Is it worth buying a steam mop?

Nelski

Love mine house so much cleaner now. I have one of the ones with a detachable hand steamer which is really easy to use and zaps any muck. No chemicals no mess and the oven is something to behold after a good old steam :rotfl:
Takes all sorts I guess but I love the speed and the results a steam cleaner gives you

oystercatcher

I'd been wondering about these and thought one might be the cure for my chronic laziness with housework !!

One of the dogs had a 'terrible tummy' a couple of months ago, so I rushed our and bought one of the cylinder models with attachments to try and rescue the carpet. I was actually very impressed with the way it worked on the carpets, certainly did a lot better than me on my knees with soapy cloths. Repeat incidents this week and it came out again and carpet was restored to relative normality i think it penetrates much more than I can by hand and the micro fibre cloth thingy that goes over the brush seems to grab up the dirt somehow.

However, when I have tried to steam hard floors and bathroom tiles I've not been particularly impressed. It does remove grime but not the dog hair or limescale and on tiles there's grubby water dribbling everywhere so a cloth and elbow grease are still required ( I didn't use the cloth thingy on the head for this). I think a mop and bucket or a microfibre cloth would be just as good.

I'm interested to see how it works steaming clothes, however with all the set up and wait for it to heat up I think overall it would be easier to get the iron out so it would only be used for something 'special' and I very rarely wear those type of things now !!

Seakay

Which has done research on steam mops and steam cleaners

http://www.which.co.uk/home-and-garden/home-appliances/reviews/steam-cleaners/best-buy/table/

for £1 you can get a months trial membership and get access to their research on an unlimited amount of items

cheerfulness4

Would never go back to mop and bucket now. Adore mine. Its fab. Mopped the kitchen floor to perfection with no chemicals then later steamed a few marks off the hallway carpet which incidentally brought the pile back up beautifully.


My floors are left dry, too. Mine is also one that can be hand held and is great for the hob, sinks, window frames and cleaning the sofas.

pollypenny

Kitchen floor dries quickly and bathroom floors are marvellously clean.

However, can't use bleach with it and I don't feel,that the kitchen tiles are as good as with a mop and bucket.

RightyTightyLeftyLoosey

Bought a cheap VAX when on offer at Currys, was about £25. Use is for kitchen and bathroom floors (lino). Its great, does the job and I prefer it to a mop and bucket

teddysmum

I have a Polti steam cleaner, which can clean floors, if necessary, but a mop is much easier (the rigid hose being heavy). I too was very surprised at how heavy steam mops are (some on demo in B&Q) and would find one difficult to use.


Steam cleaners are hard work for cleaning carpet as most rely on squirting the dirt onto a collecting cloth (cloths being another bad point of steam mops as they have to be removed for washing and probably wear out sooner than a conventional mophead).


I find my little hand held steamer handy (especially around taps and in corners), but it is limited in that a fill doesn't last for long and to keep a good head of steam it has to remain plugged in. Also, you have to wait quite a while before you can refill.