What's behind our steam mop Ratings? Residual water left on floor Steam mop user reviews and provide valuable feedback to other members and our testers. Steam mop buying guide You might expect a steam mop to be more convenient than an ordinary squeeze mop, with no squeegee to squeeze and no pail of water to deal with. You might also expect the steam to loosen dried food spills effectively, and perhaps even sanitize floors and other surfaces. But not all of these expectations matched the reality when we last tested these products.A steam cleaner or steam mop is a useful tool to have around the home, particularly if you have lots of hard floors to keep clean. Here is our pick of the best steam cleaners on the market right now.Every steam cleaner we featured has been comprehensively tested by us – we never include a product we haven’t put through its paces. Whether you want the best steam cleaner for tiled floors, a steam mop for laminate floors or even a steam cleaner for de-mucking grout, one of our selection of the best steam mops will get the job done.

Hit the 'Next' arrow or select from the list below for more info on each model.Watch: First look at Dyson's new robot vacuum cleaner, the 360 Eye – A steam mop that lets you vacuum and steam simultaneously, and comes with built-in fragrance discs and an anti-calc filterVax Steam Fresh Combi S86-SF-C – A steam mop and handheld with 10 tools and a separate detergent tank that's good enough to clean a range of surfacesPolti Vaporetto GO – A compact, cylinder-style steam cleaner that's portable and cheap, yet powerful enough to easily lift dirt from floorsKärcher SC1 Steam Stick – A lightweight, versatile and practical steam cleaner, which can be used either as a steam mop or a handheldPolti Vaporetto Airplus – A compact, cylinder-style steam cleaner that comes with eight inbuilt tools and a deodorant tank, and won't leave your floors drenchedVax S6S Home Pro Compact – A cylinder-style steam cleaner that's powerful and ideal for cleaning any surface, as well as hard-to-reach cornersVax Steam Fresh Combi S86-SF-C at Amazon.co.uk |

Now £74Related: Best Vacuum Cleaners Round-upThis is the first decision you need to make, and it will largely depend on what you want to use your steam cleaner for.Buy a steam mop if you just want to clean floorsThey’re best for hard floors, but some are useful for freshening up carpets and lifting stains from carpets, too. They’re generally cheaper than 2-in-1 steam mops, which can switch into a handheld mode for other tasks.Buy a 2-in-1 steam mop if you want to clean floors and other surfacesThese more versatile steam mops can be used as handhelds as well, and they normally come with a selection of tools suited to different jobs. This means you can tackle the kitchen tops, bathroom tiles, curtains and plenty more besides, and all with one cleaner.Buy a cylinder steam cleaner if you find upright steam mops too heavyWhile some of the large cylinder steam cleaners are heavier overall, the fact that they’re on wheels means they’re easier to lug about. Most do all the same things a 2-in-1 steam mop will do, while very compact models exist that you can carry on your shoulder.

The other key difference is that cylinder steam cleaners take longer to get ready – normally a few minutes – but the advantages are longer running times and less filling up. Some can even be topped up as you clean, so you don’t have to turn off the cleaner to keep going.carpet cleaning products canadian tire Vapor Caper: Testing Steam Mopspool enclosure cleaning pros We coated vinyl flooring with catsup, hair spray, toothpaste, pasta sauce, olive oil, cat food, pancake syrup, mustard, barbecue sauce, and other sticky household stuff and let the goop harden overnight. carpet cleaning solution bacteriaAdmittedly, this was a much tougher test than the typical small kitchen spill.carpet cleaner for mildew

Some spills were almost gone after two passes of the steam mop; others, such as mustard, clung tenaciously. We judged two models very good overall in cleaning up the small individual messes. The rest were middling. Cleaning up a larger mess—the entire row of spills—proved much more challenging. which is the best steam cleaner for groutEventually even the best performers pushed aside more grime than they were picking up. best way to clean pee from a carpetThe results looked like a lawn where the mower had missed narrow strips along its path. pool service tucson arizonaAnd the entire floor looked dull from the partial cleanup of so many messes. We repeated our tests with an ordinary $15 squeeze mop, using hot tap water with some mild detergent.

The squeeze mop cleaned our floors at least as well as the steam mops, if not better. Of course, we had to scrub more vigorously and allow extra time to refresh the mop repeatedly in a pail of hot water. Despite that, our testers found the squeeze mop strangely more satisfying. Boiler Alert—What to Know About Steam Mops The cartons of all but one steam mop promise to sanitize floors and other surfaces. Those claims may well be true, at least to some extent, because all the tested models produced steam that was hotter than 200° F. (With a typical home heating system's hot water set to 120° F, the hottest you can make an ordinary squeeze mop is about 100° F.) Manufacturers indicate that their steam mops can be used on various hard floors, including vinyl, tile, and sealed wood. But all the tested models left residual moisture, some more than others. A wood floor that appears sealed might have crevices where water can seep in and cause damage. Also, some wood finishes or older waxes might haze over.

Check with the manufacturer of your flooring to make sure using a steam mop wouldn't void the warranty. The removable pad at the bottom of each steam mop can hold only so much grime before it just pushes the excess material along. Before upending the mop to replace the dirty pad underneath, you have to drain the reservoir or run the mop until it's empty. You may be able to remove the pad without upending the steam mop. But the heavier models—up to 10 pounds with full reservoir—can make that inconvenient. The instructions we saw suggest cleaning the pad in a washing machine, but we wouldn't want to toss a grungy pad in the same load with the bed linens and kids' school clothes. Running an entire washing-machine cycle just for one or two pads is wasteful. And hand washing the pads in a sink isn't all that appealing, either. Steam Mop Features—Tough on Grime Reservoir Capacity: One model steamed continuously at its highest setting for about 45 minutes. Some models ran out of water in less than 10 minutes, limiting their convenience to small spills.