From steamer to vapor
Feb 25 '02
The Bottom Line For carpets, you want an upright steamer that can also be used as a canister. Vapor steamers are excellent for hard floors, plus many other uses.
Your Requirements
I don’t know who started the steamer bandwagon, but most steamers do not produce steam. The majority of steamers are for shampooing your carpets, and they do a good job. The wet and dry vacs are certainly not designed for carpets, though I did have one for carpets before. Even if these dual vacs perform as good as a vacuum cleaner and a steamer, they are inferior in convenience to use.
The so-called ‘vapor’ steamer actually use steam for cleaning and they are excellent for hard floors and around the bathroom. They also have a lot of non-apparent uses.
For a steamer, you have the choice of renting one from the supermarket, getting a small machine for small spills and spot stain cleaning, or owning a proper sized one like a vacuum cleaner. I can’t tell you how effective each types of machine are, as it depends on the shampoo or stain remover you use, and how much effort you put in. What I can tell you is that when I see the dirt water after shampooing my carpet, I prefer to own one and shampoo my carpets once every other month if my wife allows me to be that lazy. A steamer is necessary for small kids and large dogs that run in and out of the garden non-stop.
Small machines are actually not that convenient to use even for spot cleaning. By the time you unwind the cord, unwind hose and attach the accessories, you could have finished the job with an upright steamer. For a proper steamer, you don’t need to add shampoo or dump the dirt waters every time if the job is small.
Useful steamer features
As with a vacuum cleaner, the first thing I look at is an upright with a detachable hose that can be used as a canister. For large rooms, a canister is very inconvenient to move around when you are holding the hose. For small rooms, the canister always gets in the way of the hose. All the accessories should be stored neatly on-board the steamer. For less frequently used accessories, you never remember where they are when you need them.
For an upright, I am looking for long cords, which can be winded on the upright body without too many turns. The cord holder should be able to release the cord at once without unwinding. More importantly, the plug has to have a little clip that can hang on to the cord neatly during storage. These are common features but not universal. The manufacturers have to pay the patent holders.
Rotating bushes are necessary for uprights, otherwise it’s difficult to maneuver the steamer to comb the carpet. In the canister mode, attachments with rotating bushes are also very nice to have. The feeling and effect are like manual toothbrush compared to electric toothbrush. In awkward places like stairs, it’s good to have the rotating brushes that do the job on the spot. Brushes are also good if you have longhair pets. No matter how powerful the vacuum is, pet hairs are never eliminated. With brushes, you don’t always have to vacuum the carpet thoroughly before use. The steamer brushes collect the remaining hairs. For small manual brushes, they clog up fast.
My steamer have a detachable shampoo container and a detachable dirt water collector. It’s very easy to take them out or put them back in without leaking and dripping. They are small and easy to carry, but large enough for the living room and a few more. I advice against too large containers, or combined shampoo and dirt water container – they are twice as inconvenient and heavy.
I don’t think the width of the steamer is critical. I seldom do a single pass over the carpet. Either I do a few pass before I move on to the next area, or I do a single pass but with some overlapping. Anyway, I opted for six brushes in a row instead of five. I guess the power of the motor have to match the width. As long as it remains just as convenient, a little wider won’t hurt.
On-board heating of the shampoo? It’s true that if you put in hot water with the shampoo, by the time you come to the last drop, they are not that hot. And if you don’t finish the shampoo every time, they will be cold next time. I think the best strategy is to use just enough shampoo rather than filling the shampoo compartment full every time. I seldom do that much hard work on a single day using up all the shampoo. Some steamers come with on-board heating. It’s a good thing if no convenience is sacrificed. Now my shampoo container is a simple plastic carton. For regular shampooing, the temperature of the water is not that important to me. I feel good enough looking at the dark gray dirt water coming out. For spot stain removing, you can always use boiling water. I don’t think it’s worthwhile to use the steamer to heat up cold water.
Some steamers have separate compartment for shampoo and clean water. The steamers do the mixing for you. This is a good thing because you will never waste shampoo. You can throw the remaining water away when you finish, or you can change to hotter water any time. But it’s good if the seals and couplings are not compromised for the more complex design. What I prefer is a snap to fit the container in, with no leaking, dripping and the seals are reliable. You can also vary the concentration when you have to mix the solution yourself.
A powerful motor should be good so the carpet dry faster. But I tend to saturate the carpet anyway so it takes some time to feel completely dry.
Useful vapor steamer features
The best use of vapor steamer is for hard floors. The rotating brushes for non-vapor steamers are good for combing carpets, but not any better than your elbow grease on hard floors. My wife had been bugging me to change the kitchen vinyl floor for ages but I am not certain why. We lived with it for a long time, and it’s not broken. The bathroom’s are also vinyl but she never complained. When I first tried the vapor steamer on the vinyl floor, she never mentioned remodeling the floor again. The vapor steamer beats any chemical without chemicals and elbow grease.
Ideally a vapor steamer is best in the form of a boom, and as convenient as a boom. However, vapor steamer is also good in many other things – tiles, grouts, and toilets. The heat can dislodge many accumulated dirt. Steam needs no wiping drying. There’s no contact and no brushing. But if you use the little brush attachment plus rinsing, the tile and grout looked ages younger. Therefore the best is to buy separate specialized vapor steamers if you can afford the money and space. Otherwise, you can choose a multi-function steamer.
The one I have looked like a small canister vacuum cleaner. You can’t carry it along on your shoulder but it’s not heavy. Though you have to unwind the cord and hose, and locate the attachments every time. My original purpose is to create the most hostile environment for any undesirable creatures in the house. My daughter’s doctor and her colleague guess that the bites on her stomach are by fleas. The vet said that my dog doesn’t have fleas. I was thinking about to make an appointment for the doctor to see the vet so they can have a good talk. My dog has always been taking preventive flea medicine. I have tried sprays and bombs. Instead of a terminator, I got a vapor steamer. By the way, it’s common for my dog’s breed to have allergy, and he has it since he was a puppy. He had done a patch test but I would say it wasn’t conclusive what he is allergic to. He had been on injection once every six month. But the other vet say it’s better and simpler to take anti-biotics when the allergy comes. Yet another vet recommend taking anti-histamine and anti-biotics for the entire summer season. Another doctor says we should isolate the baby from the dog, which is rather difficult, as they like to hang out with each other. But I agree that both of them probably have some allergy reaction to something common, probably fleas. If they go to the park too long or been to the sand pitch, both of them will come back itching.
If you think of sanitizing, you have to think of volume of the vapor steamer. I know some steamers for cleaning the bathroom for example can hold only a small volume of water, measured in oz, or half a liter, roughly half a quart. Some steamers last for 20 minutes. I thought of using it on the carpet so I choose a 2 liter one. It took 10 min to heat the water as promised. The steam lasted for more than an hour on maximum pressure non-stop. I think the steam could last for all the carpets in all the rooms plus all the surfaces that I can think of. I never knew how long since that would be too much work in one day for me. I think 1.5 or 1 liter will be good enough for the whole house. For bathrooms or for hard floors only, the volume could be much smaller.
My steamer has a knob to adjust the steam pressure. At maximum pressure the steam is impressive, like holding a smoking gun. It turns out to be a nice dust blower! I can write letters on the carpet with the pressure. The manual mentioned someone used it to blow dust on fake or real plants. I used it on many other things including blinds, curtains, top of fridge etc that collect dust. At good pressure, the steam blows into the curtain and comes out the other side. You need steam to be a dust blower because the fine dust seems to be trapped by the steam. The steam carries the dust away from you and glues the fine dust as the steam condenses. At minimum pressure, the steam looked like a little sizzle in comparison. For hard floor and bathroom, the pressure is not important. But good pressure also means higher temperature I guess. And you don’t need to put the nozzle that close to the dirt as a convenience.
It’s a waste if you don’t have a brush attachment for hard floors. They are really good. So my steamer looked like a canister vacuum cleaner in this mode, with a steam on-off button at my fingertips. However, the requirements are more stringent than vacuum steamer. You want a canister that is completely thermal insulated, not too hot to touch. That’s the same for all the attachments with no exposed hot spot. The attachment joints should be convenient and secure. Unfortunately, I guess I got send an ex-demo unit. All the attachment joints are excellent except an extension rod, which appeared to have a little repaired dent. Basically it’s effortless to attach something except for the dented rod. Once I used too little effort, it broke apart and leaked high-pressure steam on my fingers. It was hot and painful but my fingers weren’t burnt after all. The repaired dent got better gradually.
The brush for hard floors is also good for carpets. But a vapor steamer is not really intended for carpets. Actually, you can do a very nice dry cleaning on the carpet, the same as a dry cleaning on clothes. But you have to find something to lift the dirt away. For hard floors, a towel clipped on the brush will do nicely. But a towel is inefficient for carpets with so much more surface area. Even if you manage to lift dirt out of the carpet, doing the whole house will be too much trouble.
You also should have a little hard brush for the tiles and grout. As a minimum they cover the hot metal nozzle. You want more than one of these, as the hard brush will wear down fast if you clean grouts or other abrasive services frequently.
For sanitation some manufacturer recommend to let the brush stay on the worktop for a few seconds. I guess the hot tower with steam treatment will kill most bacteria if the towel stay long enough. I doubt if a lot of people will go into that. I just blow enough hot steam on the surface with the nozzle. Other than curtains and blinds, I blow over the whole sofa, under the seating pads, and under the sofa and bed where I do not vacuum normally. Bacteria may not all die but insects may not want to live there. Failing all that, it’s a very good dust blower. The pillows and duvets – it’s reassuring to see steam coming in from one side and out from the other side. And sometimes I blow over all the clothes in the closet when there is steam left; I am not sure what good it does but I feel good about it. And I steam all the toys of my dog and kid.
My vapor steamer comes with a squee-gee for windows. The steam should be good for removing hard water stains that are calcium deposits, and removing soap gums. However I never used it as you have to take another step to wipe off the water vapor and polish the glass.
Reliability
Once my wife ruined the $300 vacuum cleaner. We asked the local shop to recommend a reliable one for replacement. It turns out that our vacuum cleaner is supposed to be reliable. If you manage to blow this one, the shopper recommended a $500 vacuum. I was caught between two rocks. I guess I have to pay $50 to $100 for parts and labor to repair the vacuum, knowing that my wife will ruin it the same way again given the same time. Fortunately, what my wife did was that she never changes the bag or cleans the dog hairs tangled in the brush. When the suction drops or the brush isn’t effective, she sent it to me. The rotating brush got obstructed, the motor heated up, the driving belt melted, together with part of the mounting base. I was surprised that the whole plastic base is available as a part though it’s not on the list on the manual. It was rather cheap and easy to replace the whole base myself, though we have to drive 30 miles to get it. The moral of the story is to go for a manufacturer that knows the business. Every tiny detail is optimized for convenience. A reliable and indestructible motor – I heard that some motor did get burnt. Modular designs so the worn part can be easily replaced. A well-established manufacturer with a large servicing and parts network.
I used a little carpet cleaner before. A good looking curvy design with very easy to snap in clean and dirt water bottles. But after a while, the rubber seals are ruined after some incorrect insertion of the bottles. The bottle leaks and at the end the dirt water sprayed out during cleaning. It wasn’t worthwhile to repair this little machine. Since then I lost confidence of the manufacturer. Time may change things but this manufacturer’s products are always more fancy, better looking and cheaper. Too good to be true?
As for the vapor steamer, the manufacturer has been producing professional steam iron. The boiler is perfect, and so are the hose and attachments. But it is far away from a vacuum cleaner in the sense that you have to wind and unwind the hose and cord, and you have to find something to secure them or let them lose. You also have to store the attachments. Basically it’s a very good steam iron with attachments. If a vacuum manufacturer manages to actually produce something with steam, I guess it will be upright like a boom that you can mop the hard floor immediately. You can detached the hose and use other attachments like a canister. And of course all the accessories are on-board and you can use it as a blower. Let me know if you see one.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
hipo
|
|
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.