douglasb

I'm thinking of giving the house a good clean (washing carpets, getting the tiling sparkling, spotless oven, windows immaculate, etc.). I found the Earlex SC-165 "Steama-Plus". This would appear to have all the attachments I need and seems like it is a good price (£47), however, I don't really know what I should be looking for.

Does anyone have experience of using a steam cleaner for cleaning their house? Does that machine look like it would do the job? Is it missing anything that I might need? Anything I need to know before starting such as "Under no circumstances use a steam cleaner on ....."?

All help appreciated.

Doug

lightning101

I've got that exact model - It is good for cleaning rugs/curtains etc. and the window cleaner attachment is excellent, the alloy wheel cleaner (forget it).


You will use this one day for all jobs then put it in the garage/loft never to be seen again.

beemerboy

get someone in.
its sounds easy, but you have to get the greasy crap out and not just loosen it.
IMO, steam cleaning the kitchen just pushes the grease around the place, you really need to lift it up with cloths/papertowels as well.

or else i'm just a lazy git.

Apparition

I have a steam cleaner too and must agree with comments above. I used it once with some degree of success and then it never saw the light of day again.
Yes it does loosen greas in the kitchen but its a pig of a job to do. This isn't a magic device which makes the muck just disappear.
And be careful.... coz steam is very VERY hot !

lightning101

Oh yeh, for got about the "burning your hand everytime you use it", the protective nozzle/hand grip is about half the size of my hand.

Allan

iTrader: (1)

We have a Polti 2400, about £285 if you shop around. I can honestly say we would never be without a steam cleaner around the house again.

Probably the main differences between the models will be durability and capacity/delivery of steam. Ours will happily do most of the house on two fills, especially if you do it regularly. When doing carpets, you need lots of steam or it will take ages.

They are especially good on carpets, we have suspended floors down stairs and get a lot of black discolouration around the edges, the steamer brings it up like new. Also very good in the bathroom, and easy to do those not so nice jobs.

I can't recommend them enough and they are environmentally friendly. I don't have any knowledge of the SC-165 but it doesn’t look man enough to me.


Allan

douglasb

Thanks all.

Mixed messages there. lightning101/beemerboy, I had thought about getting someone in but reckoned that a steam cleaner at this price was a cheaper option than paying whoever for a day's work. If it then spends a lot of time in the garage doing nothing I'm still ahead if it does the job.

Found the instruction manual on the Web. The manual makes it look like sticking a bit of towel over the steam head will mop up the general gunge that it releases. I'm thinking of grease on tiles behind the cooker hob. Apparition/beemerboy - is this not the case?

AllanP - I did wonder about the capacity of the cleaner I'd found. Perhaps I need to be looking at something a bit beefier.

Thanks everyone. (Any other thoughts will be very welcome).

Doug