I was idle the other day, surfed the Freesat channels and saw an advert for a very comprehensive steam cleaner. As I have been taken in in the past at exhibitions I am rather wary, and suspect they treat the items they are cleaning with "special dirt". Has anyone here any experience of them? Are they actually as good as they say for cleaning just about everything, including windows?
As it happens, I cleaned my kitchen windows an hour ago. Spray with Windowlene, run over with window sponge on a stick, and squeege dry. Takes under 20 seconds each side per glass pane.
I struggle to imagine a steam cleaner could do better, faster, not to mention plugging it in outside somehow.
There may be things it's wonderful for, but if standard window cleaning is the best they can come up with, seems like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
SO has one for floors and one of the "kettle" type (both Which? "best buys"). She uses the former regularly on quarry tiles and the latter on painted "paneled" kitchen cupboard doors. She reckons nothing is better for these two applications.
Agree entirely with Andrew about windows.
Mum bought one, in fact she soon bought another with more attachments, so I was offered the "old" Polti.
I parked it in the garage for a year or so, but finally dragged it out the other week, filled it up and tried it out on various surfaces ... my conclusion, it covers such a small area, you might be better off huffing on things and scrubbing them with a toothbrush.
Cleaning grout lines was its most OK thing, maybe they're wonderful for some task I didn't bother trying? I don't know if she rates the replacement as better than the one she handed me.
There's no way I'd point a jet of steam at a window in case the thermal shock caused it to crack.
They're probably quite good at really manky ovens, if you let your oven get that manky in the first place.
Strictly speaking they don't actually clean, just soften the dirt and blast it about a bit.
If you have mould problems caused by condensation then creating more dampness probably isn't sensible.
Owain
It's special dirt on shopping channels - probably just gravy browning.
Also Look at the small print at the bottom of the adverts for these steam cleaners on main stream TV. Kills 99% of bugs, viruses and everything else dangerous to man, and in the small print - when steamed for 2 minutes.
Have you also noticed that the heads come with a small cloth cover for cleaning floors. It has magic properties in that after lifting the dirt from the first square foot of floor it doesn't re-deposit it over the rest of the floor.
You'll probably be in the market for a de-humidifier next.
I was channel hopping very early this morning and the were advertising "green" Eco-balls for washing machines - approved by the vegan society!
This came up a couple of months back, from memory I think the opinion was about 50/50 whether they were worth it or not.
I think the QVC-type demonstrators do indeed use "special dirt" that's probably chosen specifically because it's dry, and has been on the (probably pre-treated) surface for about 10 minutes as opposed to ground in over several months. I found that a steam cleaner didn't do any better than a combination of the right chemicals and elbow grease.
We have a lot of glass (including a central atrium in the house)... and tried many 'best ways' to clean .. Meths, newspaper, vinegar in water, Windolene ... loads of sprays .......... always left some streaks.
Wife bought a Karcher window glass window cleaner ... one in the Ad where there is a cute German girl in a pony tail ... having a race with her guy.
SWMBO is very pleased with the result ... better than all other options ... and this is not a small nozzle it's ... about 12" wide.
It does not 'clean' you use water & cleaner as normal, but instead of trying to squeegee or chamois off , this runs over glass and sucks all water off ... much faster and results in streak free, and no water on cills.
No worries with power lead as it's rechargeable.
SWMBO is happy with it, and that is the main thing, or she might be tempted to ask me to do the windows.
The instructions for our newish oven said explicitly *not* to use a steam cleaner as 'resultant damage would not be covered by warranty'
Don't know what damage they expect from something that has to withstand steam in its intended use ;)
Lee
Try micofibre cloths and cheap car window cleaner spray. It took me 5 years to stumble to it.
I'd second that for the Karcher. SWMBO is on her second because a very small part of the original broke and Karcher wanted nearly the price of a new machine for the replacement part.
Why do German manufacturers do that? Charge so much for spares and accessories.
Anyway she reckons its the d's b
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