Carpet and hard-floor cleaners · Which one do I need
Carpet cleaner, spot cleaner, steam mop or wet-dry cleaner: which one?
Carpet cleaner, spot cleaner, steam mop or wet-dry cleaner? Match the machine to your floors, messes and storage space.
On this page
What we compared and why
- Your floor types. Carpet machines and hard-floor machines are different tools. Count roughly how much of your floor is carpet, sealed hard floor, and anything else such as vinyl or unsealed wood.
- Your usual messes. Whole-room grime, small fresh spills and pet accidents, and daily crumbs on hard floors each point to a different machine.
- Storage and carrying. A full-size carpet cleaner needs a cupboard; a spot cleaner fits on a shelf; a wet-dry cleaner needs space for its dock and an outlet nearby.
- How often you will use it. A machine you use weekly should be the one that fits your most common mess, not your worst once-a-year job.
The four kinds of machine, in one line each
- Full-size carpet cleaner: an upright that sprays water and formula into carpet and pulls it back out. It is the tool for whole rooms of wall-to-wall carpet.
- Portable spot cleaner: a small machine with a hose and hand tool. It is the tool for stairs, upholstery, car seats and small spots on carpet.
- Steam mop: heats water to steam and pushes a pad across the floor. It is the tool for floors its maker names, usually sealed hard floors.
- Wet-dry floor cleaner: picks up dry debris and washes the floor in the same pass, keeping clean and dirty water apart; the models on our comparison page also rinse their roller on a dock. It is the tool for everyday hard-floor cleaning in busy homes.
A fifth machine sits beside these: a vacuum. None of the four replaces vacuuming carpet, and if your main problem is hair or dust rather than spills, a vacuum is the first purchase. For homes with shedding pets, see stick vacuums for pet hair.
Step 1: what are your floors?
Walk through your home and sort the floors into three groups: carpet and large rugs; sealed hard floors such as glazed tile, sealed stone and sealed hardwood; and everything else, including vinyl, laminate you are unsure about, and unsealed or oiled wood.
The third group matters most, because the makers draw lines there. On our steam mop comparison, both BISSELL product pages say their steam mops are not intended for vinyl, and the Shark pages name sealed hard floors. If you are unsure what your floor is, the floor maker's care instructions decide, not the cleaning machine. For vinyl, check the manual of any machine before you use it on that floor; the steam mop pages we read exclude vinyl.
Step 2: what messes do you actually get?
Think about the last month rather than the worst day of the year.
- Traffic grime across carpeted rooms: a full-size carpet cleaner, brought out when a room needs it.
- Small fresh spills, pet accidents, stairs, a sofa or car seats: a portable spot cleaner, kept where you can reach it quickly.
- Daily crumbs and sticky spills on a kitchen or open-plan hard floor: a wet-dry floor cleaner, which picks up and washes in one pass.
- Dull, sealed tile or stone floors that need a periodic wash: a steam mop, if your floor type is one the maker names.
If two of these describe your home equally, you are likely to end up with two machines, and that is normal: a carpet machine and a hard-floor machine do not overlap much.
Step 3: where will it live?
Storage decides more purchases than it should, so plan it up front. A full-size carpet cleaner is the size of an upright vacuum and needs a cupboard or a corner. A spot cleaner fits on a shelf or in a closet. A steam mop is about the size of a regular mop and hangs on a hook. A wet-dry cleaner needs floor space for its dock and an outlet near it, because it charges and rinses there.
If you live on more than one level, add one more question: will you carry the machine up the stairs full of water? If not, a portable spot cleaner for the stairs and a machine that stays on the main floor may suit you better than one large machine carried around.
The decision table
| Your situation | Kind of machine to compare | Where to compare |
|---|---|---|
| Mostly wall-to-wall carpet, whole rooms now and then | Full-size carpet cleaner | Carpet cleaners compared |
| Pet accidents, stairs, upholstery, small spots | Portable spot cleaner (with a full-size if rooms need it too) | Carpet cleaners for pet accidents |
| Mostly hard floors, daily crumbs and spills | Wet-dry floor cleaner | Wet-dry floor cleaners compared |
| Sealed tile or stone that needs a periodic wash | Steam mop | Steam mops compared |
| Vinyl or a floor you are not sure about | Any machine only after its manual and your floor maker's instructions allow that floor; the steam mop pages we read exclude vinyl | Wet-dry floor cleaners compared |
| Mixed carpet and hard floors, both used daily | One carpet machine and one hard-floor machine | Start with the floor you clean most |
| Mainly pet hair, little spilling | A vacuum first | Stick vacuums for pet hair |
Two common mix-ups
"A wet-dry cleaner will do my carpets." These machines are built for hard floors. Some makers name area rugs among the surfaces a model can go over, but that is not the same as washing carpet. For carpet, compare carpet cleaners.
"A steam mop is just a better mop." It is a different tool with its own floor limits. If your floor is one the maker excludes, a steam mop is the wrong choice however good its other figures look.
If you still cannot decide
Pick the machine for the mess you get most often and the floor you clean most often. Buy the second machine later only if the first leaves a gap you notice every week. For the hard-floor machines side by side, see wet-dry floor cleaners compared.
What this page does not tell you
This page is a way to choose the kind of machine; it compares no models and makes no claim about how clean any machine gets a floor. It cannot tell you what your floor is or how a finish reacts to water or steam: your floor maker's care instructions and each machine's manual decide that. It is based on the makers' product pages and the comparisons linked above, not on using the machines.