Given the prevalence of hard flooring, it’s a little surprising that it’s taken Dyson so long to launch a dedicated hard floor cleaner, with the Dyson WashG1. Still, the wait looks like it’s worth it, with the product having a few features that make it stand out from the competition.
Dyson first entered the hard floor cleaning market with the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine, which added a floor cleaning attachment to the V15 vacuum cleaner. Although that product was good, it had a limited cleaning range and required vacuuming most solids before cleaning.
Vacuuming and mopping in one
With the WashG1, you have one device that can mop and collect larger debris simultaneously, saving time on daily cleaning. As with most hard floor cleaners, Dyson’s uses a combination of water and soft rollers.
There’s a 1-litre clean-water tank, which can be used with detergent, provided it’s mixed at the correct ratio. Water is automatically dispensed onto the dual microfibre rollers using 26 hydration points located along the rollers’ length.
Three water modes are available (low, medium, and high), with higher modes suitable for deeper stains. There’s also a boost mode button, which uses the maximum amount of hydration for the most stubborn stains. A single tank of water can cover up to 290m² of flooring, which should be enough for the average home.
As the modes only affect the hydration level, not the rollers’ spin speed, battery life remains consistent at 35 minutes. Similar to the company’s vacuum cleaners, the remaining battery life is shown in minutes on the cleaner’s LCD screen.
The rollers counter-rotate, cleaning in either direction. Dyson engineers tuned the rollers to move at a consistent speed, letting the machine glide across the floor. That’s similar to how the Dyson Omni-glide works, and having tried the WashG1, I can say that it’s incredibly nimble and light to move.
As well as removing stains and liquids from the floor, the rollers can also pick up solids, so the WashG1 cleans the floor and clears up larger particles, so there’s no need to vacuum before you mop.
Dirt separation
Rather than dumping everything into one tank, the floor head has a debris tray. This tray has a 500-micron mesh that separates dirty water from large debris. The tray can be removed and cleaned, and solids can be tipped into a bin.
Dirty water alone is deposited in the 0.8-litre dirty tank. Given that some water will remain on the floor, one full clean tank will give you roughly one full dirty tank.
At the end of a clean, the WashG1 has an automated washing routine, that cleans the rollers with fresh water. There’s no hot-air drying on this machine, so the rollers should be removed and left to dry naturally.
There’s no filter to clean, removing one maintenance job, and the water tanks have been designed with smooth interiors and large openings that makes them easy to empty and wash out.
Price and availability
The Dyson WashG1 will be available soon, and will cost £599.99. We’ll have a full review once review samples are available.