You know that you want a mop that cleans effectively, and few would argue that a steam mop ticks that box better than a traditional string type with a bucket of water. If you’re looking to upgrade the hygiene in your home, then a steam-powered mop is the way to go.
Steam kills most germs and bacteria without using harsh chemicals. That’s important if you have a family or pets because the fewer dangerous chemicals you need to use around the house, the safer they’ll be. Once you’ve settled on the type of mop you want, you’ll need to consider other aspects like ease of use, effectiveness at tackling aged, stuck-on stains, maneuverability, weight, the price of replacement parts like cleaning pads, and all the accessories and other functions it has.
It’s a lot to consider, and when you’ve narrowed down your search by working out what your top priorities are for your new steam mop, there are still dozens of models to choose from. We’re trying to make things a little easier for you, by collating some information on the pros and cons of the H2O X5 Mop. This is one example of a mid-range steam mop you could select to help with your domestic cleaning needs.
We’re completely unbiased, so we can look at the good aspects and the areas where other competitors have the edge over the X5. Let’s take a look at how it performed in different areas when tested.
OUR TOP PICK
H2O Mop X5 Basic Mop
Pros
- Light and easy to handle.
- Powerful cleaning – according to reviews, it is one of the top performers in the floor cleaning category.
- Multi-use tool – the X5 acts as an all-round cleaner for floor and more. It cleans hard flooring, is a carpet cleaner, steam cleans garments, upholstery, and windows.
- Multiple cleaning tool attachments – 11 piece or 17 piece attachment tool options available for various cleaning tasks around your house.
- Able to clean aged marks and makes tackling stuck-on stains look easy.
- Able to clean different surfaces – stone, hardwood, laminate, tile, carpet, mirrors, and glass cleaning
- Mid-range price when compared to other like-for-like products.
- Pointed mop head gets into corners easily.
- Fast heat up time – This mop beats most competitor products as it heats up to a hotter than average temperature in 10 seconds.
Cons
- The small water reservoir means it will need refilling frequently during cleaning.
- Reviews report that a thick power cord makes for difficult neat coiling and storage.
- Short power cord when compared to similar products.
- Reviews suggest a badly designed handle that is not strong enough to support the unit for long-term durability.
- You will likely need to purchase additional tools to keep using your H2o mop x5 model.
- The basic package does not come with window cleaning tools or spare floor cleaning pads.
- Possible design flaw – Some reviews stated that it stopped working suddenly, in some cases after only a few uses. In this case, be prepared to send it back to the supplier.
- Some reviews suggest that the mop leaves the floor wet after use rather than drying instantly as claimed. This may cause problems for wood flooring types.
H2O X5 Steam Mop Overview
The H2O Mop X5 brands itself as a 5-in-1 cleaning system. So, what does it do? Well, you’ll be glad to know that it does mop floors, for one. That’s handy since that’s what you’re looking for, but what else does it do? T
he H2O X5 steam mop not only does a great job cleaning hard floors, but it also cleans carpet, functions as a window steam cleaner, an upholstery and garment refresher as well as adapting to become a handheld cleaner to tackle areas like the bathroom and kitchen.
That’s much more than just a mop. It sounds more like a transformer than a basic cleaning appliance. There are two available packages for the X5 steam mop available from Amazon.com. The first is called Basic and contains 11 accessories and attachments.
You’d think that’d be quite enough for any mop, but no, the people at H2O clearly disagree as they offer a slightly more expensive package called the Elite which has 17 additional tools included.
It’s important to note that the mop itself in these two bundles are, to our knowledge, precisely identical. While the scores of random cleaning tools look impressive and do turn it into a multi-transforming cleaning machine, most prospective customers will probably be thinking the same thing: it might be capable of calculating the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, but does it clean floors? Let’s find out.
Cleaning Power
The steam mop has a solid customer rating of 4.1 out of five stars on Amazon, which is not a bad score to start with. What do customers have to say about its floor cleaning power? As with any sample of reviews, you get a very mixed bag.
Some verified purchasers gave five stars to their purchase of the x5 and said they were amazed by the cleaning power of this machine, particularly on neglected bathroom areas such as shower tracks, around taps, and bathroom tile grout.
Strangely, though, there weren’t that many comments on the cleaning power on floors, so we had to look elsewhere. Top Ten Reviews tested several alike steam mops on a series of stains including soda, spaghetti sauce, and orange juice. They found that the H2O X5 steam mop did “a great job of cleaning stuck-on messes”, and was beaten in the spaghetti sauce department only by one other steam mop they were testing, made by Bissel.
So the cleaning power of the mop when actually used as a mop is as good as, or in some cases better than, its competitors. That’s a tick for the steam cleaning power of this mop. It seems it does do a great job cleaning floors, even with nasty stuck on stains.
Water Tank Capacity
This might not be second on your list of priorities when choosing a steam mop, but it should be a serious consideration. Why is that? Because it can be extremely irritating to have to stop cleaning to keep refilling the water tank.
Unlike spray mops, steam mops don’t always use detergent, as the power of steam is enough. Mops that use steam to clean have to have a tank for water incorporated into their design because without water, there is no steam.
So if the tank is too big, then the mop will be too heavy for senior citizens or those with injuries or medical issues that affect upper body strength, so they won’t be able to lift and maneuver the mop effectively. In this case, the opposite is true. The tank was found to be smaller than most of the similar quality and priced items on the market. This means if you have large areas of floor at home to clean, then you will need to be prepared to refill the water reservoir frequently from the tap.
Then again, if it doesn’t hold much water, then it shouldn’t add much weight to the structure.
Cleaning Windows
If the fact that you can effectively clean windows without buying a separate gadget for the task is a big consideration for you, then this shouldn’t disappoint.
While advertising can be misleading, and you can’t always trust that an infomercial mop will do what it claims on the advertisement, this has all the tools it needs to do a professional job on your house windows and glass surfaces.
While there are no specific mentions of good (or bad) window cleaning experiences with the X5 steam mop, no news can be good news.
As with most reviewers on the internet, the purchasers of this mop would surely complain loudly and publicly if anything wasn’t up to scratch. Poor window cleaning, however, was not mentioned in any feedback we found. With that being said, if you wish to use the x5 mop as a window cleaner, then you’d be better off buying the package with extra accessories.
The Elite mop bundle contains a blade for glass cleaning and at least two microfiber squeegee attachments to turn the mop into a complete window cleaning system. The jet nozzle will be great for sanitizing window seals and door sills, which are notoriously hard to clean. With the extra attachments, it should provide a thorough and easy clean.
There is also a shoulder strap in the larger bundle which will assist with over-head cleaning to help you support the weight of it. A very good idea for an accessory in our opinion to make it a convenient hand held steamer.
Maneuverability
You don’t want a heavy mop that can’t get into the crevices and corners that require its cleaning power the most. Lightweight mops have many benefits, such as reduced stress on joints and muscles when using them.
For most people, this might not be much of a factor for consideration, but for others, having a lightweight mop that is easy to move around is the top priority. The weight of the mop, plus the weight of the water in the tank, can make routine cleaning difficult. Elderly people, those with joint pain or ligament damage might be extremely grateful to have their heavy bucket and mop replaced with a light and easily handled steam mop, which is both more hygienic and requires much less lifting.
In terms of handling, this mop has a swiveling head, which makes for easy weaving around obstacles like furniture legs. The pointed triangle head will reach into right-angled corners easily, which will make for a great job cleaning floors. Having said all this, the x5 mop seems to feature a thicker than average cord that resists orderly winding and is at the shorter end of the cord-length spectrum when compared to other similar products.
This means that if you have a large floor area to clean in your house, you’ll need to keep changing power outlet sources to keep your x5 going. This would really irritate us as a consumer, so that was a helpful review.
