Floor Steamers

[treeturner123]

Apparently our tiled kitchen floor plus one or two others, is very dirty and only a steam cleaner will work!

It needs to go into corners but price is not so much an issue.

So does anyone have experience of these good and bad and what should I be looking at?

Phil

 

[flying haggis]

We have a vax and it seems fine. they all work on the same principle after all. MIL has a different vax that has a trigger for steam on/off

 

[niall Y]

They are pretty good. We use one for the tiled floor in our kitchen. They are a pretty basic machine - and they don't last forever. ( We are on our third one at present.) When the last one broke, we weren't going to replace it. but as it's so easy and quick with one, we soon relented. I think that the only thing that is a bit of a nuisance, is if the cable is too short

 

[Stevekane]

Our first one was a Vax which had been put out for the Bin Men which worked fine, then my wife heard about the Vax with a tank for detergent and bought one of those which I guess weve had for a couple of years though I dont ever see her using detergent it it! This one also has a little limescale filter in it and lately its blocked and needed blowing through. We have always used water from the dehumidifier in ours and I guess that helps. As has been said above they are much quicker and easier than a regular mop. However, what about those ones advertised on TV that looks like a wet wipe that you stick onto a mophead and mop the floor, its then thrown into the bin, no water or electric perhaps offsets the cost of the wetwipes, I wonder if they are any good?

 

[TomTheToolMan]

We bought a cheap upright. It was a bit rubbish. Then bought a polti vaporetto smart 100. Fast start, easily manouverable and large water capacity. Much quicker and easier to do the floor. So much easier that we bought another 2, one for our shop and one for our holiday apartment. All the floors are tiled

 

[trvlr]

https://dupray.co.uk/products/neat-steam-cleaner
It's not cheap but does the job; and good after sales/support too. Good range of videos and assorted tips/tutorials.

I have laminate floors in kitchen and it handles them fine; and others (elsewhere) say it's good on tiles (walls and floors)

Check prices on that big river company too as sometimes a little cheaper there.

 

[Homeless Squirrel]

Any of the Steamers is use distilled/Ice build up in fridges/Properly softened water also bottled water from mostly France/Turkey?
As Tap water esp down south gives mega limescale issues esp with those small steamers as works get scaled up and blows heater plus leaves marks/stains on things steamed also can pepper things with bits of scale.

Reason often why you find dumped in bins.

Water-cooling system in my PC use distilled with no scud line in reservoir and not been re'fettled for quite a few years now.

I've a Big Earlex steamer(one you can stand on)always used bottled water so scaling marginal

 

[TomGW]

We’ve had a Shark for years with good results and no problems. We don’t have ‘hard’ water though which might make a difference.

 

[Lons]

We’ve had a Shark for years with good results and no problems. We don’t have ‘hard’ water though which might make a difference.

We have a Shark as well also for a number of years and have a fair amount of laminate, my wife wouldn't be without it as we also have a usually muddy labrador, ( the reason for laminate flooring). The only issue we've had is that it was knocked over a few times and broke the handle, they aren't expensive but was in short supply so epoxy glued and some gaffa tape soon sorted that. No issues with limescale either though I have run descaler through a couple of times just in case.
She uses the thing every day so I'm surprised it's lasted tbh and would definitely replace with the same when the time comes.

 

[spanner48]

Agree about the need to use distilled water, particularly down South where it's really hard.

I have a distillation unit in the house. I was worried that the 'Elf-n-Safety mavens at the local council would get pernickety about it; so it's been fiendishly disguised as a condening tumble drier.

Works a treat: generates around a pint of distilled water from each full drying load . . . .

 

[Stevekane]

Agree about the need to use distilled water, particularly down South where it's really hard.

I have a distillation unit in the house. I was worried that the 'Elf-n-Safety mavens at the local council would get pernickety about it; so it's been fiendishly disguised as a condening tumble drier.

Works a treat: generates around a pint of distilled water from each full drying load . . . .

Tyipically, once you start talking about somthing the bloody contraption starts playing up, we use water from our dehumidifier and I beleive thats mineral free, however a couple of weeks ago my wife said it wasnt steaming so well and I found the little limscale filter blocked with a white algie type of stuff, checking the bottle where we keep the water I could see bits suspended in it, even though its kept in a cool dark cupboard bacteria is I suppose getting a foothold. So I dumped the bottle and started afresh. Now today I was put on mop duties and noticed that the little water reservoir on the mop was full of suspended white stuff, and the filter was blocked with it. Oddly the storage bottle of water is still perfectly clear. Ive rinsed it all out and now were going to try storing the mop with the reservoir empty and hopefully that will prevent it. We've had a steam mop for maybe 5 or 6 years always used Dehumidifier water and never had this problem before. Just something to be aware of.
Steve.

 

[trvlr]

Dupray give very clear instructions how to clean (descale) their steamer - using white vinegar, aka acteic acid. I buy my acid in bulk (5 litres 10 or 20% strength) from that big river company and dilute it accordingly. Does the jobe fine. Distilled water would cost a bomb if used exclusively, and demineralised even more...

 

[Jamesc]

+1 for the Neat machine. We used it on our terracota floor and found the grout was light brown, not black as it was when we moved here.

 

[Fitzroy]

Oh god don't let my other half see this post. I've poopooed the idea of a steam vac for year, seems like they are actually useful.

 

[Stevekane]

Dupray give very clear instructions how to clean (descale) their steamer - using white vinegar, aka acteic acid. I buy my acid in bulk (5 litres 10 or 20% strength) from that big river company and dilute it accordingly. Does the jobe fine. Distilled water would cost a bomb if used exclusively, and demineralised even more...

Thats interesting, do you just fill the water tank with the diluted vinegar and steam it through? It would be interesting to hear some details of how you do it even though its a different machine.
Steve.

 

[trvlr]

No - to clean a Dupray unit you fill it with a mix of acetic acid and (tap water) water (to make a strong white vinegar equivalent - which I think is 5%) and leave it for over night; then empty and rinse out - job dun. It's all on their website info and in the idiot's guide (user manual). As previous, I buy 10 or 20% acetic acid and dilute according with water to approximate the mixture they suggest; cheaper than buying white vinegar (acetic acid) from a local supermarket stere

https://dupray.co.uk/pages/support-neat-steam-cleaner
and here:

https://www.thespruce.com/dupray-neat-steam-cleaner-review-5179330
and this is one of many very clear how to videos from Dupray (a Canadian company based in Quebec Province)



Their website has load more how to use; and in terms of maintenance (i.e descaling likely their approach will apply all steam cleaners?

The H20 in the Greater London and SE UK area s very hard; and I find following the Dupray descale ritual more than adequate to handle it.

 

[Stevekane]

Many thanks Tivir, your cleaner is quite a bit bigger than our little Vax, and I guess produces plenty of steam. I watched the video and he said the machine takes a while to heat up and warned us about the tank being presureised, this is quite different to the Vax which heats within a minute and Im certain the little plastic water tank is not presurised, so my guess is that the vax possibly produces steam only when the trigger allows water to drop on something like a heated plate? The reason for all this waffle is,,I think because of the different system the Dupray descaling regime probably wouldn't work on a Vax, but thanks for posting it for me,
Steve.