Steam cleaners

[happygertie]

I've just remembered I got a free steam cleaner when I bought a carpet cleaner. It's still boxed up in the garage. What's everyone's views on steam cleaners? are they as good as antibacterial products, or at least a good alternative if I run out/ can't source the usual wipes, sprays and bottled disinfectant?

Bump, anyone more experienced know of steam cleaners are any good?

I steam clean the babies bottles to sterilise them so hoping it works!

@Beldon I know what you mean but I have an image of you holding a steam floor mop up and steaming baby bottles like that! 🤣 Sorry, its just tickled me!
My bottle steamer ran for like 10 min to do a bottle cycle and I don't steam my floors for that long. Mine is pretty good at cleaning the floor and getting rid of sticky messes but I don't know how antibac they really are, better than cold water definitely cos my floors are always lovely and warm where I mopped but certainly not scalding even after a second.

I have one. I use it occasionally. It's very satisfying (and I don't like that kind of thing). I've been told that anything other than water in the container thing damages it. Which I learned after I'd used it with a couple of drops of beloved Zoflora a couple of times.

I use Vaporesse in mine as it is designed for steam irons. Makes the house smell lovely.

Not sure how sterile everything is after a whizz round with the steam cleaner but I would imagine it is pretty good at zapping a lot of germs.

The manual in the box should tell you. Not quite the same, but my Bissell steam mop suggests holding it in place for 15-20 seconds to sanitize. I rarely use it as I don't see the point.

To sanitise with steam you need to hold the surface at over 60 degrees for over 10 minutes. So steam mops do not do this. It's really a bit crazy they are allowed to claim this. You can certainly kill some bacteria with 20 seconds of steam but not nearly enough to do anything. The main benefit of steam cleaners are

1. washable microfibre mop heads - use a new one each time and boil wash them - most germs will be picked up by the microfibre and held in the mop head. Mechanical removal is always the best approach to bacteria as there's no way to evolve resistance to it.

1. fast drying floors - germs thrive in the warm and the wet, so multiply on moist surfaces. The faster you dry a surface, the quicker you can reduce the bacterial load.

Viruses don't multiply on surfaces, only within a host, so the bacterial load is not an issue wrt corona. It's vulnerable to lipid solvent (eg any normal soap) though so in this instance I would just soap up first and then steam mop as normal.

This was in Good Housekeeping recently.

www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/house-and-home/a31701623/steam-cleaner-coronavirus/