Great for everyday use

I've had this for 3 months now, I use it about once a week. I live in an 800 sq. ft. apartment with all tile floors, so this was a lifesaver.

Pros:
1) Light, quick, easy to use. I toss the mop heads with the kitchen and bathroom rugs into the washer when I'm done.
2) No chemicals! With this size apartment, mopping the old fashioned way would have been like fumigating
3) Water dries surprisingly fast. By the time I get to the end of the room, the other end has dried off.
4) Quiet. I turn on the TV when I'm cleaning and can hear everything.


Cons:
1) Doesn't clean real messes as well as I'd like. Old stains won't come out that easily, so I still need to get on my hands and knees with a sponge and some chemicals every once in a while, but for regular use, this works fine
2) The pads are not that easy replace when you're in the middle of mopping. The head gets realy hot and I have to let it cool down for 10 minutes before I can replace the pad.
3) The 2 pads that come with this are not enough for my place (each one can clean about 250 sq ft or so)
4) Still need to sweep beforehand. It doesn't pick up hairs and carpet fluff very well
5) The steam comes out from the middle, so if you're hoping to clean the edges of your floor, you're out of luck


Overall, I'm really happy with this. It's great for daily use, even if I have to break out a sponge and pail for deep cleaning.

[Thursday, December 04, 2008]

Cleans great

Started using from day 1 and it seems like the kitchen ceramic tile is brand new. It does NOT leave puddle of water on the floor like some other reviews state (they must not know how to use this properly). I plug it in while I am doing the dishes to allow it to heat. Than it's ready to make all the steam required. If you push the trigger on the handle steam comes out. I usually let go of it for a few seconds (to avoid over steaming - which will eventually turn into water (duh)). Great product and avoids the need to scrub the floor weekly on my hands and knees. Will do this on a monthly basis from now on.

[Tuesday, December 02, 2008]

Just right for what we wanted it for (maybe not for everyone though)

I bought this along with the Ergorapido cordless vacuum as a one-two punch to get the darn place cleaner looking with less effort. The kitchen floor was looking messy routinely because of grass/mud that was brought in from the back yard and from dog food spills from the doggy bowls. Our big problem was dirt that was dried on and required me scrubbing at it with a mop with a bristle end on it. It was a royal pain, and so I wound up just not having the time to do it enough. This steam mop works great for this specific purpose. It makes it SO effortless to get the dried on bits off - just leave the head on top of the stain, hold down the steaming button on the handle for a few seconds and wipe away, repeat if necessary (pleasantly, this isn't often the case). I can clean all those darn messes in a few minutes with very little muscle power or having to carry buckets of dirty water back and forth. Not even any chemicals! It's really great!!

The limits to using this, though, are:

1) You really do need a sealed floor. From the first time you use it, you'll know why - it would be like soaking the surface in really, really hot water, even if it's for a brief time. If it's unsealed wood and you do this regularly, you can see how the wood could start to warp over time, possibly even get water-logged and rotting.
2) Most of our house is unsealed wood floors, so I limit using this to the bathrooms and kitchen. None of those rooms is particularly big, so I don't have any problems whatsoever with how long the cord is. Besides, if I had wanted to cover the entire house and had sealed floors, I'd have probably opted for the Monster steam mop since it looks much more sturdy (lots of metal parts instead of plastic). Since I don't need it to be that heavy-duty, I decided to save the money. I had also considered the Shark, but figured that the price difference wasn't that much, and there were lots of concerns about how sturdy that one was.
3) It's not exactly like mopping because you don't wring out the dirty water, you instead replace the sponge pad. So, to save having to keep replacing pads, I'd clean the less messy areas first, then tackle the really messy ones. Definitely don't plan on using this to clean a smelly area (like if there was dog pee) and then clean the rest of the room - you'll just spread the smell everywhere. If you have to pull this out a LOT, get extra pads so that you'll have time to launder a set while still being able to clean.

[Monday, December 01, 2008]

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