Vax ONEPWR Glide review: the best cheaper hard floor cleaner

I'm back when you thought you could move on with your life, and here's T3’s review of the Vax ONEPWR Glide hard floor cleaner. It's an efficient, entry-level introduction to the magnificent world of cordless hard floor cleaners that not only mop but suck up liquified gunk like an elephant trunk.

This writer has tested a number of mops that vac at the same time – Tineco Floor One S3, Roborock Dyad and the winning Bissell CrossWave Cordless Max – and the Vax ONEPWR Glide is the cheapest one you can buy. Granted, it’s not as streamlined a product as its more expensive competitors which you can read about in our handy guide to the best Hard Floor Cleaners, but it’s still a worthwhile investment if you have a lot of hard flooring, particularly of the stone, tile and vinyl variety, and you don’t wish to fork out any more than you have to.

Here’s the Vax ONEPWR Glide in several nutshells.

Vax ONEPWR Glide: price and availability

In the UK you'll find the Vax Glide at Amazon at a knock-down price of £179.99 or try the Vax store or Argos where it's shifting for around £250. 

Although owned by a Hong Kong company, Vax is mostly British based so finding a UK Glide abroad may be a tall order. However, you can buy the exact same machine under the Hoover brand at Amazon ($299.99) and Walmart ($278).

In Australia it's still called a Vax but it's not easy to track down. However we have spotted one selling for A$699 at Desert Cart. 

Vax ONEPWR Glide review: Design and features

The Glide weighs a shade under 5kgs which makes it one of the lightest vac mops on the shelf. This is a good thing because chances are you’ll also be using it upstairs in the bathroom and possibly other rooms too if they’re swathed in treated wood or authentic-looking Millboard. A lower weight combined with the unit’s 28cm swivelling brush head means it’s a doddle to push and pull around and negotiate furnishings. It also stands up on its own, too, which is a major bonus in my book. 

The Vax Glide is equipped with a 23cm single brush roller that’s made from shaggy two-tone towelling. However, it doesn’t reach all the way across the floor head so cleaning edges is not a forte. Like many hard floor cleaners of this style, the Vax Glide comes with a trigger that transports water from the clean water tank to the roller. Basically, when you hold in the trigger, cleaning solution is transported from the clean water tank to the brush roller and when you release the trigger, the suction motor is activated to draw any offending spills and excess water into the dirty water tank.

Unfortunately, the Vax Glide’s water tanks are on the petite side – 640ml for the clean tank and just 290ml for the dirty reservoir. This means you will likely visit the sink a lot during any major cleaning campaigns to a) refill the clean water tank and b) empty the dirty one. That said, smaller tanks shouldn’t be too much of an issue if you’re just doing the odd quick whizzes here and there.

The Vax Glide comes with a simple mode button that switches between Eco and High mode. Eco is best for sealed wood floors or general light cleaning duties while High is for a more intensive clean on flooring like laminate, linoleum, vinyl, tiles, stone and polished concrete. Bear in mind, though, that High mode chews through more battery power.

Speaking of which, you should get about 30 minutes of running time out of the battery when used in Eco mode and 15 to 20 minutes in High mode. The supplied battery itself is part of Vax’s ONEPWR system so if you already own a cordless Vax machine like the SpotlessGo Cordless Spot Washer you can steal that one if required in an emergency.

The Vax Glide comes with a 250ml bottle of Vax’s excellent Multi-floor Solution though you will go through the supplied bottle quite quickly if cleaning several rooms in one go.

Vax ONEPWR Glide review: Self cleaning

One of the very best things about the new generation of cordless vac mops is their ability to clean themselves after each cleaning session. This is a marvellous innovation because it means you don’t have to remove the roller and wash it under a tap after every time you use it. However, where most models of this nature are fully automatic and completely hands free, this one requires a bit of manual interference. In the case of the Bissell CrossWave Max, Tineco Floor One S3 and Roborock Dyad you simply place the machine on a plastic plinth, press a single button and walk away. But not so with the Vax Glide because you need to recline the machine’s handle and ‘press the trigger at regular intervals to remove brush dirt and debris’ while the brush rotates at breakneck speed to purge most muck and water from its towelling fibres. The cleaning system generally works well enough to avoid the need for removing the brush roller after every cleaning spell but I did miss the fully automatic cleaning method of its competitors.

As is the case with all vac mops of this nature, you will obviously be required to physically empty the dirty water tank on a regular basis. And in the case of this model with its much smaller dirty water tank, more often than not. But hey, it’s cheaper than the others so there has to be some cost saving somewhere.

From time to time, you will also need to remove the brush so you can give it a more thorough clean under a hot tap. You will also be required to wipe down the area around the brush roller and the cleaning plinth itself. Again, this is the norm with all modern mop vacs. Vac mops are a thousand times better than a mop and bucket but they’re not infallible to being clogged up, especially if used to clean up the ramifications of a food fight.

Vax ONEPWR Glide review: Performance

The Vax Glide performed pretty well in most of our tests. However, while it dealt with a variety of liquid substances like milk, cereal and freshly squeezed tomato ketchup, it did take a few more passes than others to complete the task. It also used a lot of solution in the process and I had to visit the sink a couple of times to empty the small dirty water container which fills to the Max line very quickly, especially when used in High mode.

The most disappointing aspect for this user – who has more wooden floor than vinyl – is that the Vax Glide’s suction isn’t as efficient at sucking up excess water as I’d like it to be. Granted, it’s not much worse than the Tineco or Roborock, but it’s a long way from the great suction the Bissell provides. 

In an ideal world I’d like to see a vac mop that leaves the floor literally bone dry and if that means ramping up suction power and even fitting a heater of sorts then so be it. I look forward to the day I can mop my wooden floor boards without having a film of water lying about waiting to evaporate.

Vax ONEPWR Glide review: Verdict

If you’re sticking to a budget below the £250 mark, the Vax ONEPWR Glide is well worth a punt. True, it’s not as efficient as the superb Bissell CrossWave Cordless Max or as technologically advanced as the Tineco Floor One S3, but for the price it passes much muster and is, to all intents and purposes, a zillion times better than a bloomin’ mop and bucket.

Now check out our guide to all the Best Hard Floor Cleaners

Or visit our handy guide to the Best Steam Cleaners