First off, you need to know that I am not a manic house cleaner by any vague stretch of the imagination. I clean because I have to, and other than the kitchen and bathroom, I tend to leave the rest of the house until someone is coming round, or I can't stand looking at it any more! Having moved to an old farmhouse with half tiled and half wood floors, I was facing the prospect of lots of one of my least favourite chores: mopping floors. A friend mentioned they had a steam mop, which I'd never heard of, so I did some research and settled on this one. It appealed on 2 levels: 1. It looked quick and easy, and 2. It doesn't need chemicals. From a health perspective I've been a big fan of using natural products as much as possible for a while, and now that we have a septic tank, it's imperative not to use harsh chemicals. I picked this based on the reviews, and I have not been disappointed. It is really easy to use, cleans floors like a dream (goodbye muddy footprints!), is much easier on my back than mopping, and cleans and dries really quickly. Can't really ask for much more. My only complaint is that it's turned me into a bit of an evangelical fan of its floor cleaning prowess, which is a little on the sad side!
We use it mostly on the tile floors in the living areas, as they get grubbiest, but it also works a dream on the wooden floors in the bedrooms, though we use it on the lowest setting and move fairly quickly for them. The cable's a good length, so I can clean a whole room without having to move the plug. The reservoir is big enough for me to clean our decent sized kitchen/diner and sitting room before it runs out.
Happily we are in a much softer water area than our previous house, so we use water that's leftover in the kettle - just top up the little filling jug once it's cooled down. Seems to be working fine so far, and saves faffing around with distilled water.
My final little rave is the good design for storage. The cable actually wraps around exactly where it is supposed to be (unlike most vacuum cleaners), and it hangs from a hook for easy, out of the way storage. There's even a little place to clip the filler jug on, but that tends to live near the kettle in our house for easy filling as above. The filler jug is also the correct size to fill the water reservoir to the full mark from empty. Lots of little well thought out design points.
So, to summarise, I am happy as larry with this steam mop - seems like excellent value for something that makes a job I hated so much easier. Highly recommended.
| Brand | Shark |
|---|---|
| Model Number | S6001UK |
| Colour | White |
| Product Dimensions | 12 x 10.5 x 120 cm; 2.7 kg |
| Capacity | 0.35 litres |
| Power / Wattage | 1050 watts |
| Voltage | 2.3E+2 Volts (AC) |
| Material | Plastic |
| Special Features | Machine Washable Pads, Easy to Use, Chemical Free |
| Item Weight | 2.7 kg |
