It’s a rainy dont-go-out saturday, so my spouse is cleaning while I argue with software. A couple hours ago she brought the wetmop spray thingie in to me to ask whether I could figure out why it wouldn’t spray any more. Eventually I needed to procrastinate, so 20 minutes of wrestling with screws in stupid places and snap-to-fit plastic, and I found out.

Kinda amazed the thing lasted this long. And all things considered it’s not such a bad or evil design — sure, the more is directly below the water/detergent pump, which is directly below the press-fit socket where you stick the plastic bottle in, but if nothing leaks that should be OK. And if the the water pump leaks the thing is reaching end of life anyway.

But. If someone puts the plastic bottle in while the mop is pointing toward the floor, or removes it ditto, or there’s enough of a temperature change to create excess pressure in the bottle, or it there’s just a teeny tiny imperfection in the bottle seal, that’s too darn bad. And besides, this is a planned-obsolescence cheap consumer product, and all the plausible solutions would have cost pennies more and maybe not worked anyway.

Move the motor? Now you need a gear train (money and another point of failure), or extra plumbing to get to the pump. Waterproof the motor? Well, maybe, but this is cleaning solution we’re talking about. Any pinhole and it will get in there and eat anything. (Decades ago, when I was renovating a bathroom that had painted tile, I decided not to die from paint stripper fumes and instead soaked the tiles in some dishwashin gliquid. A few days later the paint was all wrinkled up and done for.)

So hail and farewell, squirty mop. My main remaining complaint is that all the parts are welded/screwed/snapped together so you need a sawzall to get the thing into the trash can. Never mind taking apart for recycling.