Vax ONEPWR Glide 2 Review
A powerful cordless hard floor cleaner.
Verdict
Capable of cleaning right to the edges of rooms, and coping with tough stains, the Vax ONEPWR Glide 2 is easy to use, and leaves floors almost completely dry. It’s easy to use, although the manual detergent dosing via the trigger, isn’t quite as convenient as having a machine that can automatically dose. That aside, this is a great hard floor cleaner, and the option to swap out batteries to extend runtime is very useful, particularly if you have other ONEPWR tools.
Pros
- Cleans right to the edge
- Leaves floors very dry
- Batteries compatible with other ONEPWR tools
Cons
- Manual dosing
- No hot air drying
Key Features
- TypeThis is a wet and dry vacuum cleaner, using a detergent tank to dispense cleaning solution onto the rollers, sucking up dirty water into a separate tank.
- Battery lifeRuns for up to 20-minutes on a charge, but you can use any ONEPWR batteries you have to extend run time.
Introduction
The original Vax ONEPWR Glide was a great cordless hard floor cleaner, with plenty of power. For the update, the Vax ONEPWR Glide 2, the company has improved how the cleaner is used and has added a self-cleaning mode.
Quality cleaning that leaves the floor practically dry makes this a great hard floor cleaner, but I would like to see an auto-dosing option.
Design and features
- Full width floor head
- Separate detergent and dirty water tanks
- Replaceable battery
Like most hard floor cleaners, the Vax ONEPWR Glide 2 is a large upright-vacuum style cleaner. In many ways, that’s what this is: an upright wet and dry vacuum cleaner that can dose detergent onto the floor.
As with the original, there are two tanks. First, is the 1-litre water tank, which has fill lines for water (maximum temperature of 40°C), and detergent. Vax suggests that you use its ONEPWR Multi-Floor solution and provides a 250ml sample bottle in the box.
Buy directly from Vax, and you get an additional 1-litre of solution. Replacements cost £9.99 for a 1-litre bottle or £29.99 for a 4-litre bottle. Vax’s solution is suitable for all sealed, non-porous hard surfaces, as well as area rugs and upholstery, and it kills 99.9% of bacteria.
There’s also a 0.75-litre dirty water tank. I generally found that I’d need to empty the dirty tank before the clean tank had run out.
Inside the dirty tank is a float that prevents more water being sucked up once the tank is full. While the change in motor noise is a clear indicator that the dirty tank needs to be changed, there’s an indicator on the machine’s body that says when this tank is full.
I found the tank easy to remove and clean. A separator inside holds the solid material, allowing the dirty water to be poured away. Once every five or six cleans the filter at the top should be removed and cleaned under water; the separator can also be removed and rinsed under water to keep it clean.
Using the Vax ONEPWR Glide 2 is straightforward. Just take the cleaner out of its stand, pull the handle back and turn it on. There’s only one power mode on the Glide 2, rather than the two on the original. It makes sense to have one mode that does it all, rather than having to try to guess which one is best.
There’s still a manual trigger to release the solution onto the floor. The advantage of such a system is that you can saturate tougher stains; the downside is that it’s easy to be trigger happy and use up a tank of water fast. I marginally prefer hard floor cleaners that automatically dose, such as the Roborock Dyad Pro.
When the trigger is not being held down, the ONEPWR Glide 2 switches to suction only mode, removing dirt and water from the floor. This is the default mode that you should use to pick up a wet spill, too.
Weighing 5.4kg, the Glide 2 isn’t particularly heavy. Most of the weight is at the bottom of the cleaner, and I didn’t find this hard floor cleaner fatiguing to use.
Once a clean has finished, the ONEPWR Glide 2 should be switched off. The rollers keep running for a few seconds, removing moisture from them. There’s also a self-clean button that will use a bit of detergent to clean the rollers.
As the stand doesn’t provide power, there’s no hot air drying of the rollers on this cleaner. Rollers can be removed and cleaned under water (40°C maximum temperature), and if you buy direct from Vax, you get a spare pair, so can keep cleaning while one set is drying.
Once the self-clean mode has completed, the tanks can be emptied and cleaned, and the battery removed for charging. There’s a clip-on charger in the box, rather than the dock charger that most ONEPWR accessories are provided with. There’s no difference in charging power.
If you want a bit more flexibility, then Vax sells a dual-bay charger (£29.99), so you can have two batteries charging at the same time. That’s particularly useful if you have multiple devices, such as a ONEPWR Blade 5 cordless vacuum cleaner, as you can keep multiple batteries charged and switch them between devices as required.
Performance
- Powerful cleaning
- Good edge performance
- Leaves floors practically dry
I tested the Vax ONEPWR Glide 2 in a variety of situations to see how well it could clean. First, I started off with a muddy floor. Consisting of bigger chunks and some ground-in mess, the Glide 2 made short work of the mess, sucking it all up, and leaving my floor sparkling.
Next, I went for the tougher edge test. Running the Glide 2 down the kitchen plinth, I found that this hard floor cleaner managed to pick up a lot of the mess. There’s a small trace of dirt left behind, but I’ve yet to find many hard floor cleaners that can truly clean to the edge. Only the Shark Klik n’ Flip Automatic Steam Mop S6003UK managed to do this, and that’s because this steam mop has a microfibre cloth that’s folded over and can be pressed into corners and the edges of rooms.
Going for a tougher test, I put BBQ sauce on the floor and left it to dry. Here, the ONEPWR Glide 2 took a little more work to pick everything up, but I found a good way to work was to soak the stain and leave it for a few minutes, while I tackled the rest of the floor, before returning to mop up the mess.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Vax ONEPWR Glide 2 is how well it sucks up moisture on the floor. Once I’d finished cleaning, I ran the hard floor cleaner over the floor and left it practically dry. That’s really impressive and meant that other people in the house can start walking on the surface as soon as I’d finished cleaning.
Battery life came in at 21m 13s in my tests, using the 4Ah battery. I found that was enough to clean a 25m² kitchen, with a fairly dirty floor, and wiz around the rest of my downstairs. I did need a full charge (three hours) to tackle the rest of my house. How dirty your floors are will dictate how much you can clean, but if you do have other ONEPWR devices, you can at least switch out batteries to keep cleaning.
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Should you buy it?
You have a lot of hard floors: This is a large and capable cleaner, ideal for those with homes that are mostly hard floors.
You have a smaller home: Those with fewer hard floors may find a different kind of cleaner works for them.
Final Thoughts
I’d slightly prefer a hard floor cleaner that can automatically dose, as these tend to make detergent go further. That minor complaint aside, the ONEPWR Glide 2 is a very powerful and capable hard floor cleaner that can deal with tough stains with ease, leaving floors almost dry at the end.
It’s great for large spaces, particularly if you have additional batteries to extend the runtime. If you have less hard floor to deal with or prefer a plug-in option, check out my guide to the best hard floor cleaners for alternatives.
How we test
We test every hard floor cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main hard floor cleaner for the review period
Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other steam cleaners
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FAQs
Yes, you can use any battery from any of the other products.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
