Best Power Scrubbers, Lab-Tested and Reviewed
These tools can make cleaning your home a bit less of a hassle
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Whether the task involves mildewy grout, a scuffed floor, or a grimy cooktop, scrubbing by hand can be exhausting. If you’re looking for a tool that makes cleaning a bit less labor-intensive, you might consider an electric power scrubber.
With its rotating brush, a power scrubber takes some of the drudgery out of cleaning and can be especially helpful for people who have limited physical strength. Many come with attachments for cleaning different surfaces, including grout, shower walls, windows, sinks, cooktops, and even furniture. Most also have an extendable rod that lets you reach less accessible corners without stretching, kneeling, or bending.
What Makes a Good Power Scrubber?
In our tests, we found that the cleaning performance of different power scrubbers doesn’t vary much. The biggest difference between a good electric power scrubber and a subpar one is actually battery life, according to Dan Kahl, who leads CR’s testing of power scrubbers. The range is wide: Some we tested can run for over an hour, such as the Hoto Power Spin Scrubber IPX7 (below) and the Casabella Power Spin Scrubber. Those with the shortest battery life, including the Dremel Versa Power Scrubber and the Bell + Howell Scrubtastic Power Scrubber, however, run only about 10 minutes before the battery dies.
Best Power Scrubbers
The models that get CR’s recommendation are easy to use and offer significantly longer battery life than the others we tested.
How CR Tests Power Scrubbers
When it comes to performing their core functions, we found that most power scrubbers are fairly similar.
“All of the power scrubbers can scrub well enough, but you see some of the bigger differences in design and attachments,” Kahl says. “Options like an extendable rod or an adjustable angle on the cleaning head can make a difference.”
Here’s how we assess power scrubbers in the following categories:
Cleaning: In our previous evaluations, we tested how well power scrubbers could clean tough messes, such as dried mustard and honey on tile floors and oil on pots and pans. We’ve discovered that all the models clean pretty much the same. Because of this, we decided to focus our cleaning score on versatility. Power scrubbers that come with more attachments and can therefore clean a wider variety of surfaces get a better cleaning score. If the scrubber’s revolutions per minute (rpm) is higher—in other words, if the brush head spins faster than most—it also gets a slight boost in the cleaning score because it can clean up messes more quickly than models with a lower rpm.
Ease of use: This score reflects how convenient a power scrubber is to use. Models receive higher scores if they have features such as a long extension rod, a comfortable handle, an adjustable head, and a hook at the end for easy storage. We also score them higher if they’re lighter and waterproof, and if it’s easy to attach and release the different brush heads they come with.
Power: Models with a high power score offer strong and consistent motor performance. For this category, we factor in the maximum rpm that the manufacturer claims the power scrubber can deliver. In our labs, we also test whether the scrubber slows down or shuts down when we apply pressure while cleaning. Those that do get dinged in their power score.
Battery life: We set the power scrubber to its highest speed and record the time it takes for the battery to fully drain. We also calculate how long it takes for a power scrubber with a depleted battery to be fully recharged. Models that score well in our battery life evaluation can clean for a long time without the battery dying, though they might take some time to recharge.
