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From dirty shoes to dirty paws, our floors are exposed to some of the nastiest germs out there. It is no wonder, then, that accumulated dirt can become hard to deal with if you do not know how to clean your floors or if you are using the wrong products to get the job done.
Dirty floors are no joke. The dirt collected on our floors can have various sources—shoes, shopping bags, garbage bags—but the result is the same: germs and lots of them. Serious diseases like cholera and typhoid fever can find their way into your home through bacteria clinging to your belongings. Beyond that, accumulated dust can also trigger severe allergy attacks, especially in young children. The health risks dirty floors pose to our families are serious but often underlooked.
But our own health is not the only thing at stake when you neglect to clean your floors properly. The structure itself—whether a house, office or apartment building—suffers when you do not clean your floors properly. Over time, dirt and dust will begin to chip away at the integrity of your flooring. If you have hardwood floors, for example, you will start to see warping and discoloration. Even more tough materials like concrete and tiles will begin to fall apart when you neglect the important task of cleaning your floors.
But what if you are cleaning your floors and still seeing these effects? That means that the floor cleaning product you are using is not up to snuff and is not doing its job correctly. Contrary to what you might think, anything is not better than nothing when it comes to floor cleaning. Using the wrong product for your floors can cause more damage than dirt and dust. That’s why it is so important to choose the right product from the start of your floor maintenance.
But what is the best floor cleaner on the market? In this article, we at Cleaning King will break down three popular products in a head-to-head comparison to find the best floor cleaner in 2021. Let’s get started!
There are so many floor cleaners on the market, all claiming to be the best, choosing what’s best for your needs can get overwhelming fast. If you’re a newbie to the floor cleaning chore, these are the basics you need to know to make the right decision. This information will also help you understand our comparison below and why we favor some features over others.
Strength
What kind of floor cleaning do you need to do? Knowing what you want to accomplish will help you assess how strong you need your floor cleaner. If you are doing some everyday cleaning in your home, a medium-strength cleaner is the best option. On the other hand, a deep clean in a large office or home will need a more powerful cleaner with harsher and more potent ingredients.
Ease of use
If you’ve never cleaned your floors before, you might have the idea that it’s a challenging and intensive task. But with the right tools, floor cleaning is easy and quick. When choosing a floor cleaner, make sure to read the instructions before you purchase it. Can you spray it directly onto your floors, or do you have to dilute it with water first? Does it dry on its own, or will you have to rinse your floors after? Do you need any special tools to use the product, or does what you have at home suffice? All these questions are worth asking, especially if you’ve never cleaned your floors before.
Smell
Some people are more sensitive to smells than others. And when it comes to cleaners, overpowering smells can be a massive no-no for people. If you can buy the product in-store, try to smell it first before you purchase it. And if you’re buying the best floor cleaner for you, look for reviews that address its smell or rely on customer service to answer any queries you might have.
Safety
Floor cleaners can sometimes contain dangerous chemicals that should not be inhaled or ingested, especially if they are made for tough cleaning. Before you purchase a cleaner, make sure that it’s safe to use around people and that you won’t need any special equipment to handle the product. Needing gloves for a cleaner isn’t uncommon, but knowing what you need before you start can save you a world of trouble.
Extras
Not all floor cleaners are created equal. Some go above and beyond by introducing extra features to make the product more enticing and helpful. For example, some offer no-rinse formulas, which make cleaning much quicker and more convenient. Extra features are usually advertised prominently. So if you find a more expensive product than the rest, you might want to check the packaging to find out what they offer that makes them so much more costly than the rest.
Price
Price, of course, plays a role when we consider what floor cleaner is best for us. When choosing a product, don’t take the price at face value. Investigate first how much product you’re getting and how much you’ll need for each cleaning cycle to assess whether it is worth the cost. For instance, you don’t want to go cheap with a product only to find out there is only enough product to use once.
It only makes sense that different floors result in different cleaners to suit them. You wouldn’t want to accidentally use a harsh cleaner on a delicate flooring material, and it wouldn’t do you any good to do the opposite, either. Here are the six most common types of floor cleaners you’ll find today:
1. Wooden Floor Cleaners
These are the most common and accessible types of floor cleaners, and you’ll find that many people prefer them even if they don’t have wooden floors. That’s because wooden floor cleaners are formulated to be effective without stripping the floors of necessary sealants.
Before cleaning your wooden floors, use a soft-bristled broom to remove any surface dust that can interfere with the cleaner. You can then use wooden floor cleaners with a soft mop or a clean cloth to apply the cleaner evenly.
2. Laminate Floor Cleaners
Laminate floors are an extremely versatile and affordable flooring option, making them popular amongst many homeowners. But to keep the shine and luster of a laminate floor, you need to stay on top of cleaning. While you could technically use a wooden floor cleaner to clean your laminate floors, formulas made to keep laminate floors in tip-top condition will give you better results.
Make sure the floor cleaner you use doesn’t have any water, and you’ll be good to go with a soft mop to apply the cleanser all over the floors.
3. Ceramic Tile Floor Cleaners
Tiles are easy to clean and resistant to damage and staining, but that doesn’t mean you can completely forget to clean them. This is especially true if you don’t want dirty and dark grout messing up the look of your home. Because grout is made from cement and sand, it holds onto dirt and is easily stained. In addition, powerful chemical cleaners can damage the adhesive and make your tiles loose.
With regular use, these floor cleaners will keep your tiles and grout in great shape and ensure that your floors will last decades.
4. Vinyl Floor Cleaners
The great thing about vinyl floors is that even when they look like they’re beyond repair, you can still bring them back with a good, effective floor cleaner. While this does take care of dirt and dust, it doesn’t take care of any scratches the floor might have. For scratches, you’ll want a good polisher that will fill in the imperfections to give your vinyl floors a smooth and perfect surface.
5. Chemical Floor Cleaners
Highly concentrated chemical floor cleaners are the perfect choice for an office or extensive home cleaning. When it’s time to clean, you can dilute the cleaner to start. Chemical floor cleaners are often harsher and more potent because they’re made to clean an area quickly.
While chemical cleaners are excellent for large places, they’re not as great of a choice for smaller homes. Not only are they sometimes dangerous to handle, but their strong scent can harm children and pets at home. If you really need to clean an area with excessive dirt like a garage or a kitchen, make sure to crack a window for ventilation.
6. Organic Floor Cleaners
If you’re sensitive to scents or need to clean delicate floors, organic floor cleaners are becoming more popular and accessible. Most cleaners are made with as many chemicals as possible to make them effective, but that doesn’t mean organic floor cleaners can’t do the same thing with natural ingredients.
Organic floor cleaners are also better for the environment and safer for homes with small children or pets. Organic floor cleaners don’t always come scented, so you won’t have that sickly chemical smell lingering after every time you clean.
The Bona Hardwood Floor Polish floor cleaner is a crowd-favorite, and it’s not hard to figure out why. Bona is a reputable floor cleaning company with over 100 years of experience creating products that even flooring professionals love to use. And one of their best products is their Hardwood Floor Polish, which will instantly clean, polish, and perfect your hardwood floors in a few simple steps.
Bona Hardwood Floor Polish has a three-pronged approach to keeping your floors in the best shape. First, it renews the look of your floors by cleaning the surface and filling in minor scratches and scuff marks that come with hardwood floors. Next, it future-proofs your flooring with its shielding technology that protects it from scratches and wear and tear. And finally, this Bona floor cleaner gives a gorgeous shine to your floors in a way only Bona can. To get three fantastic advantages from one product is the Bona promise, making this product the ultimate bang-for-your-buck floor cleaner.
One 32 Fl Oz bottle of Bona Hardwood Floor Polish can cover approximately 500 square feet of flooring. Make sure to measure ahead of time so that you can buy the appropriate amount for your floors. This cleaner works for all kinds of hardwood floors and is safe for sealed and stained wooden floors. Its gentle but effective formulation is just one of the reasons why customers keep coming back to Bona for the best floor cleaner on the market.
Customer reviews celebrate the transformative effects of this product on dull wooden floors and its ease of use. However, beginners to maintaining wooden floors may find a steep learning curve when applying this product. Knowing how much to apply as well as the proper process can take time to learn. We would suggest this product for people with a moderate or advanced knowledge of hardwood floors or for those willing to learn a little extra to make this fantastic product work for them.
Quick Shine High Traffic Hardwood Polish is the perfect choice for environmentally conscious people looking for a reliable floor cleaner to add to their cleaning arsenal. The Quick Shine line of products has earned the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Safer Choice label because of its dedication to creating formulas that are gentle to the Earth and safe for families and pets. The product is free from aluminum, parabens, fragrance, ammonia, and other common harmful ingredients found in other lower-quality floor cleaners.
This heavy-duty product doesn’t hold back from delivering the best results to keep your hardwood floors protected and as gorgeous as the day they were first installed. How does it do that? They have strengthened their product with plant-based carnauba. This organic and natural wax is favored for its rich and hard quality.
The Quick Shine High Traffic floor cleaner is made to be easy to use, even for complete beginners to floor maintenance. All you have to do is remove any dust or debris from your floors, squirt the appropriate amount of floor cleaner to your hardwood floors and spread the product with a mop for an even application. The first layer will refresh your floors and add an attractive shine to the surface. After half an hour, assess the results and decide if you want yours to be even glossier. One layer will work for most floors, but if you need an extra shine or want to protect your flooring even more, spread another layer and let it dry for another half hour.
Your floors will maintain that fresh appearance for months because of the rich carnauba wax in the Quick Shine product. You should refresh floors in high-traffic areas every four months, but low-traffic areas like bedrooms will only need to be refreshed every six months or so.
Customer reviews of the product praise how easy this product is to use and how effectively it restores the shine and beauty of hardwood floors. However, it is important to note that to get the best results from this Quick Shine floor cleaner, don’t do the job in parts. Instead, ensure that your first coat is applied evenly over the length of the floor to avoid any patchy finishes.
Suppose you’re looking for a reliable floor cleaner that is easily accessible. In that case, the Rejuvenate High-Performance floor cleaner is bound to be your best option. What makes the Rejuvenate floor cleaner unique is its compatibility with the Rejuvenate line of mops. It makes it easy for you to attach the cleanser to your mop and clean your floors with efficiency and speed.
This floor cleaner will instantly dissolve the dirt build-up on your hardwood floors without leaving any residue behind. That means you will not have to go over your floors with a wet mop to remove any white streaks that many other floor cleaners leave behind. This Rejuvenate floor cleaner is a one-and-done kind of product. No wonder it is so popular amongst homeowners!
The natural ingredients of this formula are chosen to deliver a scent-free and colorless product that makes it easier to clean your floors even when pets and small children are around. To use the product, first, use a soft-bristled broom to sweep away any debris or large chunks of dirt that could interfere with the floor cleaner. Next, spray some of the product onto your floors and use a mop to spread the floor cleaner around on your floors. Leave to dry for 30 minutes, and come back to admire the new shine of your floors! While the words “hardwood floor cleaner” are in its name, you can safely use this product on linoleum and vinyl floors to get the same shiny and clean effect.
Customer reviews are effusive with praise about this product because of the instant results it delivers. Just make sure to check with the instructions of the floor cleaner to make sure it is suitable for the type of hardwood flooring you own. Because it is a gentle cleaner made without harsh chemicals, you can use this floor cleaner for everyday use to prevent a build-up of dirt, grime, and germs.
When it comes to buying floor cleaners, there are many factors to consider: strength, ease of use, safety, and cost. You also have to consider the type of flooring you own and what kind of floor cleaner you may need to address unique issues only your flooring material brings.
All three of the products we discussed are high-quality, safe, and reliable floor cleaners that you won’t regret buying. Out of the hundreds available on the market, these three are the best of the best.
The Bona Hardwood Floor Polish is the classic favorite. Bona products have existed for over 100 years and are the preferred choice of flooring professionals. This hardwood floor cleaner promises an unmatched shine that also adds a protective layer to your floors to keep them in the best shape.
The Quick Shine Floor Polish is the best choice for environmentally-conscious shoppers. Not only is it an EPA Safe Choice product, but it has natural and organic ingredients to deliver a gentle and safe product that you can use around your family and pets. Quick Shine has the regular consumer in mind for this product and is made to use every 4-6 months on your hardwood floors.
The Rejuvenate Hardwood Floor Cleaner combines the effectiveness of the Bona polish with the ease of use and safety of the Quick Shine floor polish to create a product that does everything at once. The Rejuvenate floor cleaner is easy to use and does not leave any residue or streaks behind after delivering clean and shiny floors.
So what’s the best floor cleaner to use in 2021? Rejuvenate Hardwood Floor Cleaner barely edges out the other two to become our winner. When we put together all the important factors like strength, ease of use, and cost, all three came out pretty equal. But what puts Rejuvenate over the edge is its unique streak-free formula that ensures you won’t need to use anything other than this cleaner to get clean and shiny floors.
It is crucial for pet owners to carefully examine any floor cleaner they choose to use in their homes. While not all floor cleaners are harmful to pets, some harsh chemicals can affect their health. To be safe, it is best to choose organic scent-free floor cleaners that are advertised as safe to use around pets.
While floor cleaners are made to remove dirt and dust from floors, not all have antibacterial properties. If you need a floor cleaner with disinfectant properties, choose a product formulated for professional use, as these will most likely have disinfecting properties.
The internet is awash with many DIY floor cleaner recipes, many of which are advertised to be as good as, if not better than, commercial floor cleaners. Popular ingredients include bleach, vinegar, and baking soda. While these DIY floor cleaners are more budget-friendly, they will cause damage to more sensitive flooring materials like wood and linoleum. If you’re unsure whether a DIY floor cleaner is safe to use on your floors, it is best to go with the safe route and purchase a tried-and-tested floor cleaner instead.
A floor cleaner usually comes in liquid form and is meant to strip any dirt from flooring, leaving a shiny and clean surface in its wake. On the other hand, a floor deodorizer only addresses odors any floors might have. While they will solve any distressing smells your floors might be emitting, they won’t have the same cleaning power as a floor cleaner does.