It took a while but Dyson finally has a wet floor cleaner. I can almost hear some readers exclaim “No, that’s not true. There’s the Dyson V12S.” That’s only half correct. The V12S is more like a vacuum with a mopping function. It is not a dedicated wet floor cleaner and the function is all packed into a head.
The Dyson washG1, however, is designed from the ground up to be an actual wet floor cleaner—like the Mach V1 Ultra. The washG1 takes a different approach from the wet floor cleaners in the market. It doesn’t suck. I don’t mean it is good. It literally does not suck. It is technically not a vacuum cleaner.
Maintaining the same stick form factor, the Dyson washG1 is outfitted with two sets of two counter-rotating rollers comprising a microfiber filament roller and a roller with nylon bristles. There is absolutely no vacuuming involved. It uses a so-called pulse-modulated hydration pump to deliver water to the rollers through multiple points across the length of each primary roller to wet it.
It has three levels of hydration to suit different types of hard floors, plus a max mode that sends more water to the roller for cleaning up stubborn stains. The rollers soaked with clean water are responsible for removing wet and dry debris as you glide the device across the hard floor.
Now, this is where the washG1 stands from its competition. The solid debris and the dirty water are separated. The wet and dry dirt is removed through two parts of the machine: the roller with nylon bristle scraps the microfiber filament roller of large, solid dirt, while a rigid extraction edge squeezes the dirty water out.
The picking up of dirt, removing solid debris, and squeezing dirty water from the wet roller all happen with a revolution which also includes introducing fresh water for the next revolution. In this way, you’d be cleaning the floor with clean water always. The solid debris and the dirty water go into a tray with a straining function where the water will be pumped into the dirty water tank.
So why the hassle of separating the solid dirt and the dirty water? Well, the idea is that the dirty water will be free from large solid stuff which will then allow you to empty it into a sink. As for the solid debris, you can just drop them into the trash can.
Speaking as a user of such a device —specifically the Mach V1 Ultra— I’d say this is quite unnecessary. I will just dump everything into the toilet bowl and flush it all away. Problem solved. It will be interesting to see how this works out and if this is really an unnecessary step.
Anyhoo, the device is equipped with a 1L (34 oz.) tank that should cover up to 290 square meters (3,122 square feet) of tiles, laminate, vinyl, and sealed wood floors. It is battery-powered, obviously, with the battery providing up to 35 minutes of run-time per charge.
The Dyson washG1 Wet Floor Cleaner will hit the U.K. market later this year for £599.99 (about US$760). No official words on the availability and pricing for North America, though. It was, however, announced in Singapore. However, availability and pricing are not known —at least not that I am aware of.
Images: Dyson.
