Review of Shark Steam mops?

[marrelam]

Looking for some opinions on the Shark steam mops. Target has a pretty good deal I think on these this week combined with Shark's rebate form in today's SS.

Do you have any Shark products? What do you think?

[Pennstater]

We have ceramic tile in most of the house, the tiles with grout lines between them.

I got mine at target as well. used it once, yuch!! It smooths over the tiles just fine, the pad got real dirty, so it was doing something as far as removing dirt.

But the grout is a little lower than the tile, the pad won't touch the grout. For my use, it was horrible.

Also, the long handle/stick thingy is very flimsy, when you push it, it felt like it was going to bend.

If you have linoleum or wood or something smooth it seems like it may work better.

[marrelam]

Good info - I'm looking to use it on our wood (real) floor and vinyl flooring.

[cybilx10]

I also used it on my tile floor and it cleaned the top of the tiles great. It would nicely clean the oils of the tile, but never cleaned the grout good. I used it on my mothers wood floors and it did great. Didnt leave any water marks or lines and it even cleaned up my 1yr old nieces dried on mess.

[cintinative]

We have pergo in our house on the first floor, and flat (non grouted) fiberglass tile upstairs in the bathrooms. Our Shark Steam mop works great on all. The pad does get really dirty (I echo the pp's eeew! comment). I like it much much better than using a Swiffer wet or wetjet. For one, it's more environmentally friendly (no chemicals, just steam). It's cheaper in the end because you are only using water. And, it doesn't leave the filmy streaks on our Pergo that the wet cloths do. Sometimes I use the wet cloths for messy spill kind of stuff and then use the Steam mop.

Word of warning: if your water is hard AT ALL, I would seriously consider using distilled water. Yes, it's a pain, but it's not that expensive. And our first steam mop stopped working after less than two years because it got clogged. Our option was to send it out to get it fixed (cost $60) or buy new (cost $90). We bought a new one. Please learn from our example and just use distilled! =) [Just to clarify--our area water is very hard but we do have a water softener and the water we used WAS softened. So don't assume the softener will fix the water for you]

One more thing. In the reviews I had read people said it didn't get into corners well. The old one did not, but the new one comes with a triangle tip so I think it would do much better.

[marrelam]

hmmm..how do i know if i have hard water?

[cintinative]

well, if you need a water softener, it's a safe bet you have hard water. If you can't wash your car with a hose because it leaves spots on your car, you have hard water. The trouble is, I think that this unit may be very sensitive to even smaller amounts of water hardness. Because I have used the little test strips on the water coming out of our faucet and it came back as very low hardness. So I would honestly just go with the distilled water. Then you know you are safe. If you wanted to test your water, they sell test strips at the hardware store. Again, when I tested ours, it was on the very low end of hardness, although we do have a water softener and so the hardness does vary at times.

My dh says that the shark mop only needs maybe a quart of water at most each time you use it. Typically distilled water is less than $1.50/gallon so not too pricey.

[marrelam]

Ok - I bought it today - the one Target has on sale, Shark Pro Steam Pocket mop. Got the $20GC and submitting for the $10 rebate. And I also spent $0.84 for Market Pantry distilled water. Based on cintinative comments, reading stuff on the web, and reading the box - distilled water is definitely the way to go!