Karcher FC7 review – the easy way to vacuum and mop at the same time

85%

• VERDICT

The Karcher FC7 is a handy cleaning product to own if you have a lot of hard floors and not enough time to vacuum before you mop.

When we think of Karcher we think of high pressure cleaners but the company has also produced a handy 2-in1 cordless floor cleaner that makes light work of your hard floors.

The Karcher FC7 is an all-in-one product that makes cleaning fast and easy.

The lightweight unit has a rechargeable battery and comes with trademark yellow highlights on the chassis.

Being a hard-floor cleaner, the FC7 has four detachable rollers and dual water tanks that collects the dirty water and debris as it mops.

Tech Guide gave the Karcher FC7 a whirl on our tiled floors.

What we liked about the device is that it’s aimed at users who can’t spare the time to vacuum the floor before mopping it.

The FC7 does all of that at the same time so you can pick up things like pet hair, crumbs and other small debris and dirt and give the floor a good clean at the same time.

The unit has a four rollers which makes it easy to glide around your floors.

The FC7 feels like it’s floating on a cushion of air which helps you move it back and forth and side to side to easily clean even if it means moving around obstacles and furniture.

And the fact that you’re picking up dirt and debris while mopping at the same time means you’re cutting your cleaning time in half.

There are two water tanks aboard the FC7.

The first up near the handle is where you put your clean water and a capful of detergent.

The second is below beside the rollers where the dirt and debris is collected as you are cleaning.

The cleaning rollers rotate as you are sweeping and mopping and continually moistened with the clean water and detergent from tank one so it can scoop up the dirt and mop up the floor as you move it backwards and forwards and sideways.

The water coming in is filtered into a separate tank so you’re not just moving dirty water back over your floor while you’re cleaning.

There are two cleaning modes including a boost mode for those extra dirty areas that need a little more attention.

Overall we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the clean of our tiled floors.

They are a light colour and really show up the dirt when it’s there so it was pleasing to see the Karcher FC 7 blaze through the dirt and grime as well as pick up pet hair from our two dalmatians and other crumbs and debris on our floors.

You can see a sheen of water on the ground as you are cleaning but the rollers come in to play to scoop up the dirt and polish the floor at the same time.

After a few minutes when the floor dried off we were able to walk on the tiles and put our stools and chairs back on the floor.

The FC 7 considers the need to prepare for your clean but also to clean the product afterwards.

Like a vacuum cleaner, you do have to spend some time every few cleans to clear the base of pet hair and debris that doesn’t end up in the tank.

Thankfully those sections of the base easily click away and can be cleaned with a simple rinse under a tap.

While it’s charging, the Karcher FC7 rests on a base that also doubles up as a cleaning station.

The bottom of this base looks like a small tub which allows you to add a little water, place the FC7 inside and run the rollers to give them a rinse.

The FC7 is powered by a 25.2V lithium ion battery which takes about four hours to completely charge.

On a full charge it will run for up to 45 minutes which is plenty of time to clean all of your hard floors thoroughly.

We did find the instructions a little confusing with illustrations outlining what we needed to do to set up and clean but the written instructions we’re at the back of the booklet instead of beside the illustrations to make them easier to understand.

Thankfully it is pretty simple to set up and operate and to clean afterwards.

There were times when we did have to pick up the odd crumb off the floor afterwards but that’s not a deal breaker because it had picked up most of the other dirt on the floor in the process.

The Karcher FC7 is available now from Harvey Norman and is priced at $799.

VERDICT

The Karcher FC7 is a handy cleaning product to own if you have a lot of hard floors and not enough time to vacuum before you mop.