The 5 Most popular hardwood flooring cleaners on Amazon. Which one is best?
It’s important to maintain your hardwood flooring with the best hardwood cleaning product. After all, hardwood is one of the largest assets and investments in your home. Hardwood cleaners serve multiple purposes. Not only will they clean and restore the wood’s natural beauty, but they will also prolong the life of your floors. Conversely, not cleaning often enough or using an improper cleaner can accelerate the demise of your floors (and cost you more money in the long run).
Be sure to use a hardwood flooring cleaner, and not just any cleaner. Other formulas can scratch the surface, some will leave a dull residue, some can make the floors slippery, and a few can even strip the color. You want a hardwood cleaner that is specifically made for hardwood flooring.
These cleaners are sorted based on their popularity (i.e. sales) on Amazon. All of them are made in the USA.
Please note that this article may contain affiliate links. You can read my full disclosure at the bottom of the page.
The Top 5 Hardwood Floor Cleaners…and the one that I recommend
1. Bona hardwood cleaner spray
Bona is the #1 recommended cleaning product by hardwood professionals. It’s perfect for hardwood flooring (any type – pre-finished, site finished, solid, engineered), as well as cork, bamboo and laminate.
We recommend this to our customers and in fact give this to our customers as a thank you gift. It’s residue free and helps protect your hardwood investment. And, of course it’s safe for family, pets and the environment.
Bona dries fast and doesn’t leave a dulling residue. It’s safe for all types of polyurethaned floors. It’s Green Guard Certified and uses all natural ingredients. It was also the top scoring product in Good Housekeeping’s panel testing.
Bona does not have an overpowering smell. Everyone’s sense of smell is different,but most describe this a light, fresh, clean scent to no scent at all.
Bona comes in a spray, as well as refill and a starter kit (which contains a microfiber mop).
2. Bruce Laminate and hardwood cleaner
Bruce laminate and hardwood cleaner is made by Armstrong and is good for polyurethaned hardwood floors and laminate. As the name implies, it’s used primarily for laminate floors and is especially good for shiny floors (or those looking for a shinier/glossier look), especially shiny laminate floors. This product received good ratings from Good Housekeeping’s study.
3. Weiman High Traffic Floor Polish and Restorer
This is a 2 in 1 product that restores the shine and rejuvenates the floors. It claims to leave a brilliant natural shine and extend the life of the hardwood with a protective and scratch resistant layer.
Customers claim that it makes the scratches disappear. I would caution you about using this product as it will temporarily make your floors look better, but the waxes will degrade your poly and cause you to refinish the floors sooner (see below). This just goes to show you that you can’t always rely on rankings…as non professionals often don’t know the long term impact of products.
All that aside, Weiman also has a regular hardwood cleaner which has good reviews (109 as of this writing). It cleans and renews, and it’s ecofriendly.
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4. Zep Enforcer Professional Strength Hardwood and laminate cleaner
Zep Enforcer removes spots, stains and scuff marks. It cleans and restores without leaving a residue. It’s good for hardwood, and laminate, as well as base boards and cabinets. It’s professional strength and has a fresh scent. The Amazon reviews are generally positive.
5. Black Diamond wood and laminate floor cleaner
Black Diamond is made by Stoneworks and is streak-free. It’s environmentally friendly and biodegradable, so it’s safe for kids and pets. It removes spills, stain and dirt and even claims to prevent soil from attaching to the surface. It has PS3, a revolutionary triple action protection shield. It was one of Good Housekeeping’s top performing hardwood cleaners.
Concluding thoughts on hardwood floor cleaners:
My personal favorite hardwood flooring cleaner is Bona. We want our customers to have the best hardwood floors and to properly care and maintain them, so we give our customers a free Bona Cleaner and care instructions for proper maintenance. There is a reason that it’s the most recommended by hardwood professionals, manufacturers and decorators. And, there’s a reason it’s #1 on Amazon. There certainly are other hardwood cleaners that work well and if you are happy with your cleaner, by all means use it.
These hardwood cleaning products are most effective if they are used with a microfiber mop or swiffer.
Watchout: A big word or caution here…avoid hardwood cleaners that tend to over-promise and to add shine to your floor. These generally contain waxes and oils which will temporarily make your floors look better. However, these will degrade the polyurethane on your floors faster causing you to sand and refinish much sooner, costing your much more. Further, these waxes will prevent you from being able to do a screen and recoat (which is a less invasive and less expensive way to restore and protect the life of your floor (vs a full sand and refinish). You can read more about a screen and recoat in this article. If you see the words polish, glow, shine, etc, take caution.
Other useful hardwood articles:
- How to prevent scratches in your hardwood floors
- Useful items to protect your floors if you have pets
- What is a screen and recoat? What is buffing?
- Best steam mop for Tile Floors
- Best upholstery cleaners for pet owners
Complementary products that will prolong the life of your hardwood floors
The Top 5 Hardwood Floor Cleaners…and the one that I recommend
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What about Murphy’s Oil Soap?
I would avoid that as I believe most manufacturer’s recommend against it and it might even invalidate some warranties.
Great article! We use mainly Bruce Hardwood & Laminate for some of our residential floor cleanings and it’s fantastic.
Logan – Glad to hear that.
The original question that I sent was modified, somehow.
It should have said that we have dining room table that is over 150 years old. There heat stains or water stains on it. We have Murphy’s but no success. Any suggestions.
My builder had cleaners use Murphy’s Oil Soap for hardwoods on my Shaw engineered hardwoods, now the floors have hazy spots. What is the best product to remove the Murphy’s?
Rebecca – Before you do anything, call Shaw tech department and ask them. They would know best. Murphy’s oil soap is a no no, and they may have invalidated the warranty. call Shaw before you do anything. This is what their tech department is for.
When you say hardwood does that include parquet floors?
David – Yes, parquet is a type of wood, so you would use same cleaning products.
What has been your experience with Bellawood Floor Cleaner? Is it interchangeable with Bona? Thank you.
I have not used it, nor would I ever try it. Generally everything they sell there is cheap and lower grade. I would recommend going with a proven cleaning product, even if it cost an extra couple of dollars. That’s nothing compared to the value of your hardwood floors.
Hi, thank you for the post. will Bona hardwood cleaner spray cause any colour change in the wood?
Tricia – No it should not. However, there are many other things that can impact the color…especially light (both natural and artificial).