The Bottom Line: In our opinion, Smart Mop is definitely a better choice than a standard rope mop, and for some tasks - even better than a swiffer. It's easier to wring out, lighter to hold and absorbs mroe than other choices available.
Reviewed by: Cordula MermelsteinReviewed on: 6/29/2010 12:00:43 PM
What It Claims: In his deep Australian accent, the smart mop infomercial pitchman tells us that the smart mop will clean up your toughest spills in half the time of a regular mop. He cleans 20 oz of soda, sand, ketchup, mustard effortlessly on camera and tells us that we will be able to do the same. What We Found: For our first test, we dumped one of those 20 oz. bottles of soda onto the kitchen floor. In about three passes with the mop it had all come off the floor. There was some sticky residue left that needed to be cleaned up with something else, but this would be the case with any other mop as well. It is also important to note that this was a lot of soda, and unless your roomates are the diet coke and mentos guys, it is unlikely that you will ever have this much soda on the floor at one time. All in all the Smart mop did a good job of cleaning up the soda. The second test in the commerical is where the smart mop is used to clean up sand, ketchup and mustard. Now, for the life of me I can't imagine a situation that would result in you having mustard, sand and ketchup on your floor. Maybe some beach party gone horribly wrong? I didn't have sand around me so I used potting soil instead. The smart mop did an impressive job cleaning up this mess. In no more than two passes the floor was clean. I did not expect this. I repeated both above expirements with my Swiffer wet jet. With the soda, I had to replace the pad more than once to clean it all up, but on the plus side, the cleaning fluid that shot out of the swiffer also cleaned up the sticky residue left by the soda. It took longer to clean this up with the swiffer but i didnt have to use anything else to get the job done. With the dirt, ketchup and mustard test the swiffer just did not handle it. It smeared everthing around and made a bigger mess. I eneded up getting the smart mop back out to finish the job. So the swiffer definately loses this round. The smart mop head can also be detached and washed, which makes it more useful than regular mops. Do we really think that washing the floor with a dirty, grimy mop head is going to get it clean? I don't. It is important to note that while the smart mop can be washed, it can't be dried. It should also be noted that the smart mop's construction did seem a little cheap. The Bottom Line: All in all the smart mop is a better choice than the swiffer and definitely a better choice than a standard rope mop or push mop. The Smart mop is easier to ring out, lighter to hold and absorbs more than other choices available. The Smart mop is essentially a Shamwow on a stick. It is made from the same material and performs the same way - which for mopping large spills and grime, seems to work perfectly.