15 best hard floor cleaners for keeping your flooring fresh

Score: 97/100

When it comes to floor cleaning tools, Vax is hard to beat – just see its stellar showing in our best carpet cleaner roundup for confirmation. So, we weren’t surprised when this dedicated hard floor model came out top. It washes and dries floors at once, leaving surfaces spick and span, and it lifted all stains well. Only mud required a little more effort, but our testers found that adjusting the brush bar resulted in an impressive clean.

Our experts said it was simple to use from the get-go, with easy-to-remove water tanks and clear instructions. Then, when you’re done, a self-cleaning programme means it's ready to go straight back in the cupboard until you need to deal with muddy paw prints or a spillage once more.

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 floorcare 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

This high-scoring Dyson brings the brand's trusted vacuuming technology to your hard floors, which means it’s intended for dry use-only and not suited to stain removal. But its dust pick-up is excellent, making it a top choice for day-to-day cleans.

It feels lightweight and well-made, gliding across our lab flooring seamlessly. Its head also pivots, so you can access trickier areas with ease – it even reaches underneath furniture well. As a handy plus, it impressed when cleaning our tester’s car, although its long design means it’s not the easiest design to use for that job.

It doesn’t have a long battery life either – on test, it ran for 20 minutes, and just five on max. If your home or hard floor area isn’t too big though, it’s a trusty buy.

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: 89/100

It's not just a score that this Bosch shares with the Dyson above; again, it’s a more traditional vacuum, which also mops thanks to an additional head. Its vacuuming resulted in pristine flooring – it lifted over 95% of dust from all surfaces in several sweeps. It performed similarly with crumbs, was good with pet hair, and fared well in the car thanks to its crevice tool and upholstery brush.

Its mopping skills didn’t quite compare; while it lifted most tea stains on test, there were some streaks of mud left behind. But testers judge cleaners after just a couple of sweeps, so a few more passes should do the job.

And for day-to-day light floor washing, it’s certainly going to be a transformational buy given its ease of use. It’s light and easy to move, and it displays the battery life as you clean – which is good because, while it lasts up to 40 minutes, on turbo power you only get 10.

Score: 88/100

Our tester loved this model for everyday upkeep of hard flooring, particularly because of its effective drying function that left our floors fresh, but dry enough that we could get on with the rest of our day.

It boasts three modes: ‘AUTO’, which adjusts the water and airflow based on the dirt detected, ‘ECO’, and ‘MAX’ mode. We found that even on its highest setting, the cleaner lacked enough power to tackle the toughest stains, leaving behind faint red wine and tea stains. Deal with spills and messes immediately though and it will do the job. It lifted tomato soup from our floor in one sweep, with no smearing.

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.