Fixing a Mop

[BrooklineBiker]

Hi everybody,
I have a question on fixing my Rubbermaid Reveal mop with a spray gun built in. It is this mop https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-1892663-Reveal-Spray-Mop/dp/B00FEBARJE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1528989181&sr=8-4&keywords=rubbermaid+mop&dpID=41lyWCJDU4L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch. It worked great for a while. But the spray gun slowly lost power over time and eventually stopped spraying at all. I called Rubbermaid (terrible customer support!) and they claimed that the Murphy’s Oil Soap I’ve used to clean our hardwood floors had clogged it. They recommended using hot water to break up the clog. I tried hot water and ammonia but that resulted only in a minimal restoration of spraying.
-Does anyone have ideas on what else might break up the alleged clog?
-Is something else causing the problem?
-If I should buy another spray mop, what can I use to clean our wood floors instead of an oil soap?

[expatartist]

I love oil-based soaps (marseille, castille, black soap etc) for some housecleaning jobs but they're usually meant to be applied directly to cleaning surfaces. They can easily clog machines designed for thinner soaps - even modern washing machines, where oil-based soaps can create mold problems as well. Interested to hear if others have solutions, aside from ammonia / vinegar.

[galliver]

You could spray the soap separately...my mop doesn't have a sprayer and I get by... (still a hardwood mop)

I've found that rubbing alcohol does a good job taking the sticky, oily residues off kitchen surfaces...maybe it would work on oil soap. But usually sticky oil or soap buildup requires scrubbing, which would be difficult inside a sprayer.

[SunnyDays]

Maybe soak the spray area in hot water and dishwasher soap for a while, then tackle the sprayer with a toothbrush?

[Lulee]

Mine does the same thing which annoys me as the reason I got it was because you're supposed to be able to use it with "your favorite cleaning solution."  And mine, like yours, is Murphy's Oil Soap.

I've been slowly cutting back on the amount of soap in the mix.  This helps but I may just go with plain water at some point.  My understanding is that soap is for suspending dirt in a liquid solution so it doesn't re-deposit on the surface being cleaned --- but in this instance, the liquid is being sopped up immediately by the microfiber pad so maybe soap isn't useful except for really sticky spots.  In those instances, I could just spray the Murphy's on in advance to let it loosen things up and then mop the entire floor with just water.

To un-gunk-ify the mop, I pull the bottle/dispenser out and place the mop in the bath tub under hot running water so it pours into the place where the bottle sits.  After a few minutes of that, I repeatedly squeeze the trigger to flush the entire mechanism with the hot water and continue to do this until it works without issue.  I rinse the nipple end of the bottle off for a bit under the same hot water stream to get rid of any residual stickiness there.  Pulling the bottle between uses and rinsing everything as above after each use seems to help as well.

I still get issues with it gumming up some while I'm mopping and find that the trigger doesn't work for a moment or two.  I just gently thump the mop against the floor which usually releases the trigger.

It's too bad as the mop is a nice concept that somehow doesn't quite work right.  At least not if you put Murphy's in the mix.

[Cranky]

Well, y’know... you can just mix Murphy’s Oil Soap in a bucket of warm water - and then mop the floor. I feel like you are making this overly complicated!

[Lulee]

Actually, Cranky, no. IF it worked as advertised, it'd be a MUCH easier way to mop.  No bucket to deal with (when my back is hurting, this is a major deal plus no accidental spillage from the bucket getting bumped).  The water going on the floor is always clean and you can swap in a new pad whenever you think the current one is too dirty.  Pads are machine washable and seem to last as long as the foam sponges on my old mop.  Minimal weight, minimal effort, minimal getting your hands dirty, minimal time to get the work done.  All around win.  IF only it worked as advertised.

[Cranky]

But clearly it *doesn't* work that way!

Plus, spraying stuff on the floor and running the mop over it doesn't seem like it's getting the floor any cleaner than using a mop bucket would. If you want to end up with Truly Clean, I think you have to rinse (which is one reason I've never been a big swiffer fan).

[Cranky]

Though if you are really wedded to a swiffer-type system, it does seem like a plain swiffer with washable covers and a bottle of spray cleaner would have a lot less parts to break down.

[Sibley]

Dish soap? It'll break down the oils, might help. Actually, I had a hardwood floor guy tell me that plain blue dish soap was the best cleaner for my hardwood floors, it wouldn't cause buildup. So I don't use Murphy's anymore.

[BrooklineBiker]

Actually, Cranky, no. IF it worked as advertised, it'd be a MUCH easier way to mop.  No bucket to deal with (when my back is hurting, this is a major deal plus no accidental spillage from the bucket getting bumped).  The water going on the floor is always clean and you can swap in a new pad whenever you think the current one is too dirty.  Pads are machine washable and seem to last as long as the foam sponges on my old mop.  Minimal weight, minimal effort, minimal getting your hands dirty, minimal time to get the work done.  All around win.  IF only it worked as advertised.

Thanks well said! With a conventional mop design dirt is just smeared around. Rinsing the floor doubles the work.
I'll try your approach of washing out in the tub and also try soaking in dish soap.

[Lulee]

I do think it's really interesting that Sibley's hardwood guy recommended dish soap over Murphy's.  I may give that a whirl, going light in the mix with the soap until I see how it works with the mop's mechanism.  Otherwise, I'm going with just plain water.

I bought a passel of pads over time for the mop so I can replace them often during each cleaning.  That addresses most of Cranky's worry about just smearing dirt around while working.  Given that I go barefoot most of the time, I can feel how much cleaner it is by this mopping even if not as pristine as it must be at the house of those who mop and rinse each floor.

[Cranky]

I'm not actually worried. LOL I am, however, kind of a floor freak - it's the thing that most bothers me in the house (I can ignore dust for a long, long time, but my floors are darned clean.) The advantage of a small house is that it doesn't take very long to clean the floors - I hand wash the kitchen/hall/bathroom floors in about 10 minutes.