review – I don’t know about you, but the idea of mopping makes me feel like “…crawl under the covers and eat a box of Velveeta” – Rose Nylund (RIP Betty White). Seriously, if I could vote forever off my to-do list, it would be mopping the floor. It’s tiring, you have to somehow get things wet to avoid footprints, keep changing the water, then wait for the floor you just wetted, dry, and even when you’re done, you have to wash your mop. Worse than that The thing is, the bottoms of your white socks are now a depressing grey (extra fur for a four-legged friend) within 2 days of frequent walking with your partner and pet. So what do you do when your floor is too dirty to sweep but you refuse to knock out mops and Fabuloso for 3 peoplerd Time of the week? Take the Redkey 3-in-1 Clean Elite W12 Vacuum into the cleaning field and see what it can do!
What is it?
The Redkey 3-in-1 Clean Elite W12 is a fork between an upright canister vacuum and a wet mop. Weighing in at just over 8 pounds, this cordless machine lets you easily “on the go” cleaning without having to haul out a vacuum, mop, bucket and spoiler alert with a “self-cleaning” feature.
What’s in the box?
- 1 Redkey Clean Elite W12 unit
- 1 bottle with measuring fill line
- 1 clean water tank
- 1 waste water tank with filter
- 3 rollers
- 1 docking station/charging station
- 1 cleaning brush/filter tool
- 1 charging plug, 110 volts
- 1 user manual
Unboxing and setup is a breeze. The design is fairly intuitive; the large, clear power and spray power buttons are easily accessible with the thumb. The self-cleaning button is hidden on the front of the device to avoid accidental pressing during use.
It was a bit of a struggle at first as the unit I received did have a power cord made for a UK plug. Then when using my travel adapter, my device only runs for 15 minutes. Fast forward a few days and put in a new cord – absolutely 0 charging issues and an astounding 45 minutes of runtime.
There’s also a bit of a learning curve, as the instructions omit the need to push the head of the device down to activate the power button for use. However, as you can see above, they do include a cute little foot icon on the device, so it’s not an impossible code to crack.
As you can see, I started small. Wet dog food and a little frosting. My cocker spaniel eats a mix of wet food and veggies, mostly on the ears instead of the floor. The Clean Elite W12 is the rock star in this regard, I have to say I prefer a quick zip to the mess of this unit, rather than spraying the area, wiping it off with a tissue, and seeing all the streaks I wiped to add insult to injury to harm.
Next, came the bigger test – the removal of the Christmas tree. Oh yes my friends, pine needles proliferate when they fall to the ground, and the Christmas tree water inevitably overflows when the tree is removed, not to mention that once one of the needles gets wet, they act like superglue The same sticks to everything. This is where I’m really impressed. Cleaning up this mess is super easy thanks to the vacuum action plus the roller brush. I am speechless. I’ve owned real Christmas trees my whole life, and it wasn’t until June that I quit cleaning up the pine needles I found. Not this year! Clean Elite W12 eats them all.
OK, about the juicy stuff. It’s easy to marvel at the original device, but how does it stand up to all the testing and actual use?
Below are a few pictures showing how the parts looked before self-cleaning. A word of caution: these are disgusting. You are warned. The Clean Elite W12 vacuumed a lot of water and picked up most of it, leaving all of it in the trash instead of on my floor.
After the self-clean cycle is complete, you can see that it’s not even using half the amount of water that the recovery tank can hold.
Now I don’t recommend emptying the unit in the sink, but I wanted to show that the self-cleaning feature does work. During the first self-cleaning of the W12 unit, all the water is drawn from the drum. The best part is that I can run this multiple times without downtime because it happens on the same dock connected to a charging power source.
As with anything, communication is key and the Redkey Clean Elite W12 really shows you what the unit is like.
what do I like
- Lightweight: The unit itself is very light, weighing just over 8 pounds. The Redkey Clean Elite W12 won’t tire you out when working on large floors. Actually, the rollers give a kind of self-propelled force. Not enough to escape you, but easier to push.
- Battery life: Once the plug issue was corrected, I was able to clean all the hardwood surfaces in my house on a single charge, and the battery light barely dropped a notch.
- Water Use: Having used other similar products, the Clean Elite W12 doesn’t spray too much water in a single shot, even on a strong spray setting. This avoided having to refill the reservoir countless times, but also avoided soaking my wood floors.
- Footprint: The Redkey Clean Elite W12 takes up very little space when docked to the charging station, and also allows all accessories to fit inside the base.
- Roller brushes: Now, roller brushes are nice; they get the job done. Plush material, highly absorbent. But what I particularly like is that the unit comes with three. One, ok, it has to have at least one. Two, too, in which case you can rotate them in and out. But three? Three is the magic number; while one is drying, you have two on deck, ready to go.
- Self-cleaning function: no washing and soaking, basically no rollers, which is awesome. Have a particularly serious mess? run it again. It helps that the unit doesn’t have the reset time required for this feature. Just follow the prompts. This feature is very effective at cleaning the rollers, and since we’re recycling three of them, they can be swapped out if hand washing the rollers is preferred.
- Clear warning icons on the handle – empty tank, full waste tank, stuck roller, everything. The Clean Elite W12 really lets you know what it needs.
what would i change
- If this product is to be sold in the US, it requires a US wall plug.
- When the device is powered on, it can be difficult to understand what it is telling you; not because the device is loud, but because the statements sound weird. “Strong water flow” “low water flow”, the button labeled “VOL” is about the volume of water flow. It’s a little confusing.
- Some ability to apply more pressure or a manual spray button to really saturate the messiest of messes. At times, I found myself standing in the same spot for a few minutes, running the unit back and forth in the same spot, only cleaning a small portion of the floor after each pass, but the unit didn’t seem to be in a hurry.
- The company states that no cleaning formulations are to be used unless otherwise stated, but not any cleaning formulations. The site also doesn’t have a list of approved cleaners. All my cleaning is done with plain water from a clean tank or by spraying vinegar on the actual mess.
final thoughts
Since receiving the Redkey Clean Elite W12, I have noticed myself reaching for it multiple times a day. For small dog food messes, sprinkles, or my all-time favorite: when we had an extra 4 inches of snow on top of the predicted 6 inches, half ended up being dragged into the house after shoveling; sucked up all forms The snow is a breeze. Honestly, I could almost buy it for the last one. It reminds me of a very polished wet/dry shop vacuum that’s quieter, smaller and cordless. Also, the included accessory, a brush that doubles as a filter (helps prevent large debris from clogging the drain) is a nice touch. I don’t want to go through rough water to fish out a sucked escaped bread tag or a missing earring, it’s really thoughtful for a cleaning station. If you’re in the market for an electric wet vacuum for routine floor maintenance, the Redkey Clean Elite W12 is worth having.
price: $299.99
where to buy:
source: Samples for this review provided by . For more information, please visit their website.
