The cleanliness of our homes and various surfaces around us is very important. While cleaning, there are certain dirt, stains, dust mites, mildew, and bacteria, among others, that may not come out easily when cleaning.
Using a steam mop to clean your home can be tricky if you are a beginner. Therefore, we have decided to give you an insight into how to use a steam mop to clean various surfaces in your home. But do you really know how to use a steam mop?
How Does a Steam Mop Clean?
Before we get to use a steam mop, we’d better know how it works.
When a steam mop is connected to a power source, it heats the water inside the tank for up to around 248 degrees Fahrenheit, which is around 120 degrees Celsius.
Some steam mops may have lower temperatures, while others may have more than 120 degrees Celsius. Generally, a steam mop will heat the water in the tank to a temperature of above 100 degrees Celsius. Most dirt, bacteria, and stains, even the stubborn stains, cannot survive in a steam of over 100 degrees Celsius.
The steam mop features steam jets that release the hot vapor to moisture the microfiber pad. After moistening the microfiber pad, the steam then soaks the ground or the place where the dirt or stubborn stain is.
Since the temperature is more than 100 degrees Celsius, the dirt, stubborn stain, bacteria, or dust mites will be weakened and easily come off, leaving the surface spotlessly clean.
Where Can I Use Steam Mop?
Steam mops are generally used in various applications at home. Additionally, steam mops may come with accessories included for use in easy cleaning of multiple surfaces and hard-to-reach areas during purchase. You can use a steam cleaner on:
-
floor
A steam cleaner can be used to clean and remove the hard, stubborn dirt and stains from the floors of your home. You have to check the floor of your home to ensure the steam cleaner does not damage it since different steam cleaners are designed for different floor types such as for hardwood floors, for vinyl floors )
A steam cleaner will heat the water inside the reservoir to a temperature above 100 degrees Celsius, killing germs and removing the stubborn stains and dirt with ease.
-
Carpets
Carpets are among the places in the house that can get dirty easily and have allergens that may be harmful to your health. You can use a steam cleaner to easily remove stubborn stains and dust mites by attaching a carpet glider to it.
The carpet glider will glide across your carpet’s surface, killing and getting rid of the dust mites and stubborn stains with ease. Check the best steam mop for carpets.
-
Cars and others
A steam cleaner comes with extra attachments like a squeegee and flat scrapper that you can use to clean your car windows. Additionally, you can use a steam cleaner to remove oil spills and build up around your car’s engine.
You can use the appropriate included accessories to get rid of loose dirt and debris plus other dirt from various surfaces of your vehicle.
Besides what has been mentioned, the steam mop can be also used on glass, sheets, stairs, furniture, stovetop, dishwasher, windows, car mat, and even clothes.
How to Use Shark Steam Mop to Clean Floor?
(You can take shark steam as an example to instruct users how to use a steam mop on floors. And how about Bissell steam mop? Vax steam mop? Are they have commons in cleaning? Or are there differences in using different brands of a steam mop?)
If you want to use a Shark steam mop to clean the floor in your home, you start by:
Step 1:Â Start by sweeping or vacuuming your floor to get rid of loose dirt and other particles that may be there.
Step 2: Get your steam mop ready and fill the reservoir with water.
Step 3: Turn on your steam cleaner and let the water heat up for around 30 seconds, depending on the capacity of the tank and the heating power.
Step 4: Pump the handle to make the microfiber pad or the cleaning cloth dampened. Select the cleaning mode depending on nature or the dirt and stains on your floor.
Step 5: Move the steam cleaner back and forth across the surfaces of your floor until the stubborn stains and dirt come out. This will leave your floor clean and germ-free.
Step 6: When you are done cleaning, you should unplug the steam mop from the power source and let the attachment like the microfiber pad or the cloth cool off to prevent you from getting it before dismantling it from the unit for easy storage.
Bissel steam mop, Vax steam mop, and shark steam mop all use power to heat the water in the tank before releasing a hot steam vapor for cleaning and removing stubborn stains and dirt. They come with extra accessories for cleaning various surfaces.
The only difference between the steam mops is their technologies, such as the TwinTank technology in Vax steam mop, steam blaster technology in Shark steam mops. Generally, you can use the same method or process to steam clean the floors in your home.
How to Use a Steam Mop on Carpet?
-
Clean stains on the carpet
in order to remove stains on the carpet in your room, you will need to:
Step 1: Clear your room. Since most steam cleaners are operated by pushing and pulling them, having many things in the room will reduce your cleaning pace.
Step 2: Vacuum the carpet. When vacuuming, you will be able to get rid of loose dust particles, pet hair, crumbs, and other things that can be sucked. It would be best if you vacuumed at least two times. The first and the second should be totally from different directions.
Step 3: Treat the spots with stubborn stains before you start vacuuming.
Step 4:Get your steam cleaner ready.
Move the steam move across the carpet from one corner to another in straight lines. When you are done, you should allow the carpet to dry up.
-
Clean dog hairs on the carpet
Step 1:Â Vacuuming or using a microfiber mop to remove the fur from the carpet. However, there are 2-in-1 steam mops that will vacuum and steam clean simultaneously since they can suck up the dog hair and steam clean at the same time because of the technologies used in the construction.
Step 2: Get your steam cleaner ready.
Step 3: Move the steam mop across the carpet from one end to the other. The steam will get beneath your carpet fibers and remove the toughest dog hairs with ease.
Step 4: Leave your carpet to dry up.
How to Use a 2 in 1 Steam mop?
A 2-in-1 steam cleaner can be used to steam clean both the floor and hard-to-reach areas like your windows, ceilings, and many more. A handheld steamer is always lightweight for you to carry comfortably while cleaning hard-to-reach places.
Step 1:Â Fill the tank with water.
Step 2:Â Connect it to the power source. Switch on the power source and turn on the handheld steamer if it does not begin to heat automatically.
Step 3: After heating, connect the accessory for the intended purpose. e.g., squeegee to clean your windows, grout tool to remove grout from bathroom and kitchen walls, and flat scraper to steam clean your car windows, plus many more depending on the place and the right attachment.
Step 4: Point the attached accessory towards the place or item you want to steam clean.
Step 5: Steam the area until the stubborn dirt comes out.
You can easily remove and attach different accessories included cleaning different places. Additionally, there are attachments that you can use to steam clean multiple places. For example, Squeegee you can use in both house and car windows.
FAQs:
Can you use a steam mop on wood floors?
There are sealed and unsealed wood floors. You can use a steam mop on sealed wood floors since the floors can withstand the moisture and heat and will not get damaged.
However, a steam mop is not recommended for use on unsealed wood floors. The unsealed wood floor is always vulnerable, and it can easily get damaged by moisture.
How often do you use a steam mop to clean floors?
The frequency at which you use a steam mop to clean floors in your home depends on you. It is optional. Steaming your floor will depend on how long it takes for your floor to be dirty.
You may steam daily or even once a week. If you are alone without children and pets, you may take time before steaming. However, if you have pets and kids around, you may have to steam often to ensure the dirt and germs that may be harmful are eliminated as much as possible.
Conclusion
When you are equipped with the above information, cleaning various surfaces in your home using different attachments with the steam cleaner will be easy.
You will have a hassle-free experience cleaning your home using a steam clean when you know how to use a steam mop using the information illustrated above.
