Coming up for two years ago, I started dating my lovely boyfriend Phill . Poor Phill suffers from excema and all kinds of allergies, and on his first sleepover at my house, came up with itchy skin and sneezing . This eased with further visits as he became used to my house and my pets, but I wanted to make things a little easier on him - changing washing powder and toiletries to more skin friendly brands and such, and keeping on top of the dusting a little more . It was about then that my desire for a steam cleaner took over .

You see, in researching things that might have been causing his flair ups when he came to my house, we'd stumbled upon one very likely culprit - dust mites. These nasty little things live in mattresses,feasting on dead flesh and bodily fluids, and pooping all over everything. A good vacuum would surely partly resolve the problem, but I wasn't happy with that - I wanted to boil the little buggers.

After much not so subtle hinting, I was delighted when my parents gifted me with the Polti Pocket PTGB0033 from the brands Vaporetto range, which retails for around £80, with prices varying depending on where you buy . Not only was I happy to have a steam cleaner, but Polti was one of the few reputable brands I knew about, having specialised in steam cleaning products since 1978.

This came in a big box, just crammed full of accessories . As I started to lay everything out, I became a little daunted, with so many little appendages I began to be a bit confused. Lucky for me then that they have a manual, which on first impressions is scarily thick, until you realise that it contains instructions in multiple languages . This manual not only came with usage instructions, but a nice picture explaining what all these little tools were for, and how they could be attached. The accessories included with the cleaner were 3 reinforced extension tubes, a large bristled brush, window cleaning squeegee tool, a steam lance, a small circular brush, a small rectangular brush, a clip on cloth for the large brush head and a small elasticated cover for the small circular brush . In addition to these there was also a funnel to allow easy filling, and a 750ml jug (perfectly sized, since 750ml is the boiler capacity of this cleaner).

Now that I knew what all these bits were, it was time to assemble my new, sexy steam cleaner, which I would like to mention is a rather fetching yellow and black colour, resembling some kind of souped up mechanical wasp. Using the manual (only for the first time) it was easy to attach the extension hoses I needed, clip the cloth over the large brush, and open and fill the boiler (which has a safety cap that is easy enough for an adult to remove, but would be tricky for a child). Then it was as simple as plugging it into the wall, switching it on, and leaving it to boil up some steam for me ( a process that was made easier by simple red and green indicator lights telling you when the product is ready to use).

This doesn't take long, between 5-10 minutes, and then my mean steam machine was ready to go . Hooking the handy strap over my shoulder meant the machine itself hung at a handy waist height, and the long wire enabled me to freely move about the room as I played with my new toy.

The first thing I tackled was my kitchen floors, which are now a delight to clean, as the hot steam helps to loosen any nasty stubborn muck, and the cloth clipped over the brush soaked up the dirt so that the steam wasn't spreading it from place to place . I changed from the large brush to the narrow steam lance at one point to get right into the corners, and was impressed with how strongly the steam came out, blasting through dirt and muck, enabling it to be simply wiped off afterwards. My floors were gleaming, and muck that had refused to be shifted for months was suddenly gone

The next thing to be tackled was the mattresses , blasting them with hot steam gave me a really good feeling, as although I could not see the difference, I know that steam kills dust mites, and I wanted the little buggers dead. And I'm not just assuming that - a handy bit of info on the Polti website told me that:

"In Cambridge University two carpets and two mattresses containing live dust mites were compared. One carpet and one mattress were cleaned with an ordinary vacuum cleaner, the others with Vaporetto. Then the live dust mites on the samples were counted. Vaporetto had eliminated 97% of them from the carpet and 98% from the mattress, cutting allergens by 86%. The ordinary vacuum cleaner had eliminated only 57% of dust mites and 46% of allergens. "

(Information taken from the Polti website)

Reassuring stuff indeed, and I had a merry time blasting away at the mattress . However, it was around now that the first of the problems with the product became apparent. You see, a steam cleaner can't just have highly pressurised steam shooting all over the place willy nilly - that would be highly dangerous. So, in order to release the steam, you need to push a trigger in the handle down quite hard, and you need to keep it pushed down if you want continued steam. Whilst this was no problem for the first few minutes of use, I actually began to find gripping this quite uncomfortable, and the ridged indentations on the handle began to dig into my palms a little .

I can see that the trigger needs to be quite hard to push down for safety reasons, as you would not want a child getting hold of this when it is hot and full (parents will be happy to know that you can 'lock' the trigger to prevent it being pushed in and releasing steam), but I think this product would be a little more comfortable to use if there was perhaps a little soft padding on the outside of the handle, which is designed very much like a petrol pump. It would just make holding this tightly a little easier.

Then another small problem became apparent - the steam ran out . Before this happened there was no indication - nothing to give you a warning that the water level is getting low. Yes, the little red indicator light comes on again once the boiler is completely empty, but I did worry about what might happen if I was to continue to try to release steam with it empty. Not that I would do so deliberately, but if I was cleaning windows I might not be close enough to the nozzle to see no steam was coming out. A small niggle only though, nothing to panic about

The weight of the product is 3.9kilos, and actually it doesn't feel heavy to carry about, I think partly because the straps allows you to wear this over the shoulder rather than carry the main body of the cleaner by hand . So you only need your hand for the trigger handle . The maximum pressure is 3bar (I don't know whar that means, but it seemed it might be important so I'll include it!) and it dispenses steam at 80g a minute.

The product comes with a 2 year warranty, and if it breaks down needs to be sent to a polti specialist (all the info is provided in the box) So far, touch wood, I've not had any problems with mine at all - in fact I'm very satisfied with it, having now used it on all kinds of surfaces - lino, tiles, glass, my bed - with excellent results. I think for the price (not sure exactly how much my parents paid, but the average price seems to be around £80) its a very good , very flexible steam cleaner that does a multitude of jobs around the home, with the additional benefit of not having to use any chemicals or detergents with it that might have caused extra problems with my boyfriends allergies.

The product itself needs no cleaning or maintenance barring simply washing the cloths that cover the brush heads, and occasionally pulling a bit of hair out of the bristles, so it's very easy to look after, and is quite compact so it can be easily stored out of the way between uses.

Overall, I'm giving this 4/5 . I do feel that the grip on the handle could have been a lot more comfortable, and that some low water indicator (nothing complicated, just a beep perhaps) would give me some additional peace of mind during usage.

This can be purchased directly from the manufacturer at www.poltiuk.co.uk, as can additional or replacement accessories. However, the site seems to often be out of stock, but amazon.co.uk have it at £79.99 .

A great steam cleaner , 4 stars!