Eureka Enviro Steamer Deluxe Steam Cleaner Ratings, Review

Enviro steam cleaners are good for steam cleaning floors and especially tile in the home

by Mercia Tapping, President, AllergyBuyersClub.com

Update 01/2008: The Enviro Steamer is no longer available. We suggest our new steam mop.

When Eureka came out with the deluxe version of their Enviro Steamer we decided to give it another trial and put it out for panel review. This time it was in the middle of winter and we chose three problem areas to put the Enviro-steamer through its paces. A furnace room with a vinyl floor, a bathroom with a tile floor, a room with a vinyl floor primarily used to house a cat litter box. All these areas had not been cleaned, their shame-faced owners admitted in "nearly a year". We also threw in a kitchen tile floor that was similarly filthy, [yes let's be frank here]. So we reckoned these were a fitting challenge for the Enviro-steamer.

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Pluses
Having been somewhat half hearted in our review last year of the standard Enviro-steamer steam cleaner, we were pleasantly surprised with this one. The improvements in the deluxe version were sorely needed, but Eureka did come up with solutions.

This steam cleaner can be assembled fast and quickly without even referring to the manual. It heats up fast and the new side clips hold the waffle cloth firmly in place. Thoughtfully, Eureka provides a replacement cloth with every steam cleaner kit, and the cloths are sturdy and will last a while.

The new "ready" and "empty" warning lights on the machine are just plain good common sense, and the steam cleaner, while only lasting 15 minutes before needing a refill, nevertheless cools down quickly and refilling seemed painless and fast.

So how did the Enviro Steamer rise to the challenge? Well it certainly cut through a tremendous amount of ground in dirt quickly and painlessly in all four rooms. Using vapor steam, a boon for those with chemical sensitivities, the machine lifted up more dirt than we care to mention. The waffle cloth absorbed a tremendous amount before it needed washing and replacing.

The Enviro Steamer is no longer available. We suggest our new steam mop.

Minuses
We were tackling the grimiest of jobs. However, we found that when the waffle cloth got full of dirt, it was inconvenient, compared to a squeeze mop and a bucket of hot water, to wash the cloth and put back a clean one. This wouldn't be an issue with most normally dirty floors but our cloth needed to be replaced on the end of the steam cleaner head several times, otherwise we were just pushing around dirty water. You have to really go to a sink to rinse out the cloth and you need to turn off the steam cleaner as you take the cloth off, and then start it up again on return. We thought later that it might have been more convenient to take a bucket of clean water along with us to rinse out the cloths, but we were trying to avoid that extra step.

The steam in the machine also can take the shine off some vinyl floors, (there is a warning about this in the manual), and it did in fact reduce the shine a little on one of our floors.

The Enviro Steamer is no longer available. We suggest our new steam mop.

Summary
We liked the Eureka Enviro Steamer. We can see that this steam cleaner could become a favorite household-cleaning tool, since floor cleaning with it is virtually effortless and it is the ultimate in hygiene. We feel it is best suited for tile floors.

The Enviro Steamer is no longer available. We suggest our new steam mop.

First Published: February 2000
Updated: April 2007

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