12 best hard floor cleaners for keeping your flooring fresh

Score: 96/100

Shark’s first hard floor cleaner is an impressive debut, easily rivalling other more established brands. The cordless design offers maximum convenience if plug sockets are sparse. And our experts found it excelled at cleaning up spillages and stains, both shortly after they happen and once they’ve been left to set in.

Our floors were left smear-free and dry, and the cleaner didn’t cause any dullness or discolouration either. It’s also easy to reach under low furniture thanks to its flexible head, a feature our testers loved as it allows you to achieve a deeper clean. Its water tank is fairly small, but this is really our only niggle – especially as this makes it easier to handle.

Score: 95/100

Weighing just 2.5kg, this cordless hard floor cleaner is great if you want a light, easy mover. Testers found it had good reach under furniture, and you can adjust the height of the wand to suit too.

Putting the microfibre cloths in place is a little fiddly, but it comes with a good supply, and they clean well, lifting all the dirt we put in its path on test. Floors were polished too. The round shape of the pads means reaching right into the corners doesn’t always come naturally. But you can use it with tap water or cleaning fluid and it’s gentle enough for wood flooring.

Score: 95/100

This is Dyson’s first foray into creating a dedicated hard floor cleaner that mops and vacuums at once, and it didn’t disappoint. Testers found it moved smoothly, reaching easily underneath furniture. There are three water levels and a MAX power setting to choose from, and in the lab it performed well across vinyl and ceramic flooring, clearing spills easily without leaving surfaces too wet.

It also spot-cleaned trickier stains effectively, particularly on its highest setting, although it didn’t completely banish the wine discolouration from our floor. And speaking of its max setting, this emptied the relatively small water tank very quickly. In fact, if you’re tackling a large area, you may need to refill it midway through, no matter the setting. But otherwise, it’s a thoughtfully designed appliance (complete with a self-clean cycle!) that’s simple to use and comes with clear online instructions.

Score: 95/100

Designed for hard floors and rugs, the Bissell CrossWave is ideal if you’re in need of a multi-tasker. It vacuums, washes and dries as it goes, and it didn’t disappoint in our tests. We found it lifted everything from dried mud to wine stains effortlessly from hard floors (although it couldn’t fully eliminate the latter from carpets), leaving them sparkling and streak-free.

Clear and precise instructions make it a doddle to use, while it moved smoothly across all surfaces on test. One to invest in if you’ve used large rugs to bring a touch of cosiness to your hard flooring.

Score: 94/100

Another sleek, cordless design, this vacuum and mop is suitable for all sealed hard flooring. Testers found it easy to set up and use, switching between its three modes (sterilising water, eco vacuum and max vacuum) seamlessly.

And it's a great cleaner – red wine disappeared completely, and while some stains took more than one sweep, it left our floors sparkling on every test. It's lightweight, so it should be a good one for carrying around the house if you want to tackle your upstairs bathroom. Its battery life is good too, lasting up to 40 minutes on test.

There aren’t any internal markings in the tanks, which means it’s not obvious how much solution to put in. But it has a speedy self-cleaning setting and a useful charging base for storage.

Score: 94/100

Bissell’s latest Crosswave cleaner is a versatile buy. It also vacuums and mops, and has a turbo mode that’s suitable for cleaning area rugs. It performed particularly well as a standalone vacuum, lifting most of the dust our floor care experts laid out from laminate and between floorboards in one sweep.

It mopped up fresh stains impeccably too, with our tester’s only quibble being about the dampness left behind – which, in many ways, is to be expected. Set-in dirt took a few more passes of the cleaner to lift (we’re talking a maximum of three to four depending on the stain).

As for user experience, all the controls were clear, as were the max fill lines on the water tank. Emptying the dirty tank was mess-free and there’s even a handy cleaning mode. Popping it onto the charging station was a bit fiddly as you have to lift it in place, but otherwise, it’s thoughtfully designed and effective.

Score: 93/100

Another iteration of the Bissell above, this one vacuums, mops, and dries flooring as you go (but not independently of each other), and has a steam mode to banish germs and give your flooring a deeper clean.

Our testers could barely fault its cleaning abilities, describing its performance as ‘incredible’ when tackling tea and mud. It lifted grease well too and the steam mode banished red wine with ease. All while leaving the flooring behind it dry at every turn.

You have to plug this model in, but there’s onboard cord storage to keep things neat, and our experts said it moved smoothly on test. Using it was a straightforward, and it self-cleans, but while you can use this on area rugs, it’s not suitable for wax-polished surfaces and other upholstered items.

Score: 92/100

There’s a lot to like about this wet and dry vacuum cleaner. For starters, it self-propels, making it feel lightweight and easy to manoeuvre around your home. It also boasts smart tech, which detects the level of dirt you're tackling and adjusts settings accordingly. As a result, our testers found it completely banished any stains they laid (even if some, like dried tea, took several sweeps).

They also liked that it reached under furniture well, and found it easy to remove and replace the brush. Pouring in cleaning solution was fiddly though, and while it promises a streak-free finish, testers noted that they only achieved this by drawing the vacuum back over the area just cleaned.

Handily, you can dry vacuum with this model too, and it did a relatively good job lifting most mess, but for a deep clean, we’d still advise using a traditional vacuum cleaner. By any standards, however, this would transform your mopping experience.

Score: 89/100

This user-friendly wet and dry vacuum proved particularly effective at cleaning wet messes, removing tomato soup from ceramic flooring in one swift sweep. Even tough 24-hour stains lifted after some attention, with the ‘turbo mode’ removing remnants of tricky red wine.

On regular suction mode, an initial sweep pushed dust around rather than picking it up, but a few extra goes collected the majority. Our tester particularly liked the lie-flat design too, which allowed them to easily reach under furniture without losing suction.

It connects to an app where you can customise cleaning programmes, choosing between two wetness levels (daily and wet), and three different suction power levels (soft, standard and strong). Plus, you can initiate the self-cleaning process where the anti-tangle brush is immersed before it’s dried at high speed to quickly restore it before you tackle the next task.

Score: 89/100

If your heart is set on a Dyson and your home has a mixture of carpets and hard flooring, then the brand's latest innovation should shoot straight to the top of your wish list. The quirkily named Submarine refers to the new mop head that comes with this latest iteration of the brand’s best-in-class vacuums. When the head is on, the vacuum won’t suck up any dust or debris, so you can wash your floors instead.

Testers found it cleaned well, lifting set-in stains with just two to three passes – no scrubbing required. The floors were only slightly damp, but a puddle tended to form around the head when left. It was easy to clean though (you just hold the roller under running water).

As for its vacuuming, it was as reliable as you’d expect; it scored full marks in all our dust tests and lifted pet hair in two to three sweeps. It fared well tackling larger crumbs too, although occasionally it was almost too powerful, blowing the odd spec around. It was a dream to use throughout and although it’s pricey, it’s a great multitasker if you just want one floor cleaning appliance in your cupboard.

Score: 88/100

This fantastic value cordless model coped well with picking up dust and debris in our test, collecting more than 85 per cent of what we laid down, thanks to its clever cleaning pads that have compartments to trap debris away.

Its stain removal skills were a little hit or miss, though. Dried mud lifted in just three sweeps but stains like tea needed extra attention, taking up to 12 sweeps for a proper clean. When it came to red wine, the cleaning pad became too saturated and ended up smearing the marks further. Swapping to a new pad and using additional sprays helped the cleaner work its magic though. Just note, you’ll need to work quickly, as the battery only lasts for 13 minutes.

Overall, though, it’s lightweight, compact and easy to use. Plus, it left our floors relatively dry post-cleaning.

Score: 84/100

Of all the hard floor cleaners we tried, this was the easiest to store away. Testers praised the way it glided across all our lab surfaces leaving them clean and dry. That said, more scrubbing was required than some of our higher-scoring cleaners, and mud occasionally trapped in the roller head, then transferring back onto the floor.

Its water tank is small but it’s easy to fill and fit, making it a great buy for lighter cleans. Plus, it boasts clear instructions, and a machine-washable roller head.