One of the worst jobs in the world is mopping. Despite many best efforts, the grime will probably end up being spread around the house thanks to poor wringing and cleaning of the mop itself. Electronic floor cleaners are designed to clean themselves as they perform their task. And that’s something the Dyson WashG1 does very well.
But before you rush out and drop a grand Australian on Dyson’s latest product, I’ll be shooting a detailed a review over the next week so you can see exactly how capable the WashG1 is on hard floors. You can get a sneak preview of the device in action in the video above.
So what is the Dyson WashG1?
It’s Dyson’s first dedicated wet floor cleaner which can tackle wet and dry debris, in one cleaning session, then clean itself. From the initial testing we did at the Australian launch, it was impressive. So good, it should destroy mopping as we know it for forever.
It has a litre clean water tank to cover flooring up to 290 square metres. Although it’s designed to clean floor with clean water, Dyson told us adding cleaning solution was fine. The unit uses two individually powered counter-rotating rollers with a pulse-modulated pump that distributes water 26 hydration points along the full width of each roller.
The rollers are made up of a highly absorbent microfibre, with 64,800 filaments per square cm. By locating two rollers at the front and back of the machine, dwell time on stains is increased during each pass. More time on the stain, the better the clean.
The big selling point of the WashG1 is the ability to clean and wash at the same time. It does this by using unique separation technology to divide debris and dirty water at the source. Dirty water is extracted from the rollers by solid extraction plates – then secondary nylon-bristled inner brush bars remove dirt and debris from the microfibre rollers – flicking it straight into a removable debris tray.
The debris tray has a 500-micron mesh to separate dirty water from the large debris. An extraction pump moves dirty water into a 0.8 litre capacity dirty water tank. Debris is kept at head of the machine while the dirty water in held in a separate tank.
Engineers have also designed the WashG1 without sharp internal surfaces or crevices, to help lessen grime build up inside the machine. Both water tanks have been designed with large openings to allow for easy maintenance and cleaning. You can actually throw them into the dishwasher too. As for the cleaning head, when in self-cleaning mode, the unit saturates both rollers with clean water on the highest boost setting.
Using the device is pretty straight forward. There are low, medium, and high modes with a separate boost mode button that purges each roller with the maximum amount of hydration when pressed.
The rollers span the full width of the cleaner head to allow for edge-to-edge cleaning, including corners. Each microfibre roller spins in opposite directions so they clean in both directions.
To help the WashG1 glide across the floor with minimal effort from the human doing the pushing, Dyson engineers fine-tuned each motor to spin at a consistent speed in accordance with the hydration mode selected. The unit also allows for easy reach underneath furniture.
So initial impressions are good. Dyson has put a lot of thought into this device and with hard floors becoming more and more popular, this should sell well. But wait for my full review before making a final call. If you can’t wait, the Dyson WashG1 wet floor cleaner is available for pre-order now for A$999.