I have approximately 1757 cousins. So, I should have known better than to believe my parents when they said Easter was going to be “low key this year.” Instead, what started as a “small lunch” quickly evolved into a full-scale family gathering involving extended family, neighbours, and a suspicious number of chocolate eggs.
The backyard hosted an extremely competitive Easter egg hunt starring a pack of sugar-fuelled kids, while inside, the kitchen looked like it had been taken over by a Mediterranean catering company. There was roast lamb, salads, hot cross buns, three varieties of hummus, and enough olive oil to qualify as a minor spill hazard.
By the time lunch wrapped up, the aftermath was… impressive.
Chocolate foil everywhere. Crumbs from hot cross buns that seemed to multiply with every bite. A splash of paint from nephews who missed the mark decorating their plaster bunnies. And somehow – despite it being a chocolate-focused holiday – there was also hummus on the floor. I still don’t know how that happened.
Add in a friend who brought her extremely fluffy dog (who had absolutely no respect for the concept of shedding season), and my kitchen floor suddenly looked like it had hosted both Easter lunch and a small pet convention.
Normally, this is the moment where the cleaning dread sets in. First you vacuum. Then you mop. Then you realise the kids tracked chocolate footprints through the hallway and start the whole process again.
Which is exactly why the Bissell CrossWave OmniForce EdgeFind arrived at the perfect moment. Promising to vacuum and mop at the same time, it felt like the kind of shortcut any post-Easter host could get behind. And, after the chaos of that particular Sunday, I was more than ready to see if it could handle the mess.
At first glance, the CrossWave OmniForce EdgeFind looks like a serious piece of cleaning equipment – sleek, modern and refreshingly not something that screams “utility cupboard eyesore”. Sitting around the $699 mark, it falls into the premium category, but it also feels solid and thoughtfully engineered the moment you start using it.
The biggest selling point is the 2-in-1 vacuum and mop function, which means you can tackle dry debris and wet spills in one pass. Instead of vacuuming first and then coming back with a mop, the machine does both simultaneously. After Easter lunch, this turned out to be exactly the time-saving trick I needed.
Crumbs from hot cross buns, bits of chocolate, olive oil splashes and the mysterious hummus incident all disappeared in a single glide across the kitchen floor. It’s oddly satisfying watching it work – a bit like seeing someone calmly clean up after a party while you stand back pretending you were about to do it yourself.
One feature I didn’t realise would make such a difference is ZeroGap Technology, which allows the machine to clean right up to the edge of walls and skirting boards. If you’ve ever cleaned floors before, you’ll know the awkward strip that often gets left behind along the edges where vacuums just don’t quite reach. The CrossWave OmniForce EdgeFind gets right up against the wall, leaving no dusty outline behind.
Then there are the FurFinder headlights, which sound slightly dramatic until you see them in action. The machine uses high and low beam lighting to illuminate debris on the floor, making crumbs, pet hair and dust much easier to spot. Under normal lighting my kitchen floor looked reasonably clean. Turn on the headlights and suddenly you realise there are still tiny crumbs lurking everywhere.
Performance-wise, the machine gives you two main options depending on what kind of mess you’re dealing with. In Power Mop Mode, it vacuums and washes the floor at the same time, with up to 30 minutes of runtime. That’s more than enough to get through the kitchen, dining area and living space after a busy lunch.
If you’re dealing with dry mess only, Power Vac Mode boosts suction power by up to 75 per cent and focuses purely on vacuuming. It’s a handy option for quick clean-ups when you don’t need to mop but still want serious suction.
Another feature that quietly improves the whole experience is the two-tank system. Clean water and cleaning solution sit in one tank, while dirty water gets collected in another. It means you’re never pushing around murky mop water, which is a surprisingly reassuring detail once you realise how many traditional mops essentially recycle the same dirty water.
Hair is another common cleaning headache, especially in households with pets or long hair. Thankfully, the CrossWave OmniForce EdgeFind includes tangle-free technology, which helps prevent hair from wrapping around the brush roll and clogging the system. After the dog’s visit (and the impressive amount of fur it left behind), I was very grateful for that feature.
Once the floors were finally spotless, the machine still had one last trick up its sleeve: the self-cleaning cycle. With the press of a button, the system refreshes the brush roll and flushes debris out of the machine. Instead of dealing with a grimy roller or pulling apart half the vacuum to clean it manually, the CrossWave basically handles the maintenance itself.
It’s one of those features that seems minor until you realise how much time it saves.
Is it perfect? The battery life isn’t endless (it’s designed more for regular cleaning sessions rather than marathon whole-house deep cleans). But for real-life mess – dinner spills, pet hair, crumbs, sticky patches and the aftermath of enthusiastic holiday entertaining – it performs incredibly well.
More importantly, it changes the way you approach cleaning. Because vacuuming and mopping happen at the same time, the whole job feels faster and less like a chore. Instead of putting it off, you just tackle the mess and move on.
By the end of Easter Sunday, the floors were spotless again, the hummus mystery had disappeared, and there wasn’t a single hot cross bun crumb left in sight. And, the best part? The clean-up took less time than packing away the leftovers.
