If you have a hard floor, you need a bare floor steam cleaner.
Today, the trend with many home owners is away from carpet and more toward hard floors. Laminate, hardwood, concrete, tile, and stone are becoming increasingly more popular.
These types of floors require a different approach to cleaning.
Everything from the filth of public restrooms to garbage and mud become part of our home environments as we carry in bits of our daily travels on our shoes. Anyone who has carpet knows how it holds this dirt, mold, and other filth.
Even though carpets can be vacuumed and shampooed occasionally, there remains a lot of dirt and grime inside the fibers that is often trapped and inaccessible. This deep down pollution is still there even though it is invisible.
However,wood floors, laminate floors, and other hard floors show this dirt easily because it remains on the surface.You will likely clean more often because hard floors show dirt more easily.
Steam mops, or steam floor cleaners are fast becoming the answer to keeping these hard floors clean for many home owners. This is not only because they clean the hard surfaces better than anything else, but because they are also "green" and they clean without the use of harmful chemicals. In addition, the 200 plus degree steam kills bacteria and mold and other tracked-in germs. Think about toddlers playing on the floor with their hands often in their mouths...floors that have residue from the last public restroom you visited, and you can appreciate the sanitizing ability of steam cleaners.
Most steam mops actually dispense hot water. Unless the steam mop you choose puts out steam at around 200 degrees or above, it is not really a true "steam cleaner". So, it pays to do your homework before you buy a steam cleaner to verify this most important feature. If you use your steam cleaner on wood floors, you want to be especially sure it puts out steam and not hot water.
There are other features to consider.
These include head size (bigger is better coverage), water capacity (fewer refills), water tank location (bottom is best), number of steam dispersion nozzles (more give better coverage), and cord length (no unplugging and re-plugging).
