The best mops make it easy to keep floors (and hands) clean. Which option checks all the boxes?
Published Feb. 1, 2022. Appears in America's Test Kitchen TV Season 23: Thanksgiving for a Small Group
Whether you want to mop up a big spill, scrub a sticky stain, or just give your floors a routine cleaning, you need a wet mop that is easy to operate, absorbent, and durable. We tested several different types of mops—including some that came with buckets—and found a standout in the O-Cedar EasyWring Spin Mop & Bucket System. Our winning mop is easy to assemble and clean, impressively absorbent, and adept at tackling tough messes. Its accompanying bucket is also easy to use and wrings out water remarkably well. Additionally, we named a favorite stand-alone mop, the Rubbermaid Microfiber Twist Mop. It was particularly effective at scrubbing up tough stains, but its wringing mechanism was a bit strenuous to use.
Some mops are made more for spot cleaning, while many others are designed for tackling big messes and deep cleaning. For this review, we decided to stick to wet mops, which are marketed as effective for both light and heavy-duty jobs and are designed to not only clean stains but also absorb liquid spills (see “What about spray mops?” below). Most of the mop heads were made of wide strips of cloth or yarn-like string, but we also included two with sponge heads. We limited the lineup to models with mechanisms that wrung out water.
While some of the wringing mechanisms were attached to the mops themselves, several models came with special buckets that contained wringing mechanisms. Some of the bucket mechanisms spun like centrifuges; another compressed the mop head to squeeze out water. To activate these mechanisms, we either stepped on a foot pedal or pressed down on the mop after aligning it in the bucket’s centrifuge or basket.
The wringing mechanisms on the handles of stand-alone mops worked in a few different ways. Some had ratcheting devices or plastic sleeves that we twisted to squeeze out water. When using the two mops with sponge heads, we pulled levers either to fold and squeeze the sponge or to fold a perforated plastic tab over the sponge, mashing it down.
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Chase is an associate editor for ATK Reviews. He's an epidemiologist-turned-equipment tester and biscuit enthusiast.