Kärcher SC1 Steam Stick - Review thread - non testers - chance to win one of your own! NOW CLOSED

[KathrynMumsnet]

This thread is for the 30 Mumsnetters who are currently testing out the Kärcher SC1 Steam Stick.

Kärcher say "The SC1 Steam Stick is the UK’s first handheld steamer that can also be used to clean floors. The Steam Stick cleans deeper without chemicals killing 99.99% of all bacteria just using tap water, making it an environmentally and family friendly alternative to chemical cleaners. It’s an innovative new way to help you effortlessly clean the most difficult and frequent household hotspots; whether it’s cleaning everyday dirt from floors, limescale from bathroom tiles, spot cleaning stubborn carpet stains or eradicating tough, dried-on oven grease."

Non-Testers: If you’re not an official tester but you’d like another chance to be in with a chance of getting a Steam Stick (RRP: £99.99) for yourself then please share on this thread where in your house could really benefit from a deep steam clean? Is there a task or area you always avoid? Where would you most like to put it to use?

Testers: We'll be asking you to add feedback twice - we'd like your first impressions now and once you've had a bit of time to test out your Steam Stick, we will add some more questions.

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

• Where have you used the Steam Stick?
• What cleaning chore have you been most pleased with the results from using the Steam Stick?
• What were your impressions from the first few uses?

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Tester

• Where have you used the Steam Stick?

Um everywhere really! Foods came up a right treat. So far on Lino and solid wood it's worked great. So easy to use and no nasty chemicals. I've done all those hard to clean places around the sink etc and the nasties it blasted out of there were spectacular. My sink look like new. I gave the oven a once over too, it came up gleaming. It wasn't too dirty but still.

It cleaned the bathroom tiles ,shower screen and toilet too. I'm happy to do all this sort of "deep" cleaning weekly because it take no time at all.

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

My sink. It's a sort of Belfast style ceramic number and the edges were going black. The steam literally shot it out and cleaned it with a dramatic "ooooooh grime!!!" From me.

• What were your impressions from the first few uses?

Love love love it. It's changed the way I clean. No need to buy harsh bleach. It heats up in the same time it takes to boil a kettle and literally minutes to clean.

non tester - I always struggle with bathroom tiles / grout and to date have not found anything that works in getting them truly clean.

TESTER

I've given the kitchen a deep clean today (I know how to live it up on Christmas Eve). I'm incredibly impressed. The tiles behind the cooker are gleaning, the extractor hood which was dripping in grease is like new and the Victorian floor tiles look clean for the first time since we moved in.

I've been badgering DH for a new kitchen for the last 2 years. Suddenly the old one doesn't look too bad!

I'm disappointed that there was only one set of cloths. I can't tackle the bathroom until I've done a wash load and cleaned the cloths.

I'm definitely a steam mop concert.

non tester- The question was where would you use the Karcher SC1 Steam Stick. I think the answer is everywhere! where wouldn't you?

Non tester
Our spare room/office/dumping ground could do with a really deep clean.
I've spent weeks emptying it so my sons no longer have to share their room and my eldest can have a room of his own. But, it needs more stuff taken out and then a mega cleaning session.

Tester reporting for duty!

Where have you used the Steam Stick?

Where haven't I used the Steam Stick!? It's been fabulous so far - have had to put it away for a bit as everyone is sick of me steaming everything in sight instead of steaming Christmas puddings and wrapping pressies.

So far I've cleaned:

• downstairs loo, sink, taps
• fireplace tiles - decorative tiles on each side and the tiles near the grate
• some of the quarry tiles in the kitchen
• oven
• Minton tiled hallway - haven't finished it yet, just wanted to try a bit to compare
• Kitchen sink
• grouting in bathroom
• bathroom tiles
• shower head

What cleaning chore have you been most pleased with the results from using the Steam Stick?

Was really impressed by the way the shower head came up so clean, the steam just blasted it. And it was brilliant on the taps, with the red nozzle attached to the hose it just obliterated stuff underneath the taps.

What were your impressions from the first few uses?

So far so good, it's easy to use, simple to connect the attachments and very sturdy, no chance of anything snapping off. I particularly like the attachment with the hose and the little red nozzle thing, as it makes it easy to get into awkward spaces. Like someone else said, my thumb hurt a bit from pressing the button and I thought maybe I'd missed an on/off switch, but that was probably because I was a bit over zealous to begin with.

Many thanks to Karcher and MN for the opportunity to be a tester, and Merry Christmas to everyone!

non tested was really hoping to get picked for this one. a dog and messy husband and 2 kids our very long kitchen would really love this on it. then the bathroom tiles would be next

Billy me too! Lucky testers! Luckily for the Xmas bank balance that it isn't actually possible to rush out and buy one of these things. When does this miracle machine hit the shops?!

Non-tester:

Oven, oven and oven - I hate doing it so I don't spent three hours last month scrubbing and all I got was raw hands!

Oh and the bath, DH uses special cream and it leaves a nasty film which is really difficult to shift.

Those who mentioned thumbs hurting I hend the steam button down then the lock button just under it keeps the steam coming continuosly

Oh thanks eandh I'll try that next time.

Non-tester but I want one! I'd like to tackle the bathrooms first, they are always hardest to clean but give the most satisfaction when done. Then I'd let DH have a go (on the oven).

Can you use them on cars?

Tester.

Shower tray: I use a greasy in-shower moisturiser, so there's always a gross, waxy scum-line around the tray. The steamer cleaned this off marvellously. Very pleased.

Grouting: absolutely no effect if the mildew. Back to bleach.

Microwave: cleaned the inside with only steam and an e-cloth. I usually give the inside a wipe-down whenever I've cooked something particularly steamy, but this hasn't happened for a while and it was pretty crusted. Again, an excellent result.

Cooker splashback: managed to get rid of most of the accumulated, baked-on grease. Not perfect, but a vast improvement.

At 0.25L the tank is diddy, but I managed to clean the shower tray, have a good go at the grouting, and clean the microwave on one tank. OTOH one tank was not enough to do the cooker splashback.

It can't sustain long bursts of steam, but for small tasks small bursts work well.

It is a drawback that the trigger is not on the nozzle. I don't have three hands, so, when I wanted to steam-wipe-steam-wipe etc, I had to put the tank on the floor and keep the switch pressed down with my toe or knee.

Non-tester: I'd use it on the oven, it's the one thing I always do my best to put off cleaning!

I would love to have a go at my kitchen floor that takes the toll of two dogs day in and day out.

Non Tester. I would use this on my slate floors. It sounds like it would be able to clean out all the crevices!

Our utility room as the pets are in and out of the garden so mud and grass gets trailed in!

My Kitchen, the dog loves to dig in the garden and then trails mud through the kitchen - it gets everywhere!

NON TESTER on my kitchen wood floor, particularly where my daughter sits in her highchair and throws her weetabix on the floor- that stuff is like the glue I remember using making papier mâché! Having read the reviews I don't think there are many places I wouldn't use it!

the corner of the windows

The kitchen, those nooks and corners, the oven, that awful thin film of grease around the cooker that is such a pain to shift, behind appliances, the list goes on.... Would be made so much easier with a steam stick !

The bathroom would benefit, certainly.

I would give my kitchen a clean, especially the oven its a job I really hate, and it takes me ages

The kitchen floor because we have a cat and a dog and it is so difficult to keep clean in the winter especially.

The kitchen - it is quite old (I call it retro!) and when we moved in the cupboards were pretty disgusting and despite hours of scrubbing they are still not as clean as I like.