Wet jets are NO good for floor. Get a scrub brush with a broom handle and a good wet dry vac to clean your floors. That is what I do.

1. I feel that in order to get into the textured surface, I need scrubbing brushes, not just steam; The steamers seem to work on hot water alone. Anyone have experience with textured tile?

My kitchen ceramic tile is textured. The steam cleaner gets it clean. My theory is that by using just steam, I'm not leaving soap residue in the texture, and thus it seems to stay pretty clean.

2. The steamers I could find reviews for (Bissell, Hoover) all raved about how they cleaned their carpets. Do these machines work equally as well on carpet as on a hard surface? Or are you using a different steamer for tile?

As far as I am concerned, steamers for carpets and steamers for tile floors are two different products. The Bissell and Hoover steamers use some type of cleaning product to clean the rug. They call them steamers because they heat the water, but they don't work like a true steam vapor cleaner.

marymt - I have the same problem. We have a beige textured porcelain tile kitchen. I was looking at the Bissell and Hoover floor cleaners too. I want a machine with 2 tanks that scrubs and then vacuums up the water. I thought that getting one with brushes would help keep the grout clean.

I'm going to buy one and give it a try. I just need to select one.

marymt, I have textured tile too and I wish I didn't. I like the smooth..shiny tile much better. Anyway, I use the shark steam mop and it gets the tiles clean but doesn't get to the grout. I've been contemplating one of those scrubbers that vacumns up the water also but haven't decided yet.

I've got textured tile in my kitchen too. I've had two Floormates, which supposedly suck up the dirty water. They work fairly well--but the Floormate itself hasn't lasted. That's two of them in about 5 years. I won't be getting a third.

Davisgard, which FloorMate did you get? I was about to get the H3060 (below) - it certainly LOOKS sturdy, but looks can be deceiving...

Here is a link that might be useful: Hoover Floor Mate 3060

I had a Hoover Floormate I bought second-hand on ebay, hence no guarantee. It worked great for about two months, then it stopped sucking the dirty water off the floor. Over $100 lost, and I threw the darned thing out. I now use a rewgular sponge mop, pail of water and Pinesol to wash my kitchen linoleum floor. Myy oak wood floors in the rest of my home, I use Bona Kemi and a damp microfibre cloth on my hand and knees. Labor intensive but it works for me.

I have light colored textured tile also. I'm also looking for a reasonably priced cleaner that scrubs and sucks up the water. I have an old Hoover Steam Vac Deluxe carpet cleaner with spin brushes that are way too soft and do not clean well at all. It maybe would work if it had STIFF scrubbing brushes. Right now I am using a plain old mop and occasionally scrubbing on hands and knees which is extremely difficult for me. Wishing someone would come up with a product for cleaning textured tile. I have a pool and love the tile because it isn't nearly as slippery as flat tile when wet.

I bought the Hoover Floormate and it would be great for a smooth tile. It's easy to use. Fill it with a mixture of hot water and a detergent made for tile. However, the scrubby brushes do not get into the deeper recesses of textured tile - mine is the Tuscan style and has little grooves and pinholes everywhere. My grout has a mixed in sealer and, believe it or not, it actually comes right up. So, for a really thorough cleaning, I use a phosphorous acid cleaner from a tile store. Brush or spray it on and wait ten minutes. Use a very stiff brush on a long handle and work the bristles into the floor. Then I clean with the Hoover which sucks up all the dirty water. It's time consuming but the tile looks like new. Normally, I use the Hoover for cleaning once a week and it definitely draws up a lot of really dirty water but the texture not so much, I will never buy this kind of tile again.

I had a Floor mate too and it worked great when it was new but it didn't last long...about 2 years. Way too much money and wasn't worth the investment...won't be buying that again. My entire house is rough textured tile so I need to find something that isn't hard to use but gets the job done

Try the Bissell spin mate 2039. Works so much better than shark steamer on textured tile. Not perfect, but better for only $100.