Floor Cleaners

ALDI Power Force scrubs up as best floor cleaner

If there’s an area of your home that usually gets overlooked when it comes to regular cleaning, there’s a good chance it’s the floor. It may be directly under your feet, but how often do you really think about it? We’re all so concerned about benchtops, sinks and kitchen appliances that we often forget about one of the greatest harbourers of dirt and bacteria – the floor! Where do you think that dropped food and mud from shoes ends up? Clean floors are essential to a healthy home, especially if you have young ones that crawl around. So, which floor cleaners will be the best bet for maintaining a clean and healthy floor? Our customer satisfaction ratings can offer a helpful guide.

This year, we surveyed nearly 1,300 consumers across Australia for their feedback on the floor cleaners they have purchased and used in the last six months. Respondents rated brands on effectiveness, environmental friendliness, ease of use, smell, packaging design, value for money and overall customer satisfaction. Those which received the minimum required survey sample of 30 responses are featured in our results.

ALDI Power Force finished strong in our latest ratings, being the only entry featured to achieve a five-star rating for overall satisfaction and in the majority of categories surveyed.

Best Floor Cleaners

Here are the best floor cleaners in Australia, as rated by consumers in Canstar Blue’s latest review:

1. ALDI Power Force
2. Earth Choice
3. Pine O Cleen
4. Strike
5. Handy Andy
6. Coles Ultra
7. Dettol
8. Ajax

This year, ALDI Power Force swiped the crown from Handy Andy of best-rated floor cleaner, after it achieved a five-star rating for effectiveness, value for money, ease of use, packaging design and overall satisfaction. Most brands landed on four stars, including the former winner (Handy Andy), as well as Earth Choice, Pine O Cleen, Coles Ultra, Dettol and Ajax.

Despite taking the top spot, ALDI’s homebrand floor cleaner wasn’t the only one to impress Aussie shoppers. Earth Choice also achieved full marks for its ease of use and environmental friendliness, while Pine O Cleen received the same result for packaging design and smell. Strike similarly got five stars for smell.

How to find a good floor cleaner

Whether you get on your hands and knees and scrub, or lean on your trusty old mop or steam mop, you will undoubtedly need a floor cleaner that lives up to its dirt-busting promises. This means removing any stubborn stains you can see on the floor – and handling those tiny bacteria particles you can’t see. You’ll also want a floor cleaner that’s easy to use and represents good value for money. Our research this year identified the following drivers of customer satisfaction when it comes to buying a floor cleaner:

• Effectiveness: 39%
• Value for money: 19%
• Ease of use: 12%
• Packaging design: 11%
• Environmental friendliness: 10%
• Smell: 9%

Floor cleaner is a major grocery staple, with a whopping three in five (60%) people stocking up on it every week, according to our survey.  The majority of Aussie households have tried multiple floor cleaners (48%), while one in three (37%) stick to the same brand. Nearly two in five of our respondents even said they would recommend what they use to their friends and family (38%). Interestingly though, fewer people now opt for whichever floor cleaner is the cheapest or on special. This year, only 26% of respondents said they steered towards the lowest priced options, compared to the 50% of respondents who said the same last year.

Floor Cleaners

ALDI Power Force

Discount supermarket chain ALDI flexes as one of the leading brands when it comes to floor cleaners. It offers the Power Force Pro Heavy Duty Cleaner in a couple of scents − Original, Citrus and Wooden − each sold in a 1.25L bottle for $2.19. The homebrand product is marketed as a hospital grade disinfectant, and contains supposedly a powerful and thick bleach to remove dirt, mould and odours.

• ALDI Power Force earned five stars for effectiveness, ease of use, packaging design, value for money and overall satisfaction. It also received four stars for environmental friendliness and smell.

Earth Choice

Keeping your home nice and clean doesn’t have to come at a cost to the environment, and Earth Choice is certainly a brand of choice for many eco-conscious Aussie consumers. Amongst its armoury of cleaning products is its Floor & Surface cleaner in an attractive bottle made from recycled plastic. It’s claimed to see off dirt and grime and leave surfaces streak-free, while also limiting waterway pollution. It can be used undiluted on surfaces or diluted in a bucket for floor-cleaning.

• Earth Choice achieved an impressive five-star rating for environmental friendliness and ease of use. It landed on four stars for the remaining categories, including effectiveness, value for money and overall satisfaction.

Pine O Cleen

Pine O Cleen is advertised as being an expert in all things benchtops, floors and other surfaces, with a wide range of cleaners that typically fall into the ‘multi-purpose’ category. Its floor cleaner range includes scents such as Crisp Apple and Pomegranate Blossom which claim to cut through tough dirt and grime on floors and tiles, while killing 99.9% of germs.

• Pine O Cleen earned five stars for smell and packaging design, but ultimately ended on a respectable four stars for overall satisfaction and the remaining categories.

Strike

For something that’s cheap as chips, the Strike Floor Cleaner knocks pretty much all other brands down on price. The product is exclusive to Woolworths and available for just $2, with each bottle containing 750ml. Although there’s not much variety when it comes to scents, currently only offering Mountain Splash.

• Despite its limited scent selection, Strike was one of two brands which impressed consumers on its smell. It achieved four stars in the majority of categories, except environmental friendliness where it finished on three stars.

Handy Andy

You can still use this product if your name is Steve or Amy and consider yourself pretty useless around the house. A Clorox brand, Handy Andy is a no-frills floor cleaner that comes in a 750ml bottle. The bright pink branding on its Original Fresh Scent option means you can’t miss it on supermarket shelves.

• Handy Andy achieved a four-star rating in most categories, including effectiveness and overall satisfaction, but got three stars for value for money and environmental friendliness.

Coles Ultra

Coles has a range of budget-oriented floor cleaners, including its no-frills liquid cleaner, as well as some floor wipes made for easy spill clean-ups. Similarly to Woolies’ Strike, Coles’ Ultra floor cleaners check out at an affordable $2 for a 750ml product or $2.30 for a 1.25L bottle.

• Coles Ultra earned a respectable four-star rating in most areas, including effectiveness, value for money and overall satisfaction. It got three stars for environmental friendliness and ease of use.

Dettol

Dettol is arguably best-known for its Glen 20 sprays and antibacterial gels, although boasts a wide range of trigger sprays and wipes to help keep areas of your home looking and feeling clean. When it comes to specific floor-cleaning products, Dettol has its ‘Floor Cleaning System’– basically large wipes that are claimed to kill 99.9% of the germs you’re likely to find on the floor.

• Dettol ended on four stars overall, as well as for effectiveness and packaging design, although dipped to three stars for value for money, ease of use and environmental friendliness.

Ajax

Walk into a supermarket almost anywhere in the world and you’ll probably find a few bottles of Ajax. It’s a global brand with an extensive range of cleaning products for your bathroom, kitchen and everything in between. The Ajax floor cleaner is available in a lemon or lime scent and is infused with baking soda– a natural ingredient known for effectively cleaning stone surfaces.

• Ajax received a four-star rating for overall satisfaction, despite getting three stars in most categories such as effectiveness and value for money.

Other Cleaner Ratings

• Toilet Cleaners
• Bathroom Cleaners
• Multipurpose Cleaners
• Carpet Cleaners
• Oven Cleaners
• Glass Cleaners

About the author of this page

This report was written by Canstar Blue’s home & lifestyle journalist, Tahnee-Jae Lopez-Vito. She’s an expert on household appliances, grooming products and all things grocery and shopping. In addition to translating our expert research into consumer-friendly ratings reports, Tahnee spends her time helping consumers make better-informed purchase decisions on all manner of consumer goods and services, while highlighting the best deals and anything you need to be aware of.

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