Review: Polti Moppy. A Meh.com purchase.
21Hello fellow mehtizens.
I’m here in New York and still under lockdown which leaves me with a surprising amount of time on my hands, I thought I would write a review of my most recent Meh.com purchase of the Polti Moppy (a sort of steam mop).
Packaging: 7/10
The packaging is fine. It seems a little fancy and very Italian which is nice (bella!) but I think it could have been a bit more compact. There was quite a lot of cardboard filler which could be avoided by space gapping and folding a single piece of cardboard. It’s just a little wasteful.
Appearance 8.5/10
It looks exactly like how you’d picture a sleek red Italian sports car that’s actually a very hot and steamy fancy Swiffer. It looks nice. It does!
Assembly: 8/10
Very simple for the most part but not fully self-explanatory. There were small touches like the mop cloth having a small tag to illustrate that you should step on it there to align the mop pad with the mop but then there were also joints and bits that weren’t totally clear as to how they fit together.
Ease of Use: 9.2/10
I love this thing, I admit it. It’s quick (20 seconds) to heat up/freshen the terrycloth mopping pad. It’s lightweight. When it’s steaming hot it’s easy to wipe away stubborn stains. I love that it steam cleans the mopping pad every use and freshens it with clean, not dirty, water. Really does make mopping a breeze. This worked great on both hardwoods and tile, I would imagine it will be superb for windows as well.
Durability 7.5/10
The base and trim parts are plastic and the mop handle and unit handle are both aluminum but it seems to be a little flimsy. A few times when I was overly enthusiastic about mopping the aluminum mop handle started to bow which made me a little nervous.
Effectiveness 8.1/10
I know, 8.1/10 looks kind of meh but it’s not…allow me to explain. There are three things holding the Moppy back. One, the pad doesn’t stay extra hot and steamy long enough, even if the aluminum base plate does, so you need to prioritize those tough stains right off the launching pad.
Two, the longer you mop with the same cloth the harder it is to mop to a point where you expel the existing water before refreshing it.
That has a direct impact on Three. If you are doing some heavy-duty cleaning you will need to swap out the microfiber pad for a new one or you will ultimately get to a point where the cloth becomes waterlogged (and dirt logged) enough that you start smearing dirty water around. Just like a regular old mop. I started in a 10’ x 12’ room where I create ceramics so it was very dusty, then knocked out two lengths of hallway measuring approximately 40’ x 3’ total, did the kitchen which measured 8’ x 12’, and then the first cleaning cloth finally failed when I tried to mop the area around and under the litter box due to the dust from the clumping litter.
The Takeaway TL; DR 8.5/10
IMHO, this is a mop for someone that hates traditional mopping but isn’t ready for the full commitment of a traditional steam mop. Moppy is far superior to a traditional mop. I found it to be faster and more effective to use. There was also less water used, so less potential damage to my shitty hardwoods. It was less of a pain in the ass than traditional mopping, just fill the base with a little water, plug it up, and let the mop pad steam for 20 seconds and you’re off. Most importantly, I thought it did a great job cleaning my floors. Would purchase again.
Currently available over at MorningSave.com
- 3 comments, 4 replies
- Comment
A good review, though I don’t understand the 9.2 for ease of use - why not a 10?
However, I have been informed that we don’t need a steam mop, so sadly for Mediocre, no sale.
@yeppers So I dinged it a little for not being able to mop with a little more gusto, the bowing of the mop handle when you place a lot of pressure on it is making me adjust how I mop. That said, even with that limitation I think it’s much more effective than a traditional mop so once I adjust to the limitations of the handle I may upgrade that part of the review. I suspect I would also upgrade that rating if I had ever used an actual steam mop because it seems much more nimble than one.
I think the question is do you need a better mop than you have? I have a traditional string mop with a wringing system (o-cedar) that I rate a 5.5, I hate carrying the bucket around and it’s all dirty water after you start mopping. I have a sponge mop with a mechanical wringer that I rate a 6.5.
To me, it’s not whether you need a steam mop, it’s would you like a mop that supplies you with clean steaming hot water every time you go back to freshen it? That’s the real benefit here. If you had a preference would you be dipping your mop in clean hot water every time? If the answer is yes then this is a buy.
Thanks! Nice review and timely - we’re considering one. Have you found a good source for the cleaning pads, and have you tried the “delicate surfaces” pads for wood floors?
@stolicat I love this thing so much I already ordered another set of microfiber mopping pads from the Polti website. I didn’t see a special set of ‘delicate surfaces’ pads but since microfiber cloths are already good on delicate surfaces I wasn’t the slightest bit concerned about using them on my hardwood floors. Also, I did wash the two supplied microfiber pads already (they are warm water wash / do not dry) and they cleaned up nicely. My only concern is microfiber does come undone relatively quickly so I’m curious how they’ll hold up after more wear and washings.
@stolicat Ah, I would also like to add that I didn’t realize that microfiber mops were a thing prior to ordering replacement pads from the Polti website. There are stacks and stacks of microfiber mopping pads available on Amazon at a more economical price than the Polti pads.
The mops themselves run $20-$30 so you’re really only paying an extra $30-$40 for the sanitizer which is everything by the way.
This is a great review - very thorough and accurate, as I also purchased a Moppy. One observation I had is that the pad may need to be cleaned rather frequently mid-mopping session. My floors are filthy from two dogs and a backyard, but I got this to try to change that. Maybe the base cleanliness of the floor will improve over time, but for me after just a few sessions of cleaning (steam-mop-steam-mop-dream-mop) the cloth just started pushing around dirty water and I needed to wash it under running water before steaming and going again. I suppose that’s the difference between this and a bucket mop - as you said, that water is always dirty, but it does dilute and you can at least rinse the mop (in diluted dirty water). Basically, if your floors are really soiled I think this is less convenient, but you’ll achieve a cleaner finished product.
@jmbaker I think it honestly depends on how dirty your floors were. It was easy for me to see the point where the pad had to be swapped out. One of the tricks I saw online was to try and mop until you’ve mopped out as much of the clean water as possible on the pad from your steam session.
It’s not always possible but if you start by expelling as much clean water as possible when you mop then re-steaming the pad you’ll be mopping with mostly clean steam/water for much longer than you expect. As I said, I managed to knock out almost 450 square feet before it was too sloshy.
However, yesterday I tried to clean wall tiles and windows and it’s much harder to expel the water trying to press the Moppy on a 90 degree angle. It cleaned everything very well but the pad became waterlogged much faster. If I had a request it would be to manually adjust the amount of steam that comes out at the base.