Just blast everything with a steam cleaner (Earlex Steam Cleaner)

Member Name: pipefish

Product:	Earlex Steam Cleaner
Date:	07/07/03 (4732 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very easy to use, can shift almost any grease or dirt, versatility

Disadvantages: tank capacity, you may want to clean things more often, could be dangerous if children around

Having got a steam gun a few weeks back, it has *almost* made housework easy and got me wondering how everything got done before its use. Well actually it didn't - many of the cleaning chores required too much elbow grease or cleaning products and didn't get done - however the steam gun can now do these quickly, these are some of its uses:

- defrosting freezers - simply blast away the ice that is preventing the doors closing etc. most of the ice instantly evaporates so there is not even pools of water around the place. About 5 minutes defrosted a badly iced-over ice compartment in the freezer.

- cleaning tiles - place the steam gun right up against the grouting and blast them, hot water and steam will then force out any dirt between the tiles which can be wiped away

- cleaning seals on baths etc - cleans away the stains on the sealant quickly although take care not to remove the sealant itself

- burnt saucepans and baking trays - using a steam gun on some of the pans that still had mess on them from my student days many years ago virtually removed all the dirt from them, although this took a bit of elbow grease too.

- worktops - very quickly removes any stains - also very good for directing into covers on joins between worktops - all the dirt will then be forced out and can be wiped away

- ovens - basically steam cleaning any metallic work surfaces will very quickly restore them to a completely clean surface very quickly if you wipe them with a cloth afterwards. Taps and plugholes also come out sparkling clean although the scale may need a bit more effort to shift. The oven hobs also were almost completely cleaned after a lot of blasting with steam and scrubbing them with a scouring pad. Microwaves are also easy to clean although be careful no to point the jet too close to the paint or it may be taken off and leave the bare metal.

- car seats and upholstery - using the upholstry attachment on the

car seats plus a brush in soapy water cleaned several years grime off the car seats very quickly and they were almost as good as new once dried. The same applied to sofas and armchairs too.

- car engines and surfaces covered in grime - using a steamgun and a cloth very quickly cleaned out interiors of doors, some parts of the engine that otherwise would have quickly ruined a car sponge. Use the steam gun to loosen the grime and a spare jaycloth to clean it away afterwards
- car wheels - the steamgun was very effective at loosening the dirt which could then be scrubbed away. Again this avoided ruining car sponges by getting grease all over them.

- car boot - use steam gun to loosen all the muck and then a cloth and vacuum cleaner to remove the mess. Basically all the mess in the boot from taking building materials around and rubbish to the tip was removed very quickly

- windows - there is another attachment for window cleaning although I have not used this yet. There is a danger that windows could crack if they are steam cleaned on a cold day.

- carpets - certainly a larger steam cleaner could be used for this. As this is just a handheld gun it could be used for certain stains or spills but not a complete floor.

The steam gun I use is an Electrolux one that was about £50 from Argos. It has a small tank capacity of about .175 litres, which you fill with a small beaker of about 100cc. It then takes only 2 minutes to heat up and will produce enough steam for a highly pressurised jet for 10 minutes. The only wait is when you have used it up and removed the cap, you then have to wait for it to cool down for a few minutes or else if you pour water straight in it will instantly boil straight back out of the spout and you risk scalding yourself.
Fortunately the small size makes it light and easy to use for longer periods of time. The cord is also 4 metres long (it needs to be plugged in all the time when in use) so
can e
asily reach around a room.

For most of the cleaning the results were very good and the grime and dirt was simply blasted away by the air pressure and steam jets, ready to be wiped away. I have found it invaluable for cleaning away 'set-in' grease and grime and especially good for any metallic surfaces. As it also uses steam the heat will sanitise any surfaces - very useful for kitchens and other such areas. Overall a definite thumbs up.

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