In May, domestic tech wizards Dyson revealed it was bringing an electric mop to the market; claiming it would make one of the nation’s least favourite chores – deep cleaning hard floors – a breeze.
Fast forward three months and the WashG1 has arrived, promising to do away with the basic mop and bucket for good, thanks to technology that sweeps up both wet and dry dirt – and then leave floors dry, serving up a ‘barefoot clean feel’.
Hard floor cleaning has long been dominated by steam cleaners (which, unlike the WashG1, can’t be used on wood flooring), detergent spray mops and the traditional ‘cut-end’ mop and bucket with attached wringer.
Why reinvent the mop? Around in some form or another for centuries? According to the Dyson Global Dust Study, which was released in 2023 and monitored the cleaning habits of 30,000 people from 39 countries, 75 per cent of UK homes now have some or all hard floor surfaces. That figure rises to 95 per cent internationally.
The Dyson WashG1, an electric mop that retails at £599, addresses the fact that British homeowners are more likely than ever to have hard floors in their homes, says the company
It has a 1 litre clean water tank which distributes water using a pulse modulated hydration pump and keeps collected debris – essentially dirty water – in a separate chamber
Easy to set up, the WashG1 is straightforward to use, and has a digital display that can tell you when you need to re-fill the water and how much charge is left
And until now, fans of the Dyson vacuum have had to be content with the brand’s £799 V15 Submarine cleaner, which is suitable for wet and dry spills – or rival products from the likes of Karcher and Shark – but the WashG1 is the fruit of continued major investment by the brand in new products.
Founded in 1991 by Sir James Dyson, Dyson has poured money into developing new technology, with a string of releases in recent years, including the £450 Dyson Airstrait hair straighteners and the 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum.
The WashG1’s price tag of £599 certainly isn’t cheap – but could investing in an electric mop make cleaning hard floors as easy as hoovering? I tested one fresh from the Dyson production line…
HOW DOES THE WASHG1 ACTUALLY WORK?
The WashG1 appliance uses ‘highly absorbent microfibre filament rollers’ which counter-rotate to remove floors of dust, dirt and dried on stains, says the British manufacturer.
The dirty water and debris is collected, but kept separate from a litre-capacity clean water tank via a 500-micron mesh.
Dirty water is poured away from the tank, left, while dry debris and dust is housed in another chamber of the machine, right
And, says Dyson, there’s no chance of using too much or too little water; a pulse modulated hydration pump precisely controls and adjusts the amount of water dispensed onto your floors – ensuring drying time is down to seconds.
The biggest appeal for homeowners who hate having to change the water with a traditional mop, bucket and wringer – after they’ve vacuumed – is that it can cover up to 290 square metres of flooring; an average three-bedroom UK house has around 88 square metres.
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO USE?
The WashG1 arrived in a compact box with little set-up needed, just a few parts to click together. There’s an easy-to-navigate quick start guide on the box, and although the digital display might alarm tech-phobes, it’s super simple to work with.
The fancy digital display at the top of handle has a QR code pointing to the Dyson app but, after charging, you don’t need anything beyond some clean water in one of the two chambers that sit on the body of the WashG1 – and the push of a button to start cleaning.
Dyson, which has invested heavily in developing new technology, says the appliance can clean up to 290 square metres in one battery life – and has a self-clean function
The same digital display tells you how you’re doing on water, and how much charge is left.
A little like an e-bike, which just makes normal cycling feel easy, the WashG1 gives the user a similar ride, gliding across floors – it feels like using a light hoover. It’s dreamy to manoeuvre too.
The big appeal is how the dirty water is dealt with. You can see exactly what’s coming off your floors (and wonder how you live like this) but the interaction with it is minimal, you simply untwist and pour the water away when you’re done.
Just using tap water with no detergent felt like an eco-friendly way to clean too.
Related Post
I fall into the category of living in a house that has hard floors in almost all of the rooms, so I tried it on engineered wood flooring in the kitchen and porcelain tiles in the bathroom.
THE PROS
You can see exactly what’s coming off your floors via the dirty water chamber – a satisfying if not slightly alarming sight – which is easy to empty, simply twist off the cap and pour down the sink
The floors looked sparkling clean quickly; it was mission accomplished with minimum leg work – and it felt much less hassle than dealing with a mop and bucket.
I whizzed around each floor in minutes; and the fact it knows how much water to distribute means there’s barely any drying time; it’s perfect for an easy spruce-up.
The edge cleaning technology is really impressive too; you can get super close to skirting boards without getting them wet as you might with alternative methods.
How did it cope with a proper test? Just like in the ads, I unleashed a decent spillage of balsamic vinegar on the kitchen floor to put the WashG1 through its paces – and, without any detergent, it made light work of it. With no smell or residue left behind.
THE CONS
To keep the microfibre filament rollers in good nick, you need to pull out the tray and get rid of the debris collected. It’s certainly no worse than emptying a bucket but it’s still not an entirely pleasant job, with dirt and grime a go-go.
And if you’ve got a compact flat or smaller home, finding a place for the charge mat and WashG1 to stand probably isn’t that easy. This is an electric mop crying out for a utility room. That said, it’s certainly no larger than a mop or bucket – but does need to be plugged in.
THE VERDICT
At £599, the WashG1 is an expensive piece of kit, and it might take a while to win over everybody – because traditional methods might require a bit more effort but they essentially do the same job.
Fans who are already sold on Dyson products? They’ll love it as an addition to their cleaning collection, no question.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel
Source link
