I know that I keep writing about how we don’t have any money to spare, but there was one purchase that I just couldn’t resist making recently.
On Saturday my husband and I went out and got a Shark Steam Blaster. It was on sale at 50% off it’s regular price at Canadian Tire and I’ve wanted a steam cleaner for ages!
I realized how much I needed something to make cleaning the house easier over the holidays. We have a tiny upstairs bathroom – the tub is along one wall and the sink and toilet are on the opposite wall with only about a foot and a half walking space between the tub and sink/toilet combo … so you can imagine how hard it is to clean the tub! Especially when your back has decided to get worse! You can’t even crouch properly between the sink and tub to do some good scrubbing, instead you have to stand awkwardly bent over to give it a good scrub.
So I figured a steam cleaner would make the job easier, plus I could clean the grout and the stainless steel taps much better than with chemicals and all the hard time consuming scrubbing.
I tried the steamer out yesterday in the kitchen. For some reason the last people that lived in our house not only put tiles behind the sink as a counter splash, but the whole kitchen – all four walls have tiles from the base of the wall up to about 2/3’s of the wall height. You can probably imagine how dirty that grout gets!
Unfortunately the steamer didn’t do the miraculous cleaning job that I’d hoped it would. The grout is going to take a lot of scrubbing with the scrubbing attachment on the steamer … or I might have to use some cleaning chemicals on the grout first, rinse it off and then go to town with the steamer. Either way … I’d hoped that it would instantly clean the grout between the tiles in the kitchen and well … it does look better but it’s not sparkling clean.
where the steamer did live up to it’s name was around our sink and on the outside of our stove and fridge. You know how dirt and grime builds up around the edges of the sink where it meets the counter? Well the steamer just blasted that gunk out of there. It also did a nice job on our semi new Danze faucet that we had to replace sometime last year when Chris broke the old faucet.
I’m hoping that if I use the steam blaster on the tile grout a few times that it will gradually get cleaner and cleaner.
Do any of you have an all purpose steam cleaner? If you do – how do you like it and what brand do you have? Does it work well or do you have hit and miss results like I did on my first use?
One thing that I do like about the steamer is that it has lots of attachments. We can use it to steam mop the floors (and walls), squeegee the windows and other glass clean, clean grout and other dirty grimy areas and I’m sure I’ll find some other uses for the steam cleaner.
I don’t think that grout is coming clean without chemicals… it’s probably just too porous, and the stains are in the grout. The only thing that’s worked for me in this case is grout cleaner or a professional cleaning, followed closely by sealing the grout to keep future stains out.
I Love my ladybug vapor steam cleaner it never gives any trouble.
I’ve heard comments from friends that a steamer wasn’t the miracle worker they had hoped for. They returned it for money back.
Well I bought my steam cleaner from Tell Sell and I love it. I mostly use it in the bathroom to get tiles cleaned. It works excellent! You should be careful with the grout though, it could porous, just as James lee said.
It never fails to amaze me how many cleaning machines there are! Some of them more innovative than others… What happened to the old floorcloth and plastic bucket? Maybe sometime i get used to all these new stuff!
Hello Tricia,
Glad you like your new steam cleaner. We bought a Hoover F5914-900 for $145.95 and we’ve never looked back. The ‘clean surge’ feature gives an extra burst of cleaning solution when you need it and the hose is 8 feet long. We used to rent a steam cleaner for our rugs, upholstery and floors before we bought the Hoover F5914-900.
Russell I’m glad you like your new steamer, but mine isn’t for cleaning rugs. It’s more for cleaning grout, kitchen and bathroom surfaces.
I also bought one.
still to be used second time
Steam makes the job easier but you will need some chemicals to clean up neglected tile. Either use a grout cleaner, available at almost all home improvement stores, or vinegar and water.
I think it doesn’t work instantly, but it saves you a lot of “elbow grease” in rubbing and scrubbing. I just hold the wand over the area I’m cleaning and use a gentle circular motion, and any gunk just liquifies so you can easily wipe it away. It’s the best cleaning helper I ever found!
A lot of the cheap steam cleaners do not seem to work very well. But does not matter how cheap it was it most likely will make cleaning windows very quick and easy.
This is a very good news that you got a multi-function steam cleaner which can be used for various purposes like cleaning floors, walls and even the rough surface. I heard somewhere that if not used for longer time, i.e. put idle, then these get stuck and need servicing, so my advice will be to use these regularly.