Not really help to your question, but I bought the Shark Sonic Carpet and Floor Cleaner and I Love, love it. My wood floors are15 or so years old and it did a fantastic job, and a good job on my ancient carpet too. Not sure if it is the appliance or just their cleaners.... cleaners seem to be great.

I have one. I like it. I use it mostly on ceramic floors. I do use it on the hardwood, but don't like to use it often. My son, who use to be in flooring, said it wouldn't harm them but I just don't want to take any chances. One year I had my golf group over for brunch and a tray of mimosas with a little grand mariner in them fell breaking six glasses and a lot of sticky stuff on the floor. The girls started mopping up with paper towels but I said not to worry. I immediately went to the garage and got my steam mop. I like it because it cleans up and is dry immediately. I didn't have to worry about anyone slipping on the tile. Everyone was impressed and I think there was a run on them at BB&B! I spray a little cleaner on the floor and then use the steam mop as I go because you're not suppose to put anything but water in the machine.

I like mine, I used to use it often because it was very light and easy for me to use even from my chair. However now my cleaning lady does all the floors, she prefers a mop for the tile. Anytime I have to do in between clean up I use the steam mop. I liked it so much I bought them for my sisters for Christmas a few years ago and they love them too. I only have experience with the shark steam mop.

Thanks for the input! I just hesitate to buy another contraption that I might not use! I am just tired of my grandkids going home with filthy socks and pants from playing and walking on my floors!
Between my dog coming in and out in wet muddy weather and my dh coming in and out from his welding shop, my floors take a beating!

Who has used one of these steam cleaners regularly on site-installed stained hardwood floors? My mind won't accept that water (steam!) doesn't warp wood, even poly-sealed wood.

Does it leave streaks on tile?

I don't have the Shark - my sis does and loves it with two big dogs - but I've got the Oreck floor steamer. I've been pleased with it and like that I can sanitize bathroom floors without using other products than steam. As well as do my slate entry and other hard surfaces, all my hardwood in this house is presently covered with carpet.

I know I'm supposed to be able to use the attachments and do shower walls, vertical surfaces etc with it but truthfully I haven't tried and might find it a little heavy for that. It's about 4 yrs old and I've been happy with it.

I also have the Oreck and it has several features that I really like. It has a long cord, about 25 feet; it has a good size tank and will steam for at least 30 minutes; it doesn't spill if you lift it; and best of it - you don't have to buy special bonnets for the steam head. It did come with 2 but I just use my microfiber cloths and then I can change them frequently and then launder them.

The steamer doesn't leave streaks on my ceramic floor. It's high heat but low moisture. However I wouldn't use it on my wood floors.

Just remember that although it heats to over 200 degrees to produce steam Oreck says that to sanitize you have to keep the steam on a spot for at least 15 seconds. Honestly - most people don't steam a floor that way. But I do think it's easier than a sponge mop and if you want to increase the sanitation factor you could always spray a cleaner on the floor and then steam, changing the cloths as necessary.

No it doesn't leave streaks or anything behind except clean. The shark steam is dry almost instantly. I have only used it on tile but my sister does have old hard woods and she uses it. a friend of mine that got one after playing with mine lives in a house that is a hundred years old with original wood floors. She started using it on them and said they probably haven't been that clean in a hundred years lol. She said all the grit that was down between the boards that was not coming out with a wet mop was coming out with the steam mop.
I know some wood floor manufacturers say no some say it's fine because they don't get wet enough to bother. I absolutely do not use it on my laminate I was specifically told not to when I asked the manufacturer.
I know some people do but honestly the laminate is so easy to clean with the spray and flat mop it would take more time to use the steam mop.

I have been very interested in the steam mops, but our floors are a little different. They are beautiful dark wood, but they have a slightly wavy/textured "handscraped" pattern to them that drives me nuts. Similar picture below from furniturefashion.com.

I've tried the swiffer cleaners but they are so lightweight that they just slide over the top and don't clean the little dips. I wonder if a thicker cloth would help. Right now I have to use a yarn type mop and bucket and it takes forever with 1200 square feet of wood floors downstairs. It also doesn't seem very sanitary.

Has anyone had success with the steam mop with these types of floors? Thanks!

{{gwi:2139874}}

Just a different story for you about water on wood floors. Once I left the kitchen faucet on for a very long time overflowing the kitchen...into the dining room in one direction, into the fam room in the other an into a hallway a bit. On a Sunday! Not one towel was safe from sopping it all up, while the washer spun them out. Yes, water kept oozing up from the wood floor.... and Monday morning I decided we needed help from pros. Called a restoration kind of place...they brought out fans and de-humidifiers and pulled up a good bit of carpet...removed a good bit of soaked padding....A Mess! I think it dried for two days, and they came back and replaced the padding, put the carpet back and called it done. Every wood floor board was cupped, and for me and my walker, it was like pushing over rail road ties or cobble stones. We talked about calling our insurance co. and having it replaced, but decided to give it some time to really dry out. Think it was April...warm weather on the way. It was not long before the cupping flattened out.... and before long all of it was flat again.... today, you would never know it had that disaster.... the carpet another story, as it has been a couple of years, and the replaced padding was no where near the quality as before and you can really tell the difference...it has squashed down more than the original 15+ year old carpet padding. The restore folks did tell us that one just could not buy what was originally put under the carpet. But.... all did end pretty well and 15+ years is a pretty good run for carpeting that really cleans up well....light grey too. Maybe we were just lucky!

Ack! Fifteen seconds per mop-head area? That would take a LONG time -- as well as (I think) warping the wood.

I just don't *need* my floors to be that clean! LOL

My sister against my advice bought one of those Shark steam cleaners off an infomercial with all the attachments for more than $200. I figured she wouldn't be able to figure it out or use it so she ended up giving it to me. I don't find it light at all but I have used it on my 67 year old hardwood floors that haven't been waxed in years. I am not sold on it because I don't know how clean the floor gets with just using steam.

What I did end up buying and love in a spin mop, not the As Seen on TV one, I don't think the fibers in that mop would clean anything. The one I bought has twisted fibers and seems to clean really well. One day the dog spilled his full bowl of water and this mop soaked up all the water in a few seconds. I bought this at a Canadian Home Hardware store and it is there store brand spin mop. Here is a video of the spin mop. I really like this mop

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Hardware Spin Mop

chi, is it a true wood floor? Those boards look warped.

Neither a steam cleaner nor a rag mop is appropriate for a real wood floor, warping will result. Not maybe. A slightly dampened dust mop is ok in spots if need be but it isn't necessary. There is some stuff that you can spray on a dust mop and then wipe around lightly. But water shouldn't be used.

Vacuuming and sweeping should be enough.

Snidely, that isn't a pic of my actual floor, but it looks similar with the wavy pattern. I don't know if those are warped but ours aren't. I think they are real wood with some kind of finish on them. They came with the house when we bought it last year. I hate them - they show every footprint, crumb and piece of fur.

I usually spray Bona floor cleaner and use a mop on it. Occasionally a polish but usually I don't bother as it only looks good until someone walks on them!

Wow; lots to think about. I wish there was something like a wet Swiffer without the chemicals, just water...???...I don't know the answer, but I do know I've got to keep my floors clean than they have been! And I don't want to get on my hands and knees to do it!!!!

There's several models I have one of the original ones, it has no accessories and it is extremely light weight.

This looks like mine, it doesn't look like it holds much water but actually it will do a few rooms before needing more water. You pump the handle a few times to get the steam coming out good then you can get to it. I needed something light enough to use from my wheelchair or more rolling chair and I can do that.

The best source I found discussing steam mops was here at GW on the cleaning forum, in fact it's a massive topic that has gone on for a long time. Here's a search there I think it originally started in 07.

Here is a link that might be useful: Steam mop

Here's the link

Here is a link that might be useful: GW search

Thanks for the link ravencajun....I figured it had been discussed before!

haha I should have reread my post for errors before submitting it

Thanks, chi, Bona is the name I forgot.

Wood definitely has grain patterns but i don't think the physical undulations shown in the photo are normal. The second row from the top has quite a dip where the two boards abut, there's even a shadow from the light. If you don't like your color, consider calling in a wood floor re-finisher to see if the material you have can be sanded down and refinished using a lighter color. Some can, some can't, it depends on what the material is.

The guy who put in our wood floor a dozen years ago (it's solid wood, not a laminate or manufactured wood product) said that nothing wetter than "slightly damp" should ever be applied. He said for cleaning products, the dust mop should be sprayed, not the floor. We do that rarely, but vacuum often.

I'm not sure what purpose a steam cleaner performs. If you do have a tile or other floor that can take so much wetness, it can be well cleaned with vinegar or a product containing bleach. No floor truly needs to be "sanitized".

Simple Green is also very good for water safe floors and doesn't attack grout sealers as some cleaners do.

I posted (and clicked) once, but the same comment was duplicated, the second one with a time stamp nearly 2 hours later.

Ghosts? Aliens?

This post was edited by snidely on Wed, Dec 10, 14 at 19:42