I can’t say I love cleaning, but I do love the end result. It’s nice to have a space that doesn’t feel gross and dirty. We recently had the chance to review the “Grout Gator”, a tool designed to get tiled surfaces clean while being more efficient than traditional methods. But does it work, and is it worth the cost?
Normally, to clean a tiled surface I just spray it down with my cleaning chemicals of choice, and then wipe it down well with a rag. If I’m feeling extra diligent or the area is super gross, I’ll grab a stiff bristled brush and scrub a bit. Grout Gator takes the brush idea to a whole new level, with little brushes that can be spaced out to perfectly fit the width of your tiles. That way you can target several areas at once, making cleaning more time efficient as well as more effective at removing dirt and grime.
The brushes are adjustable, so it works for tiles of various sizes, and it even comes with a handy extender pole, for those times when you’re trying to clean hard to reach tiles. It’s well built and sturdy, and I had no issues adjusting the brushes or keeping them in place once they were adjusted to my liking. The entire product is well designed, and even after a hard cleaning of my shower with bleach the brushes showed no sign of wear and tear. I’d imagine this is a tool that will last for some time with minimal upkeep needed.
So it works well from a hardware standpoint, but is it worth keeping one on hand? That’s the part where I struggled a little more. It was helpful to clean the tiled ceiling of my shower with the Grout Gator, but I found that for tight spaces it wasn’t as helpful as I had hoped. The size made it a little awkward at joints and angles, so I wound up keeping one of the detachable brushes handy, and used it as a small scrub brush to clean those areas.
I also felt like it required a lot of extra elbow grease to comfortably scrub several areas at once; if I didn’t press down reasonably hard, it didn’t seem like the brushes were really getting into the grout effectively. None of these issues were huge deal breakers, but they left me feeling like the whole contraption was a solution in search of a problem. I wanted to feel like this was something that would make it super easy to leave my bathroom sparkling, and instead it just felt like any other scrubbing tool, but with additional (and questionably useful) accessories. The best part of it, honestly, was how useful the individual brushes were. Using it on one on the corners of my shower did get a lot of grime and mold up, which was great, but I could have accomplished that with any small scrub brush or toothbrush.
And that’s really where I struggled with the Grout Gator. It’s very well made, the brushes are clearly high quality, and it works. On the other hand, it costs $29.95 for a basic unit, and you’re looking at $39.95 if you want the package with extender handle and extra brush heads. Unless you live in a house made entirely of tile, I don’t know that the slight time savings from having multiple brushes on a stick is worth the cost. You could buy a lot of basic scrub brushes at your local dollar store for those prices.
In the end, while Grout Gator looks and feels great, it doesn’t feel indispensable, and it costs too much to be a home run.
Source: Manufacturer provided sample
What I Like: Hardware is very solid; brushes are good quality and clean grout nicely; adjustable brush heads lets you clean tiles of different sizes easily
What Needs Improvement: Entire package is far too expensive