Best wood floor cleaner 2022: Our recommended wooden floor cleaners and floor-cleaning liquids
Keep your floors in tip-top condition with the best wood floor cleaners and cleaning solutions to buy right now
The best wood floor cleaners will keep your floors looking spotless with minimal hassle. Not only do they wash, but these machines can also disinfect, vacuum and dry, too, making quick work of dirty floors. When used together with specially formulated cleaning liquids, a sparkling floor is guaranteed.
A wooden floor cleaner is essentially a wet vacuum, designed for use on sealed wood flooring. They’re more efficient than a mop and bucket, and leave floors dry in as little as two minutes, compared to the 20+ minutes you’d be waiting after mopping. While all wood floor cleaners will also clean other types of hard flooring, we’ve selected the models we think are best suited to sealed wooden flooring specifically.
If you’re not sure whether a wood floor cleaner is best for your home, our buying guide below has all the info you need on these cleaning machines, as well as the liquid formulas you should use with them.
Alternatively, you can scroll on to find our bite-sized reviews of the very best wood floor cleaners and cleaning liquids available right now.
READ NEXT: Best hard floor cleaners
Best wood floor cleaner: At a glance
- Best floor cleaner for most people: Vax ONEPWR Glide Cordless | Buy now
- Best lightweight floor cleaner: Kärcher FC3 Cordless | Buy now
- Best for big jobs: Bissell 2582E Crosswave Cordless Floor Cleaner | Buy now
- Best everyday cleaning solution: Vax ONEPWR Multi-Purpose Solution | Buy now
- Best value-for-money cleaner: Dirtbusters Multi-Floor Machine Solution | Buy now
- Best cleaning solution for hardwood floors: Bissell Wood Floor Formula | Buy now
How to choose the best wood floor cleaner for you
What’s the difference between a steam mop and a wood floor cleaner?
Both steam mops and wood floor cleaners are capable of cleaning wood floors, but they work in slightly different ways. While steam mops simply blast out hot steam to deal with dirt and grease, a wood floor cleaner will lift away dirt using its rollers, while vacuuming and drying at the same time.
This not only saves time but can also leave you with a better end result. The best wood floor cleaners have dual water tanks, meaning there’s one tank for fresh water and one to suck up waste water. This ensures only clean water is dispensed through the rollers, so you’ll never be washing with dirty water. When used in tandem with a good antibacterial hard-floor cleaning solution, they offer a more thorough clean than your standard steam mop.
Can I use a wood floor cleaner on all hard floors?
Wood floor cleaners are generally suitable for all types of hard floors including laminate, lino and stone. However, you should never use a wood floor cleaner on a hard floor that hasn’t been sealed, as moisture can find its way into the gaps and damage it.
Do I need to use a wood floor cleaning liquid with my machine?
You should always use a cleaning solution with your wood floor cleaner for the best results. Floor cleaning liquids offer a range of benefits including getting rid of grease and bacteria, as well as just making your floor look and smell great.
One thing to note. While some manufacturers suggest sticking to own-brand formulas, you can use any liquid cleaner in your hard floor machine, providing it states it’s suitable for use in wood floor cleaning machines.
READ NEXT: Best steam mops
How often should I use a floor cleaner?
In areas with heavy foot traffic, such as hallways, kitchens and conservatories, we’d suggest going over your floors with wood floor cleaner every few days to keep them hygienic and sparkling. For rooms used less often, a good clean once every couple of weeks should do the trick. Ultimately, though, it’s up to your own preferences and your home’s specific needs.
How much does a wood floor cleaner cost?
The best wood floor cleaners don’t come cheap and will usually set you back around £100 to £300. At the cheaper end of the scale, you’ll only get something very basic. Spend more, and you’ll get a bigger tank and better features – many premium cleaners are “multi-surface” models, so you can use them to wash your rugs and low-pile carpets, too.
The best wood floor cleaners to buy
1. Vax ONEPWR Glide Cordless: The best floor cleaner for most people
Price: £250 | Buy now from Argos
One of the most frustrating things about cleaning with a mop or steam cleaner is the long drying time. If you’re fed up with waiting around to use your floors, this hard floor cleaner is the answer. The ONEPWR washes, vacuums and dries simultaneously, cutting down cleaning and drying times significantly.
In testing, it was able to vacuum up larger debris like bits of cereal with ease, as well as smaller bits of dirt around the house. It doesn’t flood the cleaning rollers with water either, so you won’t find yourself with a soaking floor or needing to refill it every ten minutes. While it didn’t leave the floor fully dry, it was dry enough to be used as usual within a couple of minutes.
Another reason to consider the Glide is that it’s relatively compact for a wood floor cleaner, so isn’t too difficult to store. It also has LED lights at the front, so you can see into those hard-to-reach areas. Once you’re done cleaning, the ONEPWR even self-cleans to keep its insides free from gunk. It’s packed full of impressive features and ideal for medium-sized homes.
Key specs – Capacity: 0.6 litres; Runtime: 30 mins; Charge time: 3 hours; Weight: 4.9kg (without battery); Dimensions (WDH): 29 x 25 x 111cm
2. Shark Klik n’ Flip Deluxe: The best steam mop for wood floors
Price: £150 | Buy now from Argos
If your budget can’t quite stretch to an all-singing, all-dancing wood floor cleaner, this steam mop is a good compromise. It’s corded, meaning you’ll enjoy unlimited run-time, and its swivel head makes getting into difficult areas and around corners really easy.
One of the coolest things about the Kick n’ Flip is the rotating mop head. Once you’ve dirtied one side, simply flip the head over and make use of the top as well. It’s a small feature but one that will save you lots of time switching out used cloths.
What’s more, the Kick n’ Flip is impressively lightweight at just 2.7kg. So if you’re considering a steam mop over a wood floor cleaner, and want to balance features with cost, this is our top pick.
Key specs – Capacity: 0.38 litres; Runtime: N/A (corded); Charge time: N/A; Weight: 2.7kg; Dimensions (WDH): 11 x 10 x 119cm
3. Kärcher FC3 Cordless: The best lightweight wood floor cleaner
Price: £170 | Buy now from Amazon
If you’re looking for a supremely slimline, cordless wood floor cleaner, the Kärcher F3 is a minimalist’s dream. Despite its svelte physique, this cleaner still manages to accommodate two separate tanks for clean water and waste water, meaning you’ll only ever clean with the fresh stuff. The slim roller brush means you can clean right up to the edges, and the dry time is impressive, too, with floors being ready to use in as little as two minutes.
As a cordless cleaner, its battery life isn’t huge – you’ll get around 20 minutes per charge – so larger households will definitely want to opt for a beefier machine. However, if you’ve only got one or two small rooms with sealed wood flooring, this is plenty of time to give them a decent clean.
Key specs – Capacity: 0.36 litres; Runtime: 20 mins; Charge time: 4 hours; Weight: 2.4kg; Dimensions (WDH): 30.5×22.6x 122cm
4. Bissell 2582E Crosswave Cordless Floor Cleaner: The best wood floor cleaner for big jobs
Price: £350 | Buy now from Argos
Cordless cleaners give you the freedom to move from room to room effortlessly, but usually at the expense of capacity and run time. This beefy wood floor cleaner from Bissell offers the best of both worlds, with a large 0.8-litre capacity and around 30 minutes of cleaning time. It’s ideal for medium-sized households that need an extra thorough clean.
With the exception of being untethered, it’s not all that different from the corded version. It has a strainer that separates larger debris from the waste water for easier disposal, and dual tanks for clean and dirty water. Better still, the Crosswave switches between cleaning hard floors and rugs at the flick of a switch, meaning you won’t have to remove them from the room or stop to vacuum separately.
Key specs – Capacity: 0.8 litres; Runtime: 25-30 minutes; Charge time: 4 hours; Weight: 5.6kg; Dimensions (WDH): Not specified
The best wood floor cleaning liquids
1. Vax ONEPWR Multi-Purpose Solution: The best everyday wood floor cleaning solution
Price: £10 (1 litre) | Buy now from Amazon
Vax’s multi-purpose solution is an antibacterial floor cleaner suitable for wood, tiles, laminate, lino and more. It’s been specifically designed for use with the ONEPWR hard floor cleaner and Vax’s cordless spot carpet washer, the Spotless Go, but can be used in all other cleaners, including those listed above.
We really like its mild smell and found it did a great job of restoring our floors to their former glory. It’s best used regularly on lightly soiled wood, so if you need to give your floor a deep clean then we’d recommend upping the solution-to-water ratio a bit.
Key details – Size: 1 litre; Scent: Cotton fresh; Suitable for use on all hard flooring: Yes, and rugs
2. Dirtbusters Multi-Floor Machine Solution: The best value-for-money cleaner
Price: £24 (5 litres) | Buy now from Amazon
Dirtbusters’ multi-floor solution is suitable for use with all wood floor cleaners and at just £4 per litre, is supremely affordable, too. The formula is safe to use on sealed wood flooring, as well as laminate, lino and tiles, and is also suitable for spot-cleaning carpets.
You can pick Dirtbusters up in a range of scents such as Orange and Berry Fresh, but our recommendation is Sea Breeze. It’s a much gentler scent and ideal if you’d rather avoid strong, fake fruity smells while cleaning.
Key details – Size: 5 litres; Scent: Sea Breeze; Suitable for use on all hard flooring: Yes, and carpet
3. Dettol Clean and Fresh Cherry Blossom and Pomegranate: The best affordable antibacterial cleaning solution
Price: £3 (1 litre) | Buy now from Ocado
Dettol’s multi-purpose liquid is an affordable alternative to many of the formulas on this list. It’s not technically designed for wood floor cleaners but is safe to use when diluted with water and added to your machine. It’s suitable for use on all sealed hard flooring, as well as tiles, lino and laminate, but isn’t suitable for rugs or carpet.
The scent is quite powerful, so that’s something to bear in mind if you don’t like strong smells. Otherwise, there’s little else bad to say about it.
Key details – Size: 1l; Scent: Cherry Blossom and pomegranate; Suitable for use on all hard flooring: Yes
4. Bissell Wood Floor Formula: The best cleaning solution for hardwood floors
Price: £13 (1 litre) | Buy now from Amazon
This wood floor cleaner has been specifically designed to keep sealed wood floors looking their best and restoring the natural shine of treated wood. It’s a gentle formula with a light lemon scent and is suitable for use in all hard floor cleaning machines.
While this version is specifically designed for wood, it can be used on other hard surfaces, too. Alternatively, Bissell sells a multi-surface liquid, which is suitable for all sealed flooring, as well as low pile rugs and carpets.
Key details – Size: 1 litre; Scent: Lemon; Suitable for use on all hard flooring: Yes