We appreciated that this cleaner was very lightweight and was easily able to maneuver around areas to clean. While lightweight, even when filled with water, it is hard to prop the unit up when not in use—it fell over a few times during testing because of this. Caramel Quin has been writing for Ideal Home and other titles at Future for many years and tests a wide range of consumer technology for newspapers, magazines and online. She prides herself in real-world testing and translating geek speak into plain English. Her pet hates are jargon, pointless products and over-complicated instruction manuals. Lightweight and inexpensive, this steam mop is the perfect solution for adults who either have trouble moving around heavy cleaners or don’t have a lot of foot traffic in their house. As a steam mop, t feels a little flimsy. There is a lot of flex from the handle downwards, although this is more due to the skeletal design and removable main steam section, rather than any issues with the build quality. Our favorite steam mop of the bunch, this steam cleaner is lightweight, super effective, and has a lot of nice-to-have features without a budget-busting price tag. On the most basic level, we appreciate that this steam mop has an on and off button, so you can turn it off even when plugged in, which we think should be more common after testing this model. While this seems like a small detail, many other steam mops don’t have such intuitive buttons.

Uniquely, the Shark’s floorhead and cleaning pad are double-sided, giving you twice the surface area for more cleaning. It comes with a second cleaning pad, too, which our Ecommcerce Editor Molly thought was excellent value for money during testing. Adding a steam mop to your arsenal of cleaning tools can be a wise decision, especially if you have a lot of sealed floors in your home. The Bissell Powerfresh Deluxe Steam Mop 1806 is a mid-priced steam mop that our testers found easy to use and quite effective. It’s only designed for cleaning floors, so there are no accessories except a filling jug. There are two steam levels: a button on the front of the body of the cleaner cycles between these and off. In our tests, Molly found it heats up in under 30 seconds. Three levels of steam are available via a rotary dial. B&D refers this to as Autoselect but there is very little ‘auto’ about it. The dial is simply labelled with different hard floor types to simplify choice rather than three steam levels, although it amounts to the same thing.

Like other Bissell cleaners, this option includes a port for fragrance discs. These aren’t mandatory to use, but households with pet odors may appreciate the option. More than just a steam mop, this pricey gadget comes with 11 accessories, so it can transform from a steam mop to a grout cleaner, detail brush, steam glove, and much more. At six pounds, it’s easy to use and lightweight, even when full of water. Even so, we recommend taking breaks if you plan on using it in handheld mode for too long, because while it’s lightweight as a steam mop, we can see it getting heavy to hold for long periods of time. The swivel head is very sturdy and easy to use–it effectively fits into crevices and under or around furniture. This lightweight mop truly made cleaning a breeze, it easily glided over the floor and outperformed the higher-priced competition.

Most steam cleaners run solely on water. Some people may choose to use bottled or distilled water so that there’s no residue left behind in your steam cleaner’s water tank. You can use each feature independently but the Bissell Vac & Steam is at its best when you use both at once to save time. You can whizz around the house at double speed if dirt isn’t too ingrained. How we test our steam cleaners In our tests, Carmel found that steam took over one minute to heat up and then can stop and start instantly with a press of the trigger. It’s powerful: the lowest setting is similar to the steam offered by most steam mops, the highest setting is much stronger. She’s an engineering graduate, an award-winning journalist and writes regularly in the Evening Standard. She has appeared as a technology expert on TV and done countless radio interviews. The larger the steam mop's reservoir, the more water it can hold, which means you can steam for longer without having to refill your mop and wait for it to heat up again. That said, toting around more water can make a steam mop heavier to operate. If you've got a small space or plan to use your steam mop for only certain areas of your home, you can get away with a lightweight mop with a smaller reservoir.Testing these cleaners simultaneously has allowed her to see which cleaners excel at which task, and to judge them on ease of use and storage, which is crucially important in her very compact space. What is the best steam cleaner in 2023? Along with the new features, it has a similar digital ‘Auto Select’ Technology to the previous model, which allows the steam mop to automatically adjust the steam pressure depending on the floor type you’re cleaning. It also features an extra steam on demand button that is designed with a one-touch control instead of needing to hold down a button each time you need extra steam. Our testing found the bristle attachments were extremely effective at cleaning grout, which is part of what makes this model especially great for tile. The steam comes out between the bristles, which you can hear the whole time, and truly did loosen and remove debris. Carmel absolutely loved using the Polti, even if it is a bit on the pricey side. The controls are excellent, the design is practical and it feels weightless in the hand, so much so that you can lift it to clean windows, curtains and more. Use on a tiled wall was particularly easy too, so if you hate cleaning your bathroom, this is a great cleaner to consider.