We tried the new Vileda electric mop - it's great for those with reduced mobility

I’ve never been a fan of mopping. Lugging a heavy bucket of water around, splashes and spills, and floors that take ages to dry… not my idea of time well spent. So I was delighted to be asked to review the new selection of the best steam cleaners from Vileda - the Vileda Looper. 

Lightweight and cordless, Vileda’s latest offering features rotating mop heads and an onboard water tank that sprays water. It even comes with a drip tray to keep your freshly cleaned floors puddle free. 

I tested the Vileda Looper over a week in my own home on laminate flooring and luxury vinyl tiles. After thoroughly assessing its performance, battery life, design and ease of use over several cleans, I’ve shared those results to help you decide whether it’s worth purchasing for your home. As an experienced reviewer of cleaning appliances for several well-known sites, I’m passionate about giving honest reviews about the products I test and whether they offer good value for money. Here's how I got on.

Vileda Looper specs 

• Model number: Vileda Looper
• Battery run time: Maximum 35 minutes
• Battery charge time: 210 minutes
• Water tank capacity: 0.45 litre
• Type of mop: Rechargeable cordless 
• Weight: 3.17 kg
• Dimensions: 30 x 20 x 111 cm
• Spares/Extras included: 2 extra rotating mop head pads 
• Decibel level during operation: 70 - 72 decibels

Who tested the Vileda Looper 

Joanne Lewsley

Joanne regularly tests cleaning products for UK and US websites, including mops. She’s an expert when it comes to vacuums, air purifiers, and cleaning devices, and she evaluates the quality of these home gadgets with several factors in mind, putting them through their paces in a natural home environment for reviews, updating buying guides, and speaking to industry experts on the latest product advances. 

 Unboxing the Vileda Looper 

The Vileda Looper comes in a cardboard box measuring 58 cm x 33 cm x 15 cm. The mop itself is well-protected in moulded cardboard, which is recyclable. However there’s some plastic packaging included which may not be recyclable, depending on where you live. 

My first impressions of the Vileda Looper weren’t great. Given that it’s generally for sale for well over £100, sometimes as much as £150, it could be much more stylish in design. The red, black and grey colourway is dated and the shiny black plastic handle feels cheap. However, there is a textured underside to the handle, which improves grip. The handle also features the on/off button and the spray button, picked out in red.

From the handle, a brushed metal shaft leads down to the water tank. This is basically a grey plastic bottle which you can remove from the device and refill as needed. You simply pull it up and away from the shaft, unscrew the red lid and fill with tap water. Vileda says you can also add a drop of non-foaming detergent to the water tank.

The mop head connects to the base of the shaft. On the underside of the mop head are two rotating discs, to which you attach one of the two sets of mop pads provided with the Vileda mop. Each mop pads has a velcro side that you simply stick to the rotating disc.

Assembling the mop was fairly quick and easy and took just one person.The manual uses a combination of written instructions and illustrations to show you how to do it.

Once assembled, the Vileda Looper needs to be charged up. This can take around 3.5 hours. The charging adaptor connects into the back of the handle via a tiny port. An LED light located at the front of the mop head flashes red to indicate charging.

 Who will the Vileda Looper suit? 

This mop is suited to homes with sealed, hard floors, such as tiles, laminate, linoleum, wood and vinyl. It’s not suitable for use on carpets. 

This mop is ideal if you don't have the time or the patience to fill a bucket with hot, soapy water, or if you don’t have somewhere to store a bucket and mop. The Vileda Looper can simply be plugged into a socket where you need it most, and be used straight away.

People with reduced mobility, or older people, may also find this mop much easier to use than a regular mop and bucket. 

 What is the Vileda Looper like to use? 

It’s so easy to simply fill the water tank on the Vileda Looper and get mopping straight away, instead of having to fill a bucket up and lug it about the room.

The rotating pads work to scrub your floors, while the spray function adds water, mixed with a drop of non-foaming detergent if you wish. It’s easy to manoeuvre about the floor although it’s loud during operation. I recorded volumes of between 70 and 72 decibels. That’s around the same as a washing machine. 

Unfortunately, the Vileda Looper isn’t good at edge or corner cleaning. I found the rotating discs tended to stop when they hit the skirting boards and their circular shape mean they have trouble getting into corners. At this price, I’d expect something that can tackle edges and corners with ease. 

The charging time is long too. The Vileda site says 3.5 hours to a full charge, while the manual says around 4 hours. This feels like a lot of electricity going into 35 minutes of runtime. 

During my testing, I found the Looper tended to struggle with sticky stains, such as dried-on food and liquids. For these kinds of tacky substances, hot water and detergent is the only way to go. However, if it’s a quick and easy clean you’re after, the Looper does the job well enough. It removed muddy foot and pawprints, cleaned up small spills and crumbs, and left a pleasant overall clean sheen to the floors. 

I also found the water tank capacity to be more than generous. I was able to scrub the kitchen, bathroom and long hallway, using just half of the water tank’s capacity. This is really down to your preference though, if you want a lot more water to scrub with, you may have to fill up your water tank more often. 

The shaft rotates a full 90 degrees, so you can get under low furniture, tables, sideboards and chairs with no trouble. The LED light helps to identify areas of dust and grime more easily too. 

While I imagine it’s safe to leave the water tank with water in it, it’s also super easy to simply lift it off the shaft and empty it out when you’re done. 

 Cleaning the Vileda Looper  

There’s no cleaning necessary with the Vileda Looper, other than removing the velcro mop pads and throwing them in the laundry. As with all microfibre pads, don’t use fabric conditioner during washing as this can damage the fibres, making them less effective. You can wash them at temperatures of up to 60 degrees Celsius.  

Storing and maintaining the Vileda Looper 

The Vileda Looper doesn't take up much space at all, with a footprint of just 20 cm x 30 cm. Slim and light, you can leave it in a corner near a plug socket, under the stairs, or in a utility room until you need it. If necessary, you can even take it apart after use, to make it easier to store, though this would be a bit of a faff. 

Although it can’t be wall-mounted, it comes with a handy drip tray that allows you to protect your floors without having to take the wet mop heads off. 

How does the Vileda Looper rate online? 

The Vileda Looper is new to the UK market, so I went to the Germany Amazon store to get a better idea of how previous purchasers rated the device.

It’s very much a mixed bag, with an average of 3.3 stars out of 5. Just 28% of reviewers give it the full 5 stars, while 50% of customers give it 3 stars or less. Negative reviews tend to mention how cheap the product feels, or how it struggles to clean sticky residues and big spills, with many complaining that the purchase price is much too high. 

Positive reviews praise the 35-minute runtime and many users say it’s easy and simple to use the Vileda Looper in place of a mop and bucket. Users with reduced mobility, or older users, say that the convenience of an electric-powered mop outweighs the high cost.

How does the Vileda Looper compare to similar models and its predecessors?

Compared to a manual mop and bucket, the Vileda Looper is easy, convenient and effective. No puddles of grimy water, no splashes or spills, and the floor is left clean and shining. 

Vileda does offer a number of products in this category, some of which are much cheaper than the Vileda Looper. For example, the Vileda 1-2 Spray Mop System is a mop that does away with the bucket by featuring an onboard water tank with a trigger-activated spray. However, it doesn’t provide the automated scrubbing that the Looper does. 

The Vileda Turbo Spin Mop and Bucket Set allows you to reach under furniture with an adjustable handle. It’s also much better for corners as it has a triangular mop head. However, you’ll still need to fill and carry a bucket of water around. 

One of the closest products to the Vileda Looper that I’ve tested over the last year is the Shark Steam and Scrub Automatic Mop. Around the same price as the Vileda Looper, this is a steam mop that features a similar mop head, with two rotating discs. While it’s beautifully designed and looks much more sleek and stylish than the Looper, I found I got a cleaner result from the Looper, despite using cold water instead of steam. 

Should you buy the Vileda Looper? 

While I enjoyed using the Vileda Looper, and found it to be more convenient than a mop and bucket, I wouldn't personally invest in the product. It’s very expensive for what it offers but it looks cheap, and the lack of edge cleaning and corner cleaning let it down during testing for me. However, I can see how people with reduced mobility might find it a much more convenient method of mopping floors, compared to a mop and bucket.  

 About this review, and the reviewer 

Joanne tested the Vileda Looper over several days on various surfaces, thoroughly checking its performance, runtime, battery charging time and extra features, in according to how we test at Ideal Home.