Kärcher SC2.500C review thread. Non-testers: Tell Kärcher about the cleaning tasks you avoid for a chance to win a SC2.500C Steam Cleaner! NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

This thread is for the 15 Mumsnetters who are currently testing out the Kärcher SC2.500C Steam Cleaner.

Kärcher say "The Kärcher SC2.500C Steam Cleaner makes light work of grease, dirt, stains and even limescale, delivering deep cleaning results with no chemicals or scrubbing. It kills 99.9% of bacteria with just the power of steam, and can be used on most surfaces around the home"

Non-Testers: What cleaning tasks do you have trouble with? Maybe you avoid cleaning the oven or dread scrubbing the bathroom? Are there any tasks that you think a steam cleaner could help with? Whatever your cleaning woes, Kärcher would love to hear about them.

Everyone who leaves their response on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win their own Kärcher SC2.500C!

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?
• What were your impressions from the first few uses?
• Where have you used the Steam Cleaner?
• What cleaning chore have you been most pleased with the results from using a Steam Cleaner?
• Did you you use this for more functions than you originally planned?

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

How noisy is it? It's likely I'll be unpacking it after ds is in bed, is it likely to disturb him?

The instruction manual appears biblical but it's actually because it is translated into 150 languages. There's only about 2 actual pages to read, and as someone said up-thread, pictures would be nice to go with all the parts described.

I'm a video-maker, so if you all see me using the wrong bit on the wrong place, don't laugh!

Non-tester.
I avoid to clean oven as it usually takes a lot of time and I hate oven cleaner strong smell, all those who don't have strong fragrance usually never work.

YY, Cakey I might wait to have a go, too, because DD thinks she's "helping" by trying to grab all the bits from me.

Saga- when I used my old steam mop all you could hear was the mop and me screeching "no! Burny!" Every two mins.
He avoids it now and hides in another room!

Oooh if it's quiet then I might be able to have a go later tonight.

It makes a bit of noise when filling the chamber and when steaming but it's not overly loud- not as much as a kettle IMO.

There are pictures and corresponding letters in the front of the manual, but it wasn't easy to distinguish what was what, but the colourful pictures on the box helped immensely!

Cakey I read that as your dc is named Burny the first time.

Good to hear it's not too noisy. Might give her a whirl later.

Mine isn't here yet :-( maybe it takes a day longer to get to deepest cornwall!

I'm not a million miles away from Cornwall. Maybe it's still on the way?

I'm in Devon, perhaps poor DHL guy has to travel round us all

Devon here, too.

Non-tester:

The cleaning task I have most trouble with is cleaning limescale. I hate having to wipe or spray products on, leaving for a while and rinsing or wiping off. What a job! And it doesn't always work, either. I'm sure steaming would make it much easier.

I'm also an asthmatic, and often find cleaning sprays leave me wheezing. I really could get rid of these harmful cleaning products.

We're going to have the cleanest houses in the south west

Mine has arrived!!! After being in the house all day, naturally it was delivered for the half hour I popped out to grab DD from nursery and DH from work. Fortunately a lovely neighbour took receipt and brought it straight round.

DH and DD unpacked it while I supervised. DD (nearly 4) managed to figure out where virtually all the parts went by trial and error while DH was busy reading the instructions.

Haven't given it a try yet, but I have been dutifully saving up the dirt and will report back tomorrow after I've steamed the house from top to bottom!

Humph. Mine hasn't arrived yet. I have karcher envy

Non-tester I truly hate cleaning the oven. Gross, time-consuming awful job!!
I also hate cleaning the ridges/beading on our daft internal doors which each have a million little windows.
The utility floor which gets grubby in the space of 30 minutes with paw prints and occasional unmentionables from our cats, next doors cats and the bunnies who don't like to feel left out. Don't even get me started on the abomination that is the cat flap!!!

I missed delivery, they're going to try again tomorrow.

I already have a steam mop- the Morphy Richards 5 in 1 which was about £80 so I am comparing with that.

• Did you find setting up the Steam Cleaner easy, were the instructions helpful?

Easy to set up. A few words next to the illustrations would help even more. I like the fact the floor cloth clips on so you can use any cloth, but struggling to get it tight enough at the moment.

• What were your impressions from the first few uses?

Good. It's very light which compared favourably with the MR. It's a shame it takes a few minutes to warm up, but when it's warm then it does give continuous steam which the MR claims to do, but doesn't. I also like the fact you can fill it with tap water. It cleaned the floor just as well as the MR but I think it left the floor wetter - might be an issue with laminate. I don't think it brought the rugs up quite as well as the MR which has a rugs/carpet attachment for gliding over them.

A retractable cable like you get on vacuum cleaners would be good.

The pressure of the steam is much much higher than the MR - it made DP jump! The pressure blasted marks off the oven door which the MR never touched.

The volume and pressure of steam really makes it feel like things are being cleaned, whereas with the MR I sometimes wondered if I was just warming the germs up!

• Where have you used the Steam Cleaner?

Floor,curtains cooker hood, oven door, kitchen work tops.

• What cleaning chore have you been most pleased with the results from using a Steam Cleaner?

Definitely steaming the curtains - MR was very difficult for this. The long light handle and the sturdy clip attachment meant I could do them easily in minutes.

Also got good results on my cooker hood.

• Did you you use this for more functions than you originally planned?

Not yet.

Pleased and impressed so far. Don't want to give it back!

Im pretty far away from Cornwall (oop North!) and mine came today?

DS has named ours Fluffy (as the clouds of steam look like fluff apparently!)

It arrived today and luckily was left with our neighbours saving me a round trip to the depot. DH wants to film me opening the box (he's really getting into this) but he's out tonight so it's sat unopened in the middle of the lounge! Goodness knows how long the final video will be

We already have a steamer (Polti Vaporetto Evolution) with iron attachment so I'll be comparing the Karcher with that, obviously not the iron function.

Will be steaming away tomorrow night so should really get off MN and get tidying the lounge. Please excuse messy backgrounds in our house, in the process of moving to a bigger one!

Hermione we don't have to give it back. I don't think anyway!

Yeah you get to keep it!