Chicago’s Best Mop Test: We Tried 5 Popular Mops So You Don’t Have To

Between work commutes, family obligations, and Chicago’s unpredictable weather, keeping your floors clean can feel like a constant battle. If you’re tired of streaky floors and complicated cleaning tools, you’re not alone—we put the most popular mops to the test to find what actually works for busy households.

Why We Tested These Mops

As a cleaning company that serves hundreds of Chicago homes, we’re always testing products to recommend to our clients. While nothing beats professional home cleaning for deep results, having the right tools makes daily maintenance much easier. We tested five viral mops that people keep asking about to see which ones deliver on their promises.

The Mop Lineup

1. The Classic: Vita/O Cedar Spin Mop

This has been our go-to for years—the original spin mop with a foot pedal mechanism and replaceable microfiber head. It’s reliable, effective, and familiar to many homeowners looking for reliable cleaning services in Chicago.

2. The Upgrade: New Vita/O Cedar Dual Tank Mop

This newer version features separate clean and dirty water tanks, ensuring you’re not mopping with dirty water. While this sounds ideal for thorough apartment cleaning, we wanted to see if the convenience matched the hype.

3. The Gadget: Fun Clean Mop

This mop caught our attention with its telescoping handle, built-in detergent dispenser, and six included mop pads. It seemed perfect for tall ceilings and quick fast cleaning services-style maintenance.

4. The Space-Saver: True and Tidy Mop

With its compact design and dual water chamber, this mop targets Chicago apartment dwellers with limited storage space who still want effective deep cleaning help when needed.

5. The Viral Sensation: Joy Moop

This flat mop has taken cleaning communities by storm, featuring a unique bucket system with separate wash and dry compartments. As Chicago’s trusted Chicago cleaning company, we had to see if it lived up to its reputation.

Our Testing Method

We didn’t just test these mops in one location—we took them to multiple Chicago homes with different floor types, from hardwood to tile. We considered:

• Ease of use and setup
• Effectiveness on different floor surfaces
• Streaking and residue
• Storage convenience
• Long-term durability

The Results: Which Mops Actually Work?

Flat Mop Showdown

Between the flat mops, the Vita model came out on top. While the Joy Moop isn’t bad, the Vita version has better locking mechanisms and less swinging during use. Both work well for walls and ceilings, but for regular floor cleaning, they tend to streak more than traditional mops.

The Gadget Mop Disappointment

The Fun Clean Mop, despite its appealing features and multiple heads, felt cheap and gimmicky in practice. It created more streaks and didn’t perform as well as simpler designs—proof that sometimes basic is better when you need someone to clean my apartment properly.

The Dual Tank Dilemma

The new Vita/O Cedar dual tank mop works well but has a major drawback: constant water changes. For a small main floor, you might need to change water 3+ times. If you’re meticulous about clean water separation, it’s good, but impractical for larger spaces where you’d typically schedule a cleaning with professionals.

The Clear Winner

After months of testing, our team kept returning to the original Vita/O Cedar Spin Mop. It’s reliable, gets floors genuinely clean, and has stood the test of time. While the newer models offer interesting features, the original delivers consistent results that make daily maintenance easier between professional visits.

When to Call the Professionals

While having a good mop helps with daily upkeep, some cleaning tasks require expertise. If you’re dealing with:

• Heavily soiled floors that regular mopping can’t tackle
• Time constraints that make cleaning overwhelming
• Special surfaces like marble or delicate hardwood
• Post-renovation or move-in cleaning needs

It might be time to book an appointment with experts who have the right equipment and experience.

Final Recommendations

For most Chicago homeowners, the original spin mop provides the best balance of effectiveness and convenience. Flat mops work well for walls and quick cleanups but struggle with floor streaks. The fancy gadget mops often disappoint despite their appealing features.

Remember, the right tools make maintenance easier, but sometimes the best solution is to let professionals handle the deep cleaning so you can focus on enjoying your clean space rather than maintaining it.

Welcome back. Today we’re going to be testing some mops. We’ve been super loyal to the Vita or the Oedar Spin Mop for like years and years. I love that mop, but there’s been a bunch of new ones that have been popping up on the scene and we want to test them out because a lot of you have been asking me about them and it’s a free market. Let’s see which ones are the best. I’m going to show you all the mops first. So, this is the Vita/Oar Spin Mop. It’s called Vita in Canada and the UK. and then O Cedar in the US. They just they’re the same company. They just have different names in different countries. This is the original spin mop. It has like a spin mechanism here, foot pedal. It has a little This is new, this little um holder so that your mop doesn’t flop over. And then it’s a microfiber um mop head that you can replace. So, this is one of my favorite cleaning accessories, but they’ve come out with a new version. And people ask me about this all the time. I have used it before. Um, and I’ll reserve my thoughts on it for when we’re reviewing them. So, this is the mop head. It’s definitely smaller than the other one. It has a clean water and a dirty tank. A clean water tank and a dirty water tank. Um, so you’re not mopping your floors with dirty water. So, I’m going to show you how that works. This is the fun clean mop. This is This mop is I’ve never used this ever before, but it’s kind of blowing my mind because it’s got like it’s got a really tall handle, so it’ be good for tall people. And then like it’s going to telescope, but it also comes with this cute little detergent dispenser. But look at this. One, two, three, four, five, six mop heads. So, this was more expensive. I think like this isn’t a more expensive mop, but you don’t have to replace. Look at all these mop pads they come with. So, right there, that’s the value cuz like a single mop head is 10 bucks and it comes with wheels. I don’t know what this thing is. Oh, okay. We’ll show this after. Uh, this is where you can like it has a little like I can spin it in here, too. Okay, we’ll show that once we’ve got water. Whoops. This is the True and Tidy mop and we I’ve never used this before. It’s going to be interesting. We’ve got a dual water chamber in here. It’s a little bit more compact than the other mops if you don’t have a lot of space to um store stuff. Came with a spare mop head. This mop is called the Joy Move. It is a Viral Sensation on Clean Talk. I’ve been wanting to try it forever. I just haven’t cuz I’ve been too attached to my spin mop. So, I want to test this one out. It does come with two um spare mop heads. It’s a flat mop, which I usually like these for walls. I don’t necessarily always like them for floors. So, we’ll see how it goes. has a really interesting bucket system here. It has like a dry and a wash compartment that you kind of slide it in. I’ll show you guys when you can see the angle in. It is the number one seller in Canada and the US. So, we need to test this out. So, now we’re going to fill them all up. We got these floors dirty. We look like look at my socks. I’ve been walking here for 5 minutes. Salami lives here and he is an English bulldog. So, he’s drooled all over the place. We splashing stuff around. It’s just dirty, dirty floors. So, we’re going to test all of these bops and show you which ones we like the best. So, this is the clean water tank. And if you want to let clean water in, you just pull this little thing up. I filled the water in there. Right now, always pump. Oh, So, here’s the difference in sizes of the mops. This triangle part is bigger on this one than this one. So, you might not have as much contact contact with the floor, but they are relatively okay in size. They just This just feels a lot smaller when you’re using it. The water is in here, the clean water, and it’s got this little bristle thing. This one is a washing machine, people. Because I don’t have a foot pedal, this is how I spin. Oh my god, my mom would love this so much. That’s just the difference in size between these two mop heads. Nice to know. Here is the joy m. So, we’re dunking it. And then we go over here to squeegee out the water. So, now here we have this is the new Vita flat mop. And honestly, I we’ve been using this for a little while at houses already, but I wanted to show add this in cuz it just came out. Um, it has a separate container for water. So, we have hot water and some Tide in here. And it’s actually really, really cool because, watch this. It has like these little spray streams when you push it in. So, it’s getting them on wet. And then it has a separate little area for us to rinse it out and also for dirty water. Here are my medium conclusive results for this mop testing. This was a lot harder to do you guys than vacuum testing cuz I can see immediate results with it. And it also depends on your floors. But I’m just going to tell you like this is my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt. If you want to fight with me in the comments, feel free to do so. Okay. So, for the flat mops, I preferred the Vita one after we used it for a period of time. Do I Do I hate this Joy Moop one? No, I do not. It’s just This one doesn’t lock in place when we’re using it on walls and floors. This one doesn’t lock in place either, but it kind of has like more of a sticky mechanism, so it doesn’t swing all over the place. This one has a clean it water tank and a dirty water tank, and it’s really straightforward to use. This one you’re kind of like dipping it in the same water. Am I correct on that? Yes. Okay. They’re both really good. This one goes on sale all the time. This one doesn’t really. So, if you were moving or you had bolted ceilings, both of these are good. If you want me to pick my number one, I would choose the VIA. Okay, for these flat mops, I really don’t like flat mops for floors. I find that they streak and I would rather use like a regular mop. But for quick clean up, if you kept this in like your pantry or whatever, be great. Now, these ones. So, I’m just going to eliminate process of elimination here to keep it short and sweet. I did not like this one. It seemed really gimmicky. It has really good reviews on Amazon, but it just it’s not a great mop, you guys. It’s It’s got like a lot of little gadgets and stuff. It comes with a bunch of different mop heads. In the end, it just feels cheap and junky. It’s not that great. Less loss of streaks. This one I just didn’t we us all as a crew didn’t really like this generally. Really good for walls, not super great for floors, you guys. And like you’re buying a mop mainly for floors. If you’re going to use a mop on your walls, like it’s a few times a year. So, but I can understand again buying one of these flat mops just to get four walls, especially if you live in a big house where you can’t reach hard to reach up spots. Um, and then now this Vita/Oar one with the clean and dirty water tank. This is a good mop, you guys. And but the general consensus from me and my staff and your DMs is that it is a huge pain in the ass to change the water all the time. If you are a clean freak and you want your clean water separated from your dirty water when you’re cleaning your floors, by all means, buy this one. Just be prepared to change the water like three times for just a small main four like this one because you have to do it all the time because you run out of water. Now my original one which I have been standing by for like years and years and they are not paying me for this is by Lita/Oar the original spin mop. I just like this bucket. I like the mop. I like the mop head. It gets the floors really really clean. And even though I tested all of these ones, I’m still going to come back to my original one that I liked in the first place. So, if you have one of these mops and you feel like you want to leave an opinion in the comments, feel free to leave it for me because I would like to. Like, we’ve been what we did, you guys, is we started filming these like a couple of months ago and then we decided that we couldn’t just do a test in one day with it. We took it to people’s houses and tested them all everywhere else. And this is my results that aren’t super conclusive, but these are the results that I found. But maybe if you have one of these mops and you f really find it works really really good on your like marble floors.