In recent years, a series of products for semi-automated cleaning of floors have appeared on the market: now that vacuum cleaners have been cleared through customs, it’s the turn of floor cleaning brooms with integrated tanks, solutions that want to make us forget about the old mop with bucket. With Eureka RapidWash 430 comes an interesting solution because it manages to position itself at a price accessible to all. Will it be able to simplify cleaning while maintaining the same effectiveness?
How it works
Having opened the package we find ourselves faced with a very simple product: just a few pieces, already almost entirely assembled and therefore ready for use in a very short time. The broom uses a practical and ergonomic handle, and the preliminary operations are limited to charging the battery in its station (the same one that will also be used when we start automatic cleaning) and filling the tank with clean water (800 milliliters), to which you can add a few scoops of non-foaming detergent. The cleaning solution is already included in the package, and can then be purchased separately on the manufacturer’s website together with the replacement filters.
Weighing less than 4 kilograms, Eureka RapidWash is easy to use and does not tire you also because the movement of the roller, when washing the floors, provides a slight traction boost which avoids fatigue in the long term. To keep costs low there are no particularly refined materials, and this is the key to the accessible cost: Eureka has used a very simple plastic, not very attractive but robust and light, so as to be able to offer the product at a price within everyone’s reach without but give up the functions.
It saved on the aesthetic aspect, but the technical characteristics are those of higher-end products, even if not top-end because – for example – it lacks the steam cleaning that other products have, but at much higher prices.
How it washes
Operation is very simple: one button turns on the product, the other selects the modes between Echo (the standard one), Turbo (the one for dirtier floors or more difficult stains) e Drya mode that is used both to use the floor cleaner as if it were a vacuum cleaner, so we don’t have to change products, and to absorb liquids or take an additional step to reduce the humidity of the floors particularly wet.
Everything goes into the dirty water tank, including small residues of dust, earth or food for example. For hair there is an anti-tangle system, while the water that cleans the floor is always clean. This is one of the great advantages compared to washing with a traditional mop and a single water bucket: without a replacement system, like that of the Eureka RapidWash, the mop becomes dirtier and dirtier with each “squeeze”.
With Eureka RapidWash, however, the floor cleaner is flooded with clean water (with detergent), passes over the floors and, immediately, collects dirty water during cleaning in an isolated tank (450 milliliters) from the one with the detergent.
In Turbo mode, Eureka RapidWash can cover approximately 80 square meters, with an operating time of around twenty minutes. The limit is represented by the battery which on this product is not replaceable as is the case with the Eureka Stylus vacuum cleaner, and those who have a multi-storey or larger house will have to wait a few hours to recharge or plan cleaning at two different times. In Eco mode, however, you can also reach 35 minutes of use.
The performances are interesting: the part in contact with the floor it is designed to wash very close to the edges given that the roller is exposed on the right side with an almost invisible “frame”: this allows it to come into contact with the base of the walls leaving only a couple of millimetres. The suction power is sufficient for most situations, as is that of the water jet, although there are limits: it is not a product made to eliminate encrusted stains that are a few days old.
In these cases, in fact, even with several passes the encrustation remains and will require a lot of elbow grease to eliminate it: a product capable of using steam, however, would also be able to treat these situations. It should be noted, however, that encrustations of this type would require, with the traditional mop, a lot of pressure and – sometimes – even the use of a scraper.
RapidWash 430 is therefore perfect more for daily or frequent use than for the fine cleaning of floors that have been neglected for some time but, once this limit is removed, it carries out its task by significantly simplifying the operations compared to the mop that has to be wrung out in the bucket, also because the effort is significantly less and the preparation time is to the advantage of this floor cleaner. The floor cleaning broom also uses a “pause” function which allows the product to stand upright without placing it against the walls, simply by blocking it in the vertical position.
Maintenance
Cleaning finished the “self-cleaning” phase can be activated of Eurkea RapidWash: to do this you need to place it in the charging base which has a small tray where, with a special cycle that can be activated via the button positioned on the handle. In doing so, RapidWash activates an automatic roller washing cyclespraying it with clean water and collecting the dirty water in the tank. Once this is done, the base activates the roller cloth drying mode using air.
The system works, but this mode should not be considered sufficient to always have a clean product: depending on the frequency of use and the dirt you treat, an occasional passage of the roller in the washing machine is advisable and, at least every month, a more in-depth check of the filters to remove hair and possibly stuck particles. In any case, since the dirty water tank must be emptied manually, a couple of minutes at the end of the wash is enough to always have a tidy product.
Price and conclusions
Available at €299 list price, but often on discount with coupons and promotions that bring it even below €220, Eureka RapidWash 430 is recommended for those looking for a product that is very easy to use and want to forget about the mop. By using it daily you will be able to both maintain good floor hygiene and be useful for those situations in which some more or less dense liquid spills onto the ground: instead of preparing the water bucket, retrieve the mop, wring it out, wash and empty the bucket, one or two passes of RapidWash will suffice on the floor followed by a pass in Dry mode.
The advantageis that by doing so the floor is cleaned of the liquid (for example a sugary drink spilled on the floor during a party) and it is immediately walkablewithout having to wait for the longer drying time necessary, instead using a mop which, no matter how much we can wring out manually, will always be more full of water.
Eureka also has the RapidWash 630 floor cleaner with hot air drying in its range, but this RapidWash NEW430 is perfect for those looking for a product at an affordable price while giving up some non-fundamental features, such as automatic drying which here is only with cold air and not hot (so it takes longer). To be evaluated based on needs: for medium or small sized homes, the less than exceptional battery is no longer a defect.
Furthermore, reducing the weight by at least two or three kilos compared to other products with one
larger battery, RapidWash 430 can also be an alternative for those looking a floor cleaner that can also be easily used to clean stairswhere even just one kilogram more makes an important difference.