After use, hard floors dried in a matter of seconds, which means you don't have to hang around waiting. It cleaned all of our stains and dirt effortlessly, too. However, we did notice that it left some light streaks around the edges and that it struggled to clean right into the grouting on tiled floors. That being said, it still did a good job of cleaning right up to the edges, thanks to the flexibility of the pads. For light, everyday cleaning, the pink pads will suffice, however for anything more than light soiling, the blue pads will help to produce a streak-free finish. It was also much faster than using a mop, with a single charge lasting for a decent length of time (30-40 minutes). Not to mention, the 0.3-litre tank gave us more than enough water to cover a wide space. The Powerglide can clean up to 20sqm per minute, although speed will depend on how soiled your floor is: dirtier parts of a floor may require more attention. To test, I put the Powerglide through its paces in my kitchen, which routinely becomes dirty thanks to four cats coming in and going out. The Powerglide uses two rotating microfibre cloths alongside a spray control to direct your choice of detergent where you want it to go. It cleans well, it can handle more delicate floors, and even has cloths designed for waxing and polishing. If it’s a properly affordable steam mop you’re after, the Beldray Detergent Steam Cleaner should be a fantastic choice.

Hard floors are where this cleaner excels, dealing with stubborn stains with ease, leaving a nice shiny floor at the end. Impressively, the CrossWave Cordless Max is also a decent vacuum cleaner in its own right, so there’s no need to clean up with a vacuum cleaner first; in fact, the only thing you’ll need a regular vacuum cleaner for is to get into tight gaps and for edge cleaning. Cleaning performance is excellent with the dual microfibre rollers dealing with all of our stains, even the tough ones. Just empty the used tank regularly to prevent mess being left behind, and watch out for the front of the rollers, as they can leave dirt on a wall if you’re not careful. If you’ve mostly got hard floors and want them looked after automatically, then this is an exceptional robot vacuum cleaner and mop. This model has dual spinning microfibre cloths that actually agitate and remove dirt. It does almost as a good a job at cleaning as a manual steam mop or floor cleaner, only with no actual effort. Used in a well-used kitchen, we found that we only needed to get out a manual floor cleaner every couple of weeks or so, and that was mostly to get right into the edges where the robot can’t reach. Cleaning performance is excellent. Once turned on, the Glide 2 is in suction-only mode, with a trigger to dispense cleaning solution. We like machines that auto-dose, but the advantage here is that it’s easy to saturate tough stains with the cleaning solution.

The water trigger is easy to use too, which meant we were able to deliver a controlled and wide spray of water to clean with. The design of the floor head is a little bulky but it's not too tall and the long handle flexes almost parallel to the floor, meaning it can reach under sofas and other low furniture with ease. It can be a little awkward to navigate around furniture or fragile decor though.

That aside, if you want something small and convenient, using detergent to really clean, this grab and go model is easy to use and powerful. The controls on the handle include a power toggle button plus a button to change modes. You can get a visual indicator of the level of dirt by looking at the coloured bar that runs around the LCD: the more red there is, the dirtier the floor.A touch heavy in the hand, the FC5 Hard Floor Cleaner is a great tool for any house with a lot of hard flooring, particularly those homes with mixed hard floor surfaces.

Vacuuming performance is just as impressive. There are a few minor complains: the software isn’t quite as flexible as some of the competition, and if you have carpets it can be fiddly working out how to clean them without getting them wet. We’d also avoid using the integrated voice assistant, as it’s hard to get it to understand. Drone pilots: they are responsible for ensuring that their devices do not interfere with air traffic through the use of flight routes The first thing of which I became aware was that it’s essential to vacuum first. There’s no vacuuming action on the Powerglide, so surface dirt just gets flung around. What you want is a floor that has more ingrained marks, free of dust. This machine has a variety of cleaning fluids available, although you can use it with most floor cleaners – and it’s safe to use on sealed wood floors, too. Once done, the rollers can be easily removed and put through the washing machine, prepping them for the next time you need the cleaner.An upgrade on the original, the Vax ONEPWR Glide 2 boosts power, ease of use and edge performance while maintaining many features that made the original so good. And, this cleaner is also certified for use on rugs and carpet that can be wet washed. You don’t get the full cleaning ability that a carpet cleaner gives you, but for regular maintenance, this model does a great job. All of these models are built to take care of hard floors, with dedicated cleaning heads and detergent formulated to clean up dirt and leave a streak-free finish.