solution tends to streak when dry. The included bottle of solution is a multi-purpose cleaner, but Swiffer does make a solution that’s made especially for wood floors, which we recommend using.


6

O-Cedar - EasyWring Spin Mop and Bucket System

O-Cedar - EasyWring Spin Mop and Bucket System

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If you prefer to clean your wood floors with the old-reliable mop and bucket, you might give the O-Cedar EasyWring Spin Mop a try. This highly rated product consists of a short mop with a microfiber string head and a cleverly designed bucket with a spinning mechanism, not too dissimilar from a salad spinner. Once you drench the mop in water and/or cleaning solution, you stick the head into the spinner, then press down several times on a foot pedal, and as it rapidly spins, excess water is dispersed back into the bucket.

We loved the concept, and it was fun to do, but we had a few issues. First, the retractable mop pole extends to only 35″, which meant we were bending over as we mopped. When dry, the mop head is 18″ in diameter, but when wet, the microfiber absorbs water and the mop head decreases to about 10″ in diameter, so you’ll need to mop more area at one time.Read more…

We also found that the spinned mop head still holds a lot of water, so the floor took much longer to dry than the other mops we tested. Finally, lugging around a heavy bucket wasn’t our idea of convenience, and although the mop did a good job picking up dirt, we prefer the spray trigger mops for ease of use.


7

Bona - Hard Surface Spray Mop

Bona - Hard Surface Spray Mop

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Bona cleaning products are well-regarded as high end, so we were surprised that the Hard Surface Mop was a bit shoddy in construction and not so user-friendly. The Bona mop has a spray trigger and a 32-ounce cannister of cleaning solution that’s inserted into the mop head, like the Swiffer WetJet. When full, the cannister weighs the mop down so it took quite a bit of strength to twist the revolving head into corners and along baseboards. As the fluid is used up, the mop should be easier to maneuver, but it would be better if the cannister didn’t have as much fluid to begin with. Also to be considered is that the special cleaning solution needs to be purchased regularly.

After testing, we disassembled the mop and discovered that the plastic clip that connects the pole to the mop head seemed close to breaking. Also, when removing the cannister, solution squirted up out of the mop head, perhaps because all the pressure inside the trigger hadn’t been released.Read more…

Our hardwood floors certainly got cleaned using the Bona mop, but for ease of use and convenience we prefer our top pick, the Rubbermaid Reveal.


8

Panda Grip

Panda Grip mop

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The Panda Grip mop is made of very lightweight aluminum and hard plastic and seems cheaply made. The 43″ aluminum pole snaps together in two pieces, but the locking devices aren’t secure, which makes the pole flimsy. Although the mop’s squeezable plastic bottle holds only 12 ounces, we were still able to mop two wood floors without needing to refill it. Like the Rubbermaid Reveal and O-Cedar ProMist Max, the Panda Grip has a spray trigger, but we found that its spray is angled high and wide so it was impossible to not spray furniture as well as the floor.

On the plus side, the Panda Grip maneuvers easily around the floor thanks to its 360-degree swivel mop head. We also liked that the kit comes with three microfiber mop heads and a heavy-duty scraper for gathering up pet hair or caked-on spills and grime. The Panda Grip mop is a few dollars more expensive than the ProMist Max and not nearly as good a product.


9

MEXXERIS - Microfiber Mop

MEXXERIS - microfiber mop

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With four microfiber mop pads and a scraper included, we wished the MEXXERIS mop had been a better performer. Sadly, this is just a cheap rip-off of the better made Turbo Mop. The MEXXERIS mop comes in five pieces that need to be attached with plastic screws and cuffs, and because of its terrible instructions, it took much too long to assemble together.

Like other similar mops, the MEXXERIS’s pole length is a good length at 54″, but its revolving mop head — made of stiff hard plastic — doesn’t swivel easily. The socket that allows the mop head to rotate often got stuck as we mopped, so we had to stop and go to straighten out the mop head. The microfiber pads absorbed a lot of dirt, but we had to forcefully push the mop since it doesn’t glide, which led to arm and shoulder strain. Finally, the mop head has ridged clips for holding the microfiber pad in place, and they were difficult to unclamp without touching the dirty pad.


Gene Gerrard, Writer

Gene has written about a wide variety of topics for too many years to count. He's been a professional chef, cooking-appliance demonstrator, playwright, director, editor of accountancy and bank-rating books, Houdini expert and dog lover (still is). When he's not writing for Your Best Digs, he's performing as a magician at the Magic Castle in Hollywood.