Bona Pet System™ Microfibre Mop review: is it worth buying for pet-heavy homes?

RRP: £26 | Buy now from Amazon

How I tested

I tested the Bona Pet System Microfibre Mop over the course of a month in my own home. I used it on tiled kitchen floors and parquet throughout the downstairs, including the hall and living room.

With two cats, two dogs and two teenagers in the house, there was no shortage of pet hair, dust, crumbs, muddy paw prints and everyday mess to clean up. I used the purple sweeping pad dry to pick up pet hair before mopping, then cleaned the parquet with Bona Pet Wood Floor Deep Cleaner and the kitchen tiles with Bona Pet Hard Surface Floor Deep Cleaner.

During testing, I looked at how easy the mop was to assemble, how sturdy it felt in use, whether the head stayed secure under pressure and how well it handled corners, furniture and awkward spaces. I also paid close attention to how effectively the pads picked up pet hair and visible dirt, and whether the cleaners left behind streaks, residue, slipperiness, dull patches or lingering smells.

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My verdict

The Bona Pet System Microfibre Mop is a sturdy flat mop with a pet-focused pad system. It doesn't have the convenience of a built-in spray, and I missed that during everyday cleaning, but if you're happy using a separate bottle of floor cleaner it does a good job.

Where this system stands out is the combination of the mop, the purple sweeping pad and Bona's matching Pet System floor cleaners. The mop comes with two reusable microfibre pads designed for pet messes, with the sweeping pad intended to pick up pet hair before you start wet cleaning.

That proved genuinely useful in my house. Between two cats, two dogs and plenty of hard flooring downstairs, there's no shortage of fur, crumbs and general mess to deal with.

Once assembled, the mop impressed me. Getting the head to click onto the pole took more force than I expected, but it's only something you have to do once. After that, everything stayed firmly in place. The telescopic handle didn't slip, the head felt solid and I could lean into stubborn patches without worrying about doing the mop damage.

The wide mop head makes quick work of larger areas, while the swivel joint keeps it easy to steer around furniture, corners and awkward spaces.

For a full clean, particularly on wooden floors or in homes with pets, I was happy with the results.

Bona Pet System Microfibre Mop: what's in the box?

Inside the box you'll find:

• Bona Pet System Microfibre Mop

• Bona OxyPower Deep Clean Pad

• Bona Pet System Sweeping Pad

The mop comes with one pad for dry sweeping and another for wet cleaning. The cleaning pad is the Bona OxyPower Deep Clean Pad, while the sweeping pad is designed to collect pet hair before you mop.

The Bona floor sprays I used during testing are sold separately.

What's the Bona Pet System Microfibre Mop like to set up?

Assembly was straightforward apart from attaching the mop head to the pole. It needed more effort than I expected before it finally clicked into place, which was a bit frustrating when I was keen to get started.

Thankfully, that's the only awkward part. Once assembled, the mop felt reassuringly solid.

The telescopic pole adjusts easily and, more importantly, stays where you put it. Even when I was putting plenty of pressure through the handle to tackle dried spills, nothing shifted or felt unstable.

Both pads attach in the usual way for a flat mop and stayed firmly in place throughout testing. I never had one peel away or move around while cleaning.

What's the Bona Pet System Microfibre Mop like to use day-to-day?

In everyday use, this is a simple, dependable mop.

The wide head covers plenty of floor with each pass, so cleaning my tiled kitchen and downstairs parquet didn't take long. The swivel head moved smoothly around furniture, corners and tight spaces without feeling cumbersome.

The purple sweeping pad ended up being my favourite part of the whole system. I used it dry before mopping, and Bona say it combines electrostatic action with microfibre fingers to lift pet hair, fur, dander and allergens. In practice, it collected a surprising amount of pet hair before I even reached for the cleaning spray.

The lack of an integrated spray is still the biggest drawback. I had to spray the cleaner directly onto the floor before going over it with the mop. It works perfectly well, but it adds another step.

That isn't much of an issue when you're giving the whole floor a proper clean. It becomes more noticeable when you're dealing with muddy paw prints, food dropped by teenagers or the mess left after a dog has shaken itself by the back door. In those moments, having a spray trigger built into the handle would make life easier.

How well does the Bona Pet System Microfibre Mop perform on parquet and wooden floors?

I used the Bona Pet System Wood Floor Deep Cleaner on the parquet in my hall and living room, including the patch under the sofa. We'd just had a new sofa delivered, so with the old one out of the way it was the perfect chance to tackle the dirt that had built up underneath. The cleaner lifted dust, crumbs and general grime easily, and the cleaning pad showed just how much it had picked up.

What impressed me most was how safe it felt to use. Wooden floors can make you cautious about trying new cleaning products, but this one never left me worrying that I was using too much liquid. It dried quickly and left no noticeable scent, streaks, residue, slipperiness or dull patches.

Bona says the Wood Floor Deep Cleaner uses an oxy-powered formula with hydrogen peroxide to tackle stuck-on stains, tracked-in dirt and pet messes. It also features Odour Guard Technology to help neutralise urine and other organic odours. I wasn't able to test those odour claims because I didn't have any pet accidents to clean up, but I found it very effective on the everyday dirt that gathers under furniture and in busy areas.

If I were buying anything from this range again, it would probably be the wood floor cleaner. The mop does its job well, but the cleaner made the biggest difference to how my floors looked afterwards.

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How well does the Bona Pet System Microfibre Mop perform on tiled kitchen floors?

I also tested the Bona Pet System Hard Surface Floor Deep Cleaner on my tiled kitchen floor, including a few dried-on food spills.

It cleaned well, although stubborn bits needed a few passes and some pressure before they shifted. That wasn't unexpected. This is a flat mop rather than a scrubbing mop, so it isn't designed to scrape away baked-on food in the way something like the OXO Good Grips mop can.

For everyday kitchen cleaning, though, it performed well. Food spills, footprints and general grime all came away cleanly, leaving the same finish I saw on the parquet. The floor dried quickly and there were no streaks, sticky patches or slippery residue afterwards.

Like the wood floor cleaner, the hard surface version uses Bona's oxy-powered formula with hydrogen peroxide and Odour Guard Technology for pet messes and everyday dirt.

One thing I particularly liked was being able to clean different floor types in one session. I simply swapped from the wood cleaner to the hard surface cleaner as I moved rooms. I didn't need to rinse the mop or change pads halfway through, which made the whole job nice and quick.

Read next: Best hard floor cleaners

Is the Bona Pet System Microfibre Mop good value for money?

At around £26, I think the mop is fairly priced. It's well made, comes with two reusable pads and feels sturdy enough to last.

After a month of regular use, both pads were still in good condition, so I wouldn't expect to be buying replacements any time soon.

The ongoing cost comes from the cleaning products. The Bona Pet System Wood Floor Deep Cleaner and Hard Surface Floor Deep Cleaner are both £12 at the time of writing, so you'll need to budget for refills if you want to use the system as intended.

I'd happily keep buying the cleaners because they worked well on both types of flooring and left a noticeably clean finish.

The mop itself is easy to recommend too, provided you're happy using a separate spray bottle. If convenience is your top priority, a spray mop will be the better option. If you already like Bona's floor cleaners or want a sturdy flat mop with an excellent pet-hair sweeping pad, this is a worthwhile buy.

About the author

Poppy O'Neill is a Content Editor at Mumsnet and a mother of two. She researches and reviews the products Mumsnetters swear by, with a particular focus on home essentials like steam irons, vacuum cleaners and heated throws.

From a highly recommended retractable washing line to the best quiet fans money can buy, and Mumsnet's favourite dehumidifier to the steam generator iron that'll cut your ironing time in half, she loves to deep-dive into research and find the very best products on the market.