Teleshopping is evil, pure evil. You are sitting there with nothing else to watch, and after about twenty minutes you have decided that your life is incomplete unless you get hold of whatever product they are advertising. This happened to me a few months ago when I was watching an advert for a steam mop. Although we manage to keep our house tidy and clean, I felt as though some areas of our house just weren’t clean. I’m sure you know those areas – tile grout, the dark depths of the oven, windows that haven’t been cleaned in awhile, not to mention the embedded smell of pets. These areas were getting me down, and I became convinced that we needed a steam mop in our lives.
With this in mind, I read many reviews and decided upon the Morphy Richards 720020 9-in-1 Upright and Handheld Steam Mop from Amazon. When I bought it, it was priced at £40, although it is still a great bargain at £49.99 – the RRP is £99.99. Apart from the great reviews, I chose this steam cleaner because of the “9 in 1” features. Whilst I wanted nice clean floors, I was more interested in cleaning the tile grout, windows and upholstery.
What it offers:
- Upright Steam Mop with detachable handheld cleaner.
- Large 400ml Water Capacity – meaning more cleaning time between refills
- Instantaneous steam boiler – no waiting for the steam mop to be ready to use.
- Continuous steam and no waiting for the system to cool down before refilling.
- Suitable for a multitude of surfaces – floors, carpets, work surfaces, windows, tile and grout, ovens, upholstery and sanitary ware.
- Morphy Richards 720020 9in1 Steam mop
- 2 x micro-fibre floor cloths
- Carpet glider
- Extension nozzle
- Upholstery attachment with elasticated cloth
- Worktop surface attachment with micro-fibre cloth
- Window cleaning attachment
- Angled jet nozzle
- Round brush
- Crevice brush
- Plastic scraper and bag for accessories
Window cleaning
It is really hard to choose what my favourite thing about this steam cleaner is, but I would have to say how easy it is to clean windows. Normally, I use vinegar, water and newspaper to clean windows and get them streak free. It means that I end up covered in newspaper print (therefore leaving finger prints on the UPVC surrounding the windows) and with sore arms from all the buffing. However, the steam mop is able to clear windows easily. I cannot stress how simple it was. I barely applied any pressure and my windows were gleaming. The window cleaning attachment took care of everything from cleaning the windows to drying them streak free. All I used was a piece of kitchen roll to wipe away any grime from the attachment every once in awhile.
Whilst window cleaning is easy with this, I found that I couldn’t do the whole house’s windows at once. As the window cleaning attachment got warm, the rubber softened, meaning that it was almost pointless cleaning the final few windows. I now stick to cleaning 2-3 room’s windows at a time, then allowing the attachment to cool down.
Mopping
I have used this mop multiple times on lino flooring, and I have found it to be extremely effective in dealing with stains. I do a lot of baking, using gel colours, so our kitchen floor had a few coloured stains. With two new kittens in the house, I’m not keen to use bleach – plus I don’t want to damage the lino. The steam mop was able to tackle these stains and marks the just the power of steam. No harsh chemicals were used during the process. The steam mop is easy to move around and although it is heavy, it didn’t hurt my arms to use it. The floor dried a lot quicker than conventional mopping. Once finished, I popped the dirty microfibre cloth into a normal wash (normal for me is a quick wash at 40C) and it came out clean and ready to use again.
Tile & grout cleaning
When we moved into our house almost two years ago, the grout between our tiles was already giving me nightmares. No matter how much I scrub, how much bleach I use or how much grout pen I use, it is still discoloured with this slightly orange colour. I don’t fancy the prospect of re-grouting a rental property, so the moment this steam cleaner arrived, I was using it on the tiles and grout. It comes with an angled jet nozzle, perfectly sized for tile grout. And once again, I was really impressed with how well the steam removed the dirt. It definitely was not a quick fix, as it took a long time to remove about 50% of the weird orangey colour (and I don’t think the other 50% will ever go), but I could see the difference.
Removing pet smells
As I mentioned, we have two new kittens in our house, and with new kittens come litter tray mishaps. There is very little worse than the smell of cat urine. The carpet glider attachment means that I have been able to steam problem areas and remove the cat odour. With cats especially, it is important to remove toilet smells from areas where accidents have occurred, to stop them using the same area time and time again. Once again, the microfibre cloth washed up fine. The upholstery attachment is great for furniture and curtains too.
Verdict
A steam mop/cleaner is a great investment, as it will limit the amount of harsh cleaners you will need to buy. I have mentioned above some of the best cleaning it has done, but it has also tackled so much more, like limescale around taps and a dirty oven. The accessory pouch means that I am yet to lose any of the attachments, which is a great achievement for me. I would not hesitate to recommend this steam cleaner to anyone.
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