Steam mops

esoteric

esoteric

esoteric

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2004
Posts
2,786
Remember those X5 steam mops years ago? I inherited one and the thing doesn't work properly so I'm in the market for a replacement. Having a Shark cordless vacuum it's the first place I looked but the kick flip mop is for the floors only and I would like to have a convertible to hand held. Or I could buy the Shark and buy a separate hand held.

I need peer reviews please.
 
Got a Vax one free with another one prodixt.

It's naff. Generates enough steam to actually clean for about half a second then puffs into nothingness. Unsure if it's faulty or not. Had it not been free I'd have returned it.
 
I got a vax one for £30 from asda but after 6 months it no longer heats up
not sure what is wrong with it might ring them up today.

good to know what other ppl are using as I need something rather than a traditional mop
 
Picked up a Vax one from Curry's a little while back, use it twice a week to clean the floors and tiles in the kitchen and laminate in the rest of the down stairs. For £80 it does what it says on the tin, lots of steam and has the option to add a detergent (I've got a baby so made sense to me) in the separate compartment that you can enable and disable. Bought a pack.kf extra floor pads at the same time as they get very dirty very quickly.

This one
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/home-...nction-steam-mop-white-blue-22067468-pdt.html
 
I had a couple over the years - both broke and weren't that effective.

I've moved to a spray bottle of diluted floor cleaner and a microfibre mop and find it much better, quicker and easier.
 
We've got a kartcher one and it's excellent, we've got mostly engineered oak & tile floors in our house (bar the living room and bedrooms with carpet) and that's the go to option for cleaning them.

It works really really well, produces loads of steam and one top up of the tank will do the whole house no problem it's so quick and easy compared to mopping and it seems to clean the floor far better. For example by the cooker if you get grease splatter on the floor it just seems to dissolve it straight away.

I think this is the one we've got, had it years now so i'm sure they have even better ones. https://www.kaercher.com/uk/home-garden/steam-cleaners/sc-2-easyfix-15120520.html
 
sovietspybob said:
We've got a kartcher one and it's excellent, we've got mostly engineered oak & tile floors in our house (bar the living room and bedrooms with carpet) and that's the go to option for cleaning them
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I thought that was a no no .. link I had archived https://www.ambiencehardwoodfloorin...e/can-i-use-a-steam-mop-on-my-hardwood-floor/
so I didn't get one.
Steam mops are becoming very popular as they offer a deep, hygienic clean, and they are fantastic for tiles or vinyl floors, but should not be used to clean any type of hardwood floor. The steam from the mop would penetrate the wood, the wood will absorb the water from the steam and then the wood will warp, distort and discolour. Damage to hardwood floors associated with water or steam can be irreparable and the only option would be to remove the whole floor and start again.
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sovietspybob said:
We've got a kartcher one and it's excellent, we've got mostly engineered oak & tile floors in our house (bar the living room and bedrooms with carpet) and that's the go to option for cleaning them.
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It's strongly recommended not to use a steamer on oak or engineered oak (or any type of wood, I suspect) floors, so I'm interested on how it's held up?

We've got engineered oak, and only wet clean occasionally to avoid damaging it.
 
Had a VAX steam mop for a couple of years, used quite often on both hardwood floors and tile floors, it doesn't leave anymore water on the wood than a standard mopping really.

Tend to add a bit of floor cleaner/bleach to a bucket first to soak the mop cloth and then go to town. Cleans really well.
 
cheesyboy said:
It's strongly recommended not to use a steamer on oak or engineered oak (or any type of wood, I suspect) floors, so I'm interested on how it's held up?

We've got engineered oak, and only wet clean occasionally to avoid damaging it.
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Interesting :( We've been using it for 4 years in the new house and not had any problems yet. As someone else said it doesn't really leave any water on the floor afterwards, far less than mopping as after about 2 or 3 minutes it's all evaporated and is completely dry again.
 
.. it's the steam penetrating deeper, on wood fibres, and it's temperature ... otherwise I would have bought a Karcher too.
 
I got a cheap Beldray one from a guy at work (his missus bought it and never even took it out the box), I've had it about 4 years and it cleans the kitchen and bathroom tiled floor impeccably, if it ever broke I wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

For clarification this is just the floor mop, mother in law has a portable one that has attachments for other uses and never used it for anything but the floor, cost her £100+ as well.
 
jellybeard999 said:
I had a couple over the years - both broke and weren't that effective.

I've moved to a spray bottle of diluted floor cleaner and a microfibre mop and find it much better, quicker and easier.
Click to expand...

This. I keep buying new ones when they break in the vain hope I'll finally get one that does what's promised. They never do.
 
I've got a floor mop with a built-in reservoir that you add floor cleaner to and it sprays it from a nozzle in front of the mop head. Very good.

I've never heard of steam mops until now but they sound interesting.
 
If you have a fair amount of hard flooring then invest in a Bissell, I have one and its sublime so easy to use. The only thing i can think of as being negative is the solution is fairly expensive. I have it down at around 50p a use.
 
jpaul said:
.. it's the steam penetrating deeper, on wood fibres, and it's temperature ... otherwise I would have bought a Karcher too.
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Nope steam is purely surface, a mop on the other hand leaves far more water on the surface so soak/evaporate away soaking and evaporation means the left over goes into the wood rather that evaporate as quickly as steam. Thee is no pressure to the steam from a steam mop, just enough to self propel, it's science!
 
BigBoy said:
it's science!
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the link I had posted,and others, reject their use on hardwood floors ... the steam is more dispersed than when used for oven/engine cleaning, but nonetheless it shows the potential for these devices; and, hopefully, they are more powerful than the hx espresso machine I use, and the steam from that can boil 1/2pt of milk in <30s.

I did clock that karcher sell a dedicated machine for hardwood sealed floors https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kärcher-2019-Floor-Cleaner-Yellow/dp/B07MBBC6RS

you don't use a saturated mop, anyway ...

on the list of pros, a steam mop for kitchen/bathroom/windows/car leather&suites sounds great though.
 
jpaul said:
the karcher machines, discussed in the context of hardwood damage are pressurized https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kärcher-EasyFix-Premium-Steam-Cleaner/dp/B077CCXPZT


ok yes - we agree, these should not be used.
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Those are a whole different ball game compared to steam mops. They use a pressurised jet of steam that's very useful for cleaning carpets, ovens etc.. You wouldn't want to stick your hand over the end of it, ever.

Steam mops not pressurised, far from it. They are more akin to an iron, the steam just leaches out and its passing through a microfiber cloth Which really just get hot and moist.
 
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