The Best Mop Vac (2023), Tested and Reviewed

By Emily Farris

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The first time I put on my reviewer hat to officially determine which vacuum-mop combo was the best mop vac money could buy, I tested nine models to see if anything would compare to the Tineco I was already using at home.

All mop vacs suck up debris and mop hard floors at the same time—which, if you have not tried one, is as close to a truly life changing piece of home cleaning equipment as you’ll find, especially if you have lots of flooring not covered by carpet—so I was very open to the idea of finding a new favorite. But after hours and hours of testing models priced from $140 to $750, I confirmed that nothing performed better than my cordless Tineco Floor One S5 Combo. It was Epi’s recommended mop vac until this 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.

I’ve included my full review of my new top pick below, along with a recommendation for a much more budget-friendly alternative. To read more about how I tested mop vacs, how they work, and which models didn’t make the shortlist (I’ve now tested 12), keep reading.

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The best mop vac: Tineco Floor One S7 ProA budget-friendly alternative: Tineco iFloor3How a mop vac worksWho should buy a mop vac?Mop vac vs. robo mopHow I tested mop vacsFactors I evaluatedOther mop vacs I testedThe takeaway

A pricey upgrade to our previous top pick that cleans to the edge of your floor from any direction.

Released in early 2023, Tineco’s newest mop vac, the cordless Floor One S7 Pro, is a practically perfect floor cleaner thanks to a new-and-improved motorhead. Unlike my previous recommendation—the Floor One S5 Combo, whose roller brush goes to only one edge of the motorhead—the S7’s mop roller extends to both ends. The new dual-edge cleaning makes it possible to mop along baseboards and under cabinets from any direction without leaving a noticeable strip of dirty floor around the perimeter of the room. While the brush roller isn’t quite flush with my baseboards, it gets within about a quarter inch—a big difference compared to most other mop vacs that lack any edge cleaning capability at all.

The Floor One S7 Pro has more advanced smart features than the S5 Combo too, and getting started is easy. When you power it on after charging for the first time, you’ll get a guided video tutorial on the 3.6” LED screen (which also indicates cleaning mode, battery level, and maintenance alerts). Once the clean water tank has fresh water and solution, you can begin the floor cleaning—and you barely have to push the thing since the motor is self-propelled.

This machine left my hard floors cleaner and drier than any other mop vac I tested, and it runs for 40 minutes on a single charge (twice as long as the Floor One S5 Combo). The long run time is due, in part, to the efficiency of Tineco’s proprietary iLoop sensor. It’s a feature of the brand’s smart models that detects wet and dry messes and adjusts the suction power, roller speed, and water flow accordingly. In other words, it only uses as much power as it needs.

When you’re done, the S7 self cleans and charges on a dock that has additional storage for the included cleaning brush and spare microfiber roller. This model also comes with a cleaning brush, an extra HEPA filter, and a small bottle of cleaning solution concentrate (only a capful is needed for each cleaning cycle).

This high-tech mop vac is close to perfect, and for the price, it better be! Some pet hair does accumulate under the roller even after running the self-cleaning cycle, but I have a particularly hairy mutt and this is an issue I encountered with every model I tested. The voice assistance can be a bit much (especially because the default volume is loud) but it’s helpful for getting to know the machine and can be disabled with a mute button on the main body or in the (optional) companion app. The only other issue is that cleaning out the debris trap is pretty nasty, but again, that’s true of nearly every mop vac I tested, and it’s probably not as bad if you don’t have pets. (This makes cleaning the dirty water tank much easier, too.)

If you can live without the edge cleaning and super-smart features, this older Tineco is a powerful and efficient floor cleaning machine that costs $500 less than my top pick.

If the Floor One S7 Pro sounds too techy—or too expensive—I recommend the iFloor 3. This older Tineco model lacks edge cleaning on either side of the motorhead, but it cleans efficiently and quietly. While it’s technically not a smart device, it does have a backlit LED display with visual alerts for battery level, power mode, and brush roll tangles. It will also let you know if the dirty water tank is full or if the clean water tank is empty. So for what it needs to do (clean the floors) it’s smart enough.

The iFloor 3 is presumably less efficient than the brand's newer models because it lacks the iLoop debris-detection technology, but in its default power mode, it has powerful suction to clean up everyday messes on the first pass. I found the 25-minute run time sufficient for cleaning all the hard floors in the common areas of my home, and I’ve been repeatedly amazed at how little water and solution this machine requires to clean a very dirty kitchen floor. Should you need it to work a little harder, there’s a button on the handle to manually put it into max mode.

Like the newer models, it has a HEPA filter and self-cleans with the push of a button when put back on the included charging dock.

The iFloor 3 may not be Tineco’s premier offering, but the only thing it’s really missing is the ability to clean edge to edge. Without edge cleaning, there’s always a little strip of floor along the walls, cabinets, or appliances that doesn’t get properly cleaned. If you don’t have pets or messy housemates, that may not be an issue, but the edges of the room are often where pet hair and random kitchen debris (in my house it’s usually wayward kosher salt crystals) accumulate the most.

NOTE: Navigating Tineco’s many product offerings can be confusing—especially because the names are so similar. But the iFloor 3 I’m recommending should not be confused with the smarter Floor One S3, which does have the iLoop technology and costs $100 more. That said, if you see the iFloor 3 Complete, it’s the same mop as recommended above, but packaged with extra accessories. The iFloor 3 Breeze is a more compact version of the iFloor 3 with a shorter run time and fewer accessories—well, unless you get the iFloor 3 Breeze Complete. There’s also an iFloor 3 Ultra at Costco. (See? Super confusing!) The bottom line: Look for something labeled iFloor 3 with the best price you can find.

Unlike vacuum cleaners which collect dry dirt and debris, or robot mops which just push a dirty cleaning pad around your floor for a while, mop vacs (you may also see them called “vacmops” or “wet-dry vacuum cleaners”) suck up dirt and debris while also mopping hard floors with a constant supply of fresh water and cleaning solution. The fresh water comes from the machine’s fresh water tank and works with a rotating soft brush roller to mop the floor. In the same pass, the mop vac sucks the used water back into a separate dirty water tank where it filters out any solid debris. If the mop vac is any good, it should also leave your floors fairly dry.

The three new mop vac models I added to my testing in 2023. From L to R: Tineco Floor One S7 Pro, Bissell Crosswave Hydrosteam Corded Wet Dry Vac, Shark Hydrovac Pro XL Cordless.

If you’re anything like me—a person for whom mopping was once a rare and onerous occurrence—a good mop vac can transform you into a regular and enthusiastic mopper. This is especially true for parents and pet owners.

In addition to weekly cleaning sessions, I bust out my mop vac when my kids make a mess under the dinner table, when my dog tracks mud into the house, and when my husband gets a little overzealous in the kitchen (the best vacuum mops can tackle grease and grime). My mop vac is also great for doing a quick panic clean when I’m expecting guests.

While some can technically be used on area rugs, none of the models I tested impressed me with their rug-cleaning abilities. Most mop vacs are meant for cleaning hard surfaces and they’re safe and effective on sealed hardwood, vinyl, laminate, and tile floors.

Because a mop vac effectively and efficiently mops a floor while also sucking up dirt and debris, it cuts cleaning time in half. At least. So if you have a substantial amount of flooring not covered by carpet, and you would like to spend less time cleaning those floors, a mop vac is for you.

Mopping the floors of my century-old house used to be a whole thing that involved sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, drying, and going around the perimeter with a microfiber cloth to get everything (dog hair, wayward kosher salt, etc.) that was left behind.

For a while, I thought a pricey Wi-Fi-enabled Braava robot mop might be the secret to consistently clean floors, but even though I could command it with my voice (“Alexa, mop the floor!”), it didn’t actually suck anything up and I had to manually switch dry and wet mop pads mid-cycle. The disposable cleaning pads felt wasteful, too and I didn’t like washing the reusable microfiber mop pads with my regular laundry, so even the best robot mop I could buy at the time ended up being more of a hassle than it was worth.

But then I discovered the mop vac: a magical device that can suck up dirt and dog hair and mop the floor with clean water. All at the same time. It was love at first use.

After zipping around the main floor of my house for 20 minutes, my floors were cleaner than they’d ever been—and they stayed that way. And until there’s a robot vacuum mop that works as well as the upright mop vacs, I’m quite happy to push mine around the house for a few minutes a few times a week.

After obsessively researching popular and highly-rated mop vacs at various price points, over the course of two years, I’ve tried 12 models at home. I assembled each according to the manual (or quick start guide if included) and fully charged the batteries as instructed.

Because I have small kids and the aforementioned big, hairy rescue mutt—and because my house is 116 years old and seems to manufacture dust—it’s a wonderfully messy canvas on which to test. I used each mop vac multiple times to clean various floor types: my textured black kitchen floor, my old hardwood floors, and my tiled bathroom floor. And even though only a few of the devices were indicated for use on area rugs, I passed over my rugs with each model, too (no mop vac impressed me in the rug-cleaning department).

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Does the mop vac clean everyday kitchen messes on the first pass? Does it leave water on the floor? Does it clean to the edge of the floor? While I wasn’t expecting the powerful suction of a Dyson, I still looked for enough suction power to pick up dirt, debris, and dog hair from the floor.

Mop vac runtime varies from 20 minutes to about 40, and I wanted one that could clean all of the exposed hard flooring on the main level of my (admittedly small) house. More efficient mop vacs could clean my floors on a single pass and with those machines, battery life was less of an issue.

Is the mop vac easy to put together and use out of the box? Is it easy to fill the clean water tank and add a solution? Is it easy to switch between modes and identify errors like a misaligned water tank or clogs? Is there a cord that makes quick cleaning not-so-quick? (I found cordless models to be much easier to use than corded models since the draw of these machines is the ability to vacuum and mop the whole house in a matter of minutes.) Does the mop vac automatically charge when I put it on the dock or do I need to plug it in?

Is the mop vac easy to push? Can it handle tight spaces and corners? Does the handle recline enough to get under furniture and raised appliances? (Both of my top picks have motorheads that are about 2.5 inches tall and the handles on both recline to about a 30º angle.)

Do the water tanks hold enough water to last an entire cleaning session? Does the motorhead fit under cabinets and raised appliances? Is it easy to carry up and down stairs? Does it come with a docking station for easy upright storage?

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. I also noted which machines came with cleaning tools, like long handled brushes.

If the mop vac requires a cleaning solution, is a sample included with the purchase of the machine? Is it expensive to refill? Is it easy to find and order online?

Until this year, the Tineco Floor One S5 Smart Wet Dry Cordless Vacuum Cleaner was my top pick. It’s a smart, compact, cordless wet-dry vacuum cleaner that converts to a handheld vacuum (the hand vac can’t be used for wet messes). It impressively cleaned my floors in a single pass without leaving any wet spots, and it was one of the quietest models I tried. The battery has a shorter run time than many other mop vacs (20-ish minutes, compared to about 30–35 minutes for other models), but thanks to Tineco’s iLoop technology, it was efficient enough to clean the areas of bare floor in my modestly-sized kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom, and hallway on a single charge. The S5 Combo offers edge cleaning, but only on one end of the motorhead.

As a fan of Shark vacuum cleaners (especially their stick vacuums), I was really looking forward to trying the cordless Shark Hydrovac Pro XL. Overall, it’s a nice, lightweight floor cleaner and it’s really easy to use; I was able to start cleaning without consulting the manual. The headlights on the motorhead are a nice touch to help see dirty spots on darker floors (or dust on lighter floors), as are the washable foam filters. I appreciate the LED “headlights” and the fact that the brush roll is treated with "antimicrobial substance to preserve roller and resist bacterial odors." I can't say it made a difference in my testing, but it could be a benefit with long-term use. While the Shark is mostly comparable to the Tineco iFloor 3, it’s pricier (at most retailers) yet it felt a little less sturdy, it was a little louder, and it left my floor a little wetter.

In 2023, I tested a triple-threat Bissell Crosswave: It’s a vacuum, it’s a wet mop, and it’s a steam mop. Over the last two years, I’ve tested three Crosswaves, and their big selling point is versatility—you can use the Crosswave as just a vacuum cleaner (though not a super powerful one), or a mop vac (though you have to keep your finger on a trigger to make the clean water solution flow). The Bissell Crosswave Hydrosteam is the most versatile Crosswave yet because you can push a button on the handle to turn it into a steam mop. I find the steam especially beneficial in the kitchen and with the steam feature engaged, this model cleaned gunky, greasy messes off of my textured kitchen floor as well or better than the Tineco Floor One S7 Pro. That said, it doesn’t have edge cleaning, the steam function will not be good for older wood floors, and the brush roller got stuck when I tried to transition from tile to a flat weave rug in my bathroom. This is also one of the bulkiest mop vacs I’ve tested and it has a cord, so it’s not necessarily something I’d whip out for a quick clean. But if you want the option to steam and you don’t mind the cord, it’s a good floor cleaner at a good price.

As I mentioned above, in order to engage the wet mopping function on a Crosswave, you need to keep your finger on a trigger. And if you just want a decent vacuum that can suck up wet and dry messes and also occasionally work as a mop, or if you prefer to do a vacuum-only pass before mopping, this might not be an issue. But if you want something that will continuously mop and vacuum, you may find the trigger annoying. Another selling point of the Crosswave is that unlike the other devices, which are marketed as “hard floor cleaners,” the Crosswave’s mop vac function is indicated for area rugs, too. But it’s not a true carpet cleaner and I wasn’t impressed with the rug-cleaning power of any of the Crosswaves I tried. In fact, I tested all 12 mop vacs on my rugs and they were all underwhelming. (For big spills or pet accidents on area rugs and high-pile carpets, you’ll still need a true carpet cleaner, like Bissell's Little Green.) All of that said, if the Bissell Crosswave X7 Cordless Pet Pro Multi-Surface Wet Dry Vac had been my first and only mop vac, I likely would have fallen in love with it. But for the price, it just doesn’t compare to the Tinecos. It’s heavier, didn’t pick up as much on the first pass, left more water on the floor, and didn’t alert me when the clean water tank was empty.

The Bissell Crosswave Pet Pro Multi-Surface Bagless Wet Dry Vac is a less-expensive Pet Pro model, but it’s corded. It was lightweight compared to the X7 and I appreciated that the clean water tank had indicators for small areas (up to 350 square feet) or or large areas (up to 700 square feet). But this is a corded device that simply doesn’t compare to the similarly-priced (and cordless) Tineco iFloor 3.

The Eureka All in One Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner is another corded mop vac and it’s very similar to the corded Crosswave Pet Pro. It’s a little louder and slightly less smooth to maneuver than the Crosswave, but it does have a more attractive black and white body and comes with a couple of handy tools for cleaning the machine. Considering the quieter, cordless Tineco iFloor 3 is only about $50 more than the Eureka (at the time of publication, anyway), it’s easy to pass on this one.

The INSE Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner is similar to my budget pick, the Tineco iFloor 3, in both form and function, but it’s the only mop vac I tested that had the clean water tank built into the motorhead. It’s also the only one that came with dissolvable solution strips instead of liquid. It felt aggressively motorized, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, and if the exceptionally dark water that I dumped out of the dirty water tank multiple times was any indication, it did a very good job of cleaning my floors. After multiple rounds of testing, I decided I liked it just as much as the iFloor 3, but I didn’t like it $100 more.

I was very excited to try the Roborock Dyad Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum and not just because this promo video makes it look like a real party starter. This was the only mop vac I tested that’s supposed to clean sufficiently with just water (the product description indicates that a cleaning solution is only needed for deep cleaning) and in 2022, it was the only one that offered true-edge-to-edge cleaning on both sides of the motorhead. Unfortunately, it took me about 40 minutes to get it working for the first time because the sensor couldn’t recognize that the clean water tank actually had water in it. I eventually figured out it’s a known issue that only happens out of the box, and I eventually got it going by adding salt and cleaning solution from a different machine. Once operational, it did a great job of cleaning but because the motorhead is so bulky, it wouldn’t fit in the area where my lower cabinets jut out—which is where I needed the edge cleaning the most. It was also very loud on my textured kitchen floor and emptying the debris filter seemed more complicated than it should have been. NOTE: The model I tested in 2022 has been discontinued and replaced with the Dyad Pro, which appears to have the same bulky motorhead.

There’s a lot to love about Hizero Bionic Hard Floor Cleaner, starting with the fact that it was, by far, the easiest mop vac to clean. It’s also super quiet, even on max cleaning mode, because it doesn’t use suction to collect debris. Instead of a brush roll, the Hizero has a soft polymer roller that’s supposed to mimic the way a dog licks things off the floor. It’s pretty cool technology but it wasn’t great at cleaning my textured kitchen floor (to be fair, the product description does state that it performs best on “leveled” floors). If you have the benefit of perfectly flat floors this could work—especially if you’re in an apartment and worry about noise. But if your floors have seen smoother days or you have an old house with kids and pets, you’re probably better off with something that actually sucks (in the good way).

When I was testing the corded Hoover FloorMate Deluxe Hard Floor Cleaner, I called it “The Street Sweeper.” Not only is it much larger than all of the other mop vacs I tried, it also has flat spinning brushes instead of a soft, cylindrical roller. Unfortunately, the size and unique design didn’t quite translate to more cleaning power and the FloorMate Deluxe somehow felt like too much and not enough for my cleaning up everyday messes in my house. It struggled to collect small debris from the textured kitchen floor and couldn’t get into corners at all.

Tineco is making the best and most efficient mop vacs on the market and though the breadth of the brand’s offerings can be a bit overwhelming, I highly recommend two models. The Tineco Floor One S7 Pro is a super-smart, compact mop vac with true edge-to-edge cleaning, but it’s pricey. If you don’t care about the smart features and are willing to sacrifice edge cleaning, the Tineco iFloor 3 Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner is another great floor cleaner—and you can get it for less than half the price of the S7 Pro.

Looking for the best robot vacuum cleaner for the kitchen? We tested models from iRobot Roomba, Eufy, Roborock, Shark, and other brands. Read our full review to find our top picks.