The Shark steam mop was on my "want" list since I first started seeing the infomercials about a year ago. I had vivid fantasies of how easy cleaning the floors and light steaming the carpet would be. On a trip to Sam's Club I saw it and it was a good price (compared to TV) so I bought it with a huge grin and couldn't wait to get home and try it.
A warning: the club packed Steam Mop only contains 2 of the microfiber pads and does NOT have the carpet glider attachment but you can purchase it seperately for $25 + S/H, as well as additional pads, so it's not really the "deal" that I thought it was.
Upon assembly it seemed quite cheaply made with thin hollow lightweight metal handle and cheap plastic bits- this proved out when attempting to use it the first time. There is a lot of wobble to the handle itself and I'm frequently worried that it will bend or break during use.
The primary reason that I wanted one is that I have a mixture of flooring in my home- linoleumum, tile, marble, hardwood floors and wood laminate all which need separate cleaners and the steam mop promised to alleviate my need for a cabinet full of floor cleaners since it could clean them all and sterilize them with the power of steam! Wow, what a bunch of crap. The steam seems very impressive when watching the mop bellow out great puffs of cootie killing and environmentally friendly steam, but that's where it ends- in appearances. The outlet for the steam is covered by the pad and has channels to all 4 sides, so the steam is not actually steaming the floor- just vapor that hits the back of the pad and eventually makes the micro-fiber pad "semi- moist" like a dried out Swiffer. Very disappointing, but the steam mop will redeem itself after saturating the cleaning pad and remove dirt like no other once you get going, right? Wrong! As the pad gets damp, it gets harder to push, clinging to the floor with all it's little microfibers. They have to cling to something, since it's not the dirt or dust that one would imagine, instead pushing little lines of scuzz tothe stopping point, usually around corners and walls. The steam itself only makes an appearance on the downstroke of the handle, but as stated, doesn't really DO much except make noise and try to impress with it's appearance.
So on the infomercials (that I've watched since, knowing that I had to be doing SOMETHING wrong) it "powers through tough messes and marks". By the time that you remove that mark you will not only have been done sooner with a wet paper towel, but will have nearly bent the handle applying pressure, are suffering from arm cramps from repeatedly going over the area and trying to pump the handle enough for the visual effect of the steam to actually do anything in a hopelessly optimistic way, but will have to stop and refill the water container with the supplied little funnel and little pourer, and waiting for it to heat up again before continuing. Oh! The commercial says to just use tap water, but the instructions say that you CAN use tap water, but they suggest using distilled water instead to prolong the life of the steam mop and prevent mineral build-up.
So how well did it perform on the various floors in my home? It did the best on the Pergo flooring with it's flat, glossy plastic surface. The finished hardwood floors came in second, but it was more or less just "dusting" these, not really removing any dirt or stains or spills. The unfinished wood floor was a joke and made a mess as the wood grains and micro-fibers fought and the cloth lost, leaving puffs of white cotton on the 3 foot strip I did manage to push the thing through before giving up. On the marble flooring, it did "ok", since the tiles are large and the joints in between are small and it did not leave the usual streaks as it dried almost instantly, but forced the dirt INTO the grout lines and to the corners of the wall. More time to clean up the remnants than if I had just used an "old fashion" mop. The vinyl (linoleum) flooring (from garage into laundry room) was the worst as far as trying to get the mop to actually glide over the surface and remove filth/ stains and once again just redistributed the loose dirt left behind after sweeping before mopping. I can't say that it looked any cleaner or much different after 20 minutes of huffing and puffing and trying to get the steam mop to do it's thing than if I had just swept it with a broom. The kitchen tile was the most pointless- it "kinda-sorta almost" cleaned the tops of the tile, but left the sides and grout lines untouched, no matter how hard I struggled to "scrub" with the flimsy mop and bendy handle.
Some other annoying things- the cord seems to be about a foot or two too short, the manual says to wash the microfiber pads separately or by hand, the velcro on the pads is a pain to line up with the matching side on the mop head, before you start mopping you have to fill the reservoir, plug it in, wait for it to heat up, then pump the handle @ 10 times before any steam comes out, about a 5 minute process before the work begins and it is work, not the gentle push as shown on TV and the effectiveness is negligible.
The most disappointing thing (to me) is that the steam never comes in contact with the floor as inferred by the commercials, just shoots the back of the pad and eventually trickles down, so how is it powering out the dirt, stains and bacteria? It's not, it's just spreading it around. I stopped in the middle of mopping and felt the pad and it was completely cool from the cold floors, not steamy hot, especially not hot enough to sanitize anything.
Overall a tremendous waste of money, a Swiffer is more effective, better made and cheaper. If you're dead stuck on having one of these (as I was), you can recreate the "experience"yourself by joining together 6 plastic bendy straws and affixing the flattened cardboard center of paper towels with the last paper towel still glued on. Spit down the straw (not too much) and make a "whoosh" sound every time you try to push forward.
I have no idea what to do with this thing now except let it sit in the closet behind the broom.
UPDATE 11/10/09: SURPRISE! The crappy thing broke- that is the cheap plastic connector snapped off in the pole where it pushes to realease steam. Over a week and 2 warranty repair requests submitted to the euro-pro website and NO RESPONSE! AVOID THIS BRAND LIKE THE PLAGUE!
Shocked that they now also own Fantom (vacuums) I've had my Fantom for 15 years and still love the thing and have had no problems other than routine maintenance, the thought of having to get parts from this company makes me apprehensive.
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