Sayonara, Saxony. Well, twist pile. There’s a revolution underway – or underfoot – because carpets have gone out of fashion.

Recent research by Dyson has shown that three quarters of all British households now have all or some hard floors.

The minimalist Scandinavian aesthetic has contributed to this trend, as have attractive new vinyl, tile and wood offerings that are far more stylish than shabby linoleum.

With underfloor heating becoming cheaper, carpets are no longer as desirable for their warmth and are no longer seen as a hygienic option either, so it’s no wonder the style-conscious middle class are ripping out their carpets in droves.

But hard floors aren’t easy to maintain either, as anyone who’s ever dragged a mop and bucket around the kitchen, leaving a trail of dirty water in their wake, will know. If you over-saturate a wood floor—the most popular hard floor covering—you risk rot and discoloration.

That, at least, is my excuse for why the hardwood floors in my house, which are daily visited by a dirty Labrador, clumsy children and sloppy cooks, look more dirty brown than honey-colored oak, and the cream-colored tiles in our kitchen are little better.

But now Dyson claims to have a solution – albeit at a horrendous price.

This month, the manufacturer launched its first hard floor cleaner: an electric mop for £599.99.

Yes, £599.99. As amazing as the WashG1’s price tag may be, it’s not the only fancy new mop on the market. So do they work, and are they potentially worth the price? To find out, I put the Dyson and five others to the test on the hard floors in my house…

A FLAWLESS FLOOR… AND A SECOND MORTGAGE

Dyson WashGI, £599.99, dyson.co.uk

The WashG1 – sleek, blue and promising to be both a vacuum cleaner and a mop – features a small digital display on the handle that shows three cleaning levels, as well as two tanks for clean and dirty water.

After filling the former – cleaning agent is not required but can be added – it glides across my wooden floor with ease and minimal noise.

Instead of using a vacuum cleaner, two motorized rollers break up dirt and separate dry and wet dirt (Dyson points out that vacuuming while cleaning with liquid cleaners can cause odors in the room because moist air is re-entered).

The dirty water is then pumped into the mop’s second tank. And my goodness, it is dirty. Crumbs, dog hair and leftovers from my daughter Rosie’s cereal end up in a removable drip tray at the bottom of the machine.

After this, there is barely a trace of water left on my almost pristine floor. The only dirt left is the frozen berries that I dropped on the tiles and left to thaw overnight to really put the Dyson to the test – unfortunately, it barely removed the stain.

The 35 minutes of battery power was more than enough to cover the bottom floor, and a self-cleaning mechanism pumps water around the machine when you’re finished, so maintenance is minimal.

Maybe I’m just too stupid to faint over such an expensive machine, but it changes everything.

5/5

SLIM, FAST AND HIGH-TECH

Gtech Orca Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner, £349.99, gtech.co.uk

Thanks to the smooth movement, touchscreen display, and an easy-to-understand voice assistant that tells you what mode you’re in (mopping, vacuuming only, etc.), this mop is a real joy for my 11-year-old son Felix.

There is also an “electrolysis” function that disinfects tap water and turns it into a disinfectant, allowing for a more thorough cleaning. I don’t see any benefit to this, although the detergent you put in the 0.8L clean water tank gives the kitchen a nice scent and the machine is powerful enough to remove tile grout.

It picks up oatmeal just as easily as ketchup stains (although the berry stain doesn’t go away) and my floors stay almost dry. There’s a self-cleaning feature to flush the pipes once it’s back on the charging dock and a 40-minute battery life.

But if you turn a corner sharply, it tends to turn itself off. Overall, impressive though.

4/5

Robust yet versatile machine

Vax Glide 2 Wet & Dry Hard Floor Vacuum Cleaner, £249.99, vax.co.uk

The Vax Glide 2 Wet & Dry Hard Floor Vacuum is the heaviest of these cleaners at 5.4kg and is the most similar in stature to a traditional vacuum cleaner. It has a removable battery so it is not tied to a charging station and is therefore easier to take upstairs to the bathroom.

There’s a self-cleaning feature and Vax detergent is recommended for use. LED lights help me clean under the sofa and there’s a 1-litre tank for fresh water, but the machine doesn’t wet the floor automatically – you have to pull a lever under the handle to release water as you move forward, then pull it back to dry the floor.

It takes practice and my floors are slightly damp afterward. It’s also loud—our Labrador Herbie runs—and the battery life is only 20 minutes, but it cleans my kitchen in one go and picks up spilled tea and mud (but not that berry stain).

4/5

LOUD BUT PRACTICAL IN SMALL SPACES

Karcher cordless floor cleaner, £169, karcher-center-trafalgar.co.uk

“It’s the coolest and most modern thing,” says 13-year-old Rosie, explaining the German manufacturer’s cordless floor cleaner with plug-and-play charging.

There is only one button (to turn it on and off), so it is definitely kid-friendly. Weighing 2.4kg, it takes up significantly less space than the other electric models. The two machine-washable rollers suck up dirty water and debris into a much smaller 140ml tank.

It handles tight corners with ease and vibrates across the floor with a persistence that reminds me of a dentist’s polishing brush. However, the floor stays wet, the berry stain stays intact, and dry residue is not removed – I have to vacuum first. It’s also loud – “like a hovercraft,” says Felix.

Good option for smaller areas and more reasonably priced than some others.

3/5

ECO-FRIENDLY OPTION FOR MINIMAL WASTE

Clean Living Biological Multi-Mop Cleaning System, £119.99, cleanlivingint.com

After so much high-tech, it’s a treat to try this mop from eco-friendly company Clean Living. It’s just an aluminum mop, four washable mop pads for different hard floors that attach with Velcro, and a separate reusable aluminum spray bottle that you fill with water and a sachet of floor cleaner with live, healthy bacteria to destroy dirt and grime.

The mop comes with a lifetime guarantee and there is a subscription service for refill bags of cleaner – empty bags can be returned for recycling.

Without a wringer, wet mopping is a mess and it doesn’t work against my berry stain. But the hard edges remove dust from my skirting boards excellently and my downstairs hallway is cleaned efficiently just by spraying.

It can also be used to clean windows and shower doors. It may be simpler, but in some ways it is the most modern of all.

3/5

In the maelstrom of a social media sensation

Vileda Rinse Clean Spin Mop System, £39.99, amazon.co.uk

With two chambers that keep clean and dirty water separate and a rotating, pedal-powered wringer that prevents over-wetting, this is a revolutionary bucket (search “spin mops” on TikTok and you’ll find 78 million views). To start, I pour tap water into the top chamber, then pull a lever to release clean water into a smaller chamber within the first chamber. Then I dip the mop into that chamber and stick it in the wringer to spin off excess water.

After mopping the floor, I wring out the machine-washable mop again, drain the dirty water into another chamber below, and repeat the process.

The bucket is bulky and the mop could be bigger, but the floor stays shiny and only slightly damp.

The only stain is that damn berry stain (which only goes away after 30 frantic minutes with a scrubbing brush and half a bottle of bleach). A brilliant, relatively inexpensive buy.

5/5