Wet cleaning and dry vacuuming: two ways to clean your floors

Wet cleaning targets hard floors and shifts stains, liquids, and viscous material in ways that dry vacuuming alone cannot.

Thanks to advancements in hard floor cleaning, there are now machines that’ll effectively wash your hard floors with clean water from start to finish. No dunking a mop back into dirty water or spreading dirt and bacteria around.  

Unlike traditional mops or sweepers that rely on manual effort, today’s wet floor cleaners typically incorporate motorized features to streamline the cleaning process. The machines are equipped with a water reservoir and sometimes a cleaning solution compartment, allowing you to dispense a controlled amount of liquid onto the hard floor surface. 

The Dyson V15s Detect Submarine™ is Dyson’s powerful vacuum that now washes hard floors. The machine is known as a wet and dry vacuum as it offers dry vacuuming with the Digital Motorbar™ cleaner head and Fluffy Optic™ cleaner head, plus wet cleaning with the Dyson Submarine™ wet roller head attachment.

The machine removes liquids, dry debris, and tough stains using wet roller technology. The microfibre roller agitates and lifts dirt from the floor surface, while water helps dissolve and remove stubborn stains. 

By contrast, the Dyson WashG1™ is our first dedicated wet cleaner for powerful, hygienic floor washing. The machine uses similar wet roller technology to clean your hard floors and, as it picks up both dry and wet dirt in one, there’s no need to vacuum separately. Two highly-absorbent motorized rollers powerfully remove spills, debris, and dried-on stains.

When wet cleaning using the typical bucket and mop approach, water gets contaminated every time you dip the mop back in. That’s why the Dyson WashG1™ wet cleaner features two separate water tanks for dirty and clean water, as well as a blade that extracts dirty water out of the roller. This unique system means contaminated water is never mistakenly applied to your flooring mid-clean.

The Dyson WashG1™ wet cleaner is easy to use and maneuver. It’s ideal for regular cleaning as you can tackle stains and other messes quickly and efficiently – preventing dirt from building up and becoming an issue.

This highlights the importance of wet cleaning your home, but what of dry cleaning like vacuuming?

Dry vacuuming removes dust, dirt, and debris from your floor.

It works well on both hard and soft floors, allowing you to effectively clean any non-waterproof flooring in your home.

This cannot be said of wet cleaners that only work on waterproof hard floors.

As well as soft floors, vacuum cleaners can be used on soft furnishings like sofas, dog beds, mattresses and more. This means you can extend the reach of your cleaning past just the floor and clean your furniture and upholstery too.

In fact, the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine™wet and dry vacuum (along with our other dry vacuum cleaners) can be equipped with a Hair screw tool that’s specially designed for these upholstered areas. Its threaded brush bar spins at 3,500rpm, removing ground-in dirt and spinning hair straight into the bin.

Not all dust and dirt is visible to the naked eye. So, to reveal invisible dust particles, our newer vacuums also feature unique illumination technology. The Fluffy Optic™cleaner head with the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine™ features a blade of green LED light which reveals otherwise imperceptible dust – so you don’t miss anything.

This illumination technology makes vacuuming even more effective and better prepares your floor for wet cleaning.

A wet cleaner can’t be used on carpet and a vacuum cleaner can’t remove stains from hard floors. So if you have multiple floor types, there’s a benefit to having both.

Having a vacuum and a wet cleaner frees up your home design and lets you install whatever kind of floor you like, knowing you can clean it. You may like the softness of carpets and rugs or prefer laminate or hardwood flooring. Now, you can have the best of both worlds.

The Dyson WashG1™ wet cleaner is Dyson’s first dedicated wet floor cleaner for hard floors, picking up both wet and dry debris. While it’s true that vacuuming before floor washing isn’t necessary, you will however need a vacuum cleaner for your carpets, upholstery, mattresses, pet beds, countertops, and inside your car.

It comes down to lifestyle and your environment more than anything. Crucially, the choice is yours and the deciding factor is how you weigh the benefits of both. Do you value the adaptability of the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine™wet and dry vacuum or the wet cleaning specialization of the Dyson WashG1™? It’s also worth considering that the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine covers over 1000 sq ft and the Dyson WashG1™cover over 3000 sq ft with every 1 liter tank. So the Dyson WashG1™ is suited to large hard floor areas.

Cleaning all types of flooring properly is important. If you wish to learn more, read our article debunking common hard floor cleaning myths to learn what’s truly best for your floor. And if it’s more wet cleaning advice you’re after, read our ultimate guide to wet hard floor cleaning.