We Pitted Swiffer vs. Bona in a Battle of the Spray Mops

The Swiffer PowerMop and the Bona Spray Mop Air have similar builds, consisting of a snap-together pole, a swiveling head with a removable cleaning pad, and a spraying mechanism for dispensing the integrated fluid. But they have enough design differences that the Swiffer model made cleaning noticeably easier.

Part of that comes down to the different mop pads. The Swiffer PowerMop uses single-use pads made from papery tendrils that mimic the nap of a more traditional wet mop, while the Bona Spray Mop Air uses a microfiber pad that resembles terry cloth and is machine-washable and reusable. (You can buy additional Bona pads if you prefer to have extras.)

I put both spray mops to work in my 750-square-foot apartment on a combination of parquet wood floors, ceramic tile, and vinyl tile, wiping up everything from spilled matcha to cooking oil, dust, and dog hair. I found that the Swiffer PowerMop pad was surprisingly good at picking up dry, errant debris, such as dog hair and dust, without pushing it into corners or against baseboards — an issue I commonly ran into while using the Bona Spray Mop Air as well as the Swiffer WetJet.

The Bona mop pads were more similar in cleaning power to those of the Wet Jet and noticeably worse at picking up dust and debris, especially on uneven flooring like grouted tile and parquet. That said, the microfiber pad did loosen stuck-on grime such as long-forgotten juice splatters, and the small, looped fibers picked up more dust and tracked-in dirt than the disposable WetJet pads typically did.

Both mops require sweeping or vacuuming before use for an effective clean. But I didn’t have to be as fastidious with sweeping or vacuuming before using the PowerMop, since it’s better at lifting and trapping debris.

The Swiffer PowerMop beat the Bona Spray Mop Air not only in cleaning efficiency but also in maneuverability, despite being more than 3 pounds heavier. I found that the Swiffer model glided more effortlessly across the floor and was agile enough to jam under furniture and sneak into corners. The Bona mop, in contrast, had a tendency to skip and stick on flooring when wet, requiring a little more effort to push; the Bona mop’s microfiber pad may cause more friction than the Swiffer model’s paper pad, especially when wet.

The Swiffer PowerMop also has the helpful addition of two LED lights over each spray nozzle. The lights aren’t especially bright, especially next to the razor-sharp green light on a Dyson V12 cordless vacuum, but in my experience they illuminated dust and debris well enough to be worth noting.

Last, the Swiffer model’s battery-powered spray mechanism (the “power” in “PowerMop”) requires less mobility to dispense the cleaning solution than the manual mechanism of the Bona mop, in which you pump the cleaning solution through the mop and spray it onto the floor in a fashion similar to using a continuous-spray water bottle. So using the Bona Spray Mop Air requires a little more effort than using the PowerMop — though it will also never require a battery change.

Although the Swiffer PowerMop came out ahead of the Bona Spray Mop Air in my tests, you still might opt for the Bona mop over the Swiffer model if you’re more concerned about disposability, refillability, and lifetime cost.

One of the major gripes of Swiffer WetJet users is the inability to refill the cleaning-solution tank; this forces you to keep buying the company’s cleaning solution, which is packaged entirely in plastic containers. Unfortunately, the Swiffer PowerMop is no different, as the cleaning solution is sold in plastic bottles that aren’t refillable, since security tabs on the inside of the cap prevent you from opening and closing it. (There is a workaround, though, for intrepid reusers and DIY-cleaning-solution makers.)

In contrast, the Bona cleaning solution is less expensive (approximately 14 cents per ounce to the PowerMop solution’s 21 cents), concentrated, and sold in 1-ounce cardboard packs. You mix the concentrate directly in the tank with 31 ounces of water to make 32 ounces of cleaning solution. In theory, you can refill the cleaning-solution tank using the concentrate an infinite number of times. (And unlike Swiffer’s solution, Bona’s is EPA Safer Choice–certified, which means it meets criteria set by the EPA regarding human and environmental health.) You can also refill the Bona mop’s solution tank with the previous version of Bona’s solution, should you have some left over. Plus, the Bona mop’s tank is clear, so you can easily see when you need to refill.

Because the Swiffer PowerMop pads are single-use, you need to break out a fresh one every time you clean — and at approximately $1.72 per pad, the cost and waste quickly add up. Meanwhile, Bona’s pads are washable and reusable, though with enough time, they’ll eventually need to be replaced.

A workaround, if you already own the Swiffer PowerMop or WetJet but want to limit your single-use waste, is to purchase reusable microfiber pads, a recommendation from Wirecutter home improvement writer Liam McCabe, who found them in his mission to make his WetJet less wasteful. These pads are manufactured by various third-party companies, not Proctor & Gamble, but they clean similarly to the Bona mop pads. I’ve used these same reusable pads for at least five years, and I agree with Liam and a number of other colleagues that they’re “totally adequate,” especially when you take the waste and cost savings into account.

Swiffer’s PowerMop also periodically requires AA-battery replacement, which adds to its cost and environmental impact over time. Like anything else that isn’t strictly analog, the PowerMop runs the risk of malfunctioning or breaking faster than the Bona Spray Mop Air, which doesn’t use electricity in its spray mechanism and has no lights that might fail.

If you don’t mind doing some concentrated vacuuming or sweeping before you spray-mop, and if you prefer less waste and lifetime cost, you may like the Bona Spray Mop Air. I might reach for the Swiffer PowerMop more readily right now, but once I run out of pads and solution for it, I’ll be keeping the Bona Spray Mop Air for the long haul.

For the best floor-cleaning ability overall, Wirecutter favors bucketed wet mops, which cleaned better in our tests and are less wasteful than spray mops with disposable pads. Still, spray mops can’t be beat when it comes to convenience. And if you have delicate, unsealed flooring, such as peel-and-stick tile or some inexpensive kinds of laminate, you might want to skip a traditional mop’s excessive water to avoid warping, lifting, or swelling underfoot.

This article was edited by Katie Okamoto and Harry Sawyers.