Handheld Steam Cleaner?

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

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Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
Anyone got a suggestion for a handheld Steam Cleaner? The wife has sent a link to the Karcher SC1 but i've no idea if there's anything better/cheaper out there. The one thing i was thinking was that a combined handheld/floor cleaning one would make more sense
 
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Martynt74 said:
Anyone got a suggestion for a handheld Steam Cleaner? The wife has sent a link to the Karcher SC1 but i've no idea if there's anything better/cheaper out there. The one thing i was thinking was that a combined handheld/floor cleaning one would make more sense
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We've been through a few steam cleaners. I don't recommend a combi device - they don't last well as a mop; several have snapped at the point the handle attaches/detaches. We've resigned ourselves to the fact that they'll need replacing every couple of years due to limescale, wear & tear etc.

We use steam as I have a poor immune system (Hep-C from contaminated blood in the 80's) and my middle daughter has severe eczema. Persian cats, a dog (but mainly the kids) create a lot of mess and steam appears to clean most things to a virtually sterile level, without using harsh chemicals that can trigger a reaction in my daughter.

We use a steam mop for floors (current one was on offer from Aldi) with several machine-washable velcro pads bought from Amazon (we use separate ones for Kitchen/Wetroom/Dining & Lounge). When we've finished, they go in the washing machine at 90°C with laundry sanitiser and soda crystals.

Current handheld steamer is pink with multiple attachments for scrubbing behind faucets, or a flexible nozzle for around the shower - despite the colour, it's actually been the best one yet as it's a pretty powerful, pressurised jet:
https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/swan-lynsey-handheld-steam-cleaner (£30 at Argos).

I recommend buying a 5L can of deionised water (Asda sell it for a couple of quid) rather than using tap water, unless yours is exceptionally soft. Living in Portsmouth ours is ridiculously chalky, so it only takes a few tanks before limescale starts building up.

We have a spray bottle with deionised water and a tiny splash of Star drops or Zoflora disinfectant, which we spray on grubby bits (around the kitchen bin, toilets or by the front door), but most of the actual cleaning is done by the steam itself.

Without teaching you to suck eggs: be careful how you use each device. We steam most surfaces (laminate flooring, kitchen worktops, bathroom tiles) - but you need to be wary around things like silicon sealant etc, as you can melt it. You can adjust the intensity of the steam just by holding it further away, or in the case of using the mop, increasing the speed of each pass...
 
That's awesome thanks.

I'm not sure how much it'll be used in all honesty, but we're moving into a rental which had dogs, and so my wife wants something that'll give the sofa/mattresses a decent clean really. I then thought it'd be good to combine with a floor cleaner as it's all tiled flooring over here, but we do have a hoover and decent mop so it's not essential.

With appliances we can be a bit limited to the likes of Argos etc, but i might see if Lidl do anything to avoid spending a lot on Karcher stuff.
 
Martynt74 said:
That's awesome thanks.

I'm not sure how much it'll be used in all honesty, but we're moving into a rental which had dogs, and so my wife wants something that'll give the sofa/mattresses a decent clean really. I then thought it'd be good to combine with a floor cleaner as it's all tiled flooring over here, but we do have a hoover and decent mop so it's not essential.

With appliances we can be a bit limited to the likes of Argos etc, but i might see if Lidl do anything to avoid spending a lot on Karcher stuff.
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Amazon may be your best bet, then. Had a quick look and this was similar to our pink hand-held:
https://amzn.eu/d/dOD7YVA for €36

For upholstery, you use the wide pad attachment for general cleaning/refreshing and swap it before it gets saturated (on the Amazon "People also purchased" list, there's an offer for 10 microfibre pads for €13ish).
Use the small nozzle on any spots & stains (we use a soda crystal/bicarb solution) if you have a fabric sofa (don't recommend using direct steam on leather - we found it got too wet and rotted)

Having looked at what you get with the Karcher for €100ish, I'd stick with separate handheld & mop, unless you didn't mind spending more for the bigger V2 unit - 1L tank versus 200ml makes a big difference - you have to wait for the unit to cool before you can refill (it's pressurised), then wait for it to come back to the boil, which gets annoying when you want to crack on and clean.

Edit: In terms of how we use it, it's only since we moved to the new house (2 years ago), as we found it didn't matter what products we tried, Sophie was reacting to *everything*. We left our split A/C & HEPA filtered heat pump behind, which we now realised was a big mistake. New, open plan house is 5 times the size of the old flat though, so AC units are going to need to be far, far bigger.
 
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Cheers guys. Scope Creep kicked in bad. Ended up with the SC3 model in the Deluxe version. From what i can see the Deluxe version doesn't offer much beyond looking nicer, but that was good enough for me for the small outlay over the regular SC3



Seems like with the SC3 you can add water to it on the go, and only takes 30 seconds to heat up which seems great. I think we likely will use it for floors, so being able to do the whole house (it'll be tiled everywhere) without waiting would be cool. The floor extension looks fairly solid and obviously works well with pressure washers for the patio attachments so hopefully better thought out vs the cheaper ones.
 
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Martynt74 said:
Cheers guys. Scope Creep kicked in bad. Ended up with the SC3 model in the Deluxe version. From what i can see the Deluxe version doesn't offer much beyond looking nicer, but that was good enough for me for the small outlay over the regular SC3



Seems like with the SC3 you can add water to it on the go, and only takes 30 seconds to heat up which seems great. I think we likely will use it for floors, so being able to do the whole house (it'll be tiled everywhere) without waiting would be cool. The floor extension looks fairly solid and obviously works well with pressure washers for the patio attachments so hopefully better thought out vs the cheaper ones.
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I hate scope-creep!
That's how I went from a 2 seater sports car to a Galaxy, and from a girlfriend to a Wife that wanted to fill every seat... :rolleyes:
 
I purchased this compact Karcher unit a couple of years back. Although I've given it a few tries, mainly for cleaning tiles and grout in the kitchen and bathroom, I didn't find its performance particularly impressive. As a result, it hasn't seen much use since then
 
Just to update this. The SC3 Deluxe has been great so far. We moved into the new rental on Friday and it was pretty filthy with dog dirt ground into everything.

My wife had it pretty much running constantly for 3 days as she moved from room to room steaming the floors and using the nozzle to blast steam into taps, radiator valves and window frames. The water heats up in less than a minute and as @RedMogg mentioned. Having the option to add water during cleaning rather than waiting was a massive benefit. The other is that having the tank with a hose meant no heavy weight in your hand.

If i had one complaint, it's that i can't see a water balance reading, so have often overfilled it in my hastiness. The other is that my wife would've liked a "hold" switch on the trigger to avoid having to hold it constantly, although this is likely due to how much it was needed and not for regular use.
 
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