Steam Cleaners

Archived Q&A and Reviews

Steam Cleaning Machine Recommendations

March 2008

I am looking for product recommendations for steam cleaners, the hard surface type of machine, not the carpet cleanine type. Anyone have any experience with any brand of these machines? What do you like about it and what don't you like about it. What surfaces have you used it on? Where did you buy it?

Yes - we have the Eureka Enviro Steamer. We bought it at Costco maybe 5 years ago. We've used it almost exclusively for mopping the kitchen floor, which it does very well - without soaps. It depends on what kind of flooring you have. We originally used one when we stayed with some friends for a long while. They used it all over the place - to disinfect around the base of toilet, clean grout, clean the nooks and crannies of the dishwasher and so on. Overall, I really like it. Though the heated water smells a little funny. I'm not sure what it is - perhaps if it is flowing through plastic tubing, it's really the heated plastic I'm smelling? Who knows. freyja

Steam Cleaners for general household cleaning

Feb 2005

Does anyone have experience with general purpose steam cleaners, such as the Euro-Pro Shark Steam-in-a-bottle? I searched the BPN archives and couldn't find anything about this. I am intrigued by the infomercials on TV. These steam cleaners would be great to clean my house without chemicals and would be great for cleaning my baby's toys. I looked at reviews online (amazon.com, target.com) and the reviews for these types of products are so mixed. Some people like them, some people say they are horrible and don't work. My questions: does anyone have experience with these steam cleaners? Do you like any of them on the market? Why or why not? Are they worth buying? Thanks so much! Andi

I wonder if you have some experience with portable steamer, especially the Sharker one. I want to buy one for household cleaning. We have young kids around, so I want to avoid chemical if possible. Since it's quite expensive, I want to get some first-hand experience to help me make the decision. I hope it worth the $200 investment. Thanks Emily

I have recently purchased a hand held steam cleaner (from eBay) and I just love it! I cannot tolerate strong chemicles and I have tried everything on the market to get rid of soap scum and build up in the grout between my tiles. I steam cleaned all three of my bathrooms with great results. Mine came with lots of attachments for various jobs. I steam cleaned the baseboards where dog hair and ''buildup'' had accummulated, came off without scrubbing. I will never buy chemicles again. Susan

Bissell Steamcleaner. I bought one last fall for area rugs and it works great. I wouldn't recommend it for a house that is all wall-to-wall carpets and you want to do the entire house. But, for small rooms, or area rugs, its really easy to use and does a fantastic job. I was just about to toss our living room carpet thinking I could never get the stains out and it looked like new when I was done. The best part is that it sold for under $100! I can't remember where I found it, I do know that I had to go to Union City but if you go to the Bissell website you can search for the dealer nearest you. satisfied customer

Need to clean dirty carpet

1999

I live in a very small apartment in Albany Village. We laid carpet, and it has gotten very stained. It's driving me crazy, but I'm tired of spending hours scrubbing with carpet cleaner. Can anyone reccommend a cheap option for getting it clean? Do you own a wet vaccuum that you're willing to rent to me for a fee or know of a very inexpensive service? There's hardly any floor space here once you factor in furniture, but the spotting is pretty bad and it's time for cleaning.

As for steam cleaning, we bought a steam cleaner from Price Costco some years back for about $200. Target may have some too. It has more than paid for itself. When we rented steam cleaners, they cost about $40-60, if I remember correctly. We tried renting from grocery stores (not sure if they still do this around here) and I believe one of the rental equipment places like Berkeley Equipment Rents (I think this is the name). Check in the yellow pages. You have to buy the solution and pay an hourly basis usually with a minimum number of hours.