Steam mops are all the rage right now. They are advertised everywhere and are being promoted as an effective and "green" solution to cleaning your floors. While in many cases those claims are correct, the fact is they are not getting your floors as clean as you think they are.
Let me explain how a steam mop works first.
The first step is to put on the microfiber cleaning pad, this soaks up any minor liquid spills and helps to spread the water vapor on the floor.
After everything you need water, distilled water is preferred and recommended, but many people just use normal tap water. Water is the choice of making a difference in cleaning effect? No, this is the only concern that unfiltered tap water, the minerals in it (hard water) can be placed inside the pug has to do and over time damage to the heating system.
After filling the mop with water is necessary to turn it on and connect. It usually takes about a minute or two before it is ready to clean.
Now you canare ready to sanitize and disinfect your floors with ease right? Well this is where the problem starts, in order to sanitize your floor most of the major manufactures (Bissell, Eureka, Shark etc..) tell you that you need to keep the cleaning pad in place for at least 10 to 15 seconds on a single area!
Think about how long it would take you to properly sanitize a kitchen measuring 17 feet by 12 feet, a pretty average size kitchen by the way. The cleaning pad is roughly 12 inches wide (actually 10) by about 6 inches long. So it would take you approx. 45 minutes to 1 hour to sanitize your floor. That's not really a problem if you have the time and more importantly the patience to do it.
Every demonstration I have seen either through TV infomercials, TV shopping channels and online videos are not showing you the proper way to sanitize. That is misleading, so when you get your brand new steam mop home and use it the way you have seen it been used, you are not getting your floors as clean as you think.
I actually think steam mops are great for "wiping" up your floors quickly, and for doing it without harmful chemicals. The cleaning pads are machine washable and can be reused which is more environmentally friendly. But as far as "Sanitizing" goes? unless you serious and are going to take the time to use it properly, it may not be worth the effort.
