NOW CLOSED Kärcher steam cleaner feedback thread: Non testers – win a steam cleaner (RRP: £219.99) for yourself by letting Kärcher know your home’s ‘dirty secrets’

[AlexMumsnet]

This is the thread for the lucky 30 testers who were sent a steam cleaner by Kärcher and our currently using it to do the spring clean.

Kärcher say their Steam Cleaners "revolutionise home cleaning, tackling any and all frequent and difficult cleaning tasks with professional results and abolishing the need for hours of endless scrubbing! Our steam cleaner is a natural and environmentally-friendly solution that provides a family-focussed alternative from chemical cleaners that aggravate allergies and are harmful to children, killing 99.99% of all common household bacteria without the need for detergents"*

Testers are trying the SC 2.500 C

Testers: we'll be asking you to add feedback twice - we'd like your first impressions now and in a week we will add some more questions.

So, for your first impressions, Kärcher would love to know:

~ Did you find setting up the Steam Cleaner easy, were the instructions helpful?
~ Where have you used the Steam Cleaner?
~ What were your impressions from the first few uses?
~ What cleaning chore have you been most pleased with the results from using a Steam Cleaner?

If you're not an official tester but you'd like another chance to get a steam cleaner (RRP: £219.99) for yourself then please share on this thread where in your house could really benefit from a bit of a deep-steam-clean. What's your home's 'dirty secret' ? the place where you've let the grime build up and now can't bear to look at? Where would you most want to use the steam cleaner?

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

*When thoroughly cleaning with the Kärcher Steam Cleaner 99.99% of all common household bacteria will be killed on common household hard floor surfaces.

I'm not a tester but I wold love to use the steam cleaner on the bathroom floor, especially the bit behind the toilet!

Dirty secret ... Skanky scuzzy utility under and round the washing machine

Non tester but our grotty dirty secret has to be the bathroom. It was already horrible with stained grouting when we moved in.

Though if I am honest I wouldn't really want anyone inspecting my oven either!

Not a tester, but my home's dirty secrets are mostly underneath and behind the fridge freezer!
Oh, and behind the loo and sink pedestals, where I can't reach properly..

Quick update (tester)

After using steam cleaner again today I am wondering how I ever lived without one.

I've done the rug and material blinds and curtains and even if they don't look any better at the moment (in the dark) I know they are clean.

I've done the kitchen floor again, so easy, and if it was a mop and bucket job, I wouldn't have washed it for at least another month.

The house just 'feels cleaner'.

I will tackle the bathroom tomorrow and see how it performs....

after being distinctly underwhelmed I am a little bit in love with my new machine...

Also - windows - I've only done the french windows in the kitchen, and they needed a quick wipe down with micro cloth after steaming but - streak free and clean.

The only gripe at the moment is the lack of cloths. If you start with cleaning the oven, or anything greasy, then the cloth is f**ed and you can't go on to clean anything else....

I hope you are taking note Kartcher!!!!

Not a tester- but have a few dirty secrets....well more my DP's dirt that drives me up the wall (especially as I only have birth 3 days ago!)

1. DP's soles of slippers are filthy! I clean them every day, but still I what the infuriating "sticking" sound as he shuffles across the laminate floor.... it leaves horrid sticky sole marks all over the flooring!
2. We have two house trained rabbits. They are litter trained, but I am dying to steam clean their entire play area (laminate floors under their play mats, the skirting boards, radiators) as I feel an ordinary mop just moves around bacteria- can't manage a proper floor scrubbing so soon after birth

Non tester - The people we bought our house off must have loved frying food, the kitchen is so grimy and greasy. I keep cleaning and scrubbing but there is still sticky yuckiness left. I reckon a good blast of steam would help me to clean this area properly!

Non tester My dirty secret has to be the oven. Bought about 4 years ago, its been cleaned twice. I do wipe the halogen top but it's got burnt stuff on from pans boiling over and I can't get it properly clean.

not a tester

i am going to buy one tho as i want to deep clean tiles, the oven and the floors

I know exactly what the problem is in my house! Mould- in the kitchen cupboards, at the top of the walls and on the ceiling, in DD2's bedroom, in the bathrooms. It's an old house and various bits were renovated rather poorly by previous owners meaning that some bits are cold and damp, a fatal combination for mould.

Plus it seems to grow its own dust and dirt on the tops of cupboards and any flat surface. We have log burners and two large dogs, so nothing in it is every truly spotless. I could (and have on occasion) spent 15 hours a week cleaning and it's still bloody dirty.

Non-tester

We have a number of dirty secrets...! I never clean behind the loo as I'm hoping one day we'll be able to re-do the bathroom, and until then I pretend that all the dust and grime doesn't exist. I practice a similar method of 'ignorance is bliss' in the utility room which is tiled - behind the boiler is a definite black hole of dirt and dust. Lastly, and sadly not so secret, are the millions of grubby handprints all over the windows at toddler hand height as we have 3 children under 5!

I am not a tester but would love a steam cleaner.
The place I'd look forward to using it most would be the shower, closely followed by the bathroom.
I have two teenage DDs and they spend an excessive length of time in the shower and bathroom. I seem to be fighting a losing battle trying to keep the tiles free of shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and because there always seems to be one of them bathing mould is becoming an issue on the grouting due to constant dampness!

My kitchen floor is my 'dirty secret' , it's original quarry tiles andno matter how many times I mop it it never comes out properly clean.

Non tester

Oh god my oven! It's got to a point now where I have to open the kitchen windows to stop the smoke alarm going off. Im so embarrassed at the state of it! I cant even use 4 month old DD as an excuse as weve lived here for 4 years and it's never been properly cleaned! When I was nesting while pregnant I couldn't use the nasty chemical cleaners to get the gunk off and now I can't expose baby to the fumes but if I had a steam cleaner maybe I could finally have a clean oven

non tester - I would really like to use a steam cleaner on my side porch where the cats bowls and litter tray are. It doesnt matter how much newspaper is put down, the cat still makes a mess everywhere. I would love a steam cleaner to get all the bits of dried catfood off the lino!

Still a non-tester.

My oven is a seriously dirty secret. I only clean it when the smoke caused by the burnt on debris is too thick to see what is cooking in there. [bublush]

Non-tester. My dirty secret is that over time water that has been spilled and not wiped up quickly enough from the vinyl in the kitchen has created darker patches which are almost impossible to clean.

non tester here

eeek!... my dirty secret is... I have never cleaned the top of my kitchen cupboards (I moved in 10 years ago). I went up recently and the grease/grime is so thick that even undiluted cleaner had no effect I need something very powerful to clean it

Non tester.

My dirty secret is the radiator in the bathroom. It's almost beside the toilet, and I have a DS with v bad aim. It's seriously minging. It does get a wipe down when I'm cleaning, but it needs something more serious applied, or just replaced.

Non tester here.

I have so many dirty secrets

I have never got rid of the cobwebs high up in the stairwell. How on earth are you supposed to reach? So I just don't look up. Saw an excellent suggestion on twitter though, which was to throw glitter at them. Makes them all pretty.

I haven't cleaned the cooker for about 6 3 years because I'm intending to get Ovenu in to do it...but I haven't got round to it.

I have one room with laminate floor which I sweep, vacuum and wipe up spills from, but have NEVER mopped.

If I had a steamcleaner, I would definitely clean around the catflap in the backdoor. It gets really dirty, and I hate cleaning it by hand. And the kitchen cupboards could do with a good clean...

Non tester here. My dirty little secret is the en-suite. It's always the last room in the house to get a clean each week if we get to it because no-one who visits ever sees it. It gets a cursory going over, but the shower cubicle could really do with a good steam clean. It's a really cheap poor design and has a million nooks and crannies which are impossible to get into. I borrowed a friend's steam cleaner once on account of DS and a mattress related accident, and I had a go at the shower cubicle with it. It was amazingly satisfying to see all the black bits of gunk break away from the hidden nooks.

Non-tester

So many dirty secrets... Where to start?

• ceiling cobwebs
• grouting behind the toilet
• our walk in shower
• under the sink
• the hob
• kitchen worktops in general
• tops of cupboards/furniture
• behind the sofa
• under the dining table

I could go on... [bublush]

non tester here.

i would say grimiest area would be the skirting in the bathroom particularly in the dust trap area behind the toilet and bath - though the tiling in the shower would benefit from a good blast too.

where i'd love to use the steamer though is my floors downstairs - i have two dogs trailing dirt in on a daily basis and the whole mop one layer of filth, clean mop and change water and mop again then try and keep dogs and child off the floors whilst they dry routine really gets me down. would love a faster option.

juggling work and single parenting and animal owning is taking it's toll on my house!

Hope the Karcher Steam Cleaner is better than the Karcher Window Cleaner. Streaked badly. Total waste of money. I've gone back to the traditional method of window washing.

non tester here, dirty secret in our house is the high chair! My son manages to get it filthy and a steam cleaner would be great for getting into all of the 'nooks & crannies'!