Oates Multi-fit Sponge Refill

Under no circumstances buy this mop. The sponge simply comes unstuck from the plastic connection almost always after they’ve been immersed in the bucket. I was prepared to excuse the first couple as simply being faulty, but it’s not. The glue doesn’t hold the sponge onto the plastic. A complete waste of money.

Have replaced mop head as sponge separated from plastic backing Now replacement unit separated after 1 use Poor Quality control not enough glue to hold sponge to backing plastic ,as i purchased a twin pack cannot prove date of purchase bar code is 9 310124 111607 Purchased from Coles Eastland

Worse mop I’ve ever brought – The sponge that comes with mop started leaving tiny pieces of sponge everywhere and I only use the mop for bathroom lasted barely two months, replaced the sponge but I’ve had to go over the bathroom 5 times because of the residue of the sponge, I’ve slipped twice. Will throw it away eventually or try make something of it to save this hunk of garbage contributing to the already waste problem. Thanks for nothing

Poorly designed, garbage quality, unfit-for-purpose – I have been using Oates mops for a many years - until now - and I feel the need to warn people about them because of major changes in the refills that render them unfit for purpose. I want to start by saying I did try contacting Oates via their website, but the Contact system failed to work, deleting my entire message, meaning I would have to write it all in again from scratch and hope this "tech issue" does not happen again. I will not waste any more time on that.

Previously, the refills had four posts to fit the Oates Easy-Wring Mop. The posts were built into the actual refill. To secure the refill onto the mop, you had to screw on a large nut. This was all made to a very high quality.

Now I could not find the old refills and checking Oates website, they are nowhere to be found. In place of them are these multi-fit refills.

It may sound like a good idea that these will fit both four-post and two-post mop heads, but there are many problems with them.

Firstly, they are more fiddly than their predecessors. The old refills had the aforementioned easy to use nuts that actually secured the refill onto the mop head. Changing the refill required I fit four, large, well-designed, high quality, easy-to-use nuts that actually secured the refill to the mop.

Now, you have to first pull off a bunch of tiny parts from a part tree (a bit like a model kit) to fit four tiny, fiddly screws to a wafer-thin, poor quality plastic thing stuck to the sponge. When trying to secure these, they only sometimes secure themselves. Of the four I tried fitting, two did not secure. They were loose and could not be tightened.

Then you have to put the refill in place on the mop head and "secure" it with four more tiny parts in the form of tiny, fiddly nuts that are actually too small to secure the holes in the mop head! Imagine screws and nuts that are more narrow than the holes they are supposed to grip onto!

All of the screws and nuts are made of a really poor quality plastic. Comparing it to the hardware that was with the old refill I had to remove, the drop in quality is obvious and undeniable.

And all of this is with a pack of refills that are also more than expensive than their predecessors.

I have tried to use the old green nuts to hold things in place so my purchase isn't wasted, but only two of the four screws are secured.

I will have to replace my mop now with another product, but this has left me unable to trust Oates again so I will make a point of using another manufacturer's product.

Good and bad points – I just replaced my mop ( sponge) with this product bought from Bunnings 'a while back' I found it to be a very clever addition over some bought in the past as it has a set of plastic nuts and bolts to fit, as they claim, a variety of their 'mop heads' However I had a heck of job to use them. Mine was a two holes job, but for the life of me there 'bolts' would not start to enter the thread in the sponge! (I was tempted to try the 'tip' from the Last Tango in Paris' (Pardon me for the cheap humour) But what I found useful was to sharpen the bolt on my bench grinder. Yet it still took a lot of good will to start the theading but it definitely improved it. These plastic bolts are simply cut straight 90 degrees unlike the small graphic on the plastic package that shows it has a connic end. I'm not a serious handy man but I have a lot of tools. And I would not think that many people would have access to them or would know what to do about it. So Oates you had a very good incentive in adding this for your product but please make it a little easier for people to use it.