How should I use a steam cleaner?

[Peter]

I just bought a steam cleaner from Aldi but need some advice on how to use it. I does come with a sparse pamphlet but that just explains the buttons, not the technique.

I tried to clean some candlesticks but the old wax refused to melt.

I pointed it at a dirty wall and apart from creating a lot of steam nothing seemed to happen.

Should I use a brush or something with it? I tried working at the dirt with the steam in conjunction with a paintbrush and that seemed to do something, but I can't see what the steam cleaner is supposed to do over and above that I can do with a damp cloth.

Can anybody make any suggestions, before I return it to the store?

[ben]

Out of curiosity what did you buy it for intentionally?

[Mary Fisher]

You'd be better putting the candlestiocks in a warm (not hot) oven, standing on a plate. When they're warm simply wipe off the wax. Wax isn't soluble in water.

My (Karcher) steam cleaner has an array of brushes to use with it but when I'm cleaning a wall or woodwork I just use cloth. The steam lifts the dirt, which is them wiped off.

Give it another try. The dirt has to go somewhere, it won't evaporate :-)

Mary

[Cicero]

You can't really complain that it's '...not fit for its purpose....' if you don't what its purpose is so the store would be under no obligation to take it back.

Basically, they can be used for cleaning almost anything that requires intricate cleaning where brushes and other cleaning materials can't reach. For example, cleaning the various crevices on cookers, grouting between tiles, etc. seem to be amongst the suggested uses. No doubt others will suggest other uses but whatever you try take care because steam burns can be very painful

Cic.

[Rob Morley]

Stick them in a large pan of boiling water - the wax will float to the surface.

You need to scrub it with something - I find old towels are good.

[Peter]

I am a sucker for a gadget that looks useful, and I like clean!

Thanks everyone for the advice, I will keep it now I know a bit more how to use it. I am puzzled that the steam is quite cool after 10cm of spray, I can easily hold my hand in front. Is it supposed to be used with the nozzle very close so the steam is very hot?

[ben]

A gadget man, Hmmm! a woman round the corner from me buys all sorts of gadgets...they never get used mind.

Personally nothing better than a bit of elbow grease for cleaning.

[Brian Sharrock]

FWIW; we bought a Polti steam 'cleaner' after a long-ish demonstration at an 'Ideal Home' show. IMHO, all of the demonstrators from all the manufacturers gave basically the same 'instructions' - so interpret the following in the light of your own experience and equipment. Fundamentally the 'cleaning' is accomplished by the cloth you hold in your hand - ideally, held about an inch from the mucky item - you use the steam exiting from the nozzle to 'blast' the muck away from the surface onto the cloth. The nozzle needs to be at a very shallow angle to the surface and very close to the muck so that the muck is transported off the surface and blown onto the cloth. Cloths need to be folded and new areas exposed at frequent intervals. What the steam cleaner is supposed to do is provide a mechanism (steam)that will dissolve the 'stickiness' of any muck -and- a transport mechanism (aka a blast) that'll put the muck onto a collection device aka piece of cloth. It's sorta 'not the way I expected it to work"! We've got a Tuf-crate full of worn out towels. cotton dusters etc. which get used and then cleaned in the washing-machine; they get very dirty so the muck must have come off the carpets, windows, tiles, floors ... wherever. :)

The idea that one vaguely waves the steam generator's nozzle (and/or tools) over a surface which magically becomes clean is .... IMHO ... a copy-writers dream ... . Nevertheless, the devices do _assist_ one to clean many surfaces without using chemical 'cleaners',

YMMV

[Peter]

Fantastic! Thanks so much for taking the time to make that instruction.

[Brian Sharrock]

After you've mastered the use of a 'steam cleaner' ... perhaps you'll devote some time to mastering using newsgroup posting ?

[Peter]

Why, what's wrong?

[Mary Fisher]

He can't tolerate anything which deviates from his standards.

Don't worry, just ignore the flack.

Mary

>

[MM]

You wouldn't be able to hold your hand anywhere near the outlet nozzle of my old Earlex steamer (approx 10 years old)! Brilliant for cleaning cookers, as well as making ceramic floors sparkling. However, its original use was for stripping wallpaper and it was jolly good at that, too.

MM

[Rob Morley]

It's normal to quote some of the post to which you are responding so the casual reader has at least half a clue what's going on. But you knew that anyway :-)

[tonybo]

Perhaps you just bought the wrong one. There are a lot of them on the Sky shopping channels which have the thin, whispy steam you describe. I bought a Shark Portable on eBay after watching the Sky demo every night for a week, and being convinced by it.

It arrived 2 days ago, since when I have cleaned vinyl floors, grouting, a microwave oven, 6 square feet of concrete, 45 of rendering, an emulsioned wall, several gloss painted doors and about 90 square feet of corrugated fibre glass roofing which was thickly coated with algae.

And used approximately one gallon of water in the process!

The blast is terrific, and you really would not want to get any flesh near it.

The only reason I'm here, now, is because I'm too tired to do any more today, but tomorrow is another day!

It's one of the best puchases I've made in the forty years since I got married, and the number of ideas I have for its use (spot weeding?) is almost limitless.

Tony.

[Peter]

Aldi had another steam device that looked like an electric watering can; but I didn't buy that. Mine was in the recent special offers and features a pressure regulator knob, gauge and LED switches. It looks like a pressure washer.

After I sprayed mist at things and nothing seemingly happening I was dubious at first. However, thanks to the tips on this DIY group I have, as you, become very excited my the capabilities. I have been able to clean very awkward surfaces to unfeasibly new condition.

I find that I have to use the nozzle more like a pen and the cleaning process is quite intricate. I am using it at about 10mm from most surfaces. I have to watch not to linger for too long on paint as it becomes plastic. Whether this is just lack of power or that my surfaces are unreasonably dirty I don't know, the machine says 4 bar pressure is delivered. Is that enough?

When I purchased the machine I had thought that I would just waft it about from 40cm or so and everything caught in the hot steam would be miraculously cleaned. Maybe that was hoping for too much but I would recommend this machine.

I have no idea what the floor and curtain cleaning attachments could do though. They would appear to just blow warm steam at the fabric, How would that clean it?

[Mary Fisher]

Yes, that's the trouble with a newgadget.I remember- almost forty yearsago - when we got a new automatic washer/drier (the only one on the market at £152 - IN THOSE DAYS!).

Every fabric thing in the house which could be moved was washed and dried. And watched.

You'll get bored.

I agree, they're wonderful machines.

But no good for washing nappies, the Bendix won on that score.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

It might be that your paint isn't a good one ...

I don't know, but it does.

Mary

[tonybo]

I know, but it's already repaid its cost, in my view. A week from now it will probably go into its box and reappear rarely. But, by gum, the place will be a lot cleaner by then (:-

Tony.

[Mary Fisher]

Oh yes!

Are you going to keep it like that?

I didn't :-(

Mary