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Tile is a great choice for flooring. It will often be beautiful – you can have a variety of colors, textures, and patterns – and it’s also relatively easy to clean.
As lovely as your tile might be, crumbs and mess will stick out like a sore thumb. On top of that, dirt will stick to textured tile, regardless of how subtle the texture is.
And with tile there’s grout, which is a perfect place for debris to accumulate…at least in this case, it’s nicely organized in a grid for you!
Whether you have saltillo, granite, ceramic, slate, or even marble tiles, a vacuum will be the first step in cleaning.
The Best Tool for Cleaning Tile
Now, you might swear by an old-school method of cleaning, the simple broom and dustpan. And it’s true, on a basic level, that a broom usually gets up most of the mess…most being the key word.
A good vacuum, however, will get all of the mess, down to crumbs trying to hide under cabinets and along baseboards, and that line of dust that’s almost always left when you lift up the dustpan.
You don’t even have to bend over or squat to get to the dustpan!
And tile of course will require occasional mopping. The last thing you want to happen is to suddenly track a line of dust-turned-into-mud into the grout. That’s why it pays to use a vacuum and make sure you get all of the mess first.
But What Kind of Vacuum?
Picking the right kind of vacuum is easy once you narrow down your options a little:
- There’s no need to spend a lot of money on a big, burly upright vacuum that’s designed to tackle thick, high-pile carpets – there are better vacuums made mainly for bare floors.
- You’ll want a vacuum that’s lighter and convenient to pick up and spot-clean smaller messes. The most light and convenient are cordless vacuums.
- Lightest does not necessarily mean best, however – a handheld vacuum would only be most convenient if you have superhuman knees to squat and kneel. Thus, look for a cordless stick vacuum so you can work smarter, and not harder.
Choosing the Right Vacuum for Tile
Now that you know what kind of vacuum to look for, here’s how to pick the right one for tile floors:
- Power is a necessity for tile, because you won’t be using the vacuum’s brushroll like you would on carpet to strip dirt from fibers (and a hard brushroll would scratch tile anyway).
- A lack of power is why some vacuums seem to leave debris behind after several passes, and deeper grout will only make that issue worse.
- Because you’re using a cordless vacuum, a good battery is another non-negotiable. Lithium-ion batteries are a great option if available, but other batteries are still serviceable as long as they provide a good runtime.
- A battery is especially important for tile because you will sometimes be doing a lot more floor-space than just spot-cleaning messes.
- It’s worth it to spend a little more on a vacuum with a well-made and designed vacuum head. A cheaper vacuum head will have harder wheels and edges that will scratch tile.
- A well-engineered vacuum head will also be more agile and pick up more mess than a cheaper one, saving you time and energy.
The Best Choice
Your best option for a cordless stick vacuum for tile is the Rowenta Delta Force 18V. Here’s why:
- It’s got more than enough power: 18 volts will make sure you’re picking up all the dust and getting all of the crumbs out from even deeper grout.
- A unique vacuum head that’s tailor-made for bare floors. It has a diamond-shape with an internal canal system that makes sure dust is sucked up all the way around the head.
- Tucked-away, soft wheels and the head’s ability to swivel 180 degrees help to avoid scratching tile by doing away with frustrated movements of trying to force the vacuum around tight spaces.
- Its great battery makes for a fantastic runtime of thirty to forty minutes, which far surpasses other cordless stick vacuums and will be more than enough for your entire tile floor.
- A large 33oz translucent dust container and a three-stage filter combine to make the Delta Force capable of handling the full spectrum of mess, from the largest spilled pile to the finest dust.
The Delta Force 18V covers every base when it comes to cleaning tile floors. It’s convenient, powerful, and makes vacuuming tile so easy, you’ll be looking for messes to clean.
The Dyson DC35 and DC44 are also great choices, but unless you need their built-in brushrolls to also vacuum carpet in your home, I don’t feel they’re worth the added expense.