The best wet-dry vacuum cleaner is just what you need if your home has a lot of hard floors that you want to keep spotless. Wet-dry vacs make the whole messy business of mopping your floors a lot easier, and many of them can cope with the sort of messy spills you wouldn't want to tackle with one of the best vacuum cleaners.
Choosing a wet-dry vacuum cleaner can be a little confusing as there are some quite different options out there, from full-on mopping machines that can't be used on carpet, through to all-rounders that'll clean most surfaces, and even robot vacuums with mopping capabilities. Don't worry, though, because we'll talk you through how to decide which type of wet-dry vacuum is best for you later in this article. At TechRadar, we've tested over 200 vacuum cleaners of all kinds, so we know what we're talking about.
These best wet and dry vacuums: the long list
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The best wet-dry vacuum for most people
If you want a wet-dry vacuum that just about does it all, the Tineco Floor One S7 Pro is the way to go. It enables you to vacuum and mop hard floors with ease, and it'll deodorize and disinfect as well, making this one a particularly good choice if you have pets.
Our reviewer was particularly impressed by its self-propulsion system, which took a lot of the effort out of cleaning up after her cats. She also found that the initial setup was made much easier thanks to a built-in interactive tutorial that literally talked her through all the Floor One S7 Pro's features and cleaning modes.
The Tineco Floor One S7 Pro's Auto Mode uses sensors to detect the amount of dirt and debris on your floors and adjust the power to provide the right amount of cleaning power, while its Ultra Mode will deep clean and deodorize your floors. It also has a Max Mode for more stubborn stains as well as a Suction Mode just for sucking up spills.
It's not too noisy; we found that it maxed out at 65dB in Ultra mode. It might struggle to clean everywhere if you have a larger home though – there's a maximum battery life of 40 minutes. And while the the Tineco Floor One S7 Pro has a self-cleaning system for its brush roller, you'll have to take care of emptying and rinsing its dirty water tank pretty much after every use.
Read our full Tineco Floor One S7 Pro review
The second best wet-dry vacuum
The Roborock F25 Ace is another excellent wet-and-dry vacuum. The brand is better known for making some of the best robot vacuums on the market, but its manual cleaners are well worth a look too.
Our tester used it twice a week for a full month, and was so impressed with the results that he then put his regular wet-dry vac into storage. It's simple to set up, with an informative display and app connectivity for more advanced controls.
The cleaning is also excellent. It's not suitable for use on carpet or rugs (although there is a Roborock F25 Ace Combo that comes with a stick vacuum that shares a battery and dock, if you're after a more cover-all solution), but it left our tester's hard floors dirt- and dust-free, with a tank full of grubby water to prove its effectiveness. There's an automatic detergent dispenser and the ability to fine-tune how much cleaner the machine uses on each run.
Power-assisted wheels help propel the F25 Ace forwards and make it nice and easy to drive around, and it can lie completely flat to the ground – ideal for cleaning under furniture. In fact, our reviewer was especially impressed with how maneuverable this wet-and-dry vacuum was.
The dock has a self-clean cycle whereby the roller is blasted with water as it spins round. You can choose between hot water (a more energy-intensive clean that cuts through grease) and room temperature water (less energy intensive, but a less thorough clean). Once washed, the dock will dry off the roller using hot air.
What's available in the F25 range varies by country, and at the moment the Ace isn't available in the UK. It may arrive later down the line.
Read the full Roborock F25 ACE review
The best budget wet-dry vacuum
If you don't have a vast amount of money to spend on the best wet-dry vacuum, the Shark HydroVac Cordless is a more affordable option (and if it's still too expensive, there's also a cheaper corded version). The best Shark vacuum cleaners can be depended upon to provide great performance and innovative features at attractive prices, and the HydroVac Cordless lives up to brand expectations.
It's a three-in-one cleaner that vacuums and mops as well as cleaning itself, and while it's best for hard floors it can also cope with low-pile carpets and rugs. In its default hard floor mode it'll vacuum when you push forward and wash when you pull back, and it works just as well at freshening up hard floors as it does at picking up more substantial spills. Its 'Freshen' mode mops lightly in both directions, and can be used on both hard floors and carpets.
Our reviewer was pleased with its performance in both modes and relieved that Freshen mode didn't leave her carpet soaked. She was also impressed by the HydroVac's self-cleaning, although it's not perfect; the brush roll has to be taken out to dry for 24 hours after cleaning, and the HydroVac doesn't always clean it perfectly, which means you'll have to take it out and wash it yourself. The dirty water tank also has to be emptied after every use, so don't expect the HydroVac to be especially low maintenance.
Read our full Shark HydroVac Cordless WD201 / WD210 review
The best lightweight wet and dry vacuum
The Dyson V15s Detect Submarine is similar to the Samsung model above (#3) in that it's a regular vacuum, with a compatible mopping floorhead. The base model is the Dyson V15 Detect – one of the best Dyson vacuums you can buy – so the vacuuming is predictably excellent. The suction is strong, the build is very easy to maneuver, and the vacuuming attachments – including the laser-equipped Fluffy head for hard floors – are well designed and useful.
The mopping head is also great... to a point. Our reviewer found it could clean up everything from muddy footprints to wet spills, as well as picking up fine dust missed on a vacuuming run. However, the dirty water tank isn't sealed, and it's all-too-easy to spill dirty water on the floor when removing the Submarine cleaning head. That's quite a shortcoming that might be enough to put some people off, particularly considering the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine's premium price point.
However if you can work around this (which is achievable once you figure out how to minimize spillage), there's no denying the Submarine's all-round performance. If you have a mix of carpets and hard floors and want an all-in-one to keep them all spotless, this one's well up to the job.
Alternatives
If you just need something to deal with hard floor cleaning, check out the Dyson WashG1 – the brand's dedicated wet cleaner. It doesn't vacuuming, so it's not eligible for this guide, but it is more competent at mopping than the V15s (see exactly how the two models compare in our Dyson WashG1 vs Dyson V15s Detect Submarine article).
Read our full Dyson V15s Detect Submarine review
The best wet-dry robot vacuum
Most modern robot vacuums can mop as well as sucking, so if you're looking for a hands-free option, you have plenty of options to choose from. The main caveat to know is that robovacs won't scrub in the same way that most of the wet-and-dry cleaners in this lineup will, and aren't well-suited to spillages or dried-on stains. However, they excel at tackling regular, light maintenance cleans with absolutely minimal effort required from you.
We rate the Roborock Qrevo Curv as the best robot vacuum on the market right now, and the mopping and vacuuming are both a cut above average.
Mopping comes courtesy of two rotating mop pads, one of which will kick out to the side to clean close to the edges of rooms. It offers an excellent even, thorough clean with no spots missed. Vacuuming is equally impressive; this bot soared through our suction tests (although note, again, that the suction isn't strong enough to match what you'd get with a dedicated manual vacuum).
You can specify what you want the Curv to do and where – so you could task it to vacuum and then mop a room, or do both simultaneously, or mop twice for an extra-thorough clean. You can also leave it to make a plan itself: it's smart enough to recognize carpet, so it won't try and mop your soft floors. In fact, it will lift its damp mop pads when traversing carpet, or drop them off in the base if it's just heading out on a vacuuming run.
The hands-off qualities extend past just cleaning; the Curv's dock will take care of most maintenance for you, too. It'll empty the onboard dust bin into a larger bin in the dock, refill the onboard water tank, dispense detergent, and wash and dry and mop pads, too.
At list price, the Qrevo Curv is expensive. However, there are newer bots in the Roborock lineup now which means discounts are fairly easy to come by. While it's still an investment, at the moment you can pick this robovac up for a similar price to other premium wet-and-dry vacuums.
Read our full Roborock Qrevo Curv review
How to choose the best wet-dry vacuum
Before you rush out and buy one of the best wet-dry vacuums, you really need to think about the kind of flooring you have in your home; specifically, how much of it is hard floor and how much is carpets and rugs.
If your home is entirely (or mostly) hard floors, a dedicated floor cleaner like our top choice, the Tineco Floor One S7 Pro, will be your best options. These models are built to mop and to dry up after themselves, and the leading models feature self-propulsion so you won't wear yourself out pushing them around. But because their emphasis is on the wet, you can't really use them on carpets, although some models such as the Shark HydroVac Cordless can be used on low-pile carpets without completely soaking them.
If you have a mix of carpets and hard floors, look for a combination option such as the Samsung Bespoke Jet or the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine. These cleaners can do it all and tend to feature swappable floorheads so that you can choose the right one for your floor type: a standard vacuum floorhead for dealing with carpets and rugs, and a mop head, usually with a built-in water tank, for mopping hard floors. These can be good all-rounders, but they'll often lack water capacity compared with more mopping-focused machines, and their mopping performance isn't always as effective.
Finally, if you want clean floors with the least effort, it's worth looking for a robot vacuum and mop like the Roborock Qrevo Curv. Many of the latest robovacs provide a mopping function and a few can be had for a surprisingly low price, although the cheaper options tend to only offer basic functionality, with only a clean water tank and static mopping pads that you have to switch in by hand. More advanced options feature clean and dirty water tanks, and rotating pads that automatically lift up when the robot encounters carpets. However, mopping on robovacs tends to me relatively gentle – don't expect them to really scrub your floors.
How does a wet-dry vacuum cleaner work?
The best wet-dry vacuum cleaners tend to feed clean water (with added detergent in some cases) onto a brush roll, which then picks up muck from your floor, and then everything gets sucked up into the vacuum's dirty water tank. It's an effective system, but one that requires maintenance: you'll need to empty the dirty water tank regularly (ideally after every use), and while some wet-dry vacs will clean the brush roll for you, you'll still need to give it the occasional clean yourself.
Some wet-dry vacuums aren't quite as sophisticated, and are primarily vacuums that feature a mopping attachment with a single clean water tank to spray water onto the floor, and simple pads for cleaning. They're a good choice if you have a lot of carpet and some hard floor that you want to keep shiny, but for mopping your entire kitchen you'd get better results by rolling up your sleeves and getting out an old-fashioned mop and bucket.
