Yes, the vacuum mop is a fine thing.
You clamp a damp mop cloth in the middle, suction takes place in front of and behind the cloth, and the mop cloth vibrates back and forth in the middle, cleaning the floor this way.
There are different cloths for various floor coverings and a dosing aid for the appropriate amount of water/cleaning agent.
Regards,
Dirk
After some consideration, we also ultimately decided on a "vacuum mop" solution. As good as robots are nowadays, they still don’t take over the mopping for you, so this step still has to be done manually. That’s why it made sense for us to buy a "vacuum mop" instead of a pure vacuum robot, with which vacuuming during mopping, or vice versa, is done en passant.
All in all, the time saved isn’t as much as with a vacuum robot (you usually vacuum more often than you mop), but the place is mopped each time as well, and you can indulge your inner neat freak.
By the way: The Vorwerk you’re describing is more like a vacuum cleaner to which you attach a damp mop. The vibrating mop cloth is removed, moistened, and then clipped on. Once it’s dirty/dry, you have to remove and clean it again (just like conventional mopping). The moisture is not absorbed.
A "real" vacuum mop works with continuous water supply from a fresh water tank and immediately vacuums up the water (or spilled liquids) again.
With our model, for example, it is similar to the Vorwerk; a mop cloth is attached to the floor nozzle via Velcro and, using a lever on the handle, fresh water can be fed directly onto the cloth via a line in the floor nozzle.
From the user’s perspective, the suction opening is in front of the cloth, so when moving away from the user, dust, crumbs, etc. are vacuumed first and in the same movement the floor is mopped. On the backward movement towards the user, the floor is mopped again and the suction opening immediately picks up the water left behind, leaving the floor dry.
What I do miss compared to the Vorwerk, however, is the scrubbing motion, which certainly removes more stubborn stains better. But maybe something will emerge on the market in the coming years... or you might just treat yourself to a professional device from Kärcher or the like.