Floor Mop Meets Tech for Easy Clean

Do you have stone or hardwood floors?  If you have kids, you most likely do.  They are easier to clean up when spills when they occur. 

The problem with hard floors is that they often take two steps to clean.  Step one is to sweep or vacuum and step 2 is to floor mop.

I find myself spot cleaning more than taking a floor mop to the whole floor which just takes too much time. 

We also got the cutest two little Maltipoo puppies for Christmas last year and I discovered that it’s not true what they say about this breed not shedding.  I find clumps all the time.  So I’ve had to vacuum more.

The Karcher FC5 Floor Mop

We have been testing the Karcher Floor Cleaner FC 5 which is a 2-in-1 function mop that allows you to vacuum and floor mop at the same time. This is great, it’s so convenient. 

The FC5 uses two rotating microfiber rollers designed to pick up dirt and allow dirt and dirty water to be easily suctioned off and placed in a repository.

They way the FC5 works is that you fill up a canister of water and snap it into the front of the mop.  The mop draws from this water and moistens the mop rollers continuously.  A motor powers the rollers and the vacuum suction, which does three things:

1. Suctions off dirt as it comes in contact with the rollers
2. Provides fresh clean water throughout your cleaning session
3. Vacuums up debris as you mop your floors

So as the vacuum suction soaks up excess moisture in the mop head, this dirty water and associated debris deposited into the dirty water reservoir.  The whole process is very efficient and effective.

My floors were mopped just two days before I tried out the Karcher FC5 for the first time.  To my surprise, the mop water  from the FC5 was very dirty and it had collected a bunch of debris that shouldn’t have been on my “clean floors.”

With the traditional floor mop process,  you very quickly collect dirty water that you continue to reuse the dirty water to “clean” your floors. 

This doesn’t happen with the FC5.  It continuously cleans the rollers as you clean your floors, ensuring a vastly improved clean.

One interesting thing to note is that this floor mop cannot stand up by itself.  It either needs to lean against something or you can put it in its cradle to stand it upright.

I tried the FC5 on our stone travertine, wood, and tile floors.  You can see some of the water on the tile in the above picture.  I liked getting easily to the crooks and nannies under our cupboards and in corners.

I could get under some of our furniture but couldn’t go all the way under a chair.  Nonetheless, this is all I need for a quick cleaning.  The water dried off the wood in a matter of minutes.

We have a lot of stone, tile, and some wood flooring.  The versatility of the Karcher FC5 floor mop works really well with my flooring.

Features:

• Vacuum and mop in one stroke
• Two tanks for clean and dirty water
• Cleans all hard floors such as tile, stone, laminate, concrete, paraquet, and wood
• Can also clean sealed, oiled, and waxed wood floors
• Includes a storage station for stowaway and for cleaning dirty rollers
• Microfiber rollers can also be machine washed (up to 140 degrees F)
• Navigation and maneuverability is easy, pushing is not necessary
• Vacuum head cleans right up to the edge and corners of your flooring
• Minimal amount of water used with a 2-minute floor dry

Pros:

• I love that it mops and vacuums at the same time
• The vacuum head swivels, making it easy to maneuver and get under furniture
• Being able to get flush to the wall and corners is a great help
• It is very easy to push, in fact, hold onto it tight!  When the rollers spin, it’s basically self-propells and does the work for you
• Unique system with water spray on rollers.  Incorporating a detergent is easy, just add 1/2 a capful of the Karcher or your favorite cleaning detergent
• Picks up my dogs’ fur, sand, dirt, mud spots, and dry grass pretty well
• The water tanks are easy to fill
• Uses 85% less water than conventional mopping and clean up is a lot easier
• Utilizes a 12-inch mop head, can cover a lot of ground
• The dirty water reserve is quite large, there’s no need to empty it during a whole house clean
• Its long 27-inch cord gives you a lot of leash

Cons:

• The FC5 is a bit heavy at nearly 5 pounds, but when turned on it is very easy to navigate
• Although it does drop down, it can’t go all the way under furniture
• It doesn’t vacuum up bigger debris.  However, my dogs’ fur balls are big but after rolling over them a couple of times the water minimizes them and they do get vacuumed
• The clean water reserve does not last for my whole house downstairs.  I need to refill it once more.
• You need to go over stains a good number of times to get rid of them as there are no built-in scrubbers to help with floor stains
• It is not cordless, you need to plug it in for each room most likely
• It cannot stand alone, needs its cradle to stand up, though I found it worked fine propping it up against my counter or chairs while I plugged it in

The Karcher FC5 is available on Amazon for $299.99 with free shipping.

A Mom’s Perspective

Anytime you can kill two birds with one stone, that’s a great thing in our time-crunched world.  I love that the FC5 is a floor mop and a vacuum and that I no longer need to sweep my floors before moping.  This is such a convenience.

Karcher is a world leader in cleaning technology with 10,000 employees around the world.  The FC5is a German-engineered floor mop, so I had high expectations.  The maneuverability and its self-propelling nature make it a snap to use.

And the water it lays down is minimal.  On my travertine floor, I couldn’t even tell that there was a light level of water, but a touch with my foot proved it was.

Although I was bummed that I had to roll over a food stain on my stone floor about 20-30 seconds for it to disappear, I felt that the FC5 does a nice job of cleaning my floor overall.  In fact, it did a MUCH better job than the way I was cleaning my floors previously, I was really quite surprised.

I love the fact that clean water and a relatively clean roller are touching my floor rather than the same dirty water with each stride, as with traditional floor mop methods.

The Karcher FC5 is a handy and time-saving device to help you keep your floors clean.

*I was given a Karcher FC5 in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.