Barwalt Ultra Grouting Starter Kit

Close but not good. The handle is nice as you are not holding a wet sponge the entire time while cleaning so it is easy on the hands. The serration in the sponge make roomsurface area to lift more grout on the first wipe than regular sponges. But, the wringing rollers are not as good as I hoped. The idea is that you roll the sponge with the plastic backing plate along the rollers to remove the excess water. If you watch the video with the Pres of Barwalt demonstrating, it is vague as to how many passes you will have to make. I tried a myriad of techniques with sub-par results. I applied much of my body weight and rolled slow, I tried rolling fast, I tried 50 passes, just to see what would happen. The best I could do was to get all but 4 oz of water out of the sponge. Now this may be adequate for some but I find that if you don't get all the water possible out of the sponge then you will lift color out of the grout and you will wind up with much haze even after many wipes.

I have used different systems and this one is my favorite. The roller wringers are perfectly designed to remove as much excess grout out of the sponge.

The sponge is the main reason this works so well because it has cuts about a 1/4" deep in it on a grid pattern about every inch. The cuts let grout into them so grout is not left on the tile and thus preforms better than any grout sponge I have used. The sponge is also bigger so it covers a larger area. I thought about buying just the sponge and handle but the ringer wheels make it easier to get all the water out of the sponge and is worth having. The sponge is also firmer than other sponges and smooths out the grout perfectly without sinking in too far and pulling out grout. It is very easy and very fast to get perfectly smooth grout lines at any depth that you want with this sponge.If you do any amount of tile professionally you would be a fool not to own this. There are other brands based on the same concept that cost much more.

I own a company that only installs tile. This thing is amazing. I can easily do a 400 sq ft floor and be home by lunch. This is at least 3 times faster than a hand sponge and there is no final wipe! Imagine getting it so clean the first pass that you don't even need to do a haze wipe. The water also last much longer with this. On a 400sf floor I might change it out once. The sponge is much longer than a hand sponge so you a doing greater areas per swipe. Due to the black plastic pad that the sponge is velcro'd to you will always press evenly and never gouge the tile. One sponge will last me for several floors. I only break this machine out for anything bigger than a small bath room. I might use 5 sponges a year. I will not go back to the old way. I try to tell people about how great this is but no one wants to learn how to do anything new. If you have been curious about this machine BUY IT NOW!!! Thank me later. If this breaks I will replace it.

very pleased, nice tool...