The Best Microfiber Mop Pad For Your Wood Floor
Why Your Mop Pad Might Be Causing Wood Floor Haze
If you hate a hazy wood floor, please raise your hand! That’s why I thought. Everyone hates a hazy wood floor!
There are a number of reasons that your floor might look hazy even after you’ve worn yourself out running a microfiber mop and favorite wood floor cleaner across the room. There are, of course, a number of reasons that your floor might be hazy including the wood floor cleaner you’re using, the amount and type of dirt on your floor and, frankly, your cleaning technique.
We cover all of the reasons hardwood, engineered and laminate wood flooring might be hazy in several articles that we’ll link below, but in this resource guide we’re going to focus on the microfiber mop pad you’re using and will give you our list of the Top 5 Best Microfiber Mop Pads to avoid a hazy wood floor.
Why Use a Microfiber Mop Pad to Clean a Wood Floor?
In 2022 I’m betting that only a small number of homes still use either a sponge or cotton mop. That’s because sponge and cloth mops require a bucket of water for rinsing and wringing. What a bother, right? The problems are numerous with these types of mops, the worst of which is that they put WAY too much water on the floor. Want to ruin a wood floor quickly? Put too much water on it!
On the other hand, wringing out a mop in a bucket does help to transfer the picked-up dirt from the mop into the bucket of water.
Alternatively, microfiber mops – at least the good ones – allow you to carefully meter the amount of cleaner applied via a spray bottle, which will help you protect your floor from water damage.
Where a microfiber mop has a disadvantage to a cotton or sponge mop is that they have to balance the ability to pull up and hold dirt with absorbency. To understand this we’ll have to talk about what microfiber mop pads are made of. (We’ll try not to make your eyes glaze over!)
What Are Microfiber Mop Pads Made of?
Microfiber mop pads are made up of a buzzillion teeny-tiny strands of woven polyester and polyamide (nylon) threads that are often less than 1,000 of the thickness of a strand of hair. The polyester provides the scrubbing ability and the polyamide provides the absorbency. The woven loops of microfiber are attached to a cotton or polyester backing that can then be attached to the hook side of the hook and loop fastener on your mop handle.
What Makes the Best Microfiber Mop Pads?
The challenge for microfiber mop pads is that they must perform two tasks. First, the braided strands of microfiber must have good scrubbing ability to grab and hold onto the dirt that the cleaning fluid has loosened. Second, the mop pad must absorb the thin layer of cleaning liquid and grime suspended in it. This is not easy task!
In a perfect world you’d have one microfiber mop on hand to do the wet scrubbing and then you’d follow up with another dry microfiber mop pad with great absorbency to pick up the leftover cleaning fluid and suspended gunk.
Having to use two separate mops would be a pain, wouldn’t it?
As a result, the best microfiber mop pads offer both the ability to work with the cleaning fluid to safely lift dirt, grease and grime from the wood floor while also absorbing the remaining dirty liquid after the cleaner has done its job.
How Can You Tell if Your Microfiber Mop Pad Has Good Scrubbing Ability?
To tell if your microfiber pad has good scrubbing ability, wet a small section of your floor with cleaner and rub the mop over the floor. Put some elbow grease into it. Do you feel friction when you mop and the floor, or does the pad simply glide across the surface?
A microfiber mop pad with good scrubbing ability will generate friction when run across a wetted floor. The more the friction, the better the scrubbing capabilities to remove stubborn food, grease and dirt.
You want a mop pad with good scrubbing ability.
How Can You Tell if Your Microfiber Mop Pad Has Good Absorbency?
I know that this seems like a silly question but hear me out. “Good” absorbency is not immediate, dry as a bone absorbency.
First, you don’t want your microfiber mop pad to immediately absorb all of the cleaning fluid the moment it touches the floor. The mop pad needs to spread the cleaning fluid across the polyurethane finish and then allow a few seconds for the fluid and mop to work together before the remaining dirty liquid is absorbed.
The “Goldilocks” mop pad gives the fluid enough time to work and then, through capillary action, pulls the dirty cleaning liquid deep into the pad, ready to start a new section of the floor.
What is the Best Microfiber Mop Pads for Wood Floors?
We’ve often wondered this ourselves, and so for the past three years, from 2019 through 2021, we embarked on a long-term test of several competitive mop pads, including our own. In addition to the mop pad performance metrics of scrubbing and absorption, we also rated the microfiber mop pads based on their durability and value, ranking every mop pad on a 5 point scale overall and for each individual criteria.
We used the mop pads daily, rotating through each one and recording our results. After each use, we laundered the mop pads in a top of the line LG washing machine to both see how durable the pads were and, over time, if dirt and grease were released from the pads during the washing. After nearly 16 months, here are the results of our mop pad torture tests!
Read on, the results might surprise you!
Bona Replacement Mop Pads
Content: 93% polyester and 7% polyamide
I need to say this first. The Bona Wood Floor cleaner is the definition of “meh”! It’s ok, but you’d do just as well buying the generic Walmart spray-on wood floor cleaner.
That being said – and I hate to admit this – their floor cleaning pads are good. First, they are excellent scrubbers. When you apply cleaner to the floor and run the mop across it, you can feel the friction that’s lifting dirt. Second, while not as absorbent as a cotton bar mop towel, the only 5 out of 5 on our absorbency rating scale, the Bona mop pad does a very good job at absorbing cleaner and residue. Bona claims that, “The dark blue outer fibers break up grime while the light blue inner fibers trap and absorb dirt and leave no residue behind.” While that last claim is a bit of a stretch – every pad used for wet mopping leaves some residue – it’s near the top of the class for absorbency.
After over a year of use and close to 100 washings, I’m very impressed. We have no problem rating Bona mop pads as a co-winner in this mop pad challenge.
One thing to note is that we just purchased a new set of Bona mod pads and it looks like they’ve cheaped out on customers by reducing the length of the pad by an inch or more. The reason this is important – and maddening – is that a longer mop pad not only fits most mop handles better, that extra length allows you to get farther under the range, dishwasher and refrigerator.
Bona is probably saving a few pennies per mop pad by making them shorter, but they’re not doing you or other customers any favors.
Total Score: 4.75
Scrubbing Ability: 5
Absorbency: 4
Durability & Washability: 5
Long-Term Value: 5
Mr. Floor Micro-Fiber Mop Pads
Content: 80% polyester / 20% polyamide
Are we biased about our microfiber mop pads? Of course we are! We constantly review the quality of our microfiber mop pads and are always testing new polyester and polyamide blends and yarns. And all that attention pays off!
When you use the Mr. Floor Mop Pads you’ll immediately notice that they’ve got great “grab” when run across a wet floor. That’s the polyester yarn taking hold, like teeny-tiny little fingers, of the microscopic dirt clinging to the floor.
Once the dirt has been lifted, the mop absorbs most of the remaining contaminated liquid, pulling it deep into the mop pad and toward the foam backing.
IMHO, this is a great mop pad that’s definitely tied for first place.
Total Score: 4.75
Scrubbing Ability: 5
Absorbency: 4
Durability & Washability: 5
Long-Term Value: 5
Microfiber Wholesale 20″ Microfiber Scrubber Mop
Content: 80% polyester / 20% polyamide, black scrubber strips are 100% polyester
This is a really interesting mop pad. First, the main body of the pad is made up of white microfiber yarn which gets really dirty as you mop your floor. I kind of like the transformation from white to black as you work the mop around the floor. However, despite repeated washings, the mop just looks dirty and that suggests to me that it has some difficulty releasing trapped grease during the washing cycle.
The second innovation with this mop pad are the black, 100% polyester “scrubber strips” that, according to the company, “…are designed to provide aggressive cleaning in high traffic areas without damaging your floors – perfect for scuff marks!”
What I found during my testing is that while the scrubber strips do work pretty well, their stiffness tends to keep the rest of the mop pad from biting in, and almost provided less overall cleaning friction because of it.
Absorption with this mop pad was OK, but not up to the Bona or Mr. Floor pads.
Total Score: 3.75
Scrubbing Ability: 5
Absorbency: 3
Durability & Washability: 3
Long-Term Value: 4
Microfiber Wholesale 20″ Microfiber Wet Mop Pad
Content: 80% polyester / 20% polyamide
Purchased in December of 2018, and used for three years, my opinion is that these are decent, lower middle-of-the-pack mop pads.
First, they’ve got decent cleaning friction on a wetted floor. While not class-leading, you can definitely feel them working. Where they fall down just a bit is in the absorption of spent cleaning fluid. The yarns don’t feel as dense and the foam not as thick and there’s just not as much fluid pickup because of it.
One standout feature of these pads is that unlike their brethren above, these microfiber pads washed up nicely. Part of it, no doubt, is that the blue color of the yarn hides the staining over time, but compared to the other brands, they look and feel clean.
Total Score: 3.75
Scrubbing Ability: 4
Absorbency: 3
Durability & Washability: 4
Long-Term Value: 4
Microfiber Wholesale 20″ Microfiber Wet Mop Pad
Content: 80% polyester / 20% polyamide
Purchased in December of 2018, and used for three years, my opinion is that these are decent, lower middle-of-the-pack mop pads.
First, they’ve got decent cleaning friction on a wetted floor. While not class-leading, you can definitely feel them working. Where they fall down just a bit is in the absorption of spent cleaning fluid. The yarns don’t feel as dense and the foam not as thick and there’s just not as much fluid pickup because of it.
One standout feature of these pads is that unlike their brethren above, these microfiber pads washed up nicely. Part of it, no doubt, is that the blue color of the yarn hides the staining over time, but compared to the other brands, they look and feel clean.
Total Score: 3.75
Scrubbing Ability: 4
Absorbency: 3
Durability & Washability: 4
Long-Term Value: 4
Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Standard Replacement Microfiber Pad
Content: Not Specified
Frankly, I was fooled by 4.5 Amazon stars and the Rubbermaid name. What a huge disappointment these mop pads were. Compared to the others tested, they’re very thin and have little foam backing. This causes two problems. First, the backing of a mop pad helps to keep the microfiber yarns firmly on the floor as you work in the cleaner. Using these pads I couldn’t help but feel that the metal mop head was almost right on the floor. Not a good feeling.
Second, the thinness of the pads doesn’t provide much help in soaking up dirty cleaning liquid. The result is that once the fibers become saturated, the fluid dries on the floor and you’ve got the dreaded hazy floor.
While they washed up fairly clean, these mop pads just aren’t worth your dollars or effort.
Total Score: 2.25
Scrubbing Ability: 2
Absorbency: 2
Durability & Washability: 3
Long-Term Value: 2
Real Clean 18 Inch Microfiber Wet and Dry Mop Pad Refills
Content: Not Specified – Not Currently Avalaible
These pads were brand new to Amazon when I purchased them in November of 2018. It looks like they were only on sale for a short time before being pulled, or as many Amazon vendors do, re-branded under a different name so that they can escape the weight of bad reviews.
Anywho, the best thing I can say about these microfiber mop pads is that the black color of the backing did not run in the wash.
Total fail otherwise.
Total Score: 1.75
Scrubbing Ability: 3
Absorbency: 1
Durability & Washability: 2
Long-Term Value: 1