Polti Vaporetto Steam cleaner-any good ?

[johnbrian.lacey]

The wife wants to get a Polti Vaporetto steam cleaner !

How effective are steam cleaners in general and does anyone actually use this particular model ?

Thanks

Brian

[Huge]

A Venetian bus?

[Andy Hall]

Yes. We have the 3000 model. It cleans very well and there is an excellent iron that goes with it.

[Andy Hall]

Gondolier with ice cream business....

[Steve Firth]

Announcement of new products from an Italian software developer.

[Peter Parry]

Not very, I've owned a very similar earlier Polti (the grey one) which came from an auction as part of a small lot of nonworking items (I actually wanted something else in the lot). Obviously I had to have at least an attempt at getting it working and it didn't take long to find it was clogged by hard water scale - apparently a common problem. It is a very simple device - a steam boiler with a pressure release valve and solenoid controlled steam outlet - glorified pressure cooker.

As general cleaners I'm convinced they work on the "Redex Principle". For those who ever used it Redex was (and still is) marketed as an instant renovator of engines by pouring a bit in the air inlet. Vast clouds of white smoke appeared and you felt something powerful must be going on. Actually nothing much of worth happened but you felt a lot better.

The steam cleaner is much the same, lots of smoke and hiss but not a lot of actual effect. Contrary to their claims they don't "sterilise" much and are worse than a good vacuum cleaner at reducing dust mites, allergens etc.

It is good for cleaning grout in tiles but not as good nor as quick as a general purpose cleaner and cloth for cleaning the tiles themselves or any other hard surface. As a floor cleaner on hard floors it is slow and not particularly effective.

It's quite good for helping to clean some nooks a crannies in ovens - but ineffective as an overall oven cleaner.

On carpets it is much slower than a vacuum cleaner and far less effective than a proper carpet cleaner.

My attempt at checking if it would do magic things with curtains was quite impressive as unbeknown to me several of our cats had taken refuge behind them from this hissing monster. The first hiss of steam an inch from their ears the other side of the curtain made 4 normally sedate fat cats use the curtains as an escape route. About

2 seconds after starting I was surrounded by curtain rail and shredded curtains. I don't think it usually does this to curtains. The cats sat outside the cat door taking turns to look in for the rest of the day.

The water tank contains enough for about 30-40 minutes running after which you have to wait for it to cool a bit before refilling it and getting it back up to pressure - this process takes 10-15 minutes.

They can also damage fabrics with a nap such as velvet type materials instantly. If you have chair coverings of this sort use with great care as they alter the lie of the fabric and make very obvious marks which can be impossible to put right.

I don't have an iron with mine.

As a free gift in an auction I think it was worth the money. For GBP300 or whatever they cost they certainly are not.

[Andy Hall]

I disagree. Mine works very effectively at both.

I wonder if you problem is because you got an old one and bits of it are still clogged up.

We've always used soft water and there's a lot of oomph.

Mine works great on the Aga.

But you didn't buy a new one, only obtained a beaten up old one from an auction....

[Peter Parry]

Nope, HCl is wonderful stuff :-) and I had it in many pieces. Its rate of steam production appears to be similar to new ones I've seen, the running pressure of 3-3.5 bar is as expected and the life you get from a fill is exactly as expected so I'm pretty confident its performance is within specification. It isn't a very complicated device to start with.

Its now fed deionised water when I want to use it (because I have lots).

There is lots of oomph, as a steam generator its pretty fine, its just that nothing much happens after that.

I thought you claimed Aga's never needed cleaning? :-).

I can't see how a new one would be any better - It's not as if they are complicated or have wear items. You boil water in a small pressure cooker and vent steam under control. No motors or problems as long as the boiler and pipes don't clog up. The state of the casing doesn't affect the innards (and this one was actually in very good condition once cleaned).

The basic problem is that steam is good at getting things most domestic things damp and generally poor at cleaning them. I seem to recall Which? coming to exactly the same conclusion a year or two back.

The only dirt extracted is that absorbed by the bit of towel you tie around the cleaning tool - comparing what you pick up from a carpet with the amount a vacuum cleaner manages shows how ineffective the steam cleaner is.

Moreover the water has to go somewhere and somewhere is the atmosphere and furnishings. Using one for an hour (two tanks) dumps three lit res of water into the house.

It has sufficient usefulness not to be thrown out but it couldn't replace any other cleaning machine and is neither quicker nor better for most cleaning jobs than conventional cleaning methods. Controller (House) agrees with my conclusions.

[Andy Hall]

Well I don't then. Works fine for me.

That's the inside. The outside benefits from an occasional clean, and the Polti does it really effectively.

I looked at the reports. Some models are better than others and Polti was best buy.

There are some things that I think that it is useful to clean and others not. For hard surfaces, it is particularly effective. I would't use it for carpets etc. except for particular applications where vacuum cleaner doesn't do the job and chemicals are not appropriate.

I don't tie towels around the cleaning tool, but use separate disposable cloths to absorb moisture and dirt. Works well.

I wouldn't use it to replace another cleaning machine. If it could do that then there wouldn't be any point anyway.

I like to use it for hard surfaces because it deals with those quickly and without the use of chemicals.

In conjunction with the special iron, it does a superb job that is better than any conventional steam iron.

[Martin Bonner]

We have the Polti that includes a wet/dry vacuum cleaner function. It works VERY well at cleaning our uneven stone floors.

The only problems we have found so far are: a) the o-rings sealing the steam parts together tend to wear out, and are expensive to replace b) We had some internal screws work loose which held the rollers on - fortunately my partner's office has access to all sorts of security bits, so they opened it up and screwed it back together.

Very good at cleaning though

[Peter Parry]

Actually it was the Morphy Richards Grimebuster for larger ones and the Electrolux Enviro Steam Gun and Polti Vaporettino amongst small hand helds (although it also said none of the hand helds were worth buying (Aug 2002)).

Their overall conclusion was "A steam cleaner may be an indispensable gadget for a few, but our tests show most cleaning jobs are better tackled by the methods most of us have been using for years"

Ah - that's the correct name for the bits of towel that came with it

- thank you :-)

I understand from those who know ironing that irons with a separate steam generator are indeed superior to conventional irons. Most have the advantage of allowing the water supply to be topped up without switching off and having to allow the generator to cool down.

[Andy Hall]

It's a question of purpose.

It doesn't make frothy coffee either, although I suppose with some adaptation it could.

Used on hard surfaces it does a good job.

If you've been ironing for an hour or more, a short break is generally welcome, so it's a non issue.

[Owain]

Bet it won't be as funny as PowerGen Italia's domain name ...

Owain

[Owain]

Are they any good at getting saliva out of keyboards?

Owain

[Owain]

I'm told they're good for defrosting freezers, and I imagine squirting the nozzle through the letterbox would be quite effective at dealing with Jehova's Doorstep Magazine Sellers.

If you have a neighbour you don't like you could lend it to him to defrost his car windscreen.

If you could arrange a remote trigger actuator and suspend the thing on ropes on x-y coordinates it would be good for making Magic Writing In The Snow (Without Footprints).

Owain

[Peter Parry]

On this I certainly bow to your superior experience, I have never managed to iron for more than 5 minutes.

[Pete C]

Hi,

Pretty good for hard surfaces if a wall plate is used IME, just steam one area while wiping the previous steamed area, just as quick and much less elbow grease and little or no chemicals needed.

Must be a student landlord's best friend, though my tiles never get that bad ;)

cheers, Pete.

[Andy Hall]

Delegated to OC, House? ;-)