Bona Premium Spray Mop Review: Gentle and powerful cleaning

Verdict

A clever and versatile mop in its own right, the Bona Premium Spray Mop is as much about the quality of its gentle cleaning solutions, formulated for different floor types. For those with more delicate floors who want to clean without damage, this is a great tool.

Introduction

Most of the hard floor cleaners that I review are powered with rotating floor brushes designed to agitate and lift dirt off the floor. These are powerful ways to clean but aren’t always ideal for more delicate wood floors, which require more care, hence why I wanted to put the Bona Premium Spray Mop to the test.

This is a product that’s as much about the formulation of its cleaning solutions as it is the quality of the mop itself, with dedicated cleaning fluids for hard floors and various types of wood floors. For those that want to clean in a delicate way, this is a great product.

Design and features

• Refillable spray bottles
• Integrated spray handle
• Flexible head with microfibre mop

The Bona Premium Spray Mop comes as a kit with the mop, a microfibre pad and a bottle of cleaning solution. Which cleaning solution you get depends on the model you buy: wood floors, hard-surface or oiled wood floors.

All of the mops are identical and the cleaning solutions will fit in any mop, plus you can switch them around mid clean if you’ve got different floor types.

The Bona Premium Spray Mop is as much about the quality of its cleaning solution as it is about the mop itself. All of the cleaning solutions are water based, and Greenguard Gold certified (demonstrating minimal impact on the indoor environment). Each solution is designed to look after a specific floor type, as well as dry quickly without leaving any residue.

Cleaning solutions come in 850ml bottles, but they’re refillable with four-litre refills costing around £24.99.

Once clipped into place, the cleaning solution is dosed by using the trigger at the top of the mop. A gentle squeeze is all that’s needed to operate the spray system.

Rather than dripping out  a small amount of fluid, each spray is a powerful and wide jet that shoots out in front of the cleaning head. It’s easy to direct where I needed the cleaning solution, and I found that I didn’t need much on each clean, spraying only when I struggled to lift dirt.

Dirt pick-up is performed by the microfibre pad which sits on the bottom of the mop, attached with Velcro, so they’re easy to swap.

Because the microfibre reaches out past the sides of the mop head, it’s easy to mop right to the edge of the room, which is something that most hard floor cleaners struggle with.

Using the mop is easy, as it’s extremely lightweight and very flexible, so I found it simple to move it around furniture and get to some hard to reach areas.

At the end of the clean, the mop head can be turned sideways, and the entire mop can be stood up or hung on a hook. The pad should be washed, and you can buy additional cleaning pads (£19 for three) if you want to have spares ready to go.

Performance

• Deep cleans well
• Brings wood back to its best
• Can’t deal with solid mess

As a mopping unit, the Bona Premium Spray Mop can’t deal with solids, such as larger particles of soil or pet hair, as it just pushes that kind of mess around. With a regular hard floor cleaner, such as the Dyson WashG1, solids are picked up by the system, so you don’t have to vacuum before (or you don’t have to vacuum quite so well before mopping).

With the Bona Premium Spray Mop you will definitely have to vacuum first to remove loose dirt, and then turn to the mop spray.

One of the main reasons to use this product is because it’s gentle, with no powered action, and the spray is designed to clean without causing damage. That’s especially important on wood floors, which can warp and swell if they get too much moisture on them.

I tested the Bona Premium Spray Mop on a variety of wood floors. I started with painted floorboards in a Victorian house. These floors look nice, but do collect dirt that’s hard to shift with a traditional mop; not to mention that a regular mop puts too much water down.

Tackling a high-traffic area, the surface dirt was removed with ease, leaving behind a nice shine, and without any damage to the paint.

Even for very dirty areas, the mop did well, removing the mess without leaving streaks or marks.

I tried a plain wooden floor that was starting to show signs of being slightly unloved for a while, with the wood looking dry and scratches visible. After cleaning, the appearance of the floor improved, with minor scratches being harder to see and the floor getting some shine back.

Bona also makes floor polishes that can fill in microscratches, as well as adding a protective layer.

I also tackled an entrance that has the original Victorian tiles down. These have been walked on for over 100 years, look dirty, and have lost the shine and appearance they would have had when they were new.

For this, I switched to the hard floor spray, away from the wood floor spray, and then gave the floor a good clean. There was a big improvement: fresh dirt was removed and the tiles regained some of their original colour and sheen. However, it would be unrealistic to expect that all of the dirt would be removed.

Still, the overall appearance was much better and it will be interesting to see if the floor gets cleaner with each use, or if the company’s OxyPower cleaner could do a better job.

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