I'm thinking of buying a steamer. The kind of steamer which you see on
those hour long adverts on channel four at midnight which claims to clean
everying from tiles, garden furntiure, sofas, carpets, car wheels and will
strip paper with a different head.

I've seen one for 50quid in the Argos catalog but am off Macro this weekend
in search of a bargin. Are these things anygood? do they do anything what
they claim to on the adverts? What do people here use them for, or do they
simply end up next to the tripod mounted lazer sprit level in the shed?

I'm thinking of getting one to rid the greese off the tiles behind the oven
and where the oil leaked from the misses' stepper on the carpet. Will it do
the trick?

Cheers
Scott

"Scott Mills" wrote in
news:_m_cc.357$p45.137@newsfe1-win:

I'm thinking of buying a steamer. The kind of steamer which you see
on those hour long adverts on channel four at midnight which claims to
clean everying from tiles, garden furntiure, sofas, carpets, car
wheels and will strip paper with a different head.


Ace at defrosting things, rubbish at everything else.

The demos on the shopping channels use very dodgy "dirt"

YMMV, ducks.... I mean, YMMV (ducks!)

mike r

Scott Mills formulated on Wednesday :
I'm thinking of buying a steamer. The kind of steamer which you see on
those hour long adverts on channel four at midnight which claims to clean
everying from tiles, garden furntiure, sofas, carpets, car wheels and will
strip paper with a different head.

Opinions seem to differ (there was an earlier thread in this ng). Too
be of any serious use you need to be looking at the larger machines
with more steam output and a larger tank. They seem to be better at
dealing with the smaller awkward areas, rather than the bigger areas
which can get to and clean equally well with the usual products.

I found one particularly good for defrosting freezers, a few weeks ago.
It certainly made easy work of cutting through the accumulated ice in
both of our freezers, a fridge freezer and a commercial size chest
freezer. The latter normally takes many hours of work.

On burnt on cooker marks they seem to be quite useless.

--


--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.org

mike ring wrote:
"Scott Mills" wrote in
news:_m_cc.357$p45.137@newsfe1-win:

I'm thinking of buying a steamer. The kind of steamer which you see
on those hour long adverts on channel four at midnight which claims to
clean everying from tiles, garden furntiure, sofas, carpets, car
wheels and will strip paper with a different head.


Ace at defrosting things, rubbish at everything else.

The demos on the shopping channels use very dodgy "dirt"

YMMV, ducks.... I mean, YMMV (ducks!)

Do you mean, they are good for cleaning up poultry residue, but not
much else?

We bought a reconditioned Goblin steamer a few years back. It was a good
deal at £34 half-price. It was good at defrosting, tile-cleaning, window
cleaning - only did that once coz a squeegy and bucket is just as good,
cleaning the years of wax polish from quarry tiles before sealing and best
of all removing dirt and stains from a cream sofa. Used it loads and then
the hose failed and I thought it needed a new one - turns out on recent
inspection that the inner hose had come off the nozzle mount inside the
outer hose casing. Was quite a hassle to get inside the hose to fix it -
hidden screws etc. - but managed so now it's fixed I expect I'll use it
loads again especially on the long since mottled dingy cream sofa. Don't
think I would have wanted to pay full price maybe.

Sam

On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 21:43:36 +0000 (UTC), mike ring
wrote:

"Scott Mills" wrote in
news:_m_cc.357$p45.137@newsfe1-win:

I'm thinking of buying a steamer. The kind of steamer which you see
on those hour long adverts on channel four at midnight which claims to
clean everying from tiles, garden furntiure, sofas, carpets, car
wheels and will strip paper with a different head.


Ace at defrosting things, rubbish at everything else.

The demos on the shopping channels use very dodgy "dirt"

YMMV, ducks.... I mean, YMMV (ducks!)

mike r

You should see the advertorial programs for them on Italian TV.
Ample bosomed matrons with metallic coloured hair and arms the size of
tree trunks waving them about. Seriously dangerous.


The cheap ones are underpowered and pretty useless. I would tend to
agree that they are not up to the task of much.

We have a pretty good Polti machine with a steam generator bearing a
resemblance to R2D2. This works very effectively at all the jobs
that it says it will do, including those mentoned above.

They also make a really good iron, which is basically commercial grade
and will deliver very effective amounts and temperatures of steam for
ironing. That one is a considerable timesaver.




..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

"Sam" wrote in message
...

We bought a reconditioned Goblin steamer a few years back. It was a good
deal at £34 half-price. It was good at defrosting, tile-cleaning, window
cleaning - only did that once coz a squeegy and bucket is just as good,
cleaning the years of wax polish from quarry tiles before sealing and best
of all removing dirt and stains from a cream sofa. Used it loads and then
the hose failed and I thought it needed a new one - turns out on recent
inspection that the inner hose had come off the nozzle mount inside the
outer hose casing. Was quite a hassle to get inside the hose to fix it -
hidden screws etc. - but managed so now it's fixed I expect I'll use it
loads again especially on the long since mottled dingy cream sofa. Don't
think I would have wanted to pay full price maybe.

Sam


I borrowed one from work, not sure what it was now, but it was huge, and I
was informed that it was pretty much the best available. Best at what I
ask?! Cleaning carpets - rubbish (1001 cleaner works better), burnt food on
the cooker - didn't shift it, dirty walls - no better than scrubbing with
flash, cleaning the car engine was OK.

Certainly not impressed at all with it.

Alex

"Alex" wrote in message ...
"Sam" wrote in message
...

We bought a reconditioned Goblin steamer a few years back. It was a good
deal at £34 half-price. It was good at defrosting, tile-cleaning, window
cleaning - only did that once coz a squeegy and bucket is just as good,
cleaning the years of wax polish from quarry tiles before sealing and best
of all removing dirt and stains from a cream sofa. Used it loads and then
the hose failed and I thought it needed a new one - turns out on recent
inspection that the inner hose had come off the nozzle mount inside the
outer hose casing. Was quite a hassle to get inside the hose to fix it -
hidden screws etc. - but managed so now it's fixed I expect I'll use it
loads again especially on the long since mottled dingy cream sofa. Don't
think I would have wanted to pay full price maybe.


I borrowed one from work, not sure what it was now, but it was huge, and I
was informed that it was pretty much the best available. Best at what I
ask?! Cleaning carpets - rubbish (1001 cleaner works better), burnt food on
the cooker - didn't shift it, dirty walls - no better than scrubbing with
flash, cleaning the car engine was OK.

Certainly not impressed at all with it.

Alex


I believe their traditional forte is cleaning off grease, and are thus
used on cars (and I would guess probably commercial kitchens). Though
when people say steam cleaning in the auto trade they dont necessarily
use a steam cleaner, it seems to have just become an expression
meaning a thorough clean.

How they would have any power to shift anything more than grease and
easily dissolved muck I never understood. And how they were promoted
as green when they are surely the most energy guzzling method of
cleaning I dont know.

For cleaning upholstery I did one item with a wet cloth and washing up
liquid. It was in a real grim state and the cloth and detergent did a
great job. (Also tried dry cleaning solvent which was twice as fast.)

So I'm not sure why one would need to use steam at home, but maybe
someone else does know.


Regards, NT

"N. Thornton" wrote in message
om...
"Alex" wrote in message
...
"Sam" wrote in message
...

We bought a reconditioned Goblin steamer a few years back. It was a
good
deal at £34 half-price. It was good at defrosting, tile-cleaning,
window
cleaning - only did that once coz a squeegy and bucket is just as
good,
cleaning the years of wax polish from quarry tiles before sealing and
best
of all removing dirt and stains from a cream sofa. Used it loads and
then
the hose failed and I thought it needed a new one - turns out on
recent
inspection that the inner hose had come off the nozzle mount inside
the
outer hose casing. Was quite a hassle to get inside the hose to fix
it -
hidden screws etc. - but managed so now it's fixed I expect I'll use
it
loads again especially on the long since mottled dingy cream sofa.
Don't
think I would have wanted to pay full price maybe.


I borrowed one from work, not sure what it was now, but it was huge, and
I
was informed that it was pretty much the best available. Best at what I
ask?! Cleaning carpets - rubbish (1001 cleaner works better), burnt food
on
the cooker - didn't shift it, dirty walls - no better than scrubbing
with
flash, cleaning the car engine was OK.

Certainly not impressed at all with it.

Alex


Thanks everybody for your replies. I had heard they were naff from someone
else but just wanted to hear it confirmed. Looks like I'll have to find
something else in Makro to waste my money on. Probably another cordless
drill for 12 quid...

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:34:30 +0100, "Scott Mills"
wrote:




Thanks everybody for your replies. I had heard they were naff from someone
else but just wanted to hear it confirmed.

At that price point yes. A proper product, very useful.

Looks like I'll have to find
something else in Makro to waste my money on. Probably another cordless
drill for 12 quid...


That would certainly meet your criterion of a waste of money......


..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 22:27:13 +0100, "Scott Mills"
wrote:

I'm thinking of buying a steamer.

They make steam. Whether steam is useful is another matter.

20 quid gets you multo steam in a wallpaper stripper, and as much
electricity as you can fit down a plug. The rest is just energy
transformation - a posh one is still no better than its kW rating.

IMHO, it pays for itself in one wallpapering job. I have a few, and I
also use them to steam bend timber. As to cleaning, then I've found
them occasionally useful, but they're fussy about the sort of dirt
they're useful on.
--
Smert' spamionam

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:34:30 +0100, "Scott Mills"
wrote:

Got one of these for 25 quid:

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=1751&productId=91519

2.3 kW, on castors, comes with a long lead and looooong hose, _large_
and small plate, jet nozzle and brush attachment.

They are also good for cleaning tiles and the grout in between, and
soap residue off shower walls and shower trays, kitchen appliances.

Thanks everybody for your replies. I had heard they were naff from someone
else but just wanted to hear it confirmed.

It's something that you have to find uses for, but won't be useful for
everybody.

Looks like I'll have to find
something else in Makro to waste my money on. Probably another cordless
drill for 12 quid...

They've got a start'n' charge thing for 15 quid, add a cheap inverter
and you have a nice cordless mains power source.

cheers,
Pete.

"Pete C" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:34:30 +0100, "Scott Mills"
wrote:

Got one of these for 25 quid:


http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/st...ay?storeId=100
01&langId=-1&catalogId=1751&productId=91519


This is the exact one I was looking at.

Looks like I'll have to find
something else in Makro to waste my money on. Probably another cordless
drill for 12 quid...

They've got a start'n' charge thing for 15 quid, add a cheap inverter
and you have a nice cordless mains power source.

I made an inverter at uni. it hummed a bit but was good for 200W athough
when you look at the harmonics I wouldn't want to run anything other than a
few lightbulbs off it.

Scott

On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 22:27:13 +0100, "Scott Mills"
wrote:

I'm thinking of buying a steamer. The kind of steamer which you see on
those hour long adverts on channel four at midnight which claims to clean
everying from tiles, garden furntiure, sofas, carpets, car wheels and will
strip paper with a different head.

I've seen one for 50quid in the Argos catalog but am off Macro this weekend
in search of a bargin. Are these things anygood? do they do anything what
they claim to on the adverts? What do people here use them for, or do they
simply end up next to the tripod mounted lazer sprit level in the shed?

I'm thinking of getting one to rid the greese off the tiles behind the oven
and where the oil leaked from the misses' stepper on the carpet. Will it do
the trick?

Cheers
Scott


The losen the stuff, but you still have to remove it. So it will losen
the oil in the carpet, but you still need to get the loose oil out of
the carpet.

Rick