Will the 'Little Yellow Steam Cleaner' change my life and make my home sparkle?

[mogs0]

I am very tempted to buy this as it sounds like it could help me sort out the ground-in dirt in this house. BUT I'm a sucker for gadgets and thought I'd see if anyone has used one and thinks they're worth spending £45 on or whether elbow grease for free would be a better alternative!!

I have lots of mould patches on my artexed ceiling and I find it impossible to clean it off because of the artex.

It feels like no amount of scrubbing will ever make my kitchen lino clean and sparkly.

Also, there are lots of little grooves, nooks and crannies everywhere and this machine appears to be able to get it all clean.

Am I deluded?

Hi,
I don't know about that particular steam cleaner, but I do have an Electrolux steamer that cost about £50ish.
It does clean crappy ground-in dirt really well. I have tried elbow-grease combined with Cif/bleach/whatever and scrubbing brushes, but my efforts are dwarfed by the steamer. All those minging bits around the edge of the kitchen floor, the scary door thresholds and the COOKER! I could have wept when I wiped up the liquefied embarrassing encrusted crap erm, debris .
After the initial blitzclean, I have found that I only need to steamclean at 6-week intervals.
Also - steam-cleaning of tiles is awesome - their clean-ness makes me want to keep going upstairs to admire them. Maybe that's just me

Great! That's just what I wanted to hear. I ordered it about 5 minutes after posting last night!!! I have tried to clean the mould off my bedroom ceiling with a battery powered brush-thingy and some heavy-duty Lakeland mould remover (which is just bleach I think) but I ended up bleaching everything around me in the process. I'm sure a few spots of water will be far less damaging!

I've been wandering around the house today looking for places I can use the steam cleaner when it arrives - I have a very long list now !!

Hi Mogs,
I am a great fan of the steam cleaner, but I don't think that it, or anything, for that matter, will shift mould, but I could be wrong. Mould sort of colonises the substance that it is on, IYKWIM? The black mould stuff that you see is just the surface of the fungus - most of it is deep down underneath in the plaster/paper of your ceiling. It relies on damp/condensation to live. As long as these are there, it will thrive.
Steam cleaners are wonderful for deep cleaning and great for blitzing of greasy areas, also general dirty stuff, but they will not rid you of mould stains. Only eliminating the damp and condensation will make the mould go away.
Sorry if this is demotivating.

I have two steam cleaners - I had a little yellow one - and it's good but you can only get about twenty minutes before it runs out of puff and has to sit quietly in the corner and calm down before you refill it.

But for mould you need fungicide - you can buy spray on stuff which kills it. Then you need to clean it, retreat it and then seal it - ironically PVA the children's glue is your friend in this respect.

We had mould on the ceiling around the shower cubicle as the extractor in our bathroom is utterly useless. DH sprayed it liberally (nearly choking me in the process ) with Dettol mould & mildew remover (in a green spray bottle) and it's all gone now. It was about £3 ish I think, you can buy it in the supermarket. Didn't even need wiping.

Hi, thanks for all the tips about mould removal.

I've been waiting months for my landlady (my aunt) to get someone to come and sort out the gutters (which is part of the damp problem - though I'm starting to think it's the roof rather than the guttering). I thought I'd remove the mould with the steam cleaner then spray with the heavy duty lakeland stuff that I've got.

whomoved - where would I get fungicide and could I use it myself or would I need someone in-the-know to do it?

The cleaner arrived today and I had a quick blast in a particularly grim corner by the back door and I love it!! Going to have a go at my bedroom ceiling while ds at his class tonight - have to tidy up a bit in there first!

Hi

Can anyone advise me. I bought a Little Yellow Steamer of which I bought off the shopping channel of which I was very impressed on the demo they show. Problem is when I received the steamer the brochure enclosed is not very explanatary. Can anyone tell me what attachment you use for ceramic walltiles in bathroom and kitchen to use. Plus also attachment for laminate floors etc. I did call the Idel shopping channel and would you believe no-one could help me so I contacted the Ideal sourcing company who supply the instructions manual and they even could not help me. Also I would like to know when should it show if it has run out of water.

when it runs out of water the steam will stop/ get less iykwim. ive got a vax one , so i dont know if the attatchments are the same , but i use the small high pressure nossel on grout , and the large flat "broom head" on the floor , there should be a squeedgy type head for tiles ect.

by sgy 24 June 10
I have just bought a little yell. Its OK but requires distilled water as my water is hard. This was not mentioned on the shopping channel - and it will cost me a fortune and cannot be purchased on the high street - so am not happy.
can de-ionised water be used - does anyone know? This is still expensive but is a bit more available

Hi I have a Littel Yello steam cleaner and I am very pleased with it. I have almost blitzed my house and had a lot of fun with it. As far as distilled water goes, I bought a 5L bottle from Halfirds(battery top up fluid) it was just over £3 and is still going strong although I have used the steamer loads. I have done my tiles which came up great (used the small jet piece, the steam does the work. It's worked well on my floors - tiles & wood and the carpets are looking a lot better and they were dry in an hour. (You use the mop piece with the cloth over the bottom, that pickes up the dirt). I even used it on the wall (emulsion) where the dog makes a mess rubbing up against it and it came up lovely. You do have to do some work though. You will need to wipe the excess off as you go.
I also did all my double glazing, palstic and the glass and it's come up like new but if you try it, don't hold the steam too close to the glass or for too long in the same place - just in case.
My next job will be the oven and the mattresses.Then I'll start on the car upholstery!!
I would recommend this item to you all but I got it from Ideal World (shopping channel) for £40.00 inc packaging BUT I notice that it has now doubled in price - so shop around. Enjoy!

Just asked DH whether we needed a steam cleaner. He wanted to know whether we really had dirty steam.

Anyone thinking of buying this cleaner, I found it ok for individual tasks but for doing floors a disaster. I kept having to wait for it to build up steam even for the smallest floor space. Further bad news, I ordered it from Ideal World and decided that because of the floor problem it really wasn't for me and when I tried to return it found I had to pay the postage(receipted)which cost me £20 in all. What a cheek! If you do decide to order one, check the returns procedure from where you buy it and don't get stung like me.

Hi Lossie.
You don't have to pay for postage if your item more the 6-7kg. You just neet to call customer service at ideal World and ask for item been collection from your home address or work address.
You sent this message a long time ago, so I just wander if you found a better steam cleaner by now and can let me know if it's any good.

I just returning my steam cleaner Polti Vaporetto Pocket Steam Cleaner back to Ideal World. Item number 187925. The reviews on it was 4star, but I think my was faulty??, as I had all the problems with the steam and pools of water on my floor. I just found that the steam is really get stronger with the "BAR" number, and power of the motto. My one was 3bar and1500watts boiler power
Actually it's not enough to generate steady steam, so I will try other model Polti Vaporetto 950 Steam Cleaner item number 185552:
?Boiler power 2000watts
?3.5 bar pressure
?140g per minute steam
If I have any luck with it I will let you know.
If somebody have a steam cleaner you are happy with, please let me know.