Well it certainly steams, but I'm not too sure of the cleaning bit. Read on

The Test: - Single bloke's house

I initially bought the cleaner to put a bit of life back in to the carpets and anything else was a bonus. My first concern before purchasing the cleaner was the difference between a carpet cleaner and a steam cleaner. After reading some reviews and assurances from the sales bloke that what the carpet cleaner could do, the steam cleaner could do just as well, and more, I bought one for £305.

For what is little more than a pressure cooker on wheels, I am disappointed with the value for money aspect. I would have liked to spend that much on a DVD player AND a digital camera.

So what do you get for your money? Well, you get the steamer itself, 2 extenders hoses for doing the carpets, a large bristle brush for the latter and a smaller one for upholstery. A small round brush (about the size of a £2 coin), an attachment for steaming and squeeging the windows (the rubber on this is a bit mis-shaped, and needed knocking back into a straight line, its also fairly thick and doesn't taper to an edge like some squeegees you can buy). 2 cloths (could have done with a few more of these put into the package), a bottle for filling up the steamer, and a video of a Italian grandmother blowing steam out of her ass-orted attachments. One gripe is that there is no storage space for all the various implements on the steamer, so you'll have all these bits cluttering up your cubby-hole.

Outside

Wheelie bin. Did a nice job of loosening all the algae that was building up on the outside, but it still needs a bit of agitation from a brush to remove it. Inside the bin was too tough a task, would be better with a high-pressure hose to clean this.

Patio Doors. Removed most of the crud under the door, but again it still needs a bit of agitation to remove it. The main theme of the include
d video is to blast with steam and then wipe with something. I would have liked this steamer to have been a bit more powerful in the pressure delivery to avoid all this faffing about.


The Bathroom.

Bath. Quite a bit of build-up of soap and other unidentified bits, and it seemed to handle this ok. Tiles, ok.

Toilet. Pass (some things are best glossed over)

The razor. WOW it really gets rid of those hard-to-get whiskers in-between the blades (or had I already put a new blade in ?)


The Kitchen

Made a good job of the tiled kitchen floor, even put floor wax solution on the cloth (clips onto the large bristle brush) and did that at the same time. Degreased the cupboard doors surrounding the hob, stainless steel sink now stainless and worktops now grime free.

Carpets

I might have been expecting too much on carpets 5 years old, but it performed reasonably well. It lifted the pile up and picked up a mountain of carpet fibres (wish I had that camera now) and other particles (maybe I need a new hoover instead). It had a tough test on beige carpets in the hallway, but again managed to improve the pile. Some areas remained soiled, but again it could be down to the length of time the dirt has been building up. I don’t have a problem with asthma, but if the little buggers in the carpet were having a party, there off to their own funeral now. Nice to walk barefooted over steaming carpets.


If it was priced at £150 I might have been less harsh on this review, but as it is, you don't get what you pay for. This might be the Rolls Royce of steam cleaners, but I'm not convinced of the benefits of buying one. This one could go to anyone in the Bradford area if you think you would benefit from it £290 (free delivery) as new. Also looking for a decent lass to shack up with.