Does anyone here have a Shark Steam Mop?

[SAWYER]

I have hardwood and ceramic tile all in my house and I have been using a Swiffer mop that uses pads and it works ok. I was told about the Shark mop and how great it is and I am thinking about buying one, I like that is has washable pads and no chemical cleaners needed

 

[foghorn67]

Whatever brand you get, look into models that continuously let steam out. Much better.

 

[Leros]

I was very disappointed with my Swiffer mop. It was great at removing loose dust, but it didn't do a great job of removing any real dirt.

 

[Ronstang]

The swiffer should be renamed the smearer. It kind of just moves the dirt around. We now have a steam mop and it completely blows the swiffer away. We have over 1000 sqft of tile and it cleans it quite well. Considering the tile is off white and we have a dog it comes in quite handy. It lifts just about anything that I find. The fact that you just have to wash the pads and you don't have to keep buying the disposable pads and liquid is a huge plus. Quite the savings.

 

[Leros]

Has anybody bought an iRobot Scooba?

 

[Sluggo]

I would be wary of using anything with steam on a wood floor. Most of that stuff isn't sealed on all of it's surfaces, even if it was, cutting it during installation exposes the bare wood again.

 

[thegimp03]

I have hardwood and ceramic tile all in my house and I have been using a Swiffer mop that uses pads and it works ok. I was told about the Shark mop and how great it is and I am thinking about buying one, I like that is has washable pads and no chemical cleaners needed

My wife bought one and she loves it. I think it does a pretty decent job cleaning the floors, the amount of dirt and grime she picked up using it the first time was pretty eye opening.

 

[Miramonti]

Wifie has one too, loves it. She doesn't use it often, but really appreciates it when she does. She used to use a swiffer thinger.

 

[akshatp]

We have one and use it in the kitchen and bathrooms.. It cleans great, and the pads are washable and reusable..

The only one bad thing about it is that some of the "crap" gets pushed to the edges of the walls, and doesnt stick on the pad when pulling it back. We usually just run a clean rag around the baseboards and corners after mopping...

 

[Jeeebus]

Whatever brand you get, look into models that continuously let steam out. Much better.

Indeed. I highly recommend the Haan (I think our model is the 'slim & light' or something like that). Continuous steam, washable pads, gets plenty hot to do the job.

Just go to amazon and search for steam mops, read the reviews on the various products, and go from there. Generally speaking, the shark is the most marketed, but not the most popular.

 

[arcenite]

Thanks all... Once again ATOT shows me something I didn't even know I needed.

We use a swiffer now. I will have to pick up the Haan.

 

[edro]

I have a Shark Steamer. It works ok but has some major flaws that makes me not use it very often.
- To fill it with steam, you have to use a tiny funnel and cup.
- The pads get very dirty quickly and don't clean very well in the washing machine.
- The pad is so thick that it inhibits the steam output.
- You have to push the handle forward to pump steam out, so the movement can be awkward.
- It takes a while to heat up (~10min).

The benefits are that you don't need cleaners and it will take most dirt off easily (once its hot).

 

[arcenite]

I love these kinds of reviews:

Know going in If you get the Envirosteamer, know that, though it cleans the best, the first two times you use it the water goes through holes faster than it will in subsequent uses, so it will go through steam faster and your floors will be wetter than normal. Enough people wrote me to know this happened the first one or two times as it did my first time of use, then after that the mop was normal, our floors are great and it lasts waaaah longer. We don't know why. Just know that going in. After the first two initializing uses it steams perfect! Also obviously the steam lasts longest if you don't hold the mop above the floor to walk to another area since the steam pours out as it will with any steam mop if you do.

(update: This review was updated on 11-2-09 after I got to compare the Bissell as well as add notes about the Ladybugg steamer at the bottom, and then on 11-30 when I got to compare the SteamFast SF-140 and on 12-7 to compare the Steam Boy)

I live in a neighborhood where EVERY home is "green built certified" this means that, to have that certification, the builder built no homes with carpet. All the main floors are polished concrete and the upper floors wood. The bathrooms all have tile and/or slate in every home.

Because of this, as you could imagine, steam mops are quite the neccessity...not only because they get the hard surfaces better than anything else, but because they are also "green" and clean chemical free. I'll be honest, for us...that's a bonus but we weren't cleaning chemical free before. We like chemical free for our pet's paws but I'll confess I was mopping with chemicals before I got my steamer and just kept the pets out of the room while doing it because, up until then, I couldn't get it clean any other way.

Okay, so that said...we decided to have a steamer show down to compare 7 different steamers because my friends and I knew as long as we are in these homes we are gonna have to have a steamer to get all these hard floors clean...we may as well figure out which one to buy next go round. Because my own home is graced with 2 cats, 3 dogs, and two gregarious cooks, my kitchen floor (which had not ever been cleaned by a steamer since my steamer had just arrived) was the testing spot.

Mind you, I vaccuum twice per week and do a mega mop twice a week. I THOUGHT I had pretty clean floors in spite of my pet capacity.

I thought wrong. These picked up dirt so well it's scary

So here's the results:

1. steam mops are the mac daddys of clean floors. What these things picked up was tremendous and no comparison to my vigorous prior constant major mopping.

2. So now I'll break down the elements of each mop we used and then go into more detail about each at the end.

We tried out:
"S": The shark by Europro
"E" The Envirosteamer by Eureka
"H" the haan steamer
"M" the Monster
"B" The Bissell Green Tea
"SF" The SteamFast SF-140 by SteamFast
"SB" The SteamBoy T1

CORD LENGTH: so you don't have to stop and unplug and replug in somewhere else:
Shark ( will be referred to as S):20 feet
Envirosteamer (will be referred to as E): 25 feet *Note* The Envirosteamer has a clip at the top of the handle to keep the cord out of the way. When it's plugged in and you need more cord length, a light tug undoes this cord on the clip so that you have the full 25' of cord. Otherwise it's only around 20 feet. It's made to do this.
Haan: (will be referred to as H)19'8"
Monster (will be referred to as M): 25 feet
Bissell (will be referred to as B) 17 feet
SteamFast (will be referred to as SF): 18.7 ft.
SteamBoy (will be referred to as SB): 16 ft.

STEAM TEMPERATURE: this is a primary element. The hotter the steam, the more dirt picked up and hot steam will also kill parasites, mold and mildew and loosen more dirt:
S 110 degrees. lame
E 220 degrees. very hot
H 212 degrees. very hot
M 266 degrees. hottest...although the envirosteamer and haan seemed plenty hot enough. The shark didn't clean nearly as well and this was one reason. 110 degrees just isn't going to melt off stuck on grime.
B 125 degrees. Note that, because of this low steam temperature the manual said that if I wanted to sanitize the floor or pick up caked on spills, I had to hold the steamer on the spot for 15 seconds but no more than 20 because that could damage some floors. Now I don't know about you, but if I can sanitize with one swipe of the other steamers because of their sanitizing temps my floor will be done WAY faster but I don't have a timer to worry about the extra 5 secons where my wood floors could get damaged. My sink water is hotter than this so it would take less time to use a regular mop if I have to hold the steamer on every spot of my floor for 15 seconds to santize. Just sayin
SF: 137 degrees. Not hot enough to clean well nor sanitize.
SB: 120 degrees. Not hot enough to clean well nor sanitize

BUILD:
We found how it was made corresponded with issues with the steamer. The Shark, for example, was quite flimsy and they actually sell replacement handle kits because so many people have issues with the handle breaking! We know this because my neighbor's shark broke and the store had a replacement handle kit on the shelf because he said "it happens often". That's an extra cost.
Envirosteamer: Was 5.4 lbs which made it lightweight but strong enough that you didn't have to press down to clean. Very well made and strong parts
Haan: not made as well as the envirosteamer but it's more expensive so this was a surprise. A bit flimsy and you need to press down on it more to clean at 3.15 lbs.
Monster: hefty and well made at 9 lbs but a bit too heavy unless you want a good workout. (Note: They have changed the Monster handles on the mops now and they are all plastic and people are having breakage issues)
Bissell: It's 8.4 pounds but that includes a water filter that you have to get for this one (see notes below)
SteamFast: very flimsy plastic all over, but it's also more affordable than the other mops so it's a bit of a trade off. 7 lbs.
SteamBoy: They didn't even ship this preassembled like the other mops. We had to assemble it! Pretty flimsy plastic. 9 lbs but that includes the water filter you have to get with this one (see notes below)

WATER CAPACITY: Very important because having to stop and add more water just adds on to the time you have to spend cleaning, especially if you are cleaning a hallway or livingroom or some other area that has no sink:
S: only holds up to 10 oz of water. Lasted for 10 miinutes of cleaning
E: holds up to 20 oz. of water. Lasted for over 20 minutes of cleaning (we stopped at 20 and it was still going)
H: holds up to 11.83 oz of water. Lasted for 13 minutes of cleaning
M: holds up to 17 oz. of water. Lasted for 15 minutes of cleaning
B: holds up to 13 oz of water, lasted for 12.5 minutes of cleaning AND you have to undo and remove the tank from the machine every time you fill it up then hook it back on and the steam tank is on the handle rather than the base so the steam doesn't flow directly out after heating up which may explain why it's not as hot once it leaves the machine. The way this mop is made the water flows past heating elements which can, according to Bissell, develop calcium deposits on it so this is the only mop where, because of this, you also have to use a water filter with it and replace the water filter when there is build up which means and extra 12 bucks every few months. The better mops are made to heat the water in a metal tank so this is not an issue and you pour the water directly into the tank.
SF: Holds the least amount of water and I had to stop and fill up and get the water reheated often in trying to clean the floor. Only holds 8 oz of water and if you use 8 oz it gets your floor too wet so we wound up filling it with just up to 7.5 oz of water for best results and it only lasted 7 minutes when we did that before we had to refill again.
SB: up to 24 oz BUT it only lasted for 12 minutes of cleaning. I think because of the build. This one also is made so that the water has to flow past heating elements down the handle, rather than flowing directly from a hot tank to the floor at the base. Because of this it can develop calcium deposits inside the mop so you have to also buy a water filter for this mop and replace it every few months when there is build up which means extra cost and, quite possibly, more repairs. Because this does not flow directly out of a hot tank it cools on the way down and possibly with this one evaporates somehow because we tried it twice and the steam simply didn't last as long as it should.

STEAM HOLES: We found a difference although you'd think they'd all be the same. The shark only had one hole that the steam came out of so it wasn't cleaning things on the edges, just in one spot. All the others had steam coming from bottom and sides. Steamboy also didn't have holes near the edge

SIZE: The taller it is the less stooping, the wider the mop head, the more it covers
S: 40"Hx12"Wx7"D
E: 50"Hx13.25"Wx6.75"D (the fact that this depth was smaller made it reach under applicances better...it fit better under things)
H: 50.5x11.5x7.5
M: 48x12.7.5
B: 45.25H (this was uncomfortably short) x11 x8.4 (even though this didn't fit under cabinets because of the depth it did swivel the best)
SF:49x11.8x7
SB: 28.2x6.9x7.9

Conclusion of comparison: First it must be pointed out that, in order to use the shark and the Bissell and the SteamBoy, you had to keep pumping the water. This was the most annoying feature of anything...the others just steamed on their own and didn't wear out your fingers. Hated this feature of the shark and Bissell and SteamBoy. We liked that the Monster, the Shark, the Envirosteamer, the SteamFast and the Bissell came with 2 cleaning pads rather than one. The Haan only came with one at the time of the review (I double checked since when she bought hers it was also only one and as of today, that hasn't changed) so that ups the price even more because I can't imagine only wanting one to clean. All worked well on sanitizing mattresses and showers. too.

But the winner picked by all of us unanimously as the mop we want to have for our next steam mop order?
The Eureka Envirosteamer. It picked up the most dirt, was made as well as the Monster but was less expensive, held the most water, emitted the most very hot steam so it sanitized as well, lasted 3 times as long with one water resevor fillup as the others, and had a cord as long as the monster. BUT if you have carpets than I would recommend the Monster because it has a carpet attachment that allows you to steam clean your carpets and it picked up pretty close to the same amount of dirt as the Eureka Envirosteamer, and had close to the same features...a bit heavier though but that may make it last even longer. It is costlier, but to clean 2 surfaces I would think that might make it worth it.

UPDATE: The Haan just started including 2 pads with the mop according to the product description page. Not that this changes our opinion since it didn't work as well and the parts were flimsier, but it should be noted that this issue of not having enough cleaning pads has now been resolved and is equal to the other mops.

ANOTHER UPDATE: 1. The Shark came out with a new machine that holds more water and has a longer cord BUT it still only heats the water to 110 degrees so it won't sanitize or get rid of trapped grime at this "bathwater" temperature.

Another update: Since this review, we tried out canister mops. They work great for tight areas, but not on floor cleaning because the steam has to travel from the canister, down a long tube, then out the base so the steam is even cooler than the shark by the time it reaches the floor, even on the most expensive models. However, if you are looking at something just to steam tight areas like grout, and don't need it for your floor, the Vapamore performed the best out of the canister mops we played with when using the short cords for cleaning so the steam left the tank hot.

Also: Don't spend money buying extra pads for the Eureka. I was in a pinch and used a kitchen dish towel...the rectangular kind...just clip on both ends. It worked just as good or better...because they are thinner so the steam penetrates faster and therefore reaches the floor hotter. However, I would recommend still only using the thick pads that come with it for your wood floors just to be safe. But the super hot steam penetrating the dish towel worked excellent on tile and hard floors. Also, you can flip both the towel and the pads that come with it on the Eureka to double the usage...when it gets dirty, just flip it over and use the other side. I use several old dish towels with this but I like best the kind that just have a bit of texture but no squares sewn on them...but they all work great. So do the pads.

Also we noticed that a reviewer above us on the page flattered us by adding all of our information you read in our review about cord length, all the mops, steam temperatures we measured etc into her older review that is first on the page that originally contained none of this information. However, now that she edited her review to include our 6 hrs of research we apologize that it makes reading these two reviews very redundant. We promise when we first posted this review that no other review on this page contained any of the information on temperatures etc in our review until we posted our findings and they were copied into an older review higher on the page via editing. It's pretty boring now for the reader to read the same thing twice. But we are flattered someone felt it good enough research to want to copy into their review so we hold no grudge...I just didn't want anyone to think we were being redundant. )


WHY YOU WANT THE TANK ON THE BOTTOM/MOP HEAD: All steam starts out at 212 degrees. Some mops increase the heat from there. Some mops heat the water up, then it has to travel down tubes and get to the base, and then leave the holes, which results in a cooling process. This can also result in calcium deposits along that piping which eventually clogs the waterflow or makes you buy and store filtered water to use in the mop. On mops like the Envirosteamer, the water is heated in a stainless steel tank at the base of the mop and flows directly out onto the floor instantly with no traveling through the mop so it leaves the mop steaming hot. Put your hand over a cup of coffee directly at the top of the coffee. That's hot steam. Now move your hand waaaay up above the coffee cup where there is still steam but it is further from the heat source due to traveling. It's cooler steam. The mops are no different. Plus putting the weight at the head of the mop puts the preasure on the pad, not the handle you have to push.

CLOTHS: I like 100 percent cotton better than microfiber. Microfiber streaks. Although some complain about the Envirosteamer's pads shrinking they are meant to. I wash em in hot water. They'll fit perfect after they shrink so don't even be concerned. (they are cotton and quite absorbant.)

 

[Fingolfin269]

GF has one and I'll borrow it from time to time to clean my floors in addition to regular mopping. It does a great job as a once in awhile supplement. She loves it.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Yes but I'm all out of Shark Steam so it's not working, I must go to the market.

 

[luv2liv]

i have it and the design is flawed. the nozzle to output steam is very small....eventually mineral build up and blocked it. needless to say, ours stopped working within 6months.

 

[Fritzo]

I have one. It works well on wood and laminate floors. I do use Minwax on the wood every other time though, otherwise the wood gets kind of dull looking.

 

[dud]

Has anybody bought an iRobot Scooba?

Mine worked OK until it died. The major flaw with the Scooba is that it is limited to only about 400 square feet per charge. In reality you tend to let clean a room at a time or else random parts of your floor do not get cleaned at all.

The bottom line is that it was cute while it worked but it was a PITA as it took all day to clean all the floors.

 

[dud]

I used to have a Eureka and it seemed to work well. Unfortunately there is a flaw in the design of ANY floor steam cleaner that uses the pad ... the pad. Steam is great at cleaning and disinfecting but the pad (depending upon how dirty your floors are) quickly gets dirty to the point of saturation. At that point you are merely smearing dirt instead of cleaning the floor.

If you buy a cleaner that uses pads ... buy a lot more pads.