Bissell Crosswave HF3 review: ace hard floor cleaning at an affordable price

Welcome to T3's review of the Bissell Crosswave HF3, a sub-£300 cordless hard floor cleaner that makes light work of any accidental spillages while keeping hard flooring of all types looking spick and span.

Bissell is renowned for its excellent range of carpet and hard floor cleaners and this model follows suit with some great design flourishes and admirable low weight for convenient hard floor cleaning with zero mess in the process.

Will the Crosswave HF3 impress enough to garner a top spot in our guide the best hard floor cleaners? Let’s fire it up and see what’s what.

Bissell Crosswave HF3 review: price and availability

In the UK, the Bissell Crosswave HF3 retails at around £199.99 and is available direct from Bissell. Alternatively, try Argos (£240), Amazon (£199), Currys (£249) and John Lewis & Partners (£239.99).

If you live in the USA, you can purchase the Bissell Crosswave HF3 direct from Bissell for $199.99, including $52 worth of extra cleaning solutions and one spare roller brush. Otherwise head to Amazon where it’s shifting for the same reasonable $199.99 only without the freebie bonanza.

Bissell Crosswave HF3 review: what is a cordless hard floor cleaner?

A cordless hard floor cleaner is a cleaning device designed to handle wet messes like liquid spills and sticky residues on hard surfaces such as tile, laminate, vinyl and sealed hardwood floors. In short, it combines some of the functions of a traditional vacuum cleaner (i.e. the suction part) and a wet roller mop. This means it will happily clean up most liquid-based messes in one pass instead of having to reach for a roll of paper towelling and an old-fashioned mop and bucket to finish the job.

Although these handy domestic time savers are often described as wet-and-dry vacuums, they are not a replacement for your existing vacuum cleaner. Instead, their suction function is used primarily to devour liquid and not most dry matter, though they will do that too if something dry is in their path. As a consequence of their design, you cannot use one of these devices on carpet because the front revolving towelling roller they’re equipped with will always be damp and that’s not a good thing for any carpet.

Hard floor cleaners typically have two separate water tanks: one for clean water and another for collecting dirty water. This system ensures that fresh water is always used for mopping, preventing the spread of dirt across the floor. Say, for instance, you spill a bowl of cereal and milk. Normally this would entail manually collecting the spill using paper towels, a tea towel or even a squeegee and dustpan. But with a cordless hard floor cleaner, all you have to do is push the device towards the spill and the combination of the wet spinning cloth roller and suction provided by a motor literally sucks up the mess and deposits it into the cleaner’s dirty water container.

At this point you might be wondering what happens to all the remaining muck that is still attached to the roller and in the housing around it. Well, this is were it gets really clever because all hard floor cleaners are equipped with a tray-shaped charging plinth and when you place the unit on the charging base and initiate a self clean, fresh water will be pumped to the brush head while it spins at high speed, fully cleaning the head, the housing around it and all internal tubing.

Moreover, all the dirty water from this cleaning process is also deposited into the dirty water container which you simply pour down the toilet basin or the sink. In other words, the whole process is almost entirely muck free with no disgusting remnants left on the floor and no need to wash your hands afterwards.

Bissell Crosswave HF3 review: design and features

At just 4.3 kilos, the stylish Crosswave HF3 is inarguably one of the lightest models this writer has ever tested and that’s a major bonus for those users who might not be as sprightly as they once were. It means it’s easy to carry upstairs and even easier to push and pull. And because its floor head is well articulated and relatively small (28cm across), it’s a doddle to steer around furnishings and fit into tight spaces, too.

Starting at the top clip-in handle, there’s a very simple control panel comprising an on/off switch and a mode button that switches water volume from low to high. If you’re doing a quick whizz before guests arrive or your floors are of the sealed wood variety, select low mode and it will leave a small strip of dampness which will evaporate within minutes. Alternatively, if you’re tackling a large liquid spill or removing an ingrained stain, a couple of passes in high mode will more than suffice.

The control interface also shows battery level and a lit warning to remind you to empty the dirty water tank. In terms of capacity, this model comes with a 530ml fresh water tank and a 580ml reservoir for the dirty stuff. These capacities are slightly smaller than some of the Crosswave HF3’s competitors so you can expect to pay a few visits to the sink if cleaning more than one room at a time. Also, like so many hard floor cleaners, refitting the dirty water tank involves mounting it an angle and pushing it firmly into position until you hear a click.

Sadly, this model doesn’t come with a separate floor-cleaning solution container so you will need to add the recommend dose to the clean water tank after you’ve filled it to its maximum indication. The package thankfully comes with a small 236ml bottle of Bissell Spot & Stain Pro Oxy solution which is one of the best in the business. Although most manufacturers will recommend avoiding third-party cleaning solutions as a common business practice, I’ve never had a problem using them.

Given that this model will also clean itself, there’s another button on the very top of the handle which you use to activate the self-clean mode when the device is mounted on its charging plinth. Simply tap the ‘clean’ button the HF3 will rapidly spin its mop in the housing while dousing it with fresh water from the tank. The dirty water collected in the tray area is then sucked into the dirty water tank.

Heading to the business end, the Crosswave HF3’s 23cm cloth roller and cover are both removable for rinsing under a tap though this will only need to be done on rare occasions like when the unit has dealt with smellier spills like, er, dog mess. Yes, you read that correctly. If you can stomach the thought, a cordless electronic mop like this will deal with anything of a semi-liquid nature and that includes sucking up pet mess if necessary.

As an added bonus, the mere physics of the roller spinning in a forward motion not only snatches up surprisingly large debris like egg shells and cornflakes, but the rotating action  also helps pull the unit along the floor making the act of pushing it an absolute breeze.

Bissell Crosswave HF3 review: performance

I tested this sterling floor cleaner on a number of obstreperous ingredients including the same eclectic concoction of foodstuffs I used for a similar hard floor cleaner test at T3’s sister publication TechRadar. This included a spillage of raw oats, cornflakes, water, honey, soy sauce and a broken egg for good measure.

I’m always gobsmacked at how efficient these hard floor cleaners are at swallowing larger ingredients like this and this model was no different. It took one slow pass for the Bissell to collect the majority of the ingredients – including most of the egg shell – and a second pass to remove the rest, though I should add that one large piece of shell was simply pushed forward and eventually had to retrieved by hand. I also made sure that I went over the same area four more times to remove any invisible traces of honey which can remain unseen and eventually dry into an annoying sticky patch that you only notice hours later when walking on it.

When finished, I placed the unit on its plinth and tapped the self clean button. As is the case with pretty much every hard floor cleaner I’ve tested, the brush roller after its wash looked almost as clean as when it came out of the box. Nevertheless, I would still recommend removing the brush roller, cover and filter if the device was used to clean up anything smelly and give them a good wash under a hot tap with a good dose of washing up liquid.

In terms of battery consumption, I got about 25 minutes of cleaning out of a full charge which isn’t too shabby in my opinion, especially as it only takes about 10 minutes to mop a medium-sized room.

Bissell Crosswave HF3 review: verdict

The CrossWave HF3 is an excellent choice for homes with a variety of hard floor surfaces. Its two-in-one wet vacuum and mop functionality, ease of use and cordless freedom make it a strong addition to any cleaning arsenal. No it won’t fully replace a deep-clean manual mop, but for most day-to-day hard floor cleaning, it performs exceptionally well. If you’re looking for a smaller-scale hard floor cleaner that’s very easy to push around and especially easy to carry up a flight of stairs, the HF3 is a top contender.