Are they any use ?
SWMBO has my ear bent about getting one and can't decide (a) are they worth the spondulux and/or (b) which type to get. She sees herself using one to clean floors and windows (She already has a Karcher window cleaner, go figure)
As usual 'Which' only serves to confuse and want to shelve to whole idea
Anyone with worthwhile experience of them ?
No, had one for a while and never really found it any better than any other method. In the time it takes to get out of the cupboard, fill with water, heat up, move around etc., you could use a decent can of cleaner and a cloth to do just as good a job. It lived in the cupboard under the stairs for months until we sold it.
Maybe you could borrow or hire one just to see if you think it's better than the method you currently use.
Steam Cleaners per see are excellent, the problem comes when people expect the results of a proper steam cleaner quashed into a tiddly little hand held gimmick. My steam cleaner is "four man portable" (I use a fork lift!) and is powered by a diesel engine and boils the water using diesel, and was designed as a battlefield nuclear decontamination unit. It is also made by Karcher. I guarantee it'll clean any window she wants, but she may not appreciate the collateral damage
AWEM
Are you keeping it just in case it comes in useful one day?
Owain
AWEM
Yes. But ...
There are two types of steam cleaner:
- ones that spray out steam
- ones that spray out steam and then suck it up again.
The ones that just spray out the steam will often come with marketing bollocks about it being "dry steam". By this they mean that it comes out of the machine at above 100C, so there is no liquid emitted. What they omit is that the dry steam will cool and become water - which just lies around making everything wet (so now it is both wet *and* dirty).
The only manufacturers (that I know of) of steam cleaners that suck the stuff up again, are Polti (the Vaporetto Lecospira). They do a fantastic job of cleaning floors etc
- the problem is that they are really badly engineered. There are lots of plasticky bits to fall off, and we keep having reliability problems with the switches (I think water is getting to them).
Are you hoping to gather evidence to help her make those decisions? Good luck with that.
Maybe we all ought to accept it's a done deal and should praise steam cleaners to make him feel a bit better about the inevitable expense :)
I got one a few months ago as I was despairing trying to clean the venetian blinds. It did not clean them very well. I used it to clean the oven, not very good. It cost about 60 quid; I was not very impressed.
The adverts claim kills 99.9% of everything harmful to man but the small print on the screen suggests only if steamed for 15 seconds or more.
I really dislike the 99.9% quote, what about the 0.1% that is left? How long does it take to multiply again? As another way of looking at it, if I offered you a sweet from a jar of 1000 and said that one of them contained cyanide, would you take one?
Apparently from a discussion I saw a while back the reason that they only say 99.9% is to cover themselves in case something does survive. I can see the reasoning behind it, but it still riles me :-)
PS I've yet to find a steam cleaner that I'm even remotely happy with, although AWEM's sounds like something I would enjoy!!
the spondulux and/or (b) which type to get. She sees herself using one to clean floors and windows (She already has a Karcher window cleaner, go figure)
They are very good at some jobs, useless at others.
Overall, I think useless wins.
In message , fred writes
We got a £60 Ewbank Steam Cleaner recently when my son who has always been very allergic to our cats was visiting.
Having vacuumed, I ran the steam over all the carpets & curtains, (didn't tell him I had), and he commented on how much less itchy he was this visit.
I tried it on cleaning the hob: it made a mess far greater than the usual scrubbing and was ineffective.
Yes and the hot water pressure washers not only do this but also lift lip seals and blast grit and water past them. In 35 years tractor driving I had never had much bearing problems. Now having worked at a commercial "garden" and a large vegetation management business, both of whom expect machines to be washed and put in the barn I'm seeing lots of problems. Also the hydraulic oil is contaminated from the mist ingested as the tanks cool down.
AJH
Yes I can well believe it. I once didn't buy a large 100 kva generator from a chap who 'refurbished' them when he explained how he grit blasted the outside of the engine and alternator before he sprayed them. They looked good but ........
AWEM
Have a well made one from Polti I think. Very good for cleaning grout between tiles and fiddly bits of cooker and that's about it really. We bought it in an auction for £10 as I recall when they were selling new for about £150. It was worth the £10 but not much more. They are a fiddle to set up - so you rarely bother.
In message , Peter Parry writes
How so? Fill with water, turn on, wait (that's the annoying part - repeatedly waiting while it gets back up to steam), use.
Get it out of cupboard, wrestle with hose, find jug of softened water is empty. Wait for it to get up to pressure, when it runs out (quite quickly) wait for it to cool and depressurise, open, refill and as you say - wait again for it to heat up.
Ours was very cheap because it had been used for a short time but in a hard water area so was clogged with lime scale. De scaling it from that state required significant disassembly, they really don't like hard water.
As a general purpose cleaner they are not particularly efficient and take longer than most, often better, cleaning methods.
Well a distillation of the above received wisdom has been passed on to the boss. Its her money buying it, not mine, so the final decision is hers.
Many thanks to all who contributed.
In message , Peter Parry writes
Ahhh, using softened water from new means we've had no problems with scaling. And ours can contain sufficient water for quite a run so no need to wait to cool & refill during one of our uses.
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