Battery wiper at Warentest – only two devices wipe well and both are quite expensive

floor cleaning
Battery wiper at Warentest – only two devices wipe well and both are quite expensive

The Kärcher is one of the test winners and is significantly cheaper than the device from Vorwerk, which is also good.

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If you want to retire your mop bucket, you have to dig deep into your pocket. The test winners come from Kärcher and Vorwerk – but even with them it’s not that easy.

Stiftung Warentest put seven battery wipers under the microscope. They are the big trend and new addition to the home cleaning arsenal. They promise to make wiping more effortless and without too much contact with dirty water.

But one thing first: The devices cost several hundred euros, the wiper from Vorwerk even a thousand and they only replace a bucket with a Spanish mop, which costs around 14 euros. And the working time for wiping remains – almost – the same, because the machines want to be operated. They aren’t robots. And then they need a place to stand near the workplace.

Replace a mop

But now to the test: The devices wipe – but that also means they don’t scrub the floor. Due to their design, they pick up dust and smaller crumbs with the cleaning water. But they don’t “eat” coarse dirt and big chunks. In a clean household, preferably not on the ground floor, you can save using the vacuum cleaner on the wiped surfaces with them, but not on a horse farm. Picking up liquid blobs and dust is one of the simple tasks. It gets interesting with dried stains. “The good ones from Kärcher and Vorwerk and the satisfying Bissell manage the basic cleaning very well. The three also get rid of dried-on stains – regardless of whether it’s mustard, coffee with cream and sugar or a soot-oil mix mixed up for the test,” says the tester The other four can’t keep up. This is a core task. You won’t be able to remove hard-dried tomato sauce in this way, but the machines should be able to cope with dry coffee stains, traces of toothpaste or spills from cooking.

It is also important that the devices clean with water and leave a visible film of water behind. It can be smaller or larger, it is always moisture. With real wood floors that are not covered by several layers of varnish, permanent use can cause the wood to swell. But that also happens with a manual mop.

Proud prices

Test winners are the Karcher FC 7 Cordless Premium for around 385 euros and the Vorwerk Kobold VB100, including the SPB100 wiper attachment, costs 1000 euros. The Kobold can be transformed into a vacuum with the EBB100 electric brush (370 euros). The Kärcher works with four counter-rotating brushes, so it wipes very thoroughly – especially when the nylon-reinforced brushes are used. The goblin uses vibrating wipes. With a grade of 2.1, Kärcher and Kobold achieved the same result – the Kärcher is the clear price-performance winner. The device in third place is also interesting: The Leifheit 11914 Regulus Aqua PowerVac Although it only achieves a “satisfactory” (2.6), it is much cheaper at 199 euros.

It’s not that easy: “After cleaning, the rollers and cloths have to be released or unscrewed and washed and dried well,” reminded the product testers. In our opinion, this is not necessary after every wipe, but it does happen several times a week. You shouldn’t leave the wipers idle for too long, if you’re unlucky the nozzles will dry up.

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