Then you can attach various tools. There’s a large, rectangular floor head which comes with two Velcro cloths and a clip-on carpet glider. This steam cleaner also has a large square brush with cloth and large round brush – with space on the Kärcher to stow. The only thing it’s missing that we care about is a window squeegee. However, Kärcher offers a wide selection of accessories if you care about this or other tools. Add-on accessories are so useful, just make sure you have a handy place to store them, since there’s no on-unit storage. And speaking of storage–we loved that this steam mop had a big hook to hold the 15.9-foot cord—a feature that gets skipped by many of the other mops on the market. If you have a ton of small spaces or crevices that need mopping, it’ll be harder to maneuver this mop into those small spots. The cord on this cleaner is an extremely long 23 feet, which is useful for moving all around the house, but can easily get caught, tangled, or trailed through newly cleaned floors, so keep an eye on it. We should also note that we didn’t love that plugging this model in is what turns it on, so you’ll want to make sure you have it set up in a spot that’s steam cleaner friendly.

Unlike some other options, the multiple attachments were easy to swap between and we found them quite effective. As an added bonus, the included instructions were simple, easy to follow, and accurate, so we never found ourselves guessing if we were using the right thing.There’s a lot to like about this Bissell steam mop–in our tests, it worked equally as effectively on tile, grout, concrete, and sealed hardwood floors. Intuitively designed, there’s a removable water tank, which is easy to fill, and three levels of steam.

Once your steam cleaning is finished, this unit is extremely easy to clean–one swipe of a wet wipe cleans the head. A great value, this product is recommended for households without kids, or pets, high-traffic areas, or anyone who needs a more powerful unit. If that’s your situation, you’re better off investing in a steam mop that is a bit more expensive and much more effective. This steam cleaner never let us down during testing; in fact, our tester Carmel thought it was so excellent that she found it difficult to step away from it as she envisioned other things in her home she could clean. Caramel Quin has been writing for Ideal Home and other titles at Future for many years and tests a wide range of consumer technology for newspapers, magazines and online. She prides herself in real-world testing and translating geek speak into plain English. Her pet hates are jargon, pointless products and over-complicated instruction manuals. All of the steam mops on this list have attached cords, so think about your house, the outlet locations, and if you’ll need to constantly plug and unplug the steam mop to adequately and safely move around your home. Also keep in mind that steam mops maintain their heat by being plugged in, so if you need to change plugs, you might need to wait for it to heat up again. Carmel used this with the floorhead and carpet glider to clean the tide marks on an old, colourful rug. It worked to great effect and she only needed to switch to the brush a few times.More than just a steam mop, this pricey gadget comes with 11 accessories, so it can transform from a steam mop to a grout cleaner, detail brush, steam glove, and much more. At six pounds, it’s easy to use and lightweight, even when full of water. Even so, we recommend taking breaks if you plan on using it in handheld mode for too long, because while it’s lightweight as a steam mop, we can see it getting heavy to hold for long periods of time. Lightweight and inexpensive, this steam mop is the perfect solution for adults who either have trouble moving around heavy cleaners or don’t have a lot of foot traffic in their house. Three levels of steam are available via a rotary dial. B&D refers this to as Autoselect but there is very little ‘auto’ about it. The dial is simply labelled with different hard floor types to simplify choice rather than three steam levels, although it amounts to the same thing. In our tests, Carmel found that steam took over one minute to heat up and then can stop and start instantly with a press of the trigger. It’s powerful: the lowest setting is similar to the steam offered by most steam mops, the highest setting is much stronger.