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If you have a lot of hard flooring and dread getting the mop out, there is a better option. Wet and dry vacuums will do most of the hard work for you – often, even their own clean-up. You’ll just need to charge the appliance, fill the clean water tank and go. In most cases, they’re self-propelling as well, making light work of mopping. Dirty and debris is funnelled into a waste tank, which you unclip and empty at the end. Bear in mind that you can’t use most of the following cleaners on carpet, so you’ll need to hang on to your regular vacuum. There are a number of very similar models on the market, so in our round-up below, you’ll find details of features, battery life and water tank volume – as well as price and availability, so you can find the perfect wet and dry vacuum for you. If you’d like to see our top vacuum cleaner recommendations across all categories, have a look at our round-up of the best vacuum cleaners we’ve tested. And for hands-free cleaning, see the best robot vacuums. Best wet and dry vacuums 1. Dyson V15s Detect Submarine – Best complete cleaning system Pros Submarine head easy to use and effective Illuminating laser on Fluffy Optic Head Separate carpet and hard flooring cleaning heads, plus other tools Cons Price No steam sanitising Submarine head best for regular cleaning Fairly heavy (8.3lbs/3.75kg) and has trigger Drain trench can leak when full Best Prices Today: $939.53 at Amazon The V15s Detect Submarine is essentially the V15 Detect with an additional wet roller head, making it a modular, complete home floor cleaning system that’s effective and easy to use. Buy it and, as well as the Submarine head, you’ll get the Digital Motorbar cleaner head for carpets, the Fluffy Optic cleaner head for hard floors, the Hair Screw tool, a crevice tool and a combination tool with a wide nozzle and a brush. You can get up to 60 minutes of use from the battery, which recharges in 4.5 hours. Plus, the battery is swappable, so you can buy a second one to give yourself more cleaning time. The Submarine head can hold up to 300ml of water, which will give you 1,000 square feet of cleaning. You can add diluted detergent to the water for extra cleaning power, but not bleach, and there’s no steam function. Like many other floor cleaners in this round-up, the Submarine is self-propelling, which is good news as it’s heavy at 8.3lbs/3.75kg – more with a full water tank. You’ll also need to keep the trigger pressed down in use, which adds a bit of extra strain. Our only caveat in terms of its effectiveness is that the Submarine head is best for light, regular mopping. It’s not ideal for tackling really grimy floors. The other caveat, of course, is price. Read our full Dyson V15s Detect Submarine review 2. Tineco iFloor 5 – Best value buy Pros Enhanced edge cleaning Self-cleaning mode Flat wastewater roller scraper for a cleaner, drier finish Cons Proprietary cleaning solution Can’t vacuum or mop under low furniture You can’t dry vacuum alone Best Prices Today: $239 at Amazon Like the WashG1, the iFloor 5 can vacuum and mop at once, so if you have have lots of hard, sealed flooring, you can cut your cleaning time in half. Also like the WashG1, it can’t be used to sterilise floors. However, it doesn’t clean in both directions like the WashG1 does, so it’s not quite as fast. But it is effective. When we tested it, we found it be a very efficient cleaner. It cleans very close to the wall but it can’t get right into corners and, as it can’t lie flat, you’ll have to shift large, low pieces of furniture out of the way to clean underneath. It can be used with Tineco’s own cleaning solution, for extra cleaning power. It’s motorised and feels light to use. You’ll get over 30 minutes of use in eco mode and over 20 minutes in max and it charges in 4-5 hours. Its large tanks are easy to empty and fill and we didn’t find that hair got tangled around the brush. It also has a self-cleaning mode. If you’re looking for an effective vacuum and mop and don’t mind missing out on voice mode and smart features, this is a very good buy for its price point. Read our full Tineco iFloor 5 review 3. Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Pet – Best steam cleaner Pros Self-cleaning brush roll Hygienic floor cleaning Headlights Three modes Cons Noisy Cable can be limiting Lengthy maintenance after each use Bissell’s CrossWave HydroSteam Pet wet and dry vacuum is a corded cleaner, so if you don’t want to worry about battery life, it’s a good option. It’s also more powerful than many cordless competitors. You can use it dry, wet and in steam mode – for every aspect of pet clean-up on hard floors. It can even be used to clean up area rugs. Its clean water tank is a comfortable 820ml and its dirty water tank (effectively) 640ml, so you won’t need to be emptying and refilling too often. Among its most useful features are headlights to illuminate water left on the floor, and a self-cleaning mode. We found it to be an effective cleaner, with its steam mode giving it an edge over competitors, but it’s not flawless. At 5.67kg/12.5lbs, it’s heavy. It’s noisy in use as well, and you may not be able to rely entirely on the self-cleaning mode, which means it’s less of a time-saver than it could be. Read our full Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam Pet review 4. Dyson WashG1 – One-sweep vacuuming and mopping Pros Vacuum and mop in one go Quick and manoeuvrable Edge cleaning on one side Self-cleaning programme Cons Doesn't steam or sanitise Pricey Rollers only last for 25 hours of cleaning The WashG1 can be used on any type of sealed hard flooring. Its main advantage is that you don’t need to vacuum and mop separately – you can do both at once. It’s manoeuvrable, fast to use as it cleans going back and forward, and there’s edge cleaning on one side that lets you get right up to the wall. But it can’t be used with very hot water or bleach, so it can’t sanitise floors. What sets the WashG1 apart from other cleaners in this round-up is that it doesn’t use direct suction to pull dirt, hair and spills from the floor. Its rollers pick it all up, flick the solids into a tray, and the dirty water is pulled into a tank. This should mean fewer blockages, no nasty odour from the machine, and no need for you to pull clumps of hair from tubing or tanks inside the cleaner. There’s a self-cleaning programme for the rollers as well, but you will have to remove debris from the tray by hand – and it’s not pleasant. The 1-litre clean and dirty water tanks are easy to remove, and they come off together, for quick refilling and emptying. A tank will give you around 35 minutes of cleaning time – enough Dyson reckons, to clean an entire tennis court. Altogether, if you have almost all hard flooring in your home, it will be a huge time-saver. People with a mix of carpeting and hard flooring, however, will probably be better off with the V15s Submarine, the Bosch Unlimited 7 Aqua, or separate wet and dry vacuums altogether. Read our full Dyson WashG1 review 5. Bosch Unlimited 7 Aqua – Best Submarine alternative Pros Eco, auto and turbo modes Jointed for reaching low Hook for cleaning breaks Flexible crevice tool Cons Short runtime Mount doesn’t store all tools Single battery If you like what the Dyson V15s Submarine does but not its price and want a similar, modular cleaner with wet and dry attachments, the Bosch Unlimited 7 Aqua is one to consider. It comes with a dry vacuuming head, a wet mopping head and three cleaning tools (short and long crevice, combi brush) that, together, will allow you to tackle any cleaning jobs in your home. Among the things that make it such a great cleaner are its handy features, such as the small ring inside the dustbin’s filter that Bosch calls the Rotation Clean, which spins to flick particles into the bin itself. But battery life is limited. The maximum run time is 40 minutes – but that’s on the Eco setting with a tool. Attach a floor head on the same mode and the run decreases to 30 minutes. You’d expect a longer duration for a hard and soft floor cleaner. Swap Eco for Turbo and the run is 10 minutes. We also found that the mopping head is best for little and often cleaning and isn’t the best for dealing with larger, sticky spills, which can be smeared around the floor. Read our full Bosch Unlimited 7 Aqua review 6. Roborock Flexi Pro – Good for edges and under furniture Pros Cleans well Accesses (almost) everywhere Self-cleaning Cons Small, opaque water tanks No stand-alone vacuum cleaner function Expensive Best Prices Today: $499.99 at Amazon The Flexi Pro has a simple, sleek design that may give it the edge over competing models, especially if you don’t have space to hide it away. It also has a longer battery life than many rivals, with a cleaning time of up to 50 minutes. It charges in 4 hours. We also found that its design helps it clean right up to edges and that it can lie flat to get right under most pieces of furniture. We found that it gave a good clean and that its detection mode, which automatically adjusts power as needed, worked well. It does have a self-cleaning cycle, but you might have to clean the roller yourself after tackling more serious spills. The downside of its minimalist build is that its clean and dirty water tanks are built into the body of the cleaner and are thus fairly small (0.73 litres for clean and 0.43 litres for dirty). And, as they’re semi-opaque, you’ll have to remove them to check the water level. Read our full Roborock Flexi Pro review 7. Gtech Orca – Full colour digital display Pros Upright stand charging Speedy Self-cleaning Cons Proprietary detergent Sealed floors only Working too close to upright can trigger power off The Gtech Orca has three cleaning modes: mopping (in which it both dispenses and draws up water), eco vacuum and max vacuum mode (in both of which it only draws up water). It doesn’t offer steam cleaning. Charing takes around five hours from flat to full. From a fully charged battery, you’ll get 20 minutes of mopping, or 40 minutes of vacuuming time. While testing it, we found that was plenty of time to give floors a really good clean and were able to cover over 50m2 in under 15 minutes. Its suction is excellent and, while you won’t be using it as your day-to-day vac, it’ll handle any spills easily. It has a 0.8-litre clean tank and a 0.7-litre waste tank, which are easy to fill, empty and clean. It has some advanced features to simplify use, including a digital touchscreen display that shows settings and, more importantly, a clear battery life indicator. It also has a self-cleaning mode that you can switch on when it’s docked. Read our full Gtech Orca review 8. Ultenic AC1 – Voice mode Pros Washable HEPA filter Self-cleaning and drying Long battery life 1 litre water tanks Cons Heavy You’ll still need a second vacuum Unhelpful instruction manual Cleaning solution hard to buy The Ultenic AC1 has a great feature set. It’s self-propelled, has a voice mode (which can be muted, although it’s handy when you’re switching between modes), an LED display that shows the remaining battery life %, the cleaning mode in use and any error messages. The AC1 is self-cleaning (including a UV light for sanitising) and drying, although it still won’t get the roller perfectly dry. It also features the longest battery life of the wet and dry vacuums we’ve tested at 45 minutes – and 25 minutes in maximum mode. What’s more, you can buy a second battery and swap it out to get an even longer cleaning time. It charges in 4 hours. It has four cleaning modes: smart (auto dirt detection), max, suction and deep clean (although the last of these is somewhat perplexing). You can use it with plain water, or the provided cleaning solution. It has huge, 1-litre clean and dirty tanks and something that not all of the cleaners in this round-up do: a debris filter in the dirty water tank, making it easier (and less unpleasant) to empty. The only snag is that it’s hard to get hold of in the UK at the moment, but US users can buy it from Amazon. Read our full Ultenic AC1 review 9. Tineco Floor One S3 – Smart features Pros Light Cordless Easy to clean Propels itself forward HEPA filter Cons Small water tanks Pricey at RRP Best Prices Today: $399.99 at Amazon In the UK, a great alternative to the New400 is the Tineco Floor One S3, another sealed flooring cleaner. Its specs don’t quite live up to the Ultenic AC1 and it’s not quite as budget-friendly, but it’s come down in price since its launch and represents good value. It’s also self-propelling and weighs 4.5kg (9.9lbs). It has a 600ml clean water tank and a 500ml dirty water tank. On top is a digital display with a battery life percentage indicator – it’s not quite as good as a Dyson display that’ll give you the time left in minutes, but it’s much better than bars. It has a maximum runtime of 35 minutes and it takes 4 hours to charge. It has smart features as well, but we only regularly used the app to check the battery life while charging – which was very handy. It also has a (mutable) voice mode, which is useful if you’ve failed to attach a part properly. It cleans itself after use as well. Read our full Tineco Floor One S3 Wet & Dry Vacuum Cleaner review 10. Tineco Floor One S5 Extreme – Three cleaning modes Pros Self-cleaning function Vacuums and mops hard floors Suction only mode for spills Uses plain water or detergent Cons Doesn’t clean floor edges App has limited functionality Heavy Pricey The S5 Extreme is a bit more expensive than many other models here, but if you can get it on sale or when the price comes down, you won’t be disappointed. It can be used to vacuum and mop at the same time, is self-propelling and has voice guidance. It’s fairly heavy at 4.5kg/10lbs, so you won’t want to be carrying it up and down stairs. It has a digital display that shows suction mode, remaining battery life % – and has a colour coded ring that’ll show you when it encounters a lot of dirt. Unlike many rivals, it has three cleaning modes: suction only for spills or drying wet floors; auto, which ramps up the power when it finds dirt; and max. You’ll get 35 minutes of cleaning time in auto mode and 28 minutes in max. Charging time is 4-5 hours. You can clean using the supplied cleaning fluid mixed with water, or using plain water alone. There’s no steam clean function. The water tanks are large, at 800ml for clean and 700ml for dirty, but we found that you’ll need to empty the dirty water tank more often, especially when cleaning up wet spills. Also, as the clean tank is so long, you may need to fill it from a jug, as it might not fit under a tap. We found it to be very effective on fresh spills but less so on hardened or ground-in dirt. It also struggled with hair, so you may find yourself needing to use an ordinary vacuum to get the worst up first. The smart features add little to the usefulness of the vacuum but its self-cleaning mode will save you an unpleasant job. Read our full Tineco Floor One S5 Extreme review 11. Wessex 18L Wet & Dry Vacuum – Best budget buy (UK only) Pros Cheap Good suction Vacuums up liquid Cons Flimsy, paper dust bags Dust bags are expensive from Toolstation Very basic build quality If you’re looking for a cheap wet and dry vacuum as a shop vac for a garage or another area of indoor/outdoor hard flooring, this Wessex model could be for you. It doesn’t clean floors with water or a cleaning solution. Instead, it’s just there for vacuuming up wet spills, dust and chunky debris. It comes in three sizes: 18, 20 and 30 litres. We tested the 18-litre model on sawdust, dust, dirt, mud and on a water leak and found it to be powerful and effective. It has 18,000Pa of suction and comes with a main brush head, crevice tool and hose adapter that’ll connect to the outlet of some power tools. It has a 1.5m hose and 5m power cable. You can use it on wet or dry spills but bear in mind that you’ll have to add or remove the bag, filter and a locking nut depending on the task, so it’s not as simple to use as pricier models. You can also use it as a blower, but that also requires adjustments. As you’d expect from its price point, there are compromises where the build quality is concerned. It’s almost entirely plastic, there’s no angle adjustment on the floor brush and its bags are made from not-very-sturdy paper. You’ll be able to replace them with universal bags, although you can buy ones made for the vacuum from Toolstation for £4.98 for a three-pack. This isn’t a buy-it-for-life model, but if you need something cheap, it’s a good option. Read our full Wessex 18L Wet & Dry Vacuum review...

At a glanceExpert's Rating ProsCleans wellAccesses (almost) everywhereSelf-cleaningConsSmall, opaque water tanksNo stand-alone vacuum cleaner functionExpensiveOur VerdictThe Roborock Flexi Pro is a combined vacuum cleaner and mop that cleans like a charm. It’s easy to use and you can get (almost) everywhere with it. As a complement to a regular vacuum cleaner or a robot vacuum cleaner, it works well, but it comes with a pretty hefty price tag. Best Prices Today: Roborock Flexi Pro Retailer Price $499.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Calling the Roborock Flexi Pro a stick vacuum cleaner is actually misleading. It does vacuum, but it is primarily a mop and its mop function can’t be switched off. For more models like this, browse our best wet vacuums round-up. This means that the Roborock Flexi Pro is not very useful in homes with a lot of carpets, but it’s ideal for homes with a lot of floors that can be wet cleaned. It also means that there are no extra nozzles included in the package for vacuuming sofas and other furniture. Jan Sandbladh Jan Sandbladh Jan Sandbladh To use the Roborock Flexi Pro, fill the clean water container in the handle with water. After mopping/vacuuming, the dirty water is transferred to the dirty water container, also located in the handle. Design and Build Filling and emptying these containers is easy and convenient, but unfortunately neither of them holds very much water (the clean water container is 0.73 litres, the dirty water container 0.45 litres). In other words, they need to be filled/emptied frequently. This is made even more complicated by the fact that it’s very difficult to see the amount of water from the outside. The clean water tank is completely opaque, so you have to open it to see how much water is left. The dirty water tank at the back, while transparent, is made of dark, smoked plastic. So in practice, it’s almost impossible to see the water level here without removing it. Roborock Flexi Pro mops and vacuums at the same time. Roborock Flexi Pro mops and vacuums at the same time. Jan Sandbladh Roborock Flexi Pro mops and vacuums at the same time. Jan Sandbladh Jan Sandbladh Features and Performance Apart from the hassle of the water containers, however, the Roborock Flexi Pro is very easy to use. It is, as the name suggests, very flexible and gets under cabinets and low furniture easily. It also gets very good and tight access to mouldings and walls. It has three different modes (Eco, Auto and Max) that you can quickly and easily switch between via the display on the handle. You can also fine-tune the settings for these in the accompanying app to change the suction power and water volume, for example. In the app, you can also change the settings for the mop self-cleaning (water temperature, drying time, etc.). It can be set to take place automatically when the Roborock Flexi Pro is placed in the charging station, but it is quite noisy. Fortunately, it can also be scheduled to run when you’re not at home. However, this self-cleaning does not work 100 per cent, so expect to have to detach the mop roller and clean it manually at regular intervals. It is easy to use even under low furniture. It is easy to use even under low furniture. Jan Sandbladh It is easy to use even under low furniture. Jan Sandbladh Jan Sandbladh Price and availability The Flexi Pro had a launch price of $499.99 but is now available in the US from Roborock and Amazon for $399.99. At the time of writing, it’s not for sale in the UK. Even with the post-launch discount, this is fairly pricey, and you can find models that do much more, like the Bissell Crosswave HydoSteam Pet, for the same amount, and models with a similar feature set for far less, such as the Tineco iFloor 5. You can see all our top recommendations in our round up of the best wet vacuums we’ve tested. Should you buy the Flexi Pro? Roborock’s Flexi Pro is not only easy to use, it also cleans like a charm. The automatic setting that senses the level of dirt on the floor and adjusts the cleaning accordingly works surprisingly well, but if you encounter particularly difficult stains, it’s quick and easy to switch to Max mode too. And it doesn’t matter if it’s dry dirt or wet, the Roborock Flexi Pro can handle both with flying colours. But as I said, expect to have to clean the mop roller manually if you clean up an overly sticky mess. As a complement to a regular vacuum cleaner or a robot vacuum cleaner, the Roborock Flexi Pro is great. During the test period, it was particularly useful in the kitchen, where there is a lot of mess and spillage and where a robot vacuum cleaner has difficulty getting under the edges of the cupboards. Specifications Product: Roborock Flexi ProConnections: Wi-FiSystem requirements: Wireless network, smartphone with iOS or AndroidBattery life: Up to 50 minutesCharging time: 4 hoursFilter: HepaClean water tank: 0.73 litresDirty water tank: 0.45 litresSuction power: Up to 17,000 PaNoise level: Up to 72 dBDedicated app: YesCleaning modes: 3Vacuum cleaner weight: 4.8 kg...