Bissell Crosswave Vs Hoover FloorMate for Hardwood Floors

In this article, we’ll look at the similarities and differences between the Bissell Crosswave, model 1785A, and the Hoover FloorMate, model FH40160PC. How are the Bissell CrossWave All-in-One Multi-Surface Cleaner and Hoover FloorMate Deluxe Hard Floor Cleaner similar? And in a comparison of the Bissell Crosswave vs Hoover FloorMate for hardwood floors, where does one excel and the other fall behind?

Similarities of the Bissell Crosswave and the Hoover Floormate

Both the Bissell Crosswave multi-surface cleaner and Hoover Floormate Deluxe are made to safely clean hard floors. The Hoover Floormate gives you the option to switch between wet mode and dry mode so you can scrub with water and then thoroughly remove it, a useful feature for cleaning linoleum or tile thoroughly before making sure it isn’t too slick to walk on later. The scrub brushes of the Hoover don’t have to be turned off even when you’re working on wood floors. The Bisselll Crosswave can vacuum and wash floors simultaneously, too, and its brushes are also safe for wood floors.

Both of these floor cleaners should only be used on sealed wood floors, though, unless you take care to keep the Hoover Floormate only in dry mode when on your wood floors.

Both hard floor cleaners use brand specific soaps in the carpet cleaners for cleaning different surfaces. Hoover offers a general hard floor cleaner that works on tile and wood but sells a different formulations like a tile and grout cleaner and hardwood floor cleaner that is supposed to leave the floors as shiny as if they were waxed. Bissell has a hard wood floor cleaner that will shine the wood and leave a lemon scent behind.

Both floor cleaners weigh around fourteen pounds, so weight is not a deciding factor between them.

Where the Bissell Crosswave Excels

The Bissell Crosswave’s brushes are more powerful. If the floor has texture like linoleum or tile, the Bissell has trouble scrubbing the low areas and requires multiple passes to clean them. If you’re looking for a multi-floor cleaner to eliminate the task of scrubbing tile floors or linoleum, the Bissell Crosswave is the better choice.

You cannot use the Hoover Floormate on marble floors. The Bissell Crosswave’s gentle brushes can handle this task.

The Bissell Crosswave is far more maneuverable than the Hoover Floormate. You can maneuver it around furniture, along the baseboards and under mid-height furniture. If you are cleaning floors in a furniture-crowded room, the Bissell Crosswave will save you the work of having to clear the room to clean the floor.

The Bissell Crosswave has a removable filter you can wash, whereas the Hoover Floormate has a permanent filter you cannot remove. If you pick up a lot of pet hair or debris that clogs the filter, your choices are nearly disassembling the Hoover vacuum and hoping you can put it back together or buying the Crosswave instead of the Hoover. Conversely, the Hoover vacuum cleaner for hard floors is easier to take apart and clean if your attempt to clean up a biological mess has splattered material all over the inside of the vacuum, though you should still use a wet/dry vacuum cleaner aside from this one for cleaning up where the dog pooped or threw up.

When the Hoover FloorMate is Better

The Hoover Floormate Deluxe beats the Bissell Crosswave on price.

The Hoover vacuum has better suction which is useful if you’re otherwise going to need to make multiple passes to clean up a mess. The Hoover model also does a better job of getting into tight spaces, corners and along baseboards.

The Hoover Floormate has larger water tanks. If you have to clean very large areas in “wet” mode, you’ll prefer the Hoover hard floor cleaner just because it takes fewer trips to refill. On the downside, the Hoover Floormate doesn’t always spray evenly, so you’re more likely to have to make multiple passes to clean an area.

Observations

On average, according to Consumer Reports, Bissell vacuum cleaners are more reliable than Hoover with a 9% annual repair rate. Hoover vacuums, on average, have an 11% repair rate. However, there isn’t data for specific models, so we can’t say in a comparison of the Bissell Crosswave vs Hoover FloorMate which one in particular is more reliable.

Summary

If your hard floors are predominantly tile with grout lines or patterned linoleum, the Crosswave is the better choice. If you otherwise have to move furniture out of the way to clean your hard floors, you’ll want the Crosswave. If price is the main factor, the Hoover Floormate is the multi-floor cleaner you want. And if you’re cleaning up heavier debris off concrete and wood floors, the Hoover Floormate will clean up the mess faster for you.