5 Best Vacuum Mop Combos of 2024, Tested and Reviewed
Make easy work of cleaning your floor with a wet dry vac or vacuum mop.
Photo by Liz Zack
Our Top Vacuum Mop Combo Picks
- Best Overall: Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Wet Dry Vac
- Best Value: Eureka All in One Wet Dry Vac
- Best Robot: iRobot Roomba Combo i5 with Vacuum Mop
- Best Cordless: Roborock Dyad Pro Wet Dry Vac
- Best for Hard Floors: Shark VacMop Pro
Tested by Liz Zack
If you’re in the market for a vacuum and mop, you may want to consider a wet dry vac or vacuum mop combo unit. The perfect vacuum mop may not be the sexiest purchase you’ll make all year, but having a low-effort clean house? Now that’s something we can really get behind. To that end, we made some seriously challenging messes and then mopped and vacuumed for the better part of a month to uncover the best wet dry vac and vacuum mop combos in every category – whether you’re looking for something cordless, steam-cleaning or just want the best robot vacuum to autonomously handle the ridiculous daily accumulation of pet hair on its own.
Photo by Liz Zack
How We Tested
For each vacuum mop in our test, we timed how long it took to put the appliance together to make sure the directions were easy to follow and that the set up wasn’t onerous. (In almost every case the vacuums came with easy-to-follow quick start manuals and set up was under 5 minutes.) We took note of the relative size of the charging station (if any) and the weight and maneuverability of the mop itself.
Then we tested its functionality. For the vacuums, we poured one cup of Cheerios on the floor and evaluated how easily and quickly each vacuum cleaned up the mess. For the vacuums that are also mops we added one cup of milk to the pile. For steam cleaners, we dropped some jam on a tile floor, let it sit a bit (and get sticky) and then used the steam function on the mops to clean up the spill. We evaluated how well it worked and how hard it was to engage the steam.
- Clear icons (steam, carpet, hardwood floor)
- Easy to fill the tank
- Great with pet hair
- Heavy for some
- Can take a couple passes to get the entire mess
This mop can do it all: vacuum, mop and steam. While it didn’t pick up the entire sticky mess on the first pass, it definitely got the job done with a few additional swipes. We like that you can clearly see if you're on steam, area rug or hardwood with the easy-to-read icons on the mop foot. It also had great suction and the mop was easy to fill and clean.
- Weight 12.5 pounds
- Power Type 25 ft. cord
- Capacity 28 fl ounces
- Functions Vacuum, Mop, Steam
- Lightweight
- Great head swivel
- Self-cleaning
- Corded
This corded wet dry vac made quick work of our milk and Cheerios mess. It sucked up most Cheerios in one pass, but pushed some Cheerios along the floor, so we lifted the vacuum on top of the mess and then it did its thing. The Eureka was easy to fill and the buttons were clear. It also self-cleans at the end of a cleaning cycle for 40 seconds. We don’t love corded vacs for full house cleans, but this one had a long enough cord that it worked well with minimal re-plug-ins. For the affordable price, this vacuum mop combo is worth it for those who want the ability to clean both carpet and hardwood without the hefty price tag.
- Weight 11.68 pounds
- Power Type Corded
- Capacity 800 ml
- Functions Vacuum, Mop
- Smart mapping
- Recharges on its own
- Vacuums and mops without changing hardware
- Map takes some editing for accuracy
One of the coolest features of the iRobot Roomba happens right at the beginning when you set it free in your house to explore and map. Once it’s finished this exploratory run you can see and edit the “Smart Map” in the accompanying app. (There were a few things we needed to correct once it completed this task.) From there, you can get much more focused with cleanings and request the Roomba to vacuum everywhere or only specific rooms. You can also set a schedule and if the Roomba doesn’t have enough juice to get through the whole cleaning, it will go back and dock itself to recharge a bit and then continue on.
- Weight 13.5 pounds
- Power Type Battery
- Capacity 210 ml
- Functions Vacuum, Mop
- Lightweight
- Self-cleaning
- Alerts you when to empty the tank
- Large charging base
This vacuum mop, which speaks to you with commands like "Charging Started," is light and very agile. It did a super job picking up our mess of Cheerios and milk. It was a little bumpy going over the Cheerios, but it ultimately picked up everything like a pro. The only negative is that it has a relatively large charging station, so you’ll want to make sure you have room to tuck it away wherever you’re planning to store it.
- Weight 10.6 pounds
- Power Type Battery
- Capacity 900 ml
- Functions Vacuum, Mop
- Lightweight
- 1 hour battery life
- LED headlights
- Only works on hard floors
- Disposable pads are a continued expense
The cheapest and lightest of any mops we tested, this vacuum mop did a decent job in our testing. Instead of emptying a dirty water or dust bin, you swap out the pads on the head of the vacuum making it kind of like a turbo-charged old-school Swiffer Wet Jet. It works similarly in that you push a button to spray the ground ahead of you to mop. It’s a great option if you have hard floors and just need light cleaning, but doesn’t pack the power or ease of the other mops in our test.
- Weight 3.3 pounds
- Power Type Battery
- Capacity Cleaning pads
- Functions Vacuum, Mop (only compatible with hard floors)
What to Consider Before Buying a Vacuum Mop
- Use Cases: How will you use it? Do you need touchups between cleaning visits or do you have a 2-year-old at home, where half of every diner ends up on the floor? Do you have a pet where a steam cleaner to help with accidents would be ideal?
- How You Clean: How active do you want to be in your cleaning process? Do you love the idea of a robot vacuum picking up every spec of dog hair while you’re at work or are you the type of homeowner with multiple shag rugs and a passion steam cleaning them?
- Storage: Think about how much space you have to devote to mop storage. The corded vacs tend to be more compact, while the battery power mops all have docking stations that take up various amounts of floor space.
- Weight: Think about how heavy you want your vacuum to be. Some of the steamer mops can be hefty, although all the handheld models we tested are easy to push around once you get them out of their base or the closet.
FAQs
Do vacuum mops work just as well as a solo vacuum or mop?
Sometimes. While we wouldn't recommend investing as a vacuum mop or wet dry vac to replace your vacuum or mop, it can be useful for picking up spills that require a bit more oomph that what your mop or vacuum can handle. Vacuums tend to have more powerful suction than wet dry vacs and can always be used on carpet. Mops may have better srubbing power than a vacuum mop for super sticky messes or dirt and grime build-up.
It's also important to note that not all vacuum mop combos can be used on carpet, so you'll want to double check the features before purchasing.
How do you clean a wet dry vac?
Most vacuum mop combos come with a removable canister for emptying debris that you'll want to clean with warm soapy water and full dry before using again. Three of our best wet dry vacs are self-cleaning vacuum mop combos including our best overall pick the Bissell CrossWave Hydrosteam Wet Dry Vac, the Roborock Dyad Pro Wet Dry Vac and the budget-friendly Eureka All in One Wet Dry Vac.
Who should buy a vacuum mop combo or wet dry vac?
Most people would find a vacuum mop useful, since not all spills are dry spills. It’s also nice to have both functions in the same piece of equipment to save storage and charging space. If your entire home is carpet, you may not have use for a mop, but in almost every other case, it’s a helpful combo.
Other Vacuum Mops We Tested
The Tineco is a great choice, too – it picked up our stuck-on floor jam in the first swipe. It does leave a bit of moisture on the ground but it picks that up on the next pass. The mop includes a digital sensor which indicates when the mop detects dirt and when its clean, this doesn’t interfere with the mopping, but it does feel like a gimmick as it doesn’t really help you with the mop job.
This sleek white robot was very easy to use and set up. It did a great job with our mopping and Cheerios challenge. I also loved that it has a spot cleaning setting, which means in addition to the usual “clean the house” ask, you can plop it directly on top of a mess, and direct it to focus on a small area. You can also schedule regular cleaning through the app. The big negative is that you have to decide whether you want vacuuming or mopping before using and swap out the tank accordingly.
This modern-looking mop speaks to you ("charging has commenced") but it didn’t handle the big messes with the same ease that the better mops did. In fact, going over the Cheerios caused it to error out with a blockage. The water tank was easy to fill and it has a petite charging station, which we appreciated.
This robot cleaner had a few more connectivity hiccups relative to the other robot vacuums we tested – the app didn’t communicate for a few tries and it was annoying have to verify on the site and then go back to the app. The robot speaks to you throughout the set up process “ready to connect to wifi” (this was loud and scared the crap out of me, so be ready for it!) which helps you along. Once we got it going, there were no more issues and it did a great job on our cleaning tests. This unit also does spot cleaning, where you can direct it to focus on one 5x5 area for a more intensely focused session. In our testing the Shark got stuck on the Cheerios so we had to manually rejigger it.
This small, lightweight mop is great for daily clean ups, and did well on our debris tests. It’s a little stiff to use since the head doesn’t swivel, but I loved that you can take it over hard floors or carpets and that it self-cleans when you’re done!
