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Microfiber mopping systems have been becoming more and more popular, and for good reason! Microfiber itself is great at grabbing germs, dirt, and grime from surfaces and trapping it within the fibers of the cloth. Because of this, you do not need to buy floor cleaners and solutions. For many people, that is a huge perk because: a) it saves money, and b) it reduces the amount of potentially toxic cleaners you have in your home. The E Cloth mop system is one of the most popular options.
I have been on a mission to simplify my cleaning routines and find the best products for my home for quite some time. I have two small children that seem to be able to break every child lock. Even if they don’t get past the child lock, things happen where the door to the cabinet didn’t get closed all the way (so it didn’t lock), something that was meant to be put away got left out when I or my husband got sidetracked because of the million things a parent has to do in a day, etc.
Our kid’s safety is our number one priority. With so many things vying for our attention on a daily basis, I knew that finding a way to minimize and simplify was the best way to create a safe home. Trying new kinds of child locks or finding new places to hide things is certainly an option, but wouldn’t it be great if you just didn’t need to be afraid of your kids getting into toxic solutions in your house when you take 2 minutes to go to the bathroom because you don’t have many items in your house that could be harmful?
Besides the obvious hazard of getting into the cleaning solutions directly, there is also some concern with contact with the solutions, even when used appropriately. We only get one chance at life to live healthily. Making some swaps to nontoxic, yet effective systems and solutions is one way to know that we are doing what we can to make our health a top priority.
Why E Cloth Mop System?
Prior to switching to the E Cloth mop system, I was using the Swiffer. I also had a typical mop in my house, too, that I would sometimes use by filling the sink with water and using a Method brand squirt on/wipe off floor cleaner, and rinsing the mop in the sink every so often. While that Method spray smelled amazing, it wasn’t very economical. Since you aren’t supposed to mix the solution with water, it would run through the bottle pretty quickly.
I also found that I much preferred the Swiffer system overall. It was so easy and quick to use. However, I struggled with the disposable nature of the wet cloths, plus not feeling all that comfortable with the ingredients in them, knowing my kids are crawling all over the floor and my dog is always licking it for some reason. The EWG give the wet cloths a D rating, and as I said before I don’t always believe they are the end all, be all…but I do reference them as a starting point.
Knowing that I loved the low-hassle ease of the Swiffer system, I switched to the E Cloth mop system because it operated similarly, but uses absolutely no toxic chemicals. Just microfiber cloth mop pads and water!
See me using the E Cloth mop system here:
What About the Norwex Mopping System?
As many of you may already know, Norwex is an MLM company specializing in chemical-free cleaning. Most of their products revolve around microfiber. They differ from E Cloth in that they are known for their patented BacLock agent embedded in their cloths. BacLock is a micro-silver that is supposed to self-cleanse the cloth, keeping bacteria from growing and flourishing. As I mentioned in another post, there is some concern out there whether or not BacLock is really all it’s cracked up to be.
It’s not that Norwex doesn’t work (actually, they work quite beautifully!) but if the whole selling point to choose them over other companies that are more economically priced is the BacLock, and the BacLock may or may not actually work…why not go with E Cloth? E Cloth microfiber cloths pull away bacteria from your surfaces just the same and cost a fraction of the price. I found I have to boil my Norwex cloths to kill odors (which is evidence that not all the bacteria is being cleansed out of the cloth with Baclock like it claims), even when closely following their care directions.
Norwex products are great, don’t get me wrong. I’m not always the biggest MLM fan, but it’s not because the products aren’t good. In fact, I usually think the products are usually pretty awesome, and Norwex is no exception. The reason I don’t love MLMs is because of how marked up they are price-wise, which makes sense because the MLM structure means that multiple people make a commission off of one sale.
All this to say, I do strongly feel that Norwex has quality products, but I also feel that E Cloth is equal in quality, and there are many reasons I prefer them.
First of all, when it comes to the basic E Cloth mop system, it is one-third the price of Norwex. As much as I love high-quality chemical free products, I’m not going to spend large amounts of money on them. Frugality is important to me, too. Being frugal doesn’t always mean choosing the cheapest thing and making it work–it means choosing the best value item. In this case, E Cloth is cheaper…but it is also a better value than Norwex, hands down.
This doesn’t mean I don’t love Norwex…but I don’t believe it’s necessary to pay triple for a product that does the same thing.
How Does It Work?
I bought the basic mop kit called the Deep Clean Mop. It comes with a telescopic mop handle made from lightweight aluminum, and a microfiber mop head that removes over 99{9994046f29331ee04cc0b5e07eb28364315ea03ccc2f01b5a43e8b85b372d1e9} of bacteria with just water. The fibers in the microfiber are great at grabbing and trapping those germs. This mop has a 3-year guarantee (Norwex’s guarantee is 2 years).
I have used the E Cloth mop on general footprints (our door to the backyard is in our kitchen, so whenever the kids or the dog are in and out, they do plenty of tracking), crayon (my toddler is going through a challenging stage and colored on our floor with the crayons), and stickiness from milk spills and maple syrup. It was able to tackle all of it! I did have to apply a bit of pressure for the crayon, but it did get it off (our floor is a laminate wood).
It is definitely an effective mop–just as effective as Swiffer (if not more so) and definitely more cost effective. After cleaning different areas, I would take the cloth off the mop and rinse it out in the sink, and then put it back on. To clean my whole main level with a Swiffer, I would need to go through 3-4 disposable wet cloths. Now I just rinse it out three times or so. No more unnecessary waste! I also think the E Cloth is better at trapping germs than Swiffer cloths.
The E Cloth is a healthier, cost-effective cleaning solution for every household.
The Best Place To Purchase
E Cloth products are available on Amazon, however I prefer to purchase directly from the E Cloth website for the following reasons:
- Free shipping over $20 (and you will probably spend at least $20).
- More likely to catch a sale or promo code for the E Cloth website than you are for Amazon. For example, I bought my E Cloth products during a 20{9994046f29331ee04cc0b5e07eb28364315ea03ccc2f01b5a43e8b85b372d1e9} off sale!
- Much larger selection of products that are fairly priced than on Amazon. You will be able to choose exactly what you want from the company without limitation.
However, Amazon is a perfectly fine way to purchase, especially if you are a Prime member and don’t want to wait more than 2 days for shipping.
To see what the E Cloth Website has to offer, click here.:
A Safe & Healthy Home
Your home is your safe place. All of us are trying to do our best to keep it that way, and there are a lot of different opinions out there as to how to best do that. If you’re like me, you just want to keep things simple. You don’t want to have to research every single ingredient on a label to see if it might aggravate your child’s asthma, cause skin issues on your child with eczema, give you a headache from the fumes, or worse–cause long-term problems that aren’t immediately noticed.
What’s better than just cleaning with water and cloths? No more overly complicated child lock solutions, no more stressing when you walked in on your child holding a bottle of cleaner and wondering if he ate any of it before you got there, no more worrying if things are safe for pets…
E Cloth is a great solution for those of us that want to keep it healthy and simple.
If you’re interested in my other favorite non-toxic cleaner, Force of Nature, check out this post: Force of Nature Cleaner – Non-Toxic Cleaning Made Easy
Have you tried the E Cloth mop system or other E Cloth products? What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
I have never had a mop, always had to clean the floors on my knee’s with a sponge which is a nightmare, so I think I need to invest in one of these, you make them sound so handy, and what a cool picture you have, a kid would find mopping fun which is so great for parents. It looks easy to use and light.
It definitely is so much less hassle than a typical mop and bucket!
Hmm. I must say… I’m still quite sceptical that simple water with nothing added can get anything as clean as using soap.
A quick Google search shows that adding even just simple soap increases the level of bacteria cleansing. An article called “Soap: How Much Cleaner Does It Actually Make Your Hands?” talked of plenty of evidence to back that up.
If this isn’t true, why wash our hands with soap???
Of course, just using water WILL clean to some extent. I just have to wonder about these percentages…
I like to use products with naturally-occurring elements as opposed to harsh man-made chemicals. This is my way of keeping the kids and pets safe. Do you have a reason not to use such products??
Hi TJ–the power isn’t in the water, it’s in the microfiber. Did you look up microfiber? No, water alone won’t kill germs, you are right. I suggest you look up cleaning with microfiber or reread the How Does It Work section.
Here are a few articles about how microfiber works:
https://deohs.washington.edu/sites/default/files/brochures/microfiber-factsheet.pdf
https://www.explainthatstuff.com/microfibercloths.html
https://wspehsu.ucsf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FactSheet_Microfiber.pdf
https://www.cleanlink.com/hs/article/Understanding-Microfiber-Technology–3970
As far as cleaning with natural products, I don’t have anything against them per say other than the fact that many “green” or “natural” products aren’t actually as green or natural as we think. Many of them are filled with preservatives or synthetic fragrances, which can aggravate skin and breathing issues. All that said, I still do love a few of them. I wrote a post on it here: https://rockingthecloth.com/natural-all-purpose-cleaners-the-best-choice-for-your-home/
If you are skeptical of microfiber but really want a cleaning liquid to disinfect, I highly recommend Force of Nature as an alternative to green cleaners. See more about it here: https://rockingthecloth.com/force-of-nature-cleaner-non-toxic-cleaning-made-easy/
Hope this helps!
I am a big fan of not using harsh chemicals in the home, its not safe for the children or any of us.
I recently see something similar being used in the hospital and it have me thinking this was something worth looking into. Thanks for your video on how easy to use these e cloth mop systems they look absolutely great!
Glad you found it helpful, Dianne!
Thanks for this informational article. Norwex is actually a leading company when it comes to chemical free cleaning. I had heard lots of good things about eCloth, especially their mop, but couldn’t justify buying a new mop set when my Rubbermaid Reveal was still in great shape.
So I decided to purchase just the eCloth mop head to see if it would work on my Reveal.The pad is a perfect fit! In fact, I like that it’s a little bit larger than the original Reveal pad (red) – that way when you are mopping around furniture you don’t have to worry about scratching any surfaces with the side of the mop, because part of the pad goes in between. It costs about twice as much as a replacement pad for the Reveal, so I was curious to see how it compares.In terms of performance, the eCloth requires a lot less scrubbing than the original Reveal pad to get the floor clean. We have a dog and all hardwoods in the house, so our main challenge is getting what my husband aptly described as “dog snot” (actually a mix of drool, spilled water, dog treat crumbs mixed with all of the above etc.) off the floors. With the Reveal I really had to use my upper body strength to remove some of the caked on bits, but with the eCloth mop head it’s more about wiping several times than actually pushing down on the mop and scrubbing.
Since I bought this I’ve pretty much stopped using the original Reveal attachment, because I like the eCloth so much more!I do not use any cleaning solution with this mop head – just plain water sprayed by the Reveal sprayer. I also make sure to mist some water on the mop head before using (if you wet it completely and wring it out, it will be too wet and might leave streaks behind).I also wash the pad on hot in my front loading washer along with my other microfiber cloths with a bit of Nellie’s washing soda or Ecover Zero. Make sure to not use any softener or bleach, and to rinse the microfiber out completely if you want to keep it performing properly. You can even boil it to remove any dirt/detergent buildup if you see a decrease in performance.Overall very happy with eCloth products! I haven’t tried the Norwex equivalent, but can’t imagine them being that much better to justify the difference in cost.
Thanks. Lok which
That’s awesome, Lok! Sounds like it’s the perfect solution for you and I’m glad it works so well with your Reveal mop!