The cleaner comes with a hose and three attachments – one that holds a cloth for big areas, a brush that has its own cover (think minute towelling shower cap) and a little brush for getting right into the corners. They all store together and the whole thing isn’t annoying at all – or even as big as you’d fear – in the cupboard. What does it do?
You can use steam to clean floors, bathrooms, kitchens and some fabrics and carpets. Basically any hard surface is steamable (obvious caution prevails with windows though). With carpets, curtains and clothes the effect is more of perking up that dirt demolition, but nonetheless impressive. What’s good about it?
Well. Where do I start? I’ve had a steam cleaner for a while and, while it does a good job on my kitchen floor, it’s a bit of a faff and consequently doesn’t get used often. Not so the Karcher, it’s very very easy to use and so gets used a lot.
Before, left, and after...
The tiles on the floor in my kitchen are rough and quite a few of them are cracked. They hang on to the dirt, or at least they did until now. The floor has been cleaned more in the past few weeks than the entire last year. In fact, my yardstick is that I can tolerate to enter the kitchen barefoot as my toes no longer stick. The floor cleaning head has clips at either end that will take any cloth. Other cleaners of my acquaintance require specific and special ones. Currently my cloth of choice is recycled pieces of the free towel you get when you go first class on the Sleeper train.It’s also easy to change cloths without scalding yourself. There’s a steam lock on the handle so you can’t burn yourself.
Disgusting black bits in window vent vanished after a quick Karching
It shifts dirt impressively. You do need to understand that a jet of steam will only shift dirt from one place to another and you need to employ a damp cloth to actually remove the dirt altogether, but once you get that it’s marvelous. It cleaned some dirty marks off the cover of a sofa that I couldn’t be bothered to take to the dry cleaners.Sofa cover cleaning is on hold for a while.
There’s a strong sense of things being properly and hygienically clean. This was put to good – and comforting – use during a bout of norovirus recently. You can swap between the different heads easily enough so cleaning is seamless. The water tank stands up so you can do the filling with one hand. I hadn’t given the lack of chemicals for cleaning much thought, but, actually, it could save money in the long run if you don’t have to buy these products. And, obviously, there are benefits to the environment and people who are allergic. What’s less good about it? The floor head fell off a couple of times which was slightly irritating. It takes five minutes to build up a head of steam (Yes, yes, I know) which is frustrating if you’re in a hurry. If you try to clean things that you suspect are held together by dirt, they will fall apart. Enthusiastically I cleaned the grot around my gas hob, including the stuff around the ignition button. It came off in my hand and the, temporarily, short circuited switch clicked annoyingly all afternoon. Once you start you'll keep seeing more and more places that could do with a good Karch.Who would use it? Anyone who wants a clean house and is in a hurry. It does need a bit of space to store, but worth chucking the golf clubs out for. Would you recommend it? Yes. I know it’s pricey but if you’re anything like me you’ll find yourself using it far more often than you’d imagine for a house-work related thing.
Karcher sent me a steam cleaner to review... and they aren't getting it back.