# "The Shark" steam cleaner **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 1, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shark-steam-cleaner/287712 "2005-02-01T02:04:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![look\_hergo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85e7bf/32.png) [@look\_hergo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_hergo)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shark-steam-cleaner/287712/1 "2005-02-01T02:04:20Z")
My husband got me a Portable Shark Steam Cleaner for Christmas, so I spent part of Christmas day roaming the kitchen blasting gunk out of nooks and crannies. It’s a neato toy; it makes exciting amounts of steam, it sound like a perking coffee machine while it heats up, and according to its user guide, it’s used all over the UK by just _everybody_! I hate it. First, it doesn’t cut grease. The user guide assures me it will, by the use of **super-heated steam** tm, but I know that it will just melt the grease, and my wiping will just smear it around in a thinner layer over a wider area. My answer to this is to spray the area with 409 or something similar, then steam, then wipe. I could get the same cleaning results without the steamer, though. In the bathroom, the **super-heated steam** tm is supposed to make easy work of those bathtub rings. This is a lie, lie, lie. Bathtub rings = mostly body oils and soap residue = basically grease. So again, I am using a cleaning agent, scrubbing with my cloth, and the use of the steamer is unnecessary… though the bathroom jasmine plant seems to enjoy the extra humidity. Floors. Oh, the Shark is supposed to be super for cleaning all kinds of flooring. Through the use of **super-heated steam** tm, my floors will become sterilized – clean enough to eat off of! The cleaning attachment for floors, a swiffer-like rectangle with clamps to hold a folded cloth (not included) that will wipe up the steam-loosened grime, falls off when you apply too much pressure. About the amount of pressure needed to, say, scrub a stubborn drip of juice from the area around the fridge. Just pops right off. I suppose I should use a feather-light touch and let the **super-heated steam** tm do the work… except it doesn’t. Nope. There’s me with my cloth and cleanser again. Plus the **super-heated steam** tm dulls the finish of my no-wax floor. “Work fast!” chides the manual. My work would go a lot faster if I didn’t have to keep re-attaching the floor-cleaning head. The **super-heated steam** tm also stinks. Maybe part of this is due to the properties of our local tap water, which the owner’s manual encourages me to use. But the owner’s manual also says, “do not add scented perfumes, oils, or any other chemicals to the water used in this appliance” so I think they have _some_ idea of the olfactory impact of steam. Using distilled water helps a little. Not using the steamer would help best. My husband was really excited with this present, so I will continue to haul it out and use it occasionally, just to spare his feelings. Perhaps I can use it to make the hall closet into a sauna… ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shark-steam-cleaner/287712/2 "2005-02-01T02:52:01Z")
The fun has just begun for you! Google it for some of the excitement one can have with a machine that spews steaming hot water out of unsuspecting crevices when you surpass the receommended use time. It’s practically an angry mob of steam hand burns, they say. I used to clean houses for a living and looked into getting one to help me **work faster** , as promised. I was quickly dissuaded. The infomercial shows fake dirt, not real daily living kind of dirt w/ hairs and people grease and snot and poo. They never show the poo. Sweet of the hubby, but maybe next time he gets you a cleaning lady for a day for roughly the same $$?