If you want a deep sanitized clean in your house without the use of a single chemical cleaner, you’ll want to take a look at the Vapamore MR-100 Vapor Steam Cleaner.  I ran a Vapamore through a variety of tough tests here in my own house, and I’m telling you they weren’t easy tests!  If you want to hear the results, read on.  You’ll find out whether or not steam cleaning with a Vapamore is right for you.

The Vapamore comes with a large array of attachments that allow the user to steam clean many different surface types.  Grout, upholstery, auto detailing, bathtub cleaning, clothes steaming, floors, walls (even wallpaper removal), ceiling - you name it and they’ve got attachments that will work on it. In total, there are 17 different attachments to help you get cleaning.  The smaller attachments fit nicely into the front of the unit for storage. The attached hose is long and there’s lots of electrical cord, so I found it pretty easy to scootch around with the unit as I cleaned.  

If you haven’t used a steam cleaner before, it’s good to get an idea of how they work.  Steam cleaners simply use the power of steam from very hot water to remove dirt and sterilize.  The Vapamore actually uses vapor which is much finer than steam.  The unit heats the water to about 240 - 310º and emits a fine water vapor.  The vapor is surprisingly dry, so it has the ability to clean deep and dry quickly without soaking the heck out of an item.  

So how well does it work?  I’ll tell you about my individual tests.  I started with my kitchen floor which I thought may not be entirely fair testing ground since the linoleum is about 25 years old!  It’s a cream color, and although I’ve tried numerous tactics to clean it (including chemicals from long before I knew better), yet it’s always looked grungy.  One can’t expect a steam cleaner to lay new linoleum beneath your feet - but one can expect a much deeper clean than even scrubbing on one’s hands and knees with a scrub brush (yes, I’ve tried that numerous times too - ouch the back).  By using the floor attachments and moving slowly across the floor, I was able to remove most of what I’ve never been able to remove.  It’s definitely a brighter, cleaner floor and I’m not so concerned about my son playing on it now.  And that floor is germ free!  My stovetop is equally germ free now too.  I’m a messy cook, so running the Vapamore over that surface loosened my mess and left the stove looking new again.  

Moving to the bathroom, I decided to test the unit out on my bathtub - same 25-year-old deal.  Our tub is fiberglass and has all those tiny groovy things in the bottom for a non-slip surface during showering.  Not an easy surface to clean.  I had great luck with cleaning the tub.  It melted the soap buildup, removed grime from around the fixtures, and even unclogged the drain.  No dangerous chemicals dumped inside, no reaching into an icky drain with a hanger.  I just cranked up the heat and held the nozzle attachment inside the drain for about a minute.  It literally melted the junk to nothingness. 

My bathroom floor is porcelain tile.  With any kind of steam cleaning, it’s good to sweep, dust, wipe down thesurfaces first before steaming.  So I swept up the floor first, and with the floor attachment I steamed the tiled surface.  Since steam cleaning doesn’t require pushing and scrubbing (unless the surface is especially nasty), it wasn’t very labor intensive.  I found that taking my time on the job instead and moving the unit slow and steady gave the best result, but I didn’t need to push and scrub on the floors.

One of the biggest tests I did had to be my bird cages.  I have two lovely parrots who enjoy making a huge mess.  Their perches are often a disaster of caked up dried banana, bits of flung vegetables and rice, and - well, other unmentionable parrot byproducts.  Cleaning perches is one of my least favorite jobs.  Normally I have to scrub them in a tub with a wire brush after soaking them for an hour while my poor birds hop around perchless.  The end result still isn’t a completely clean perch.  But with the Vapamore and the proper wire brush attachment, I cleaned those darned things in a fraction of the time!  Some of the stuff that I didn’t get off in the 3 minutes I spent on the largest perch actually softened up and fell off while I waiting for the perch to dry out, resulting in a completely clean perch.  Cleaning their toys and other items was fantastic.  It’s important with pets and children to sterilize certain items, and if you try to avoid chemical cleaners as we all should, then the Vapamore is a thorough way to go.  When you’re done cleaning, everything ends up sterilized and ready to be used once again.

Overall, I’d say a Vapamore is worth the investment if you like getting thingsdeep cleaned beyond just what you see.  For parents with children who have allergies or special health needs, this unit could be of real benefit for getting further than what a cleaning product can do.  And since chemical-laden cleaners can heighten allergies, asthma and health problems in general, besides being harmful to the environment, you’ll be doing your entire family - and your planet - a big favor by using a Vapamore.

©2009 DK Mommy Spot