Here you will find some general information on the different sorts of home steam cleaners that are available. Once I tried this new way of cleaning, I was hooked, and I hope the same will be true for you. It is truly amazing how clean a steam cleaner gets things. With little effort and no hazardous chemicals, you’ll feel like the superman of house cleaning with one of these in your hands.
Handheld Steam Cleaners
These are the least expensive and also probably the least effective. Still, I recommend them as an excellent way of introducing yourself to the idea of this new way to clean. If you buy one of these and find yourself using it often, you’ll probably soon want to upgrade to something more powerful.
The reservoirs on these home steam cleaners are small, which means you won’t be able to clean for long even with a full tank. Some consumers complain that a stream of water comes out before the hot steam and that the steam interval doesn’t last long before the unit needs to heat up again. On the plus side, these are lightweight, easily manipulated, and heat up fast. Even though I have a larger steam cleaner at this point, I could imagine keeping one of these on hand for quick unexpected clean-ups.
Portable Steam Cleaners
This may be all the steam cleaner you ever need. The reservoirs on these are larger and the heating unit is powerful enough that you can get sufficient continuous steam to clean several rooms (floors and walls) in your house on one tank. Most come with a number of attachments aimed at different tasks. Common attachments are a floor wand with a fitted microfiber cloth, small brushes, a window squeegee, and a blaster that narrows the steam to a small area.
My personal experience has been that although these smaller units effectively clean a floor, manipulating the wand and moving the tank can be tiring and cumbersome. And as far as windows go, there are probably better, more traditional ways to get them clean.
The steam provided by these units is awesomely effective at cleaning toilets, sinks, tubs, showers, appliances, car interiors, walls, doors, upholstery, carpet stains – just about anything, except the cat. Darn. This brings up a point you will need to consider when using these home steam cleaners: the steam is very hot. The heat only lasts a second, but it can damage things. Whenever cleaning something new, proceed with caution.
Steam Mops
These home steam cleaners are designed specifically for floor cleaning. Most will provide you with a comfortable, easy, and extraordinarily effective way to clean your floors without cleaners. In general, their use is restricted to this one house-cleaning task.
